DC: a city for clever people?

by Layla

There is something very odd about flying into a new city in which we will be living in just under a month. We landed at Dulles airport, determined to love it. The airport procedures didn’t persuade us at first – a long transit to the main airport building, and hideously long queues with one passport official for the lot of us. It took more than two hours to get from the plane to the Churchill Hotel, our home for the next six days. And then when we determinedly headed out for a drink, we were foiled first by everything being apparently closed, and then when we found Bistro de Coin, despite its lovely atmosphere they wouldn’t serve us wine as we didn’t have our passports. But fortunately they served us chips, and we staggered up the hill to our hotel feeling partially sated, and entirely exhausted.

Up far too early on Saturday morning thanks to jet lag, we got dressed and headed out in the cold and torrential rain. Luckily it was all uphill from there. We had breakfast in Afterwards, the café of Kramer Books, a really brilliant independent bookshop at Dupont Circle. Pancakes, omlette, juice, and loveliness, and a copy of the Washington Post to wash it all down. And then it was time for our first metro experience. Which was not entirely successful – the trains seem to run only once every 20 minutes or so… particularly disappointing when we realised we’d got on the train in the wrong direction! Luckily we’d bought a copy of the monthly ‘Washingtonian’ which I’d rather hoped might be a Time Out substitute. Not really, but it is a great magazine, with some listings and a range of interesting articles. Through reading it, with features not on celebrities and suchlike nonsense, but on such subjects as the white house legal team, top business people, etc, it became clear: Washington DC is a city for clever people.

By the time we got to our target station, we were sure we were late. But no, we slipped into seats in the balcony of the Sidney Harman hall just in time for what we had been looking forward to for weeks – a TEDx conference, on the vague theme of ‘place’. After a brilliant experience with TEDx in London, we had been excited about going to another, and it didn’t disappoint. For an entire day, we listened to 12 minute talks by brilliant, fascinating people on a wide range of diverse topics. We particularly enjoyed the man who invented the security words one has to type when buying something online to prove that you’re a person rather than a computer. Did you know that only one of the words is for that purpose – the other word is taken from a book that is being converted to a digital book, which is done by scanning? But the computer can’t recognise a third of the words, so this method is used to translate billions of words to enable ebooks to be published. Very clever. Also liked a NASA astrophysicist on telescopes. It was a particularly fortunate pastime for yesterday, as it was first freezing and rainy, then actually snowy! We braved the weather for delicious guacamole for lunch at a nearby restaurant, but otherwise remained warm and intellectually stimulated. A great start to our Washington adventure.

After the conference (we sneaked out a little early due to jet lag drowsiness and a dull final speaker), the rain/snow had largely abated, so we decided to stretch our legs and walk to see the White House. A longer walk than we’d anticipated, we stared up at the big white building with a little confusion. We hadn’t expected it to be right on the street… and it was a bit in need of a coat of paint! Only then did we look up and see a sign proclaiming that it wasn’t the White House at all, but the Treasury! Sheepishly we took directions from some security guards, and suddenly there it was, looming white and elegant across a pristine lawn, and just as it looks on TV (and in the West Wing!). It felt shamefully touristy, but we stood and stared in delight.

Afterwards, we walked all the way up Connecticut Avenue to Dupont Circle, and Kramer Books called for a glass of wine. I had the Horton Viogner, which just won an award for best locally made wine (in Virginia). I’ve had better, to be honest, but under the circumstances, was duly appreciative… And we may have had a piece of key lime pie…

Having walked home past Halloween costumed partiers, we were amused to find these same partiers on the news as we returned to our room for a pre-prandial rest, along with pictures of far more snow in different parts of Virginia. Seems we’d got off lightly. We were supposed to go to a fancy (and expensive) restaurant for dinner, but as we walked there, we both noted we felt rather tired (it was 9:30pm!) and not especially ravenous. And we’d both secretly noted the presence of a delicious-sounding butternut squash ravioli on the Kramer Books menu… and so Roz voiced what we were both thinking, and we sprinted through pretty residential streets (one of which might soon be our street!) to the lovely restaurant where we indulged. Afterwards, we pottered around the bookshop, which had brilliant selections of books, and on a Saturday night at 10:30pm was absolutely mobbed with people browsing books, eating in the restaurant, and drinking at the bar. As we walked past the bar, we saw a man having a glass of wine and reading the Financial Times. Roz and I looked at each other. We had come home.

We walked up the road, past more Halloween costumed partiers, and were tempted into a very lovely little wine bar called Veritas. It seemed there were plenty of places to go out, but they were a little subtle, and local. A couple of proseccos and a sneaky bit of delicious cheese later, we retired to bed, to dream of living in this city.