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Day 7 – American icons and new discoveries

Besides binging on art museums, the objective of this trip is also to experience some of the more “iconic” pieces of American life.

While in DC, this meant sampling one of the local delicacies, the Half Smoke at Ben’s on U Street. the Half Smoke is a special sausage made of half beef and half pork meat, with a flavour halfway between smoked sausage and a regular hot dog (hence the name).

This DC delicacy is then smothered in chilli sauce and onions (hope you don’t mind, but I skipped the mustard, which is not something I particularly like). This is a famous and special place for the DC community, with many celebrities among its regulars. For instance, Barack Obama dined here the night before his first inauguration as President in 2009.  To be honest, I was expecting a bit more punch from the chilli sauce, but all in all it was a pretty decent hot dog.

Yesterday night I also decided it was time to check out the local music scene and went to a former funeral parlor turned rock venue, the Rock&Roll Hotel, to check out Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, which put up a pretty good show. The real treat was however the opening act, Laura Gibson, a very talented singer-songwriter whose latest work is called after the long-distance train connecting Chicago to Seattle, the Empire Builder.

Considering I’ll be travelling on another epic long-distance route from Chicago to San Francisco (the California Zephyr) in a week, this was quite a nice touch (a sign maybe? 🙂 ).

The laundromat

This last day in DC was also spent in 2 other “symbols” of American culture. The first was the Laundromat (for the record, I did not strip down to my underwear to wash the clothes I had on me like in a famous Levi’s commercial… I doubt the old ladies in the Laundromat would have appreciated 🙂 ).

After taking care of the important task of having clean underwear, I took a break from the streak of art museums of the last week and headed for the Smithsonian institute, checking out first their Air & Space Museum (where I could meet face to face many historic aircrafts, including Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis”) and finishing it off with some old bones at the Natural History Museum.

Tomorrow, it’s time to make my way west. Next stop: Cleveland!

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Day 6-7 – The days when the rain came

Almost a full week on the road already has passed (hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some time for a quick recap of my experience in the US and A so far 🙂 ). On Friday the rain hit the DC area, followed by something I suspect is quite a problem around here, particularly during the summer months: an insane level of humidity.

Anyway, the rains clearly did not bother me much, since I ended up spending most of the day (and a couple of extra hours on Saturday morning) checking out the impressive collection of the National Gallery, which includes several masterpieces of French impressionism (and some great stuff from more recent times). In particular I quite enjoyed the choice of placing 2 paintings with a similar motif by Monet and Derain next to each other, to appreciate even more the different and yet similar approach to colour and perception of these 2 great artists.

The visit to the NGA gave me however also another chance to discover new artists and expand my knowledge of American art.

From this perspective, the real highlight of the visit to DC was however the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where I ended up spending a few hours yesterday afternoon. Here one can truly appreciate the richness of American art, tracing its evolution from its European roots and influences, but that quickly found its own voice in presenting the reality of the new continent, inspired by the incredible sceneries and the melting pot of cultures.

On one side, I loved to see more the traditional, romantic themes in the glowing portraits of John Singer Sargent and the decadent melancholy of the turn of the XIX-XX century of Dewing and Thayer.

But even more of a delight was seeing the depiction of modern life, the big cities of lights and industrial work, but also the alienation and the longing for something lost (or something that was never there) often seen through the eyes of new Americans that were born somewhere far away in Europe or Asia and came to the US in search of refuge and a better life.

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Days 5: Getting to know Washington

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.

Wolfgang Laib, “Wax Room”

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.