The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

I have only been to DC twice in my life. The second time ’round was this weekend. On the first trip I came in at night and only had a chance to visit the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War memorial. Grabbed a quick bite and then was back on 95-North. But this weekend I was able to spend two days going around the city. My first impressions is that it’s more of a city than I had previously thought, though not as urban as I usually want my cities to be (knifings on every corner, grime, et al).

DC has great beauty - it fit perfectly with a warm, fall-like weekend. I like the neighborhoodness of it. How you move from one part to the other and there’s destinct differences in how the look and feel. You have a downtown (or two it may have seemed…?). Trendy neighborhods, little out-of-the-way places. Cool little outdoor markets. The city exudes money and power. New York does as well but in a totally different way. I may not be able to specifically explain that - something you have to feel. I found myself saying, “I could live here.” “Well, no, I don’t think so.” “Yes, this neighborhoods nice - I could stay here.” In the end, maybe. As I tried to explain to Titus, I like a city to have more grit to it. To feel more urban. DC doesn’t have a huge sky line so at times it seemed as if it sprawled a little bit. But all-in-all, I liked it. I think I’ll go back down again soon and do some more photographing.