Washington DC, the capitol of the United States of America, was very good at being exactly that. The National Mall is a large, open, clean and neat area filled with huge monuments, memorials, museums and galleries to name a few. We couldn't possibly see everything in the short time we had and found we were quickly overwhelmed by the huge amount of information in the excellent, free Smithsonian Museums so we only managed to go through two of them, the National Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum.

Outside of the National Mall, a lot of the streets were still filled with huge official buildings and roads were often blocked to allow for police guided processions of government cars to pass through. Unfortunately there is a huge homeless population, one of whom was happy to talk to Sonja and share his views of the city, the two take-home points were 1) You will never go hungry in DC, there is always a way to get free food, 2) Far, far too many people need it.

We spent our time in Washington couchsurfing at James' house which was located in an area filled with nice bars, shops, hipsters and street art. James was a lovely guy, enthusiastic to show us what Washington had to offer. We both thoroughly enjoyed our time there and found it to be a very pleasant, liveable place complete with beautiful old buildings, colourful newspaper stands and plenty of open space.