Our first Monday in the States was Martin Luther King’s Day, so we decided to visit his monument in Washington DC…and we had a great time!!
We left the snowy New Paltz and headed towards the Capital of the United States. Fortunately, the weather was really nice: sunny and not that chilly. We walked a lot and visited many monuments and museums. It was a great start for this once in a lifetime experience!
We have now landed in New Paltz and are ready for what’s to come!
After studying for more than a month and finally finishing the Bachelor of Economics back in Germany, I traveled to New York City to spend two weeks of vacation before the IIB program started.
Staying at a student’s apartment I found on Airbnb, I was in the right place to experience New York from a local’s perspective. It was located on East 106th Street, only a few subway stations from the main attractions of Manhattan.
New York can be overwhelming, especially when it is your first time in the city, but after a few days and a lot of walking around I finally settled.
After a few days of sightseeing in New York, I visited a friend in Washington DC. for a weekend. Compared to New York, Washington is much more quite and very pretty. We walked a lot and saw some of the main sights, like the White House, the National Mall, the National Zoo (with its Panda Bears) and much more.
The place my friend lives at, Alexandria, VA, is a small town a few minutes outside of Washington DC. It is very pretty with all its historic houses built by British settlers. All in all the trip felt a little like vacation from the loud and vibrant city of New York.
After my Washington trip I stayed a few more days in New York to visit the bank I’ll be working at starting in October. Also I went ice skating in one of the best ice rinks I have seen so far (Chelsea Piers).
One day I went to Coney Island for a day on the beach and to ride the wooden roller-coaster that was build almost a hundred years ago. Scary!
Ann-Christin on the Staten Island Ferry – Manhattan Skyline in the background
Panda Bear in the National Zoo Washington DC.
Hi!! The weekend from February 16 to the 18th, Marce, Blanca, Lucy, Nora, Pontus and I decided to visit Washington D.C. We visited the main attractions such as The White House, US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, WWII Memorial, Air and Space Museum, and some other interesting places!! I had the opportunity to visit a friend who studies in Georgetown and she showed us the university and it’s surroundings. Everything is so beautiful, totally worth it!! Even though it was really cold we had a great time.
Here are some cool pictures about our trip and our beautiful hostel.
[slideshow]After the recent burst of posts about DC, Philadelphia and Atlantic City I bet you have already found out how we’ve all extremely appreciated the long weekend (and of course Labor Day)! You’ve read about the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial…but something is still missing.
So, for those of you who have a passionate love for art: here you go! A drum roll please…the National Gallery of Art!
It is a magnificent Gallery made up of two buildings, the West one (1941) and the East one (1978). It is situated right on the National Mall, so it’s quite easy to find it… and, once you’re in, it’s definitely hard to leave it!!
The West Building host a temporary exhibition and the NGA’s main collection and it’s here that I’ve spent the all day. The main collection includes a remarkable Italian section (thirteenth- to eighteenth-century), a Spanish one (thirteenth- to nineteenth-century), and a Netherlandish and German one (fifteenth- to seventeenth-century). There’s also a British section (eighteenth- to nineteenth-century) and of course an American one (eighteenth- and nineteenth-century). But one of the richest collection is the French one: from Watteau, Delacroix, and Ingres to Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Monet, Degas, and Renoir…the gallery hosts a copious number of the most famous paintings. No need to say that if you go through the corridor, from one room to the other, you’re gaze is like enchanted by the paintings inside them and you can’t decide where to go first!
I’ve particularly enjoyed the impressionist gallery, but I guess everybody has different tastes and different opinions about art…so if anybody has visited the NGA, what do you think? Which is your favorite painting? Hope to hear from you soon!
As mentioned before, we went on a road trip during labor day weekend. We took off on Friday afternoon heading to Atlantic City. We experience casino atmosphere, boardwalk, and extremely hot weather.[slideshow]
