Washington, District of Columbia - three days May 2010: Uniquely worldly while still unmistakably American.

The map of flights in the in-flight magazine of United Airlines shows five flight connection hubs in USA: LA and San Francisco on the West coast, Denver and Chicago midland USA, and Washington DC alone serving the East coast. Although strictly speaking two of the three international Washington airports are in the state of Virginia and one in the state of Maryland, (the neighbouring states are a few metro stops away) they are all considered to be “Washington DC airports” and two are overseen by Washington DC authorities. There are also a few smaller domestic and private airports within the same radius. What that means is that if you look up to the skies any time while in Washington DC you will always see a few planes taking off or landing. A few of the military jets are also constantly high in the sky with their long white tails of vapours, and there must also be some that cannot be seen with a naked eye. Add to that some serious-looking non-recreational helicopters that suddenly appear and zip away over your head every now and then, and you will get the picture of the WDC skies.

Stockholm May 2010

The clouds are no different, but the sky occasionally is of a particular hue of blue that I had not seen elsewhere. It is the kind of pale blue that matches the Scandinavian palette of pale woods, and harmonizes so well with the colours of the houses, early blooming trees and flowers and the dark cold gray Baltic waters.