I have never been so cold in all my life ...

Day 13 - Monday 21 January 2008

And so I sit here, the modern equivalent of quill in hand, and feel a certain pressure to perform, because, in my absence, Tatey (the mad-cap keeper from Lichfield Hockey Club) has penned a match report so full of genius that he's had to write a letter of apology to the opponent's chairman ... I doff my cap to you sire and shall try my best to entertain ... and educate ... I'm in Chicago now and it's colder than the moon (the best I could think of opposite to 'hotter than the sun' Partridge fans). Washington is but a distant memory and already I'm really in the routine of packing up, moving city, and unpacking ready to explore. I feel that I've done the first bit of proper travelling by taking a 25 hour Amtrak train journey from there to here. It was the kind of journey that tests your patience, needs you to keep calm and is a lot easier when you give yourself plenty of time to reach a destination. But I fast forward ...

My stay in Washington has been a top one and I'd thoroughly recommend it for a couple of days to anyone visiting New York who wants to understand more about the USA and how it came to be. I spent a day at the National Museum of the American Indian and learned that there were so many different tribes with so many different beliefs (although all were closely linked to animals and the elements). To see the legacy to Indians you only need to look around you ... or me actually unless any of you have followed me here without letting on! Their ancestors are still living among the American people and using their own belief system. Surprising to me names like Sioux were not indigenous but made up by the French invaders (it's a derogatory name referring to a snake). In fact in the 150 years after the Europeans arrived there was the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen and it built Spain into a super-power of the 16th and 17th centuries (the museum covered all of the Americas so it was a lot for Inka gold ...). Terribly 30 million Indians died both of arms and, hugely, European diseases. Phew. That was educational even for me. So here's a photo of the Chiricahua Apache Cherokee Indian Geronimo's gun for the cool bit.

I also went to the heart of their political system at the Capitol and got these classic shots. They're a mile or so the other end down their mall from the Lincoln statue and you can see that, although they're the next day, it was cold and cloudy.

And then it was stunningly beautiful! Sunny weather we've kept until the last few hours when ... sorry rainy England ... it's snowing here again. I just wish I could magic some of it over to you.

I took a tour inside the Capitol and saw where the early Senate and House of Representatives sat (that together, today, make up Congress). Plenty of statues given by states and 'isn't democracy amazing' (yes, for the record). But you can't get anywhere near the real action these days unless you have pre-arranged a trip through your local education establishment, got the seal of approval from your local Senator and all agreed to only wear orange pants ... can you tell the incessant and endless searches in Washington got to me a bit in the end! A final bit of DC (the local name for their capital) sight-seeing saw me jump into the National Archives and look at the original copy of their Declaration of Independence. Very, very old, hermetically sealed and if you even wink at it you'll get chucked out. More Italian frescoes abounded throughout DC and especially here. And that was it. City 2. Done! I liked DC and enjoyed my time there. Sorry. A bit Louis Walsh and I expect I'll like everywhere I go because of my cheery outlook! So it wasn't as cool as New York but probably better than I thought it would be. It is a bit soul-less, clearly a business city (dead on Saturday when I left) and surprisingly small downtown (you can walk everywhere from Hostelling International). But it's very green (in Summer I'm told), very clean, very safe and has loads of free museums to spend weeks in courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution http://www.si.edu/museums/ And if you go Gill then head out to Dupont Circle and spend the afternoon in coffee shops and second hand book stores. It's very chilled out, suburban living. And Elsy I picked up this book for $4.50 in one of those stores that you'd love. It's about coaching college basketball from a legend. It's old school, (PARENTAL WARNING) calling the players f______ this and that but some interesting lessons to be learned.



I demolished half of it on the Cardinal (what a top name for a train) yesterday that took me from DC to here in Chicago via Charlottesville, Cincinnati, Charleston and Indianapolis. Again, 25 hours and all because I wanted to see the 'real' America. Well I think I did. Inside and outside the compartment. I saw someone fatter than Alan Brazil Robbie J! I listened to a 3 hour cell phone call last night from some guy to his girlfriend ('no baby, you put the phone down first') and sat next to a large woman who brought all of the pillows from her bed at home just to make sure she was comfortable. But she wasn't. Because she spent half the trip on her cell phone whinging about how slow the train was going to a friend. 'Well if we jettison your pillows love we'll probably pick up speed and be in Chicago in half the time'. I'm British. I didn't. I just sat there quietly reading ... But outside the Appalachian Mountains were unbelievably beautiful. They separate the eastern sea board from the great plains in the middle of the USA before the land rises up again into the Rocky Mountains. Imagine dusk, on snow covered mountains. in the middle of nowhere, chugging along under a full moon and sparking off two deer that bound away across a field and into the woods. Unlike the bit before I couldn't make that up. Magical. Here's a snap from around the same time. Sorry it's blurry. We were in a train that, for that stage at least, was going quickly!



And to Chicago. Safe and sound again in another amazing hostel breaking the bank at $34 each night, bang downtown and all but a hotel (en suite bathroom for our huge dorm). It was so cold yesterday that 'you couldn't even remember your name' according to one of the Hostelling International staff. Jeez. But here I am today (a warm-ish one!!!) arriving in style in another unbelievable Union Station. The Amtrak stations here put the British Rail network to shame. They really remind you of a golden era of the railways and it feels very Indiana Jones-like arriving into a new city to be met by marble, oak and enormous Roman legionary statues. Not to mention the obligatory clock!

The photographer, bless her, for this following shot was a runner who stopped especially to snap away at me! The American people are just uber-helpful. Behind me is Lake Michigan that is the size of many seas. Check out the striations. Yep. It's frozen over solid to the breakwater a few hundred metres out to 'lake' ... weird huh?!



So it's bed soon because of limited sleep last night. And Chicago to explore tomorrow. All the best museums are free to visit because of a local governmental clause so after my free breakfast I'll check out what could be the best city yet! And I thought this was all going to be really expensive! 'The Loop' is the possibly the trendiest thing I've seen on my journey yet. Here's a picture but Wikipedia it if you want to find out more ...

These last couple of posts have had the dates a bit off because I've typed one day, uploaded photos and then posted the next. Oh well. Who cares! It's the least of my concerns. I've just run out of clean clothes ... I've also just commented on the bottom of the Washington wonderland post including the answer to the quiz question Matt and Nick!