17 hours overnight on a Greyhound bus...Wonderful! Actually it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be and with the help of some travel sick pills for me we both got a decent amount of sleep.

Charlottesville, near Richmond, wasn't on our original route but that was because we had not met Ann and the famed southern hospitality. We met Ann at the Spanish school in Costa Rica and although she was only there for a week we immediately loved her. So we decided we had to stop past and say hello.

It is definately true what they say about the south, I don't think the people we met there could have been any nicer. Ann gave us two great days in Charlottesville and it's a good thing we had already paid for our bus to DC or we would have stayed way too long!

We spent our first day with Ann and her niece Liliana and went for a walk with Ann's dog Lulu. It was freezing cold and raining slightly, which would normally be a bad thing but I hadn't realised that I had actually missed weather like that! I am not sure Ian shared the same opinion but it was so fresh compared with the hot and heavy weather we have been used to. I don't think my liking for cold weather will last very long once we are back though!

In the evening we took Ann out for dinner and met some of her friends who were also visiting from other parts of the states. We had a fantastic night, everyone was incredibly welcoming and and Matt was constantly making us laugh. Although when we mentioned that we were going to DC next we suddenly found ourselves in the firing line of way to much information. They all wanted to let us know what they thought we should do, which is great but it came all at once at 100mph...I am not sure how much we actually managed to retain!

Ann unfortunately had to work on our 2nd day there but her friends adopted us for the day to show us the sights of Charlotteville. The very knowledgable Matt gave us the unofficial tour of the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson had a hand in designing. What struck me about Charlottesville is that the view of the Appalachian mountains that run down one side of it, makes it look just like Scotland.

After a fully guided tour of downtown we met up with Ann and headed off to a diner for dinner...we are already eating way too much now we are in America but the food is so good!! We have also finally found out what an American biscuit is...it seems like a very light and fluffy scone and is very yummy!

After a brief gathering at Ann's house with wine and chocolate and some silly you tubing, we said our goodbyes and went to bed. We have met some really great people while here and are sad to be leaving, but DC beckons so it's time to continue our whistle stop tour of the east coast.