So it was time to leave NYC for my second stop in the US, Washington DC. My first megabus experience to get there started with a run for the bus, since it turned out that the ‘bus station’ was further from my hots’s place than I had imagined. I just about made it in time, with the doors literally closing as I stepped in. Once aboard, though, I was positively surprised. Clean, modern double decker bus with each seat having its own power socket. And enough empty seats to have two each…perfect! There was also free onboard wifi, which worked well for the most part. The only issue is that it connects using 3G, so no mobile reception equals no internet. Which actually happens surprisingly often in the US, even along major highways. All in all, though, megabus was definitely worth my $1.

DC’s feel was a bit hard to label at first, a sort-of is this it/are we really there experience. Especially after New York, DC was surprisingly quiet and looked and felt much more like a small European city rather than the nation’s Capitol.

My host Drew was working in Georgetown a few miles from downtown when I arrived, so I headed there to meet him and drop off my bags. With my rucksack out of the way, I headed back to the centre for some evening sightseeing. My first stop was Trader Joe’s, the creme de la creme of American supermarkets. Cheap yet quality food. Ive been told there are cheaper, and better places to shop, but TJ’s was a welcome change from NYC with nothing but overpriced and understocked Duane Reeds. I picked up some packed lunch supplies, a.k.a. bread and ham, and kept walking. Destination-1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for dinner with Obama. Or almost, anyway. I didn’t get to meet him there, which probably was for the better. I doubt he’d have been too impressed by my Trader Joe’s sandwiches, as impressed as I may have been.

The White House itself was surprisingly unimposing and smaller than expected, a feeling reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty in NYC. I mean, nice building and all, but the kind of thing that I might have stopped by for a second, taken a photo of (if even) and walked on, had I not known what it really was. And like at JFK the lack of visible security was not what I had expected. It was even possible to walk right up to the fence, stick my camera through, and capture a few night shots.

I met up with Drew again after a while and headed to his place. He actually lived out of DC in Arlington, Virginia, yet still only five minutes from downtown. It’s been surprising actually, for a country the size of the US, how often I find myself living on state borders. First the boat on the Hudson River floating between New Jersey and New York, and now this.

I was once again really impressed by Drew’s place, not bad at all! It sure must pay well being a waiter here. Over the next few days Drew gave me the best ever possible crash-course in US culture, by which I don’t just mean Slurpees and gas station hot dogs with their free chilli and cheese. He got me hooked on those (minus the cheese), sure, but besides that I also got to join him for Sunday service at the local church. The hymns, prayers for forces in Afghanistan, US flag by the altar, boy scouts collecting donations outside…just as expected.

We later got to visit Georgetown again, as well as the Arlington cemetery where most of the stricken Kennedy family, as well as 400 000 others, have been laid to rest.

Drew was working that evening, so I again spent most of it walking round DC. Some highlights were walking by The Pentagon on the way and seeing all the memorials around the National Mall. The Pentagon was almost another walk-right-up place. At least this building was impressive by its sheer size, and there were some ‘no photo’ signs around the perimeter.

The next day started with a visit to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It was Drew’s first day on the job at the nearby Conference of Bishops, so he dropped me off there early morning. The largest church in the US, apparently. Nice building in itself. Even better was finding a small chapel inside dedicated to our very own Lady of Ta’ Pinu!

I had a tour of the Capitol Building booked for later that day, which was simply brilliant. The White House may have been disappointing, but the Capitol Hill sights (Capitol Building, Library of Congress, Supreme Court) sure were not.

My whirlwind tour of DC was completed with a visit to the National Archives, housing the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution. There’s so much more to see in town that you could easily spend weeks around. I hardly even got started on the Smithsonians, one of the largest museum complexes in the world. All of which are free.

But I was satisfied. For 3 days I got a lot done, and I’ll definitely be back soon. Till then, it’s down south. Next stop on the mega bus – Knoxville, Tennessee.

So the time had come for my ten-hour transatlantic flight. I had spent the past few weeks forming a mental image of my fellow passengers – what would such a long Ryanair-style flight be like, and what kind of people should I expect to be flying low-cost from Naples to New York? I was expecting a plane full of Godfather-style Mafiosi returning to the US after a ‘business trip’ to Naples. Reaching the gate at the airport was a bit of a disappointment in that sense – it was the average crowd, with a mix of families, American and Italian students more or less my own age, and the odd businessman flying solo.

Meridiana’s service was leagues ahead of Ryanair’s too. The comparison ends at the low fares. Free checked baggage, my prebooked seat with twice as much legroom as everyone else (without paying a cent extra, mind you), an empty seat next to me, two meals, and unlimited drinks the whole way. We had one interesting encounter before takeoff when the engines were started and shut down again within a few seconds, for ‘technical reasons’. We were informed that the problem had nothing to do with the engines though, and we would be on our way soon. Soon turned out to mean an hour, but otherwise on our way we were indeed.

The empty seat next to me thankfully did not remain empty for too long, because after a few hours of being entertained by my laptop and the free view out of the window, my battery was dead and we had hit the ocean. Along came Nino, my Italian-American friend-to-be, who had been evicted from his own seat by his sleeping son. Nino spotted me making a list of places I planned to visit in New York, and just had to comment on my choice of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. I had read about it being New York’s authentic Little Italy unlike the touristy Manhattan one, and authentic it really was proving to be, since it was where Nino had grown up. He eventually offered me a guided tour of the neighbourhood, which I accepted right away. More on that later, though. We ended up talking most of the way to New York, and I got to meet the rest of his extended family which was also on the flight.

Touchdown on US soil at JFK came much sooner than expected. The flight definitely did not feel like the ten hours it really was. And the 5 pm sunshine coming in from the aircraft windows only continued the illusion. First impressions of the US – humid, hot, yet welcoming. Humid – seems like New York always is. Hot – NYC was in the middle of a heatwave which I had been warned about, but brushed off saying that I can handle it. Well, the joke was on me. The 40°C+ temperatures combined with the humidity may have felt good at first following the air conditioned flight, but after just a few minutes outside I found myself longing for air conditioning more than ever before in these past 21 years.

Welcoming – my arrival was far from the customs interrogation I had been expecting. I was certain I was missing something when I simply walked off the airplane, collected my rucksack, got my passport stamped, and walked out of the terminal building. Where were the hundreds of questions similar to those I had answered online, the bag search, and the sniffer dogs? Not at JFK Airport on the 17^th of July, that’s for sure. My passport stamper also wished me a good time in the US and congratulated me on my UCLA exchange programme. Nowhere else have I had that before.

I started wondering what my hosting arrangement for the night would be like when the border guard/passport stamper commented on my New York address. Well, that of my Couchsurfing host, anyway.

“Does your friend live on a boat?”
“In all honesty, no idea!”
(looks up warily for a few seconds, stamps passport)
“Fair enough. Welcome to the US”

I was to be staying with Leah for my first two nights in NYC. That’s an entire side story of its own (apologies, it’s going to be a long blog post!). When her name came up on my Couchsurfing search, I was certain I had seen it somewhere before. I opened her profile, and saw that we had mutual friends. It turns out she had been to UCM in Maastricht for her own semester abroad, and we knew each other at least by sight and through the whole network of Maastricht Facebook groups . Hardly in the US yet and already meeting people I know. Small world indeed.

But back to the boat. I had been warned that this would not be the ideal couch to stay on if I get seasick, but it was kept at that. So when I actually met Leah it was the first thing I had to ask. And it turned out my friend did indeed live on a boat. The NYC marina right in Manhattan was to be my home for the first two nights in the US. Honestly, what more could I have asked for (besides some air conditioning maybe)?

Leah may have set the standard pretty high, but the second New York couch was equally great (as was its owner of course, hey Donald!). Lower Manhattan right by the Hudson River, the photos below speak for themselves.

NYC is, of course, a one-of-a-kind place. It was a bit too much to take in all at once, but that’s fine since I’ll be passing through again on my way back to Europe. And with that being around Christmas time, heatwaves should be less of a problem. The highlight was definitely my guided tour of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, with Nino and his friend Johnny. After 2 days in bustling Manhattan, it felt great to get out and have a more up-close and personal New York experience. As an added bonus, I also got to stock up on Mediterranean supplies which I later used to prepare dinner for myself and breakfast for Donald.

The two days in NYC quickly came to an end, meaning it was time for my first Megabus experience. It’d better be a good one…plenty more of those coming up!

–Side note: Yes, I’m now a grand total of three weeks behind on blog posts. Greetings from Panama. I’ll be catching up soon, but until then, you can see where I last checked in from here.–