DC & Philly
Greyhound bus (18$) boarded at 1:00 AM. For boarding they had priority, seats were comfortable with enough legroom, the internet was on and off, power sockets and toilet were available. While it was half empty I took two seats, tried to find the best fit and had some sleep. In the end, it looked like I was doing yoga and not that much sleeping time. We stopped in Baltimore, had cigarette there. We arrived in DC at 5:40 AM. The city was still asleep.
From Union Station, I walked to Capitol Hill, down Pennsylvania Ave, turned into National Mall and all the way to Lincoln memorial.
From there by bike (8$) a bit around and then walked by Potomac river and crossed into Virginia close to Pentagon. I tried to walk from there to Arlington cemetery but couldn’t cross the highway and then tried to get a taxi (12$). The phone didn’t work, I was away from civilization, after 3 friendly attempts I made it. Even that it was around 20 km walk, I enjoyed morning walk, birds singing, sunrise, empty streets, joggers, seeing a lot of administration buildings, museums and monuments. But not all was great, Pennsylvania Ave was closed for a parade in honor of first ‘World’ series in DC, saw first homeless sleeping in the street by vents, got lost in the end. With a cab, I went to meet with Alexandra. I was late, a lot 🙁 We eat there brunch (20$). Meeting her was the highlight of DC, but it was too short. She had some wine tasting and I headed back to the station with Uber. At Union station I remembered I wasn’t at the White House yet, so I took a taxi there and back (21$).
With an Ethiopian driver, we had an interesting conversation. It was time for another 4h Greyhound (10$) bus ride to Philadelphia. I arrived at 5:30 PM where Glendon and Joseph were waiting for me. While I was on the road more than 40h I asked if they could take me to the hostel I reserved. After some searching we found address but there was no hostel, booking page had old data. We tried to find supplementary accommodation, but the cheapest one was 600$. I already played with taught of sleeping at the bus station when Glendon offered to host me for that night. We tried to find a place for dinner but while the Italian restaurant was full we finished in Burgerfi place. Great burgers, interesting fries toppings and craft beer (25$?). After parking lot (10$) Joseph drove to Glendon’s home in Lancaster county, stopped on way at Rocky’s steps.
After showering I enjoyed some homemade pumpkin pie, dried apples and got some chilies to take home. Later in the night, it was time to talk about life, god and other big issues in the company of Southern comfort with lemon and Pelinkovec.
