Washington DC

On the slow train, it takes around 3.5 hours to get to DC from NY. The train meanders through New Jersey, Philadelphia, Delaware, Baltimore before it's destination. The first couple of hours is a bit nondescript. Concrete and more concrete. I was beginning to get sceptical about my boss' suggestion that I take in the views, as he said that they were 'interesting'. Maybe he has an interest in construction.

But then as we hit Delaware and Baltimore, the landscape did change. There's so much water and there's so much more space. I had no idea where I was going and had to look it all up on a map later on. DC is south of NY. Really? I had no idea. I thought it was left and up a bit.

And there are little armpits of water around by Delaware. I just had no idea. I say armpits in a nice way. It's like they have their own little stash of water hidden away. (For this image, we'll go for a non-Julia-Roberts-hair-free armpit). It looks like a wee sliver of blue on the map, but as you whizz by on the train, there's loads of it. Lovely when you live in the East Village and you can barely get cold water out of the tap - for some reason our taps are only spitting out hot at the moment whichever way the lever is pointing.

DC itself is bleuggghhh. I know that's not a very grown up description, but I'm not a big fan. To be fair, I've spent all of 5.5 hours there, but my immediate impressions are as follows:
- People are really grumpy. I mean, really grumpy. They push past on the escalators; tsssk behind you as you try and buy metro tickets really slowly...
- The ticket machines are whack and don't respond when you hit buttons
- It's super sterile. It looks like everything was built in the 1980s.

OK, so it's a short list. As I said, I went from the train station to the metro station and walked half a block to my seminar before doing the return journey. DC, we have unfinished business so I will be back. You'd better put some make-up on and your best frock next time.