States: 26 (plus Malta) Days: 169 Miles: 18,896
Washington D.C. did indeed prove to be something special. A unique city with dozens and dozens of memorials and statues (if that’s your kind of thing – it is mine), Arlington Cemetery, the National Harbour, and National Arboretum a short drive away, it had a huge amount of interesting things to see and do and managed to tick off the bulk of my Virginia and Maryland sightseeing trips all in one go. Despite the city-ness of it, I really enjoyed my time in DC, probably as I got to walk around in the sunshine for two days and see a huge amount of beautiful and impressive things.
I think I was suffering from travel fatigue very much through the next few weeks of my journey. As is reflected in this blog, I was very light on the details, as I was just going through the motions, ticking off the sights before I got to New York and had a break. Hopefully I can come back to it after I am finished and flesh out the experiences a little more when I have more energy.
Taking a short detour through Gettysburg, I then landed in Maryland, which I did really like, but a very large hangover stopped me from enjoying it too much. I did get to see an awful lot of Edgar Allen Poe memorabilia and spots of interest (his favourite bar was to blame for my massive hangover). Delaware was a beautiful state, but I struggled to find things to do there (that were unique and different to any other state). Amish country in Pennsylvania was really beautiful and well worth the 90-minute detour to Intercourse [insert obvious joke here]. Philadelphia was great and had a lot to see and do that was very varied and characterful – I’d definitely recommend as a city break. New Jersey was fleeting and left no huge stamp on my memory, other than meeting a very nice married couple that invited me to go for a drink with them. Later that evening, they revealed that they were swingers, and… well you can see where this is going. I seem to be irresistible to married couples recently… Anyhow, I finally ended up in New York City. Travel fatigue and feeling of flitting around somewhat appeased by the generosity of friends putting me up for several days at a time. It was great to see friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time and that gave me a great uplift off the back of a long five months of travel. But New York City itself – I wasn’t a fan. It was fun to walk around and see the iconic places, but for me (just my opinion), there was nothing particularly special about it. The people were rude, pushy, and largely ignored you (very different to the rest of the country), and the places were OK, but nothing was special. Central Park is just a nice park; the Empire State Building is just a big building. The best thing about New York was probably the steak I had with T one evening. So at least I’m true to myself, thinking the best thing is food!
I know a lot of people love New York City and I was willing to give it another shot when I came back from my week-long Malta break (which was fantastically amazing, even the third time, even with the bitter-sweet memories – everyone should go to Malta!). However; on the flight back into JFK, I had a horrible, sinking feeling that I was back in the city again. I’ve never had that feeling on landing anywhere, so it was quite an eye opener for me. Whilst I was sad to say goodbye to friends in NYC, I was so happy to be back in my new hire car, heading upstate. Bring on the wide-open spaces and ability to internalise more than just fleeting memories!