Aussie in DC

[deird1]

Just finished three days in DC! It is a great capital city, but not so much a great city. In that: all the touristy stuff is awesome, and all easy to get to – but the city feels like a bunch of buildings surrounding some tourist attractions. If you weren't interested in the tourist attractions, it wouldn't be much fun to live in, I don't think.

Random collection of thoughts:
- Their train system is excellent.
- The Lincoln Memorial is HUGE. And made me tear up.
- It somehow never occurred to me that people would use the National Mall as an actual park! We got there on a day when half the town was at the Mall flying kites.
- Rock Creek Park is lovely. If I lived there, I would walk along it at least once a week.
- The Cathedral is gorgeous. Matthew Shepard's tomb made me rather teary, as did their collection of paintings showing Mary and Jesus as caged refugees and Mister Rogers as a saint.
- I actually like the numbered/lettered street names better than I thought I would! Really helpful for keeping track of where you are. Even more convenient once I realised that all the state-named avenues were diagonal.
- I kept walking past supermarkets, wondering where the supermarkets were. Because the outside of them didn't trigger my "hey, that's a supermarket" at all. Also, foreign supermarkets always sell wine, which weirds my Aussie self out.

Now we're left for NYC. Far rainier than we'd like, but we'll still have fun.

Comments

[megpie71]

From the sound of things, DC sounds a lot like Canbrrra - "a bunch of buildings surrounding some tourist attractions", probably with an over-lay of "industry town" as well. Both DC and Canbrrra are, effectively, industry towns, it's just the industry is government rather than mining or manufacture.

[deird1]

They are certainly similar!

[lyr]

I like walking Rock Creek Park when I'm in D.C. too. Did you manage to hit the cherry blossom season for it? That's pretty spectacular. I think we're a bit past the peak of the season right now with the weather this year, alas.

[deird1]

It was the Cherry Blossom Festival while we were there!

[lyr]

Oh, perfect!

[out_there]

I actually like the numbered/lettered street names better than I thought I would! Really helpful for keeping track of where you are.

NYC is a grid numbered like that and I found it super easy to keep a mental idea of where we were (and great for spotting when you accidentally turned the wrong way).

Also, foreign supermarkets always sell wine, which weirds my Aussie self out.

Yeah, me too. I mean, I get weirded out when Coles and Woolies has the non-alcoholic fake-alcohol on the supermarket shevles (I just don't see the point of something that looks and tastes like alcohol but doesn't get you drunk).

[deird1]

Yes, New York is surpisingly easy to navigate.

[out_there]

For such a big city, it really was. (I was surprised when I saw it. I think TV-New-York had given me a different impression -- it was surprisingly comfortable and easy to tourist around.)

[hnpcc]

I loved the DC metro, which is something I never thought I'd say. We were staying in Fairfax Virginia near the end of the line, so a lot of time to ride it. Also Fairfax was weirdly reminiscent of Nunawading, of all places. They should twin.

[deird1]

The DC metro is great! One of the better train networks I’ve encountered.

[lirazel]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Their train system is excellent.

IT IS. *perpetually jealous of it*

I kept walking past supermarkets, wondering where the supermarkets were. Because the outside of them didn't trigger my "hey, that's a supermarket" at all.

I am now SO curious what Aussie supermarkets look like!

They don't sell wine in all states, though most do now. There were a ton of states in the past that would not allow them to sell alcohol) and there are still dry counties scattered around the south.

[deird1]

This image (if the link works) would be fairly typical. They pretty much all have sliding doors and wares out the front.

In Australia, there was a ban on supermarkets selling alcohol directly. So pretty much every supermarket has a sister shop next door that only sells booze.

[lirazel]

Interesting! Here are two of the stores nearest to me. They have the sliding doors, they're just hidden on (the side or under the brick overhang). And the ones in less urban areas do tend to have some kind of seasonal something out front--pumpkins or flowers or poinsettias or whatever, depending on the season. But I imagine that would be less the case in downtown areas.

In Australia, there was a ban on supermarkets selling alcohol directly. So pretty much every supermarket has a sister shop next door that only sells booze.

That happens in some states here. Until pretty recently, that was the case in Tennessee, so, like, the Costco would have an alcohol section that was technically in the main building but only had one outside entrance.