My own experience: The Women's March on Washington

On Saturday about a million women, men and children attended The Women’s March on Washington!
I was one of them!
And folks--let me tell you-- I am SO happy we attended said march despite the HUGE crowds.

I have never seen so many people in my life before.
Mind blowing, to say the least.

Peter, Keith, Karolina, Katie, Sara, Wendell and myself decided to take the Metro downtown from Reston.
As we drove to the station we could tell that it would be packed. There were so many cars on their way to said station.
We were lucky, we got a parking spot and we walked up to the station.
And, you guys, there was a line, a long line, just to ENTER the station. There were SO many people lining up. I have never seen anything like it at a subway station.  EVER.
There was a great atmosphere while we were waiting. People were cheering each other on!  All the time!

At the Reston metro station around 8 Saturday morning.

Just waiting.  We are not even close to the trains.

People in costumes everywhere!  

After about 45 minutes we did board the train!
And, let me tell you, it was a packed ride.
I have never been so squished on a metro train before.
But, again, the people onboard were in such great spirits. UNBELIEVABLE!!
After a while someone started singing, We all need somebody to lean on!
People started singing along.
Then someone sang "This land is our land", and people immediately  joined in.
I was floored, I almost started crying. It was just such a united train. We were ALL going to the same place.  For the same cause!

On the train on our way to DC.  We were leaving Wiehle station in Reston here.  The train got packed already at its starting point!

We disembarked at L'enfant Plaza.  A lot of people, that is.  All of us.

The same place it was. As we got up to the street level--after coming up from the metro station--there were people en masse. SO many people. SO. VERY. MANY. PEOPLE!
Women, men and children! Everywhere. A lot of people were dressed up in costumes of different kinds.  A sea of  PINK "pussy hats" everywhere.
The pink pussy hats were awsome. I never got a hold of one myself, but Karolina and Katie were wearing them! AND so did a lot of other people, women and men.
Powerful!
The signs people had made were funny, and true! We loved reading them all!

It was so packed that we never made it to the stage, we were not even close to a screen. Therefore, we never heard any of speeches, or heard any of the songs.
But, the spirits were high among people.

WHAT really got to me was the friendly vibe!
There was NO violence at ALL. No hard words (at least I did not hear any). No frowning faces. People were just happy and patient.
Because you did need to keep your patience.  And, as far as I know DC Police Department made zero arrests.  The police we saw, and they were present, were so friendly and in super good spirits, too.  Amazing!

People were even up in trees!

We're about to start our march on this gray, damp January Saturday.

The organizers of this march had expected about 200.000 people to show up. They got so many more. SO. MANY.  MORE.
The entire march route had to be re-directed in a haste due to the huge amount of people attending.
SO, instead of starting the march at 13:15 we started closer to 14:00 (I think).

Do you see the big, orange balloon?  That was DT's face bouncing among us all.

It was so powerful to walk amongst people that share your views, women and men. Young and old.

The three of us never made it all the way to The White House. We left the march close to the Washington Monument. By then we felt accomplished and pleased.
We lost Karolina and Katie right away at the metro station. They had grabbed great “seats” up on a wall near the Hirschhorn museum.
We had lost Sara and Wendell long before,  they "disappeared" at the Reston Metro Station.  And, we happened to end up on separate trains on our way downtown.  We could not keep in touch with anybody during the march.  Nobody could.  The cell phone service was so over burdened. You could not call, not text and absolutely not go online.
So, if you lost someone you were kind of on your own.

CROWDS are marching!

My knee held up all right. But at times I did wonder what the heck I was doing to myself. As for example, when we stood liked packed sardines waiting for the march to begin.
However, everything was so worth it!

We left the march at The Monument.  It felt wonderful to get some space!

People were resting their backs, and their legs, on The Washington Monument.

I think this is the beginning of a huge movement in the US and the world.
I will gladly take part of it.
I think a new 1960’s might be dawning.
People are strong and ready to defend the human rights we have come to take for granted.

I got a sticker ...

Me!  Sadly, I never got a hold of a pussy hat ...

The day ended with the three of us Ubering home. I did not feel like heading down into the metro system again. So glad we took an Uber, to tell you the truth.
Really, the march ended with me ending up on Swedish Public Radio (once again) reporting from the march (see the link in my post on Sunday).

After this day, we pretty much crashed. We went out to dinner at a local place, a lot of women and men eating there were fellow marchers (so cool). Pizza and wine ended the day.
We all went to bed early Saturday night.

A good, good, good day. I would gladly do it again. I will probably do it again.

I will not write much about politics going forward. I can assure you that, but this is a thing I really wanted to share with you all!

Karolina shot this picture from the wall she found outside The Hirshhorn Museum.  A sea of pink pussy-hats.  SO cool!  And, Karolina and Katie got to see all the speeches.  Here you can see Gloria Steinem on screen.  The girls really liked what she had to say.

Katie's insta-pic!

Have a beautiful Tuesday!