From the Financial Hub to the Administration Heart - Washington D.C

After a 4 hour bus ride (in which Manchester United won and lost their title in minutes), we went from the Capital of the World to the actual capital of the United States of America - Washington D.C. Known for being the administrative backbone of USA, Washington DC plays home to the famous Mall where millions of tourists flock in to view the various memorials (Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, etc), Smithsonian musuem series (American History Museum, Air Space Museum, Natural History Musuem, etc) and the famous administration buildings (White House, Capitol Hill, etc). We had two days to cover these places (and more) and I believed we did a fairly good job in that.

Day 0 (Settle in day)

Having reached DC during midday, we didn't have much of a choice as to where to go. All the museums were going to be closed in a few hours and we needed to wait till our group was complete before going to the key sites. So, we took the advice of our friendly house host (we stayed at a AirBnB-advertised apartment - lovely place) and went to the "city center" where we were told all the action will be - Dupont Circle.

Little did we know, this "city center" was also the one of the capitals of the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community. It was a very lively area, with music and dance around, and everyone looked like they were having fun. So it turned out to be quite a cool surprise.

Dance and Music at Dupont Circle

Oh, I forgot to mention that just before we left our apartment, we did a little bit of research on the food available in DC. Our source - MAN VS FOOD. If you don't know what it is, here's the trailer.

To check out what we had from Man Vs Food, read on...

Rush Hour (Foodie Edition) Part III: From Fast-Food to 3-Stars, We have it all

Finding food in New York City can be very easy and daunting at the same time. The choices you have are so tremendous that it might become overwhelming and confusing, which is why it is important to have a strategy and the necessary tools to narrow down the choices in search of food.

My strategy - Since there is an abundance of food choices, I'll plan my food according to the places of interests. So in the case of my 3-day rush, I'll always find recommended food around the area (e.g. Lower Manhattan, SoHo, Upper East Side, etc) and plan my time and route accordingly.

My tools - Friends and Yelp. Obviously having a friend recommend places gives me a sense of security and an assurance that at least someone has liked it enough to recommend it. If I run out of friends' recommendation, the Yelp application is also another useful tool that has proved to be successful most of the time.

Lets start with the first meal of the 3-day salvo.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

The first day saw us rushing like man men and our breakfast was basically take-aways which I didn't document or photograph at all (breakfast was from some random Bagel stall while lunch was from another random Kebab mobile stalls, all near Central Park). They were pretty decent food but I'm pretty sure you can find similar ones all around.

Entering Five Guys Burgers & Fries

For dinner, we had a little time while waiting for the sky to turn dark for our ascend to the Top of the Rock, so we decided to give the highly-recommended Five Guys Burgers & Fries a try. 

We went to the one at 3rd Avenue & 44th Street (I have no idea why we skipped the two nearest ones to Rockafella Center), but there are at least 6 other joints in Manhattan, so this fast food chain is pretty much accessible from any place in Manhattan.

Menu

The menu itself was pretty much the standard fare - Beef or Bacon Burger (with 2 different size), dogs with different toppings, sandwiches and fries. As the name goes by, we were told that they were famous for their Fries. So we ordered their Cajun Fries and I had the Cheese Dog to go with it.

Cajun Fries

First up - the Cajun Fries. What is "Cajun" actually? Truthfully, even after googling, I wasn't too sure. I always thought it was some special spices but it turns out to be a specific cooking style that has French, Canadian, African and Native American influence. I'll put a pin in that one for now.

Read on to see how good the fries were and for my take on 3-Michelin Star Restaurant Daniel

Rush Hour (Tourist Edition) Part II: Round the Cities of Cities and onwards Liberty

After a week of job hunting, commencements and photo shoots, I finally have time to finish up my USA blog posts. So here's part II of our tale in the Big Apple which includes the famous Circle Line Cruise, the iconic Statue of Liberty, the magnificent Intrepid Air, Sea and Space museum and King Kong's Empire State Building.

New York City

The Circle Line Cruise


Usually, I'm not a fan of tour buses or city cruises. I always believe that they are huge tourist traps and seldom give you a good enough in-depth view of the city/town. However, this circle line cruise might just have turned my view around. We took this tour as it was included in our 3-day pass and it looked like a really good deal - a 3-hour long cruise around the whole of New York City worth USD$38.

Circle Line Tour

 I can't claim that this cruise will literally take you around the entire New York City, but due to the city's size, this cruise does just enough. The 3-hour long cruise could be tiring at some point (having to stand up in order to take nice photographs and withstand the wind ) and a longer cruise would have been an overkill.

The tour brings you through several boroughs of New York City, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens which was pretty comprehensive (by my standards). Notable sites include Statue of Liberty (you can't get off the cruise ship), Ellis Island, The Yankee Stadium, Harlem... etc.
A little tip: Make sure you stand on the right side of the boat (they don't do a 180 degrees turn), so basically right side of the boat before liberty and left side of the boat after liberty.

Read on for more pictures and other sites