DC Day 2

Because I covered the main sights yesterday, I decided to take a look at the different museums along the Mall. Because most museums are institutions of the Smithsonian entry was free. 

On the way I passed by Chinatown. I found it quite amusing that every restaurant and every store has it's name in Chinese writing as well. I also was amazed to see a Vapiano restaurant here in the States, especially in Chinatown of DC! And there were more Irish pubs than Chinese restaurants...

Afterwards  visited the Museum of American History. I thought I could cover it up in about two hour, get some lunch and head over to the National Art Gallery.

Well, five hours later I finally got out of the museum. It's huuuge!
The different exhibitions are museums for themselves! So I took my time to explore everything.
Afterwards I only had two hours before the Gallery closed. So I skipped lunch and headed over as fast as possible to the National Art Gallery.  But this is also such a huge museum. I decided to skip the medieval paintings and go straight to the Romanticism and Impressionism.
The gallery is beautiful! They even have areas with indoor gardens.
After 7 hours of roaming through museums I headed back to the hostel and decided to treat myself to a good dinner in a restaurant. The weather cleared up over the day and the sun was shining. The day before it was drizzling the whole time... why did I spend all day indoors?
Back in the hostel the other guests gathered in the living room so I decided to join them. Orginally the staff planned a Capitol tour for the evening but then it started to rain like crazy. It was so bad that the news even had an emergency broadcast. Ten minutes after that the power went out for a few seconds. The street lights where gone a bit longer. Everybody just decided to stay at the hostel and drink some free beer and play some games instead.