Living the dream (3) : Washington, D.C, a.k.a I fell in love

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening friends, how are you ? I hope your week was great! Today is travelling time, and… I guess I need to get away a little bit, so I have decided to take back an old series of post of mine, because it’s about time, haha. I guess we all need to dream a little bit, at times, and writing this down just made me realize what I did and how I loved every single second of it. Alright, fasten your seat belts, plane, train, car, and we’re heading off to the USA !

It was three years ago that I step foot for the first time in the US. It had been one of my biggest dream since I first saw New York, saw countless of movies about the city and nurtured some dreams about living the big adventure. Three years ago, my sister and I decided to book a two-week holiday to the US, starting with New York City, going on to Philadelphia, then ending the trip down at Washington, D.C. It was to this day still the craziest, AND the best trip of my life.

Today I’m taking you back with me on the other side of the Atlantic, to Washington, D.C. I wanted to write this as a sort of travelling diary, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

We arrived in the afternoon by train, and I’ll always remember how the first thing we noticed, was the subway stations. They seemed weird and kind of futuristic, but maybe we were just tired, crazy and a bit of in awe of everything. After letting our massive suitcase at the hotel, we went for a walk, because we couldn’t stay doing nothing any longer. The morning on the train was enough of nothing already -except staring at the massive houses. Why does everything seem SO big, I remember asking myself ?

A subway station in Washington DC

Another thing I remember, is how NICE people were in D.C. In New York, it’s true, everything is crowded and people don’t have time, or don’t even notice you anymore among the crowd of tourists. Here, we barely set two feet on the street that a nice lady asked us if we were lost and where we wanted to go. First impression: Washington D.C seems nice. And the first impression was actually true. Obviously since I am a massive map-junkie, I knew where we were heading : the White House, first stop, and hoping to catch a glimpse of Obama’s family. Maybe. Okay, or not.

Obviously we met some French people who gracely took our pictures in front of the White House, and obviously we were kind of thrilled about seeing everything we always saw behind a screen, whether it’s TV, or the computer, for real, in front of OUR EYES. A wonderful day indeed.

In the couple of days we stayed in Washington, we managed to see everything we wanted, walk a lot and A LOT, screamed every single time we could cross a “Benjamin Gates was here” monument on our list. Yeah, we kind of had a list, and yes we love National Treasure. Sorry.

Washington Monument

A walk along the Mall is all it takes to fall in love with the city, or at least, that’s how I felt. Every monument, every single piece of architecture, and the river going in the middle, WWII commemoration, trees and benches and people and hot dog stands, and the gorgeous Congress at the end of it all ….

The mall, Washington D.C

The Congress

Everything seems half way too big and too important for this place, and half…well, almost, normal. People jog and walk around just like it’s any other place, while I took countless pictures and selfies with my sister, stared at everything I saw and was tempted to take a bath in the Congress’ fountain because, well, it was HOT. Also, the Library of Congress. BOOKS. GORGEOUSNESS everywhere. Send help.

Lincoln Monument

Thomas Jefferson Monument

Library of Congress

A little village is all it takes to convince you to move there right now. I don’t know if Georgetown deserves the “village” title, I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a whole city by itself, but…after the crowded New York City, it felt almost like I was back home. And we felt home, between these cute little houses standing side by side, shopping at every place we saw and eating delicious ice cream while laughing like crazy at something I can’t remember now, but that gave us stomach aches at the time.

Georgetown

A little afternoon treat

We left the next morning, for a flight supposed to leave in the afternoon, but it was like Washington didn’t want to let us go. And we didn’t want to go home. A 12 hours flight delayed, and as we boarded the plane at 1 in the morning the next day, both wearing our U.S.A hoodies like real tourists, eyes barely staying open, I guess it really hit me, how we managed to do this. Despite some delayed trains and flight, we made it this far. And as I fell asleep countless times on the train back home – jet lag was AWFUL, and as we finally got back home safe and sound and bucket-list full of old dreams completed, and new ones already taking shape in our heads… yeah. We made it.

I hope you enjoyed this little post, and enjoyed travelling with me a little bit! Did you already go to  Washington, D.C, and did you enjoy it ? If not, would you like to go ?

What’s one place in the world that’s very high on your bucket list? Let’s chat in comments!