I was on a tight schedule as I only had around 30 hours in Washington D.C. to see all the mayor sights. First of all I stayed in the Downtown Washington D.C. Hostel, which was great because I could just walk to Union Station and all the major sights.

I arrived around 5pm on Baltimore-Washington International Airport. From there I took the shuttle to the MARC train station and drove to Union Station (for 6$, Amtrak for the same distance was around 60$, but would have been 15mins faster). After dropping my bags off at the Hostel it was already getting dark so I hopped over to see the Capitol by night. On the way back I walked through Chinatown and got a first impression of the city. Washington appears to be a small scale version of New York and with smaller houses that have a more English touch (brick houses next to Union Station).

I started my day in Washington with a big breakfast in Union Station, then went to the Capitol for the free tour (takes about 90minutes after you are in) which is absolutely worth it, just be there early! The rest of the day I meandered through the National Mall and checked out all the sights there like Ulysses Grant Memorial, National Gallery of Art sculpture garden, Washington Monument which is really impressive from close up, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial (which I assumed would be more impressive),  Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the White House. On my 6 hour walk I also took tons of pictures from all these sights. An interesting note is that the National Mall was more or less deserted in the morning (from 8-10am). It gets more crowded after 10am when the museums open.

To combine history/monuments with some interesting notes I went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum which is just awesome. It took me around 3 hours to see all the interesting space capsules, rockets, and airplanes. The museum gives you great details about everything man-made that flies and is absolutely worth a visit if you are even a little bit of a tech geek. The second museum I visited was the National Museum of National History which had great exhibits showing the evolution of mankind in particular and of all mammals and animals in general.

Combining two museum visits and all the other sights in one day was a lot so I headed over to 7th street and H street NW for dinner in Chinatown where I got good Pho (some form of Asian noodle soup with beef in it) and then headed to the movies to relax. All in all it was a great day with perfect weather to visit all the outdoor attractions and I had lots of fun.

On the next morning I only had a couple of hours to kill before getting the shuttle to the airport. So I headed over to the National Library of Congress and checked out the making of the constitution and all the other interesting artifacts they have on display. If you are a bookworm or interested in US history then the Library is worth a visit!

I flew out form Dulles International Airport and I actually booked a Super Shuttle to get me there. I already booked them a couple of times and it usually works out pretty well. But this time I got screwed over twice, first of all I made a mistake on my reservation, putting 506 H Street NW instead of 506 H Street NE on the form. The shuttle driver just went to the wrong part of the city and did not even bother to call me. After waiting on the street during the pickup window I waited for 10 more minutes in their phone loop until I was told that I have to make a new reservation and that the money is lost. So I made a new reservation with the correct address and waited for another 30 minutes. And the second driver/shuttle did not show up as well, so I got screwed twice and had to beg the hostel owner to drive me to the airport. Which worked out well in the end as we is an awesome guy and tries to help wherever he can, but I will never again take Super Shuttle in Washington D.C.! So to summarize: Washington D.C. is a great and interesting city where you can reach all the major attractions by foot. It is one of the american cities that has a lot of history and is really worth a visit. Stay in Downtown Washington for the full experience and take public transport to get around!