Travel

Today I had a nostalgic moment. Whilst scrolling through Instagram after a long day of work (as one often does), I happened to stumble upon a post which was advertising an event in the DMV area. There was nothing particularly special about the event, or the post for that matter but all it took was to see those three letters, to take me back to what was a beautiful solo adventure and to be quite honest a dream come true last year.

Around this time last year, my tickets to the US were booked. I had planned that I would be staying for just short of 4 weeks, beginning in Maryland, then to Houston, MD once again, a quick stop in New York and finally back to MD.

Now it wouldn’t be right to stay in Maryland without visiting the city of Washington DC. And so one day after finally getting my head around how to top up my Metro card (you’d be surprised what a great icebreaker that was), I hopped on board and was on my merry way to DC.

Having never visited, I knew I couldn’t leave without seeing as many sites as possible and so I decided to make an adventure of it, via the good people at Big Bus Tours. And an adventure it was!

Remind me to tell you guys about how I kinda, sorta fell for a ca-yute chocolate, tour guide, dreadlocked-gentleman who consistently went out of his way to make sure I was good, and also happened to be smitten with my English accent. (Ladies, there’s nothing more “swoon-worthy” than telling a handsome American man your name is Debra, and watching him become all undone just at the apparent Britishness of it all). Listen, on a scale of 1 to romantic, I’ve never thought “Debra” ranks very high, but his reaction was the cutest thing! Anyways, his name now leaves me, but I’m sure I have his American number saved on my international phone, so Mr DC. if you are reading this, you still owe me that date over hot chocolate. Can you imagine, I had to bail out, as I was going to NY. Honestly, this love story was moving a little too fast. But anywho! I digress.

DC. Yes, DC was beautiful. There was something strangely British about the cold December air and the white marble historical architecture, that made me feel, almost at home (or maybe it was the pleasant surprise in the form of a Nando’s?). Yet, these streets were filled with a sense of mystery and heritage which I took much pleasure in uncovering.

I had chosen to invest most of my time into the sites which pertain to black history, such a MLK’s memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and arguably now another milestone in the history of black folk, The White House. Between the educational talks, spontaneous kind-hearted strangers and good food on the go, DC was the perfect recipe for a conscious adventure.

I would recommend the Big Bus Tour to anyone. My ticket even came with free entry to Madame Tussauds which was a pleasant surprise ending to an otherwise information-heavy trip. The tour bus experience was so much fun and a great way to see as much of DC as humanly possible. Especially if like me, you want to knock a few sites out in a day. Also a great form of exercise if like me, you have a knack of mixing up 4th street with 6th street and then walking in circles around blocks until your chocolate tour guide finds you and thinks you’re doing the whole thing on purpose, waiting to be found! (No, really). But like I said, that’s a story for another day.

Until then, I’ll leave you with some of my favourite snapshots from the trip. DMV and Mr DC., I will be back.