We know we need to leave America, both for financial reasons and the fact we’ve been here long enough. Due to only minor changes between the UK and Europe over the months, I was running out of imaginative ideas.
Leading up to three days between Thursday the 20th, I thought I had an ace up my sleeve in the form of Portugal. This was a perfect plan as it would allow a 10 day stay there to then come back to the UK without needing to self-isolate and follow those infuriating rules and believe me, they are infuriating. Sampling policies in 7 countries make that an informed opinion.
There are five boroughs within New York City and you’ll have heard of most, if not all. Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Staten Island.
The main tourist area is, of course, Manhattan but we wanted to at least venture out to another borough so we rolled a dice, not literally, and went to Brooklyn. We’re glad we did as that one day ended up being our most picturesque single day, probably in all of our time in the US.
10 days into our New York experience and we can understand why people claim it’s their ‘favourite city in the World’. In fact, at least four people reached out to me on my social media feed to wish us a good time and to specifically point out the aforementioned.
Despite how many people I know that have been here, not one has ever explained to me the origin of New York’s name. Specifically, that New York was named by the British to honor the Duke of York, the brother of England's King Charles II.
It was a pleasant five-hour bus journey from DC to NYC and we were dropped off right in the centre - or “midtown” as I now know it to be. I’m talking right next to Madison Square garden so we picked accommodation close by at reasonable rates.
We stayed in midtown Manhattan for the next couple of days and Vivian manages to get us a room with a view of the Empire State building for a good price. The rate doubles on the weekend - that’s how the American hospitality system works. It sucks, believe me.
We find ourselves in some disbelief that we’re in ‘DC’. You know, the city that holds the official residence of the President, the US Capitol building that was stormed by crazy Trump followers just months ago, the Lincoln memorial, plenty of well-known US government agencies, and of course, endless movie footage over the years. And as a bonus, we discovered Arlington County.
Like Philadelphia, we’ve enjoyed 3 nights and 2 full days here so let’s take a closer look at Washington starting with some trivia.
We’ve landed in tourist Florida and Miami of all places! If we were better prepared and researched like we normally are, we likely would have not come here. I say that as if there’s an abundance of choices for countries to visit. There really isn’t. I had a friend guess that we were off to Venezuela as it's a neighbouring country to Colombia, blissfully unaware that international flights have been blocked there for some time.