Washington D.C

On Monday, April 30th, it really started. After breakfast, we met Gilighan: our bus :D We drove for 40 minutes and made a stop at a super gigantic Wallmart. We all bought another warm sleeping bag, as we will be camping in temperatures as low as -10 degrees :D wow! We admired the crazy products and I bought Oreos with peanut butter. Delicious! Then we waited for Mady, who was at the workshop with Gilighan. The window on the right side no longer went up. We waited longer than expected, about 1 1/2 hours... Katy quickly bought a party game and apology cupcakes. We played the game in the entrance of Wallmart and also discovered the little vehicles that the slightly larger or older Americans use for shopping. It was so much fun to drive around with them! :D

After Mady returned with the repaired Gilighan, we went to Phili (Philadelphia :)). We stopped there for 1 hour and had a cheesesteak with fries at Sonny's Steaks. It was very tasty and I think I will gain a few kilos here :D Then we set off for Washington D.C.

We arrived in Washington in the early evening at the camp. We set up our tents and there was food. It was really delicious. Salad with pasta and pesto.

At half past 9, we set off for the Moonshine Walk through Washington. It was perfect. The weather was good and the sights were empty. We parked at the Einstein Memorial and all posed with Albert and then went to the Lincoln Memorial. It was gigantic. We looked at the artificial lake and I felt like Forest Gump when Jenny ran through the water :D Then we walked to the Martin Luther King Memorial and looked at him peacefully looking at the opposite lake. We continued to the Vietnam War Memorial. All the fallen soldiers were carved on a long table. There are thousands of them. They are read out loud 5 times a year. However, I must honestly say that it did not affect me as much after visiting the Vietnam War Museum in Vietnam... Finally, we walked to the World War 2 Memorial and it was much more beautiful at night than during the day. To reach all the monuments, you had to walk through a huge park. It was deserted except for a few couples walking around. I really liked it there. It was so quiet and cold but wonderful. In Washington, there is a law that no building can be taller than the White House. Therefore, unlike New York, everything feels different and much cozier. We were back at the camp at midnight and tried to wrap ourselves up as warm as possible and go to sleep. It was really cold and good that we bought the thick sleeping bag!

On Tuesday, May 1st, we had free time. We all went to the city together first and visited Arlington National Cemetery. All the fallen soldiers of all possible wars and deceased presidents are buried there. It was huge. As far as the eye could see, there were tombstones. Taft and Kennedy are also buried there, among others. There are also the graves of the Unknown Soldiers, which are guarded by a guard 24/7, and there is a guard changing every half hour, which we watched. It was interesting and, as with every guard changing, also a bit funny when the soldiers march so stiffly :D After that, the guides let us out in the city and we had the day off. First, we went to the White House. It was somehow unspectacular and the street and everything around it was blocked by the police, so something probably happened... So we took a few snapshots and took pictures with the protest signs hanging on the other street signs. We have seen, especially on signs of homeless people, "Fuck Trump" or "Black life's matter" or "America is not gonna be great." So the general sentiment towards him seems to be bad. We just walked around the city and looked around. We ended up in a park and had a chili cheese hot dog with fries and cola, typical :D Then we walked on and I bought the most expensive ice cream I probably ever had :D I paid 5.86 dollars for 2 scoops. But it tasted very good. We walked through Chinatown and then went to a small square with a fountain on the ground and sat there for a while. Then we started our way home. It took 1 hour to get back to the camp by metro and bus. We realized again how lazy the Americans are. There were 23 stops on a 23-minute route:D so it felt like every 100 meters there was a stop :D

In the evening, we sat by the campfire and played an icebreaker game and made smores :D it's amazing. Marshmallows on chocolate between 2 cookies = heaven!