Embassy Day!

Saturday was a good day! A long day but good. One of my friends from work and I went to the EU Embassy Days in downtown D.C.

We got off at Van Ness-UDC metro stop, found the Embassy days tent, got a map, and then we were on our way.

Actually before we found the tent, we ran into these pieces of art in a courtyard next to a Starbucks. I really liked them. I have no idea who made them or what they represent but I thought they were fun!

While walking to the first embassy on the route, we ran into this building. It wasn't part of the tour route but I think it's the Embassy of China and I really liked the uniqueness of the building!

This embassy was not on the tour but I liked the architecture of it.

Our first stop was the Embassy of Slovakia.

There was food and music inside the embassy. We didn't get any food but we did listen to this group play for about 10 minutes. And my friend, Heather, and I were trying to figure out what the instrument the man was playing in the middle. It had such a unique sound.

We never figured it out and we didn't ask anyone about it. So if any of you know, let me know. :)

Next we went to the Embassy of Austria which was next door to the Slovakian Embassy. I posed with Johann Strauss, the King of Waltz (as the sign said). This embassy also had food but in this place as well as the Slovakian Embassy, the food cost money and neither of us were hungry yet. So we looked around and then were on our way.  

Heather and I walked a lot on Saturday. We walked from the Austrian Embassy to the Dutch Embassy and saw some interesting houses a long the way.

So unique!

The Embassy of the Netherlands was my favorite embassy, I think. :)

They gave each of us tickets to get free food.

This was one ticket. They're called poffertjes. They're like mini pancakes but better. :)

And another ticket got us a freshly made stroopwafel, which were delicious! I love stroopwafel!

I didn't get a great picture of this room but I really liked the decorations. At first I thought the big orange balls on the ceiling were part of the normal decor because they looked really nice there but then realized they were just really big balloons that coordinated with the rest of the decorations for embassy days.

Also the embassy was giving away water bottles made of sugar cane. They are resuable water bottles that are dishwasher safe but when it comes time to throw away they are biodegradable. We spent quite a bit of time at the Netherlands Embassy. It was pretty great!

Another interesting looking house on our walk between embassies. You can't really see the full house because of the trees, but I'll just say it was a unique looking home.

And as I was talking to Heather about the uniqueness, the owner's daughter and her friend happened to walk up the driveway and looked back and was smiling at my comments. Then I asked her if she lived there and she said that her parents did and that her dad was the one who designed the addition to the house. I told her to tell her dad, it looked cool! I felt really stupid afterwards, but it doesn't matter since I'll never see that person again.

Another cool house that had a large tree house that they could access from the deck attached to their house.

Our next embassy was the Czech Republic. I had never heard of the Velvet Revolution before and learned that it was the non-violent transition of power after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

During the Velvet Revolution the jingling of keys represented support and also the unlocking of doors and telling the Communists goodbye and that it's time to go home. (Wikipedia)

We had a friendly conversation with a man in the embassy who was from Czech Republic. He was telling us about his country and encouraging us to go and visit. He was really nice.

The ambassador from Czech Republic lives on the grounds of the embassy. He had part of his house open for Embassy Days. It was a lovely home. On both ends of the house they had a sun room with large windows on three sides and seating on the inside (pictured from the outside above).

It was a beautiful house!

In front of the ambassador's house. The grounds of the house and of the embassy were beautiful!

Our next stop was the Hungarian Embassy. I thought this statue was interesting. The pose of the horseman was so dramatic!

We would not have stayed long at this embassy because there wasn't as much to see and it was crowded and warm inside the building. But we were both pretty hungry at this point so we decided to get food here. We could eat it outside though, which was good since it was quite warm inside. I got a Hungarian cabbage and beef dish (I don't remember the Hungarian name for it.) But it was pretty good!

We finished all the embassies on a certain shuttle line and decided to try to get to another one. But on our way to the other one, we ran into this historical mill. It's Peirce Mill. I don't remember the details but it was built in the 1800s sometime. It was cool!

Can I just say that walking to the embassies we saw a lot of cool things that we might not have seen if we had taken the shuttle the whole time! It's good to walk!

We had to catch two shuttle buses and ride the metro a couple of stops in order to get to one more embassy. By the time we got there we only had 10 minutes before it closed. We made it to the Lithuanian one. It was nice but they had already started taking things down.

They did have these ladies singing a traditional song so that was good. We didn't spend much time here. 

I was exhausted at this point. Well I had been for a while now, but I kept going.

Instead of taking the shuttle back to the metro (because we didn't know how long it would take for a shuttle to get there and if we would fit even if it did come), Heather and I decided to walk to Dupont Circle.

On the way to Dupont Circle we saw this place pictured above. I wondered what it was and Heather mentioned that she thought it was the entrance to a park and sure enough it was. We decided to check it out and see what it was like.

It was Meridian Hill Park and I thought it was pretty cool!

There was a statue of Joan of Arc.

And a cool fountain (although there was no water in it, it was still cool!) The fountain from above.

The fountain from below.

I'd like to visit the park again when the water is in the fountain.

And to end the long day of walking and visiting the embassies, we got ice cream at Larry's Homemade Ice Cream. I got orange chocolate. It was pretty good.

I got home around 6:40ish (I had left the house around 9 that morning). I rested for a while, ran a few errands and then made over 10 dozen cookies for YW the next day. I was up until after midnight, but it was worth it because I think everyone liked the cookies! :)

Overall it was a good day, but man was I exhausted by the time I went to bed. I slept well that night.