2-day escape from Philly

Hey there!

So, I’m back from another week in Drexel and while we are all struggling with the beginning of midterms, I would like to sell you an idea about a weekend-long escape from Philly. And the place I’m talking about is Washington, D.C.

This city became an essential part of my big US travel plan way before I made it to the States. The thing is I will explore other American cities in late December, but they are all located northwest of Philly. And only DC is in a completely different direction and as a result it became an amazing excuse to be out of the city of brotherly love for a while. Talking about getting there, it is a piece of cake and super good news for any student with limited budget. DC is a less than 3 hour drive from Philly, so you can easily avoid usually costly airlines and catch a Megabus or Greyhound right to Washington Union station. In my case, it was 50 bucks both way, but leave no doubt that you can get a much better option if you are lucky with dates and profit-oriented marketing mechanism of setting prices on the website.

As for DC itself, let me introduce you to my schedule there first. And here I should inform you that I’m a more or less classic tourist guy when it comes to new places. I mean I love to explore more unique gems that are approved by locals in the cities where I stay for a longer period or revisiting numerous times, but the very first visit cannot but be filled with places that come up when you type “the best places to see in…”, so I hope you will not be bored with this paragraph.

My first day I started with National Gallery of Art. My fellow European friends will find it pretty well-known and usual, because we have works of the same guys in every such gallery all over the continent. But still it is a great place to enjoy the beauty. Second spot of the day appeared to be International Spy museum. It was the only paid one, but it’s definitely worth it. The place was not only extremely interesting in terms of stuff that you can see there, but also in terms of interaction with you as a visitor. There are plenty of stands where you can try some spy technology or go through tasks that are assigned to your personal “spy-pass”.

Second day started with National Museum of Natural History (the one from the movie, you know). It’s really a great place if you are into these topics and interested in the natural world around us. And the grand finale of the day was National Air and Space Museum. It’s an absolute top. This is the place where you can see rare, usually the very first models or even the single copies of amazing stuff like Apollo 11 capsule or a plane of the Wright brothers. Just double check how is reconstruction is going, because I had bad luck missing half of the museum because of it.

And finally let’s talk about Washington DC in terms of city vibes. I really loved it. The huge part is of course the National Mall with the Capitol, the White House and memorials. Even though it feels like official piece of land, it is nice to walk around and just observe. And be ready to walk a lot, because it is a big mall. But when you go to a more classic and usual part of the city, you can’t feel anything, but satisfaction. Sorry Philly, but this uniform development of DC, more urban details on the streets and this general cleanliness and some kind of comfort make me put Washington on top. In addition to this, it was the place of my very first couchsurfing experience and it went perfect. So, here is the thing guys: if you have a free couple of days in Philly, don’t hesitate to stop by in DC and just enjoy different and definitely not worse vibes.

Good luck everyone and see you next week!