After 18 hours on a bus with no curtains i arrived in Washington, miserable and very, very sleepy! I would not recommend getting a long haul Greyhound bus to anyone! I had left booking my train too late though so it was the only affordable option, again i've learnt to get better at booking things earlier or suffer the consequences!
I found my hostel which was an interesting place, it is more of a semi permanent residence for students doing a semester in the city than a hostel for travellers. This meant a LOT of rules. I had to throw away the alcohol i had lugged all the way from Chicago as it is a 'dry house' i was also demonstrated the appropriate way to sit on the sofa... Let's just say it's not the place to go if you want to meet people or have fun however it did allow me to get a very good couple of nights sleep as it was so quiet, and at £9 a night i really couldn't complain!

Luckily Jono, a Kiwi guy i'd met in New York, was in Washington DC so i met up with him on my first day, which was nice. We went to Arlington Cemetery which is where thousands of soldiers are buried. It is also where the graves of John F Kennedy and his family are located. I was stunned by just how big the place was and how many graves there were. The cemetery is very pretty and serene, until the hoards of school children run around taking selfies in front of gravestones...
After an hour or so we headed to the Mall, which is a huge grassy area surrounded by monuments and museums. It is incredibly easy to see everything in Washington DC by foot as it is all so close, this helps with the extortionate underground prices. We saw the Lincoln memorial and walked along the pool, which i recognised solely from the movie Forrest Gump.

Washignton DC is an ideal place for travellers, everything you want to see is easy to get to and the vast majority of it is absolutely free! We went to the National History museum that afternoon which along with all Smithsonian museums was completely free. This made my budget very happy :)

On my way back to the hostel i stopped by the White House which was a lot smaller than i was expecting. I was pretty jealous to hear that a few days earlier Jono had seen a helicopter with Obama in landing in the garden!

The next few days i saw the rest of the sights including the Capitol building, Washington Monument, Sculpture garden, reflection pool, botanical gardens, aeronautical and space museum and relaxed on the grass in the mall which was beautiful in the sunny weather. I went for a run one evening along a small creek but other than that i spent a lot of time relaxing and taking it easy as well as finally cooking myself some hearty meals, probably the first bit of veg i've bought since i started travelling.... sorry Mom!!

I decided i couldn't handle another train or 4 buses to Miami so i booked a flight, which actually worked out cheaper!

Overall Washington DC seemed like a really friendly peaceful place, it was a lot greener than the other big cities i've seen and i saw the first real hills since i arrived!! The people are lovely and the city it really set up for tourists without being tacky. Overall a great few days. Now it's time for me to go lie on a beach in Miami!