USA

While Kylie stayed in bed today (still sick and rather green looking) Katie explored the city of Washington DC. She visited the Hollocust Museum which was very humbiling and horrifying at the same time, the Air and Space museum where she saw such things as Judy Garlans shoes as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Rocky´s gloves from the movie and other such things. She walked past the White House from every side and also visited the Natural History Museum which it is believed to be the Biggest Macdonalds in the America although there is some debate. She returned exhausted after a long day of hiking around the city and seeing the wonderful sights.

Well this morning we had great plans on going to visit all the monuments and maybe catching a concert at the JFK Mermorial but all these plans were ruined when Kylie woke up sick. So after a short consultation and a look at the miserable weather we went back to sleep to see if the situation improved somewhat. It didnt!

After waking up again close to midday (remember we had had several nights of awful sleep so were awfully tired) we ventured out for some christmas dinner and since the options were very limited we headed down to good old MacDonalds to get some food but arrived to late and the place was closed! So we then started the hike of a life time up and down the streets of Washington DC looking for somewhere to eat, all the while Kylie getting sicker and sicker. After yet another consulation we decided that since we knew of a store that was open we should walk up there to get some food and make do for christmas day but upon arriving we discovered a mexican restraunt next to the corner store that was open so Katie ordered some Mexican food while Kylie (who was rather green at this point) decided to stick to plain old bread with the intentions of vegemite toast for christmas dinner. It was while walking back to the hostel, in the pouring rain that Kylie´s plans went horrible wrong as she visited the garden in the middle of the street. We then slowly progressed back to the hostel with Kylie bright red from embarrassment but still awfully green with sickness.

Poor Katie ate her mexican and tended to Kylie and her toast who spent the remainder of the day in bed. Katie got some serious couch time and tried to avoid whatever sickness lingered near Kylie! She was not a well woman.

SIDE NOTE: When we were leaving Frankfurt to head to London we were given a free copy of the newspaper USA Today which had a lovely article explaining that hundereds of people along the Eastern Coast and mentioning Washington DC specifically had all been hositalised with the exact same symptoms that Kylie had while sick on Christmas. We kept the article as a memento! Oh what a day to remember!

We decided to do a trolley tour of the city today as we thought this was the best way to see all the sights that we wanted to see and get some included history as well. We started off near the White House and only made it as far as the National Archives Museum before exiting the trolley to see the original copy of the Declaration of Independance, the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution. They were absolutely amazing. Very historic.

We then boarded the bus again and we drove through the city to Arlington Cemetery where we got off the bus and did a tour through the cemetery. We saw the JFK Memorial Gravesite which included his wife Jackie and two of their children who passed away quite young. We are not sure where his son, JFK Jr. is buried but he is not in the cemetery. We also saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers which was very humbling and then finished our tour at the Lee Homestead which used to belong to General Lee. It offers great views of the city and you can also see the pentagon from the gardens including the part that has been rebuilt since the September 11 attacks. It is a slightly different colour to the rest of the building but doesnt come up that well in photographs. You also have a great view of the cemetery as well.

After leaving the Cemetery we drove back through the city to a stop outside the Hard Rock Cafe where we ended up having dinner for the evening and then walking back to our hostel.

We woke this morning to an absolute heat wave going on in our room which made the most uncomfortable sleeping arrangements which ment yet again we got an awful nights sleep. However we resolved that we would have a wonderful day in Washington DC and headed off to Georgetown where we were supposed to meet up with a friend we met on contiki but were unable to contact her. We spent the day in Georgetown but we not able to go to the University Campus as it was closed for the holidays but the actual suburb itself was a hive of activity and full of shops. We both expected Georgetown to be a little different and were pleasently surprised by the amount of shops in the neighbourhood.

After a busy day exploring the shops in Georgetown we headed back to our hostel and had dinner before crawling into bed hoping for a good nights sleep.

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed after the worst nights sleep ever and caught a bus to the airport to catch our flight at 9.00am. It was an awfully overcast day with dizzly rain to boot and after we arrived in New York for our layover before our flight to Washington DC the weather didnt improve so much so that our flight was delayed for over an hour. To compensate this loss of time we both completely crashed in the airport lounge - on the carpet mind you - until we decided that food might be a better option. We were finally able to board our flight but the weather still hadnt improved. There was massive storms in the Western half of the country which caused huge delays for all other airports and it seems we had managed to miss the cold weather once again.

We arrived in Baltimore which is about 50 kms out of Washington DC and we caught a train into the city and then a cab from Union Station to our hostel as it was still drizzling rain. After standing in line forever to checkin we dumped our bags and headed to the closest place that provided food which turned out to be an Indian restraunt across the street. It was lovely food and we had a great time but we were both so tired from our lack of sleep that we headed upstairs to bed the minute dinner was over.