Approaching Delaware
0958hrs
First of all, reviewing the minutes of our last meeting, I see that I described last night's shower as the first I've taken all holiday. This wasn't strictly true; a couple of days earlier I'd taken the ultimate shower, passing under Niagara Falls.
That cleared up, let us move on now to Any Other Business, and this morning's topic is: People Are Unreliable.
Bus fares in Philadelphia can be paid in cash, like anywhere else in the world, or with bus tokens, which can be purchased at the hostel. The advantage of using tokens is that A, you don't need the exact change, and B, they're cheaper ($1.15 instead of $1.60). Our intention was therefore to buy a couple of tokens this morning before coming out. However although the place claims to open at 8 a.m., and we waited until at least ten past, had it opened? Had it? Alas, no. If we'd known, we could have got them last night, but we didn't, so we didn't. So that lost us forty-five cents each way. I didn't even have $1.60, so had to borrow eleven cents off Colin. But, what's $1.60? I mean to say, if the service is good enough, isn't it worth that?
Very possibly, but unfortunately the service wasn't good enough. The bus was ten minutes late, with the result that we missed our train and had to get the next one.
I take back what I said about the public transport in this country. The planet is doomed.
Weather conditions are still fine. We booked this holiday slightly off-peak to get a cheaper fare, at the expense of holidaying in the sun. But since summer lasts longer here, we still get perfectly good weather, and the conditions we're missing in Britain are that much worse. So in fact I would say that this is about the best time to come, and it's cheaper too.
Same day
Washington DC
1501hrs
Washington seems like a nice place. We started off walking through something which may have been a park, or it may just have been a place with a lot of trees. There were also fountains and waterfalls. There are a lot of those here. There've been a fair few of them everywhere we've been, but in Washington especially.
Then we arrived at the US Capitol, which seems to be their version of the Houses of Parliament. We sat on a bench in the grounds for a bit and fed M&M's and Cheese Curls (like Wotsits, but less curly - straight, in fact) and nuts to a squirrel. When he was full up, he took the last couple of M&M's away and buried them for later.
We went to the Air and Space Museum after that, which had all kinds of aeroplanes and spaceships and stuff. It was free. Everything in this city seems to be free. We're currently waiting in line to go on a tour of the FBI, and after that we're going to the National Museum of Natural History, both of which are also free. The only things that aren't free, are very expensive. I bought a 591ml bottle of orange juice (or, rather, 'enriched citrus beverage') and an ice lolly, for four dollars, which is a huge rip off, but overall our day in Washington looks like it will be pretty cheap.
They told us we'll be in this queue for an hour, the same length as the tour. Fortunately, there are benches, and I've bought a book, so it should pass fast enough.
Same day
Somewhere between Washington DC and Marilyn
1910hrs
The FBI tour was easily worth the no money it cost. A woman who pronounced 'violent crimes' as 'vollent croms' took us round a load of displays and told us stuff, only we went too fast to be able to listen to her and read the displays as well, but no matter. Then Special Agent Something did a firearms demonstration. He shot a cardboard cutout with loads of different guns. He got it right in the heart every time, and everyone was duly impressed and gave him a round of applause, until the woman told us that the screen he was behind was soundproof and he didn't know we were clapping. Which is just as well, because when he came out he told us that he always aims for the centre, so actually he was way out.
We didn't have time to go to the other museum, so we headed straight for the White House. En route we were accosted by a guy trying to sell us a camera for $10. We told him we'd already got cameras, and he went down to $5. We told him we really didn't need a camera, so he asked us to give him a couple of dollars anyway. We told him that under no circumstances were we going to give him any money. He still followed us down the street for a bit making a nuisance of himself.
We went in Planet Hollywood for Colin to use the disabled toilet, having failed to see all the signs on the door saying 'This is a disabled toilet. Do not use this toilet unless you are disabled'. They had a latex model of Arnold Schwarzenegger with half his face missing and all the androidy bits showing, as used in Terminator 2, which was pretty cool. Their prices were silly, but we didn't buy anything so it doesn't matter.
I think I saw Bill Clinton at the White House. At least, I saw a big posh car with a flag sticking out the bonnet go up the drive, and a load of trumpeters playing what sounded like the tune from Star Wars, so I reckon he was in it (the car, I mean, not Star Wars).
Then we got on a metro to the train station so we didn't miss it. We got there in time, but the train didn't, so we could have saved the fare. But we didn't know it was going to be late, so we couldn't really.
