Day 3: The zoo

The jetlag is still there. The hammer comes down around 7PM. But before that, the day contained my first business meeting here (quite a strange experience to talk to a guy who has his name in the name of a law firm in downtown Washington) and a long walk in the zoo.

To get to the zoo, I decided not to walk but try out the metro. Boy, is it different from the one in London. Where the tube is a tight but somehow light and lively and vibrant place, Washington metro is a huge, gloomy, dark place without any decorations: the walls are plain concrete.

The zoo rocked. It was run by the Smithonian Institution, like all of the museums around the Mall, and was free. Turns out in 1826 mr. James Smithson figured donating his legacy to "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men". Well, there's a plan that has worked out just fine. Although the place was a tad cramped, the exhibition was well layed out and nicely accessible. Even photography was possible (which is not true in Tallinn, for example):

I was especially impressed by the giant pandas and the place where they keep the butterflies. Fabulous!