The first full day in Washington DC has been quite a pleasant surprise, starting from something I did not think I would do again on this trip: a morning run.
But since I woke up relatively early yesterday morning and I am staying downtown just a couple of blocks from the White House, I figured this could be a good way to get my bearings and check out a few of the more famous monuments around the Federal Triangle.
The first day in DC has also given me a chance to catch up with a few good friends and sample some great Mexican and Ethiopian food. Ethiopian is a cuisine I enjoy very much, but which is quite hard to find back home in Sweden (unless I want to fly up to Stockholm to get some dinner 🙂 ). Apparently DC has quite a sizeable Ethiopian/Eritrean community though, so I was happy to take the chance when the suggestion came.
But I obviously came to DC also to see some Art Museums, and so far I have been very happy on that front too. Yesterday I started my day at the National Museum of Women in Art, which is a very interesting institution focusing on the work of female artists, highlighting their perspectives, their themes and their talent. The NMWA is definitely worth a visit, with a great collection including pieces from Alice Neel, Frida Kahlo, Mary Cassat and Georgia O’Keeffe.
After lunch, I had the chance to explore another smaller, but very interesting museum: the Phillips Collection. This museum is famous for its Rothko room, but to be very honest I am not much of a Rothko (or Pollock) fan, so for me it was a lot more interesting to see Jacob Lawrence’s “The Migration” serie (well, half of it, the rest is at MoMA 🙂 )
I also quite enjoyed visiting the “Wax Room”, an installation consisting in a small room covered in wax and with a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. It’s a simple place for meditation and the wax had an amazing smell, sweet and flowery without being too overwhelming (sadly, you can’t take “pictures” of smells).
So far I must say Washington is a much more enjoyable city that I had anticipated. People are friendly (staff at museums for instance always said hi and were very welcoming and helpful, not quite the same could be said for NYC 🙂 ), so I look forward to spending a few extra days exploring it further.
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