Summer of Freedom, Summer of 30
Miami, Florida
May 07 to May 21, 2013
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
May 21 to June 4, 2013
San Diego, California
June 4 to June 18, 2013
Los Angeles, California
June 18 to June 29, 2013
Road Trip: Los Angeles -> Atlanta -> Los Angeles
June 29 to July 11, 2013
Los Angeles, California
July 11 to July 14, 2013
Santa Monica, California
July 14 to July 23, 2013
New York City, New York
July 23 to July 30, 2013
Las Vegas, Nevada
July 30 to August 6, 2013
Chicago, Illinois
August 6 to August 20, 2013
Houston, Texas
August 24 to September 4, 2013
New York City, New York
September 4 to September 17, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
September 17 to October 1, 2013
Washington, DC
October 1 to October 9, 2013
Train
Carrier
Amtrak
Time
8 hours (Boston to DC)
Arrival
Amtrak arrives at DC’s Union Station. Since the station is a Union Station, it connects to the local subway. You can easily drag you luggage from Amtrak to DC Meto to get where you’re going.
Lodging
HI Washington
HI Washington is one of the older HI hostels I’ve stayed at. The stairwells are a bit worn down, the hallways have a fresh layer of paint covering up slight deterioration underneath. The showers take 10 minutes of running before warm water starts to appear.
Their breakfast was decent. A selection of muffins (chocolate, blueberry, other), cereal, bagels, apples, and bananas reliably showed up every morning between 7:30 and 9:30am. One of the staff also has an annoying habit of playing “SAY HELLO TO ME IN A NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE!” every morning. I guess it’s cute the first time, but by the third or fifth or seventh day, you just want to tell him to kindly go to hell, I just want to eat in peace.
The people staying here were unwaveringly weird though. In my room there was one older guy staying int he hostel while he worked nearby. He didn’t know how to use his phone. He would let his phone alarm go off for 30 minutes every morning, sometimes even locking it in his locker then walking away. Moron. There was a homeless guy staying in my room too, but he seemed mostly harmless. Towards the end of my stay, three or four surgeons stayed in the room because of a surgeon’s convention nearby, but they couldn’t quite wipe out the sad weirdness of the desperate people staying here.
I ended up leaving HI Washington two days early and they kindly refunded my two unstayed days. Somebody else in my room left after one night to go stay in a hotel because they couldn’t stand the other annoying roommates.
I was glad to leave.
Food
There’s lots of food nearby. The hostel is walking distance to a Safeway. Near the Safeway is a Chipotle. There’s also a Shake Shack down the street as a bonus.
Getting Around
Washington DC is horribly laid out. Every block is about half a kilometer long on each side, so walking three blocks down takes longer than you would suspect. Even though, walking is still the best way to get around within about a mile’s radius. The hostel is close to the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and lots of museums. Congress is a bit further away, so it’s probably more convenient to take a metro there unless you’re up for a long day of walking.
Things to Do
Go see things. Unfortunately, I arrived on October 1, the very first day of the 2013 US Government shutdown. All the monuments were closed. All the museums were closed. I did take a tour of NPR (free, 11am every day, sign up a few days before online), and apparently Congress was open, but I only found that out the day before I left and didn’t have time to go harass them properly.
It’s a nice walk from the hostel to the White House to the Washington Monument (under reconstruction due to earthquake damage a few years ago) to the Lincoln Memorial (which had barricades up not allowing anybody to walk up the stairs since it was “closed” due to the shutdown).
Leaving
I left on Amtrak again, and it was just the reverse of arriving. Took the Metro to Union Station, hopped on a train, and away I went.