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03rd Sep 2017

JOE Backpacking Diary #4 — Hurricane Harvey, Washington DC and Philly

Carl Kinsella

 

My original plan to hole up in New Orleans and wait for the flooding to subside was quickly disregarded once the rain began to hit Louisiana, resulting in a state of emergency in both states.

No longer feasible to keep moving west as I’d planned, I decided to retreat north towards to New York and see some of America’s major cities on my way.

My first stop was Atlanta, the capital city of Georgia. It’s a more modern city than Savannah, with a lot of cool, open public spaces where huge groups of people can chill out.

As luck would have it I stopped into an Irish bar called Meehan’s on the main drag and chatted to the staff for long enough about being Irish that my bill ended up being cleared — so that’s a tip for any Irish who end up in the city (though if we all start doing it then they’ll probably catch on to us). After that it was a lengthy bus journey north to Washington DC.

Washington DC might make the best first impression of any city I’ve ever visited. Seconds after stepping out of the capital’s Union Station, one can see the tops of Capitol Hill and the Washington monument. Statues and flags adorn streets as soon as you enter the city

As far as bang for your buck, Washington DC might be one of the best places on earth that you can stay. All of museums established by the Smithsonian Institute, of which there are about a dozen, can all be checked out free of charge. Not only that, but their all within minutes of one another — it’s a city with something to do and see around every corner.

The city is also home to some of the world’s most famous monuments — the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and of course the Washington Monument (even if it is essentially a poor man’s version of the Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park). The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence are on show here, and anyone interested in American history could probably spend a month exploring the city.

Across three days in central DC, it becomes very clear that the city has a massive population of a) tourists and b) people who are there solely for work purposes… It doesn’t feel like anywhere else in the country, and doesn’t seem to have same ancestral vibe that comes with a town being passed on from generation to generation like a family quilt. For a capital city to be set so far apart from its country’s citizens is a very foreign feeling.

Lawmakers in Ireland don’t have the same comfort of retreating to an insulated capital more than 1,000 miles away. By comparison, every problem that happens in Ireland, every murder, every drug overdose, every poorly-run hospital sits on our doorstep. In America, it’s easy to see how those tasked with making the laws that those in Alabama, and Arizona, and Alaska have to live by actually exist in a bubble so impossibly far from the reality faced by so many.

My last stop before getting home was Philadelphia. One of Philly’s proudest attractions is the Liberty Bell. Turns out that contrary to popular belief the bell actually didn’t ring out on July 4th, 1776… It’s claim to fame is that it MIGHT have been one of several bells that rang several days later to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Its iconic crack wasn’t the result of a gunshot sustained during the War of Independence. They actually don’t even know how it cracked. It is known that they tried to fill the crack in and started ringing it again, which made the crack much worse. One of the walls in the Liberty Bell Museum is titled “Preservation of the Bell” which, in all honesty, seems to have been an unmitigated disaster.

Nevertheless, Philly is a spectacular city with plenty of bars and an awesome Chinatown — fans of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia can stop into Mac’s Tavern, an Irish pub owned by stars of the show Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson (can confirm it’s good). Anyone with any interest in history should check out the city’s Constitution Centre, up there with best museums I’ve visited throughout my time in America. While the South has a lot of character, heat and exquisite food, there northern East Coast cities do boast more to do on a day-to-day basis.

Some of the key lessons from my trip include: Greyhound bus stations are just crime scenes that are taking a short break from being crime scenes, nobody actually has any idea what an Irish accent sounds like, a lot of people seem to think that they can visit Scotland and then “drive” to Ireland… after the fifth time you hear this, you will stop correcting them. Lastly, depending on whether he’s got a fight coming up, a lot of people will try to start conversations with you simply by saying “Conor McGregor!” so you should probably prepare a few lines of dialogue around that subject.

 

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Travel