Too many Dubai friendships are like drunken conversations you have in the ladies’ rooms with absolute strangers at 2:30 am. They bare their souls about the cheating boyfriends, cry, you become their best friend/soul sister/psychologist and rock for a very intense 15 minutes then *poof* all is forgotten the next day.
Could have just said ‘transient’ but detours are more fun.
This is not only because of the people but just the way life is there, especially way back when I was growing up, people were there for just a few years then left for good. Same faces in elementary, intermediate and high school – it was so rare way back then.
My next stop is Washington DC to visit her. Over the years we have been meeting on my side of the world and I am very much looking forward to seeing her world without the Skype filter in between.
Like a flower, under different petals are other beautiful petals. This angel girl has so many different layers. Now that we are on her turf, I see that my Anita is military when it comes to organizing and I am over the moon as I can be slightly indecisive sometimes. We have a full, proper itinerary with dates, hours and some choices for me too. We pretty much enjoy all the same things so I love every single item on it. My only suggestion is the Holocaust Museum in DC – she is as easily excitable as myself so we add that to our list.
Who needs the Lonely Planet guide when I have a sparkling star guiding me?
It is almost the 4th of July and this is my ‘Howdy America’ pose.
We start with the city tour using Trolley Tours.
Everything is in close proximity and the weather is delightful. When possible we use our God-given vehicles for transportation and walk.
Gift shop. Never knew Barak had blue eyes.
As a city, DC is really beautiful – lots of history and many parts which are just plain quaint.
Capitol Hill… from a distance.
I really like this country and I have no idea why. Seeing these flags makes me smile.
We start at the Holocaust Museum.
You have to buy special admission tickets to get into the main exhibit hall. It specifies the time you can get in. No over-crowding here, well organized. We buy these tickets first and have a wander around to kill time.
Cuddles from giant wooden dog 🙂
We are back in about an hour as per our appointed entry time.
Just before you take the elevator to get into the main hall, there are stacks and stacks of booklets to your right. You need to pick one up. They are small booklets containing the details and story of many different people that had lost their lives during the holocaust, one heartbreaking life per each booklet.
I pick one up out of the hundreds…
My heart almost stops!!!
It is my birthdate, 3-3-3, just a few decades apart! Goosebumps… Bless you Zuzana, hope you are finally at peace with the angels all around you.
As someone who believes in signs I am still trying to figure this one out…
It is mostly a no-photo zone here… which was fine because we were too busy being devastated to do anything else. It is incredibly disturbing and unsettling to see how contagious evil can be.
Little angel trying very hard to smile after crying pretty much the whole time we were there. She did take small breaks of gratitude in between sniffles for the lives we are able to live.
This was a deeply depressing experience that shook us both to the core but I would put this way up high on my list of places to definitely see in DC. I think we owe it to the past and all those that have passed.
The Lincoln Memorial
It is nice to see him so grand.
This is also where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech. “In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not  seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
You have to fight darkness with light if you want to break the chain of hatred me thinks. Have you read it? Read it here, his loving, peaceful heart will reach out all the way from Washington DC, 1963 and touch your heart.
I pose.
The Washington Monument poses behind me.
Like those ladies who blur their profile pics on FB so the wrinkles don’t show, the Monument is happy she is so far away and blurred as she is under renovation and has yucky canvas draped around her.
Korean War Veterans’ Memorial
Next stop – Anita’s favorite. I see why – all their emotions are etched on their faces. Very raw, very real! I wanna go give them a cuddle but have another vision of me in a mug shot which promptly quenches my desire to comfort these statues. Comforting statues…? hmmm.
Anyway, now have a look on the wall behind them.
Really stunning. I don’t know they fit 3D inside marble but then again I still can’t understand how the microwave heats sans logs and fire.
Martin Luther King Memorial
Me and my fountain of perpetual hope and inspiration at the Martin Luther King Memorial.
Watching his dream come true. RIP great man.
Pose pause.
National World War II Memorial
Look, pray, leave.
The White HouseÂ
I got this! Hehe.
So, you need to book an appointment to get a tour of the White House and you need to book at least 21 days in advance. Thus this photo from a distance.
City tours: definitely take them. I know it is a touristy thing to do but there is a reason why they are so popular.
And when you need to step off the beaten path be lucky enough to have a blessing like Anita to show you the way.
Love first times!
Have been dying to try this for so long but hadn’t got an ailment I needed to cure. It is interesting being an optimist and, real or imagined, thinking you have no problems. This was a problem once as I almost got kicked out of a life coach’s office as I had no problems to discuss – was a free consultation passed on to me by a dear friend who couldn’t find time to attend before he left the country.
Love my ‘problems’!
Acupuncture – u get needles stuck all over you and it induces bliss and heals your ills. Doesn’t quite make sense does it?
Some people I have met along the way render it necessary for me to say do not try this at home 🙂
I still didn’t quite have an ailment so I was happy to remember dull, annoying lower back pain I have been having once in a while. This totally cured it BTW!!
This place works with donations only so you are free to pay 15 to 40 USD per treatment. Try it even if you aren’t in the area. They really do this for the love of helping people and it is worth the drive because the world needs more of these businesses who work with their hearts and not just their heads. Our Space Acapuncture : here are their details.
See what I mean about both of us having the same tastes? She’s gone and organized a frikking ghost tour! LOVE it!
It is fun to do this. Both Anita and myself love ghost stories and everything is within walking distance to each other. You get the stories of love, death and tragedy as you stand on the spot of where it all happened and also hear when and how their ghosts are seen.
They encourage us to take lots of photos as some of them ghosts are human-shy but not camera-shy it seems. Soooo we took lots of pictures and when we looked at them we found (drum roll) nothing… But it was fun to get all excited about it.
There are some things you just are not allowed to not do in DC and the most important of these is dropping by Ben’s Chili Bowl. Set up in 1958 and still going strong.
Their place, their rules. I fully approve!
Yes, yes, yes, yeS, yES, YESSSS it was SO GOOOOOD!!!
Perfect and looong day! You’d think we would have passed out the second our heads hit the pillow but our childhood habits continue and we somehow still found the energy to talk and giggle like teenage girls hours after our bedtime.