Friday Washington

Be warned - lots of whinges today.

I got off to a good start. The grapefruit I bought yesterday was delicious.

My aim for the day was to find out about the transport system. In washington they are currently trying to implement a new smart card that can be used on the 3 almost separate entities - bus , train, and another bus called the circulator (which goes to georgetown) . the website says that the circulator does not take the smart card, the smart card costs $5 - hard to recoup in 1 week , it was hard to understand the price structure of the 1 week passes (the train has about 4 different prices depending on distance and time of day) etc etc i wanted to find out about it today. Secondly , i wanted to go to the Capitol's visitors centre to get a pass to go on a tour (the only way) to see the capitol. I tried last night but their website was peculiar and i was on an unsecured network so was not prepared to put in the details they wanted . Thirdly, i wanted to go to one of the places on my main list. Not too much to expect.

Yesterday i found a promising coffee shop 1 block away and tried it this morning. Here a small (the smallest you can get) cappuccino or latte is 2 shots. it was 1 in boston and new york. That is not a whinge, it was good. I spent a while talking to the guy at the table next to me who was here with his wife who was at a conference. He and his wife were semi retired and travelled to europe every year. they have recently moved to florida from new york and he was not sure how it was going to go. we talked about american’s ideas , or lack of , about the rest of the world. Everything and nothing. he said he knew noone who travelled on their own. It can't be just australians can it? Started me wondering - am i mad ? Maybe 4 locations in 5 weeks is too much for me to do in the manner I do and I should change something – the number of locations or the manner.

I have 3 different guide books each has a different name and address for tourist information places. My map has some others. I set off after coffee and walked past the white house - not on my main list- and took some photos of statues of famous people . I passed a place that quite clearly said 'white house tourist information' . I knew that there was a specific info place for the Capitol. On my map 2 blocks on from the white house place there was another 'tourist info' place marked. When i got there i was told it was closed and i had to go back to the ‘white house’ one. the volunteer guide at the white house info place had no idea about buses or the circulator but did have a map of the train ( but i had 1 of those). He was able to tell me where the main metro place was ,about 4 blocks away. i asked a few other questions and he had no idea so i gave up and went to the metro place he told me about. the guy there had a map of bus routes , told me how the train passes worked - at least i was clearer on that - but he had no idea about the circulator or payment for the buses. he told me to ask one of the dc men upstairs. what? i went back upstairs ( on the way heard a busker playing ‘yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.. on his recorder) and found a man standing there who had a jacket with lots of labels on, the biggest being ‘cleaning department’ . i was about ready to give up but asked him. sure enough, out of his pocket he produced a map of the circulator routes and told me that it does accept the smart card. i suddenly realised how stupid i was being and how much time and effort i had wasted trying to save myself $5 and potentially a few more dollars trying to work out the weekly passes. i went back to buy a smart card - the alternative is to have 2 different cards and cash for the circulator - i bought one and then had to put money on it. the guy who i had been talking to before and obviously thought I was a lost cause (he was right but for a different reason) came and helped me. i listened politely and thanked him without telling him i had used a similar ‘tap-on, tap-off’ card in venice and london 3 years ago and even canberra has these. I was annoyed that the whole transport system was complicated and that I did not take the easy option straight away.

I was getting tired but thought i would go to the capitol to book onto a tour. so i took the train. i knew where i wanted to get off, but just as well i was following where we were because i had no idea what the announcer was saying. it was very hard to see the signs coming into the stations. They were few, and light grey on dark grey background. Maybe it was just those few stations and that particular train. Maybe my eyes are as tired as the rest of me. If there were electronic signs on the train about the next station i could not see any. As I was leaving the station I saw a group of tourists struggling at an exit with paper tickets that would not go through the exit gates and I walked quickly past, tapping my smart card on the checkpoint and thought, maybe the several hours of agro were worth it because I am set for the rest of the week.

At the Capitol visitor centre, I went through the security - for about the 3rd time ( in new York, only at a couple of major museums did anyone at the door have a quick look in my bag) - got in a queue , and was offered a pass for the next tour. I said i didnot want to go now. Why not? she asked - almost affronted that i didnot want to go there and then. i said i was tired and i was hungry. then she said i should get the pass on the internet. i explained why i didnot want to do that - but what if i didnot have access to a computer? Then the lady - a different one - asked how many in the group. She had trouble with the idea that it was just me. Is it me or everyone else today? Why was it so difficult?

By this stage it was after 1 and I went to the nearest place I knew I could get food – the National Gallery of Art. They have a huge canteen where I had a big plate of salady stuff. The Art Gallery has 2 buildings, 1 purpose built for modern art. Good – that would be enough for today . I quite enjoyed it. They put out a brochure of 23 works with blurb about each of the 23. The building is a series of galleries about 3 stories high built around a huge empty central bit There is a huge mobile hanging from the ceiling . I liked it.

I stopped for some coffee on my way to the Metro . The song that was playing was ‘What doesnot kill you makes you stronger’ which made me smile. Yes, I know that, I will go home write all my whinges down and tomorrow will be an interesting , stressfree day.

Thank you for ‘listening’ – ‘reading’ does not seem the right word.