Washington, DC: Day 4

Finally, on Saturday, Kristin and her friend Melissa came to pick me up and we went downtown. Kristin and I met in Singapore in 2005 when we were both studying on exchange at NUS. I haven’t seen her since May 2005, so we had a lot of catching up to do! Melissa is her ex-roommate from William & Mary.

We visited the National Mall (the central boulevard of Washington, DC – NOT a giant shopping centre!). Off the Mall are all the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, the monuments, the US Capitol Building and the White House. Many government offices also spread off the 2-mile long stretch of lawn and pedestrianised pathways. Today we visited the Korean, Vietnam and WW2 War Memorials, the Lincoln Monument, the US Postal Museum and Union Station.

We had intended to eat at the famed canteen of the National Museum of the American Indian, but due to a burst water main, both it and the National Air & Space Museum were closed for the day! Just our luck! We eventually found lunch in the Union Station food court. We ate dinner at an Iranian restaurant in McLean, VA. The place is called Shamshiry, and has the greatest menu I’ve ever seen. In fact, it was so good I took a copy for my collection of souvenirs!

An excerpt:

“ Shirin Polo – This is one of the most excitingly different, unusual and demanding of the Persian rice dishes. But it is also one of the most rewarding. The sweet rice is seasoned with spices, perfumed with sugared orange peel and made crunchy with pistachios and almonds. It tastes as if imaginative honeybees created it.”

“Baklava – Baklava is considered the grandest of all pastries … the taste of baklava will please you.”’