Well, I happen to have a bunch of free time here at work. I am back in Belgium and we are in the middle of our "go-live" weekend. So I have some time to write about my last weekend in Washigton DC. Great great fun city. :)

It started out looking like it might be a total disaster, but then it got much better by the weekend. When I got to the hotel (Wyndham) on Wednesday night I was so tired I simply had room service and went to bed at about 11pm and slept for like 13 hours!! Crazy. I was obviously still tired from the weekend before with the twins. We did a lot of partying that weekend. All night Friday (till 4am probably), then the same on Saturday night. Then we didn't go to the Crobar party until 8am on Sunday morning. So you can imagine after two nights of partying (&drinking!), then most of Sunday as well, that I was wiped out! So, after all that I was still a little tired at work last week, and by the time that Wednesday came around, I was still not fully recouvered.

So thus I missed Wednesday night, but on the good side was able to see a lot of DC that I had not before. And I quite like the city. It's very different from NYC, and I like it much much better. There are trees everywhere and it's much much cleaner than NY. A lot of the houses and apartment are similar to the cool brownstones in Boston/Chicago. The subways too are a very good example. They are modern, with digital displays that show next train times, cool open tunnel designs, clean, new cars, stop announcement, good map system, etc. Very pleasent to ride. This compared with NYC subways where you can't even tell where you are going, what the current stop is, and garabage and rats are everywhere, etc. Night and day I tell you. Oh well, hopefully I will end up in DC on contract sometime. :)

I saw a lot of the tourist stuff as well of course. I realized when I was walking around that I never even went to see the white house the last 3 times I was in Washington?! So got to see lots of the sights. There is quite a few, so two days was a good amount of time to see it all. And it was also a good time on Thursday because it was Thanksgiving, there was absolutely no one around! No crowds or anything. It was quite good for sightseeing. I saw the white house, went to the back of it first, and I thought it was the front. I was suprised at how close you could get to it. Then I went to the front and realized that I saw the back first. That's why it looked different than on TV. The front is the more famous view I guess, and lots more people there. But the house is about twice as far from the fence in the front as it is in the back. Weird. After that it was to the Washington monument. It was closed so couldn't go up in it though, then down the mall. Most things were closed but I got to see outside which is basically most of what I wanted to see any ways. To the capital building which is pretty cool building, then various other sightseeing places before deciding to head to a more people area to look for dinner.

I walked through the Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, and then U street districts, all looking for a nice restaurant to eat at. Unfortunately, they were about 99% all closed! It was crazy. I knew Thanksgiving was a big deal for Americans, but I didn't realize how big. I guess I was always either outside the US, or with my relatives in Palm Springs for Thanksgiving. In Palm Springs there seemed to be tons and tons of restaurants that are open in for thankgiving. Must be because they are very different cities and populations. I think Washington has a very large population that is (originally) from out of town, so it would make sense that the city would empty out for Thanksgiving.

So, I spent about an hour or two walking through these various neighbourhoods and could not find something that looked good. There was actually only about 2-3 place I saw that were even open! So, I was getting a little worried, and not only that I wouldn't be able to find a meal, but also that the city would be completely dead all weekend and bars would be horrible. I got back to the hotel and after talking with the staff (this being the doorman/bellboy, because of course there was no concierge), got a recommendation for a casual grill that they knew was open.

I went to the restaurant and it was absolutely packed! I guess it's a pretty good restaurant (the food was excellent), and of course being one of the only restaurants open it was crazy busy. Probably about 30-40 people waiting for tables. Oh shit I thought, I am going to have to wait forever to eat, getting a little concerned at this point. But then luckily when I asked for table for one, the host said I could go to the bar and eat right away and it was the same menu as the restaurant! Thanks God!! So that was great, never done that before, because I would usually prefer my own table (not wanting to have to converse with the locals and all :) :) But it was actually pretty nice. The bar girl was excellent. She was in a amazingly good mode, especially for having to work on Thanksgiving night. She had two I guess "regular" customers come and have dinner and drinks to talk with here, popular girl. And the food was really really good. I actually didn't feel like turkey. If I had, then I could have had dinner at the hotel as they had a big fancy dinner. Oh and the hotel had a terrible room service menu as well. So I had ceaser salad and cannalloni, and yes I know, how predictable. :) Oh well, it was excellent.

Then afterwards I hung around for a couple of hours because the company was pretty good. I started talking to one of the guys that came to see the bartender. He worked from a company out of Germany and had travelled a lot there, so he was interesting to talk to, and the bar girl of course was entertaining. I think I hung around for a couple of hours and left after like 4 or 5 beers. So that was enjoyable. Then after that it was pretty much straight to bed as I was exhausted by this point. I had no plans in going out Thursday night any ways because of the complete lack of people in the city. I didn't even want to attempt a bar as I knew, well I thought, it could be a complete disaster. Like being a complete knob and visiting the north of France in August, when pretty much everyone is on vacation in the south of France. Now who would be dumb enough to do that? :) Oh well.

I was up earlier on Friday morning and again out sightseeing. This was the day was for the memorials; the Vitenam War, the Lincoln, the WWII, the Jefferson, the Roosevelt, etc. They have a tone of memorials. It was interesting though, and there were a lot more people out on Friday. Tons of families. I guess the parents take the day off and then after being cooped up with family all day Thursday they need to go out and do something on Friday. So there were lots of people, but not too overly crowded or anything. It was actually quite chilly on friday. Thursday was very warm walking around, but then a big wind storm kicked up Thursday night. When I left the bar on Thursday night, I walked about 2 blocks and then had to take a cab because it was soo windy it was blowing me around, and very cold. And then it was so cold on Friday that when I started out I had only gone a short way before I had to stop and buy a touque. I stopped in Georgetown and picked up a cheap one. Probably never use it again... oh maybe I'll bring it home for Christmas and use it then! Good idea.

Any ways, I got a good 5 hours of sightseeing in that day, and then my feet were getting sore from two days in a row, and I was getting a little bored of monument after memorial after etc... But, I didn't know what to do as it was only about 2pm. Then I remembered that the new Harry Potter movie was out. I found the movie theatre, and found out that the next show was not until 3:30. So, I stopped for something to eat, and it was very very excellent, again! It was called Murphy's or some name like that. I had very good luck with restaurants so far. I think there could be quite a demand for nice ones in DC. Probably a lot of people with good taste makes the demand for it. Kinda like NYC as well, but then in NYC you can get a lot of bad ones as well.

After that went to the show. It was pretty good I thought. A lot left out, but I guess that was kind of expected. Overall I thought it was the most visual and action-packed of them all. Maybe not my favorite one though. I think the ending was a little dissapointing. I think that when you know that You-Know-Who is going to come back to life like he does and it's such a big deal in the book, that to see it on screen just does not live up to the expectations. Of course this is usually the case with entire books-to-movies and the Harry Potter movies for the most part have been almost as good as the books, so overall still excellent movies. In my opinion any ways :)

So after that it was home for a short (or long? can't remember) nap because I knew I had to give the bars/clubs a try. It was Friday night after all. And they didn't dissapoint that is for sure. Of course Washington has never dissapointed before. It is, I think, one of the top 5 best party cities in the USA. I was a little worried though with the Thanksgiving holiday and all that there would be no one out. And even when I walking through the street to the first bar there was not very many people at all on the streets. Oh uh. But then I got to the first bar. I can't remember the name, I think it's called JR's or something like that. It was packed. It's like your typical american before the club kinda place. Not exactly a martini bar, but similar except with beer drinkers. It was pretty mixed, but some preppy and some muscly, the usual. It was really busy, and crowd was having a good time, but I only stayed for one drink because it was a little more of a talk to friends kinda place. And I had a few places to hit that night so didn't want to daddle. :)

On to the next bar/club called Cobalt, I think. This has a bar downstairs and a dancefloor/bar upstairs. It's quite nice I always liked this bar. But this night it was not all that busy. I stayed around for a couple of drinks though as it was early I wanted to see if it picked up after 1am. It didn't, so I was on to the next bar. I think it's called Omega DC. It is like the Numbers of DC, except without a dancefloor. A definite older crowd there, but it can be fun sometimes. I think both times I went with the twins and then with Jimmy it was alright. Well, this was not one of those days. It was even more dead than the previous bar. I didn't even stay for a drink. Two quiet bars, but I was not all that worried because I had saved my 2nd favorite club in DC for last. And sure enough it didn't dissapoint.

Got to Apex at about 1:30 and found a line up. Now usually this would annoy me somewhat, especially after a few drinks. But after the two dead bars before, I thought this is a good sign and welcomed the line. It was not very long any ways, only 10-15 people in front of me. It was moving basically as fast as they could process people. So I got in and it was packed. Well not completely because the upstairs was not extreamly busy, but then the 2 times I had been there before the upstairs never gets completely packed any ways. Great crowd too, people were singing along and having a very very good time. It was a definite ready to party crowd, so that was very cool. Had a few more drinks and was having a real good time. Met a coupld of people, but no one interesting, and then at about 2:10 I asked somebody what time they stoped serving... 2:30!! Oh lord, I had read in my book that they closed at 4am so I never even considered an earlier last call. And of course I was having such a good time, so I had to get two last drinks in before they stopped. Somehow I managed it in 20 minutes. They should have awards, I tell you, I think I would place! :)

So the rest of the night was pretty much unremarkable. They were open until about 4am and I was there until the end. I think I danced a little, but not much else. No making a fool of myself or anything like that as I was relatively sober, what with only having I think about 8 drinks. Then the end of the night when people were leaving I think I was caught in bizzaro-land. There are a couple of reason for it. First was that I was mostly sober... ok ralistically, let's say I was not drunk. It is probably a better definition of my state. Any ways, I also knew and remembered (again not drunk :), that tomorrow night was the big night at Velvet Nation. This is probably my 3rd favorite club in the entire world!! (I need to do a listing of the best clubs in the world... on the way. So, any ways, I knew I did not want to over-do it on Friday night and stay out too late or drink and "party" too much. I also wanted to try a trick I learned from the weekend before and drink a full 2 litres of water before bed, and hopefully my stomach would be in good shape for Saturday. So any ways, the bizzaro-world part comes into play because as I was leaving I was talking to people and two different people asked me if I knew where the afer-hours was. And I had no interest what-so-ever in finding it!! Hmmm... of course it could just be age catching up. But luckily I knew I didn't want to risk the next night at Nation. So I just told them I didn't know and that was that! Amazing. I think I deserve a pat on the back! Shitty part is there wasn't any of my friends there to witness the "event"... I hope you all belive me! It did happen!! Oh well, so back to the hotel and full 2 litres of water later, and I was in bed.

And the water tricked worked amazingly well! That's twice now I have had a fair amount to drink (8-10 drinks), and then come home and had 2 litres of water before bed. And it really really helps my stomach. I think it will have to be a routine. I think I was completely over the hangover by about noon both times. Able to go out and do things without hurting too much, which is the best part by far. Definitely requires more investigation... well this Friday will be 80's night at Pryamid in NYC. Me and my friend Scott are planning on going, so will have to test the thoery again after that. Hope it continues to work. And more importantly I hope there are not any times where I am so drunk that I forget to do it. :)

So on Saturday even though I was feeling pretty OK, I didn't do all that much. I didn't want to wear myself out for Nation... yes everything revolved around Nation that weekend. :) Well it is my third favorite club in the world and when you're only going for your 3rd time I wanted to make sure I was energetic. So I only walked around for about an hour. And believe it or not I watched the movie Titanic!... the entire way through!!... no switching or anything!!!... of course there was not much else on the TV and I felt like a movie. Still, another award please. :) Any ways, after that went for a walk downtown for dinner at something like DC Brewing Co. or something like that. It was not very good though. Oh well, can't all be good I guess. Then back to the hotel for another disco-nap.

I woke up at a decent time, and took the subway down to the warehouse-like district (SE) where Nation and a few of the other bars/clubs and strip-clubs are located. I wanted to stop at one of the strip-clubs because when me and the twins went there (in 1999), we had a great time at a couple of them. When we went, they didn't seem like seady stipper bars at all. They had a vary mixed crowd, guys/girls, young/old, and it seemed like "the" pre-Nation kinda bars to go to. But then when I was in DC with Jimmy (in 2003), they had went downhill and there was hardly any people in them. There were still not very seedy, but were not very fun/interesting either with a lack of a decent crowd. So I went to this one with two names Wet/Edge, not exactly sure why two names or what it means, but oh well. It is the one right accross from Nation and one me and Jimmy skipped last time, so I thought it would be good to see if it had changed. Well, it was dead. Only like 30 people. There was almost more strippers than guests, like 10. Oh well, one drink then onto....

!!NATION!! Oh my goodness, do I ever love that club! This is one of the rare clubs in the world that I think is almost perfectly designed. It is as a club should be with many sets of music, multiple dancefloors, a massive main floor with not one but two levels of balconies overlooking it, etc. Although I have never seen the third level balcony open, it is still just increadible. I think they have live bands and other big crowd events there on other nights of the week. Saturday's have always been Velvet Nation though, the gay/gay friendly night. Amazingly fun. And I have never even been on a night when they open up all the spaces, bars/lounges, etc. that I can see they have! I could not imagine that place completely full, but maybe it happens during pride??? I may just have to find out this summer if I am working in north america. :)

So I guess I got there a little late, about midnight, because just as I was trying to fight my way through hordes and hordes of people to get my first drink, they opened the main dancefloor and people poured into there like water. It was weird though because they were playing like some 80's song, and I thought that was a little weird for the main dancefloor to be playing. I could see the other ones, but the main is usually some big DJ with dance/house or something harder. OK, I thought maybe the dj was getting the crowd going or something. But then the next couple of songs were 80's songs too. And not remixes or anything but the originals. Then it hit me and I remembered that someone had told me on Friday night that it was 80's night at Nation!! OK I guess I was a little drunk and did forget some things :) So any ways, that was extreamly cool, and for the next couple of hours I think I had an amazing time. One of the best times I have had in a very long time, probably since a trip to London last spring! But then disaster... I think when I have too much fun I drink too fast and my damn non-existant to begin with memory kicks in. And thus , unfortunately, I don't remember much of probably 2am-6am... Yeash. The worst part is I know for a fact that I must have had an amazing time at Nation. From what I can remember it was increadible, and I was singing and dancing, like I don't even do on Friday's at G.A.Y. in London, on thier 80's night. DAMN!! Damn stupid memory! Damn stupid alcohol!

So, I can't say what happened in beteen 2am and about 6-7am, but as a fuzzy memory usually does it kinda fades in and out. I started to get memory back at about 7am (I think) whilst I am looking for an after-hours. Not sure how long I had been looking for it, but Nation closes at 4am... but I don't think I would have gone right away, because I remember from the last time I was IN DC that the after-hours actually never got started until between 5-6am. There was actually a top 10 entry about a nice lady at the after-hours, giving me a free bottle of water and sitting me in the corner at about 5am to wait for the people to arrive. Ahh memories. This time however, it was even worse. I must have been too drunk at Nation to ask people, or too drunk for them to tell me and me remember, but I only had one place in my Spartacus book which I was looking for. And I kind of remember taking two (not one but two!) taxis to try and find it. The first time I must have thought I knew where it was and tried to rely on my good sense of direction and inate after-hours seeking ability, but still could not find it. Then I went back to the hotel again to find the exact address and then tried to find it again. This time the taxi dropped me off and I did find it but it was closed! Thus why I probably missed it the first time. Of course it just never occured to me that it would be closed! Then by this time it was 7-8am, and there was not way to find out where it had been re-located to. So, I was defeated. Completely defeated!! A very very big night of defeat!! Well, I guess I should be lucky it does not happen often. And it still does not change my opinion of DC as an amazing party city. I just screwed up... twice, that's all. Oh well.

So after that I got a good nap at least, and then caught the 2pm train back to NYC, to recuperate for the rest of the day. All in all another very good trip to DC. Very nice city would love to end up with a contract there, and they do have quite a bit PeopleSoft work. We will see