Our first stop was to the EU Delegation building, as we were able to get an overview of the event, grab a "passport", and get to grab some free swag. In addition to the normal festivities, the EU was celebrating 60 years of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, and 70 years of Marshall Plan, so they had a fun photo booth set up where you could take pictures in front of a golden back drop! We arrived at the EU building around 10:40am, and there wasn't too long of a line yet. On our short wait we had people come up and give us pens, a trivia card to fill out that you could take inside to get a prize, and we were able to get a map of the event in addition to our passports. To get into the building, you had to go through a security check point, so be sure to not wear a lot of metal, or bring in any illegal materials with you to ease with the process. Once inside we were greeted by many volunteers who gave us free tote bags, flyers, a stress ball, and lots of other treats. When we turned in our trivia cards we had the choice of getting sunglasses or a bag of chocolate. We opted to get the sunglasses!
The EU offers shuttles between certain embassies on color coded loops, but we decided to walk to the Embassy of Hungary. This was about a 20 minute walk, but it was through some pretty areas of DC. Once we arrived at the embassy, it looked like a big party! They had tents set up where you could taste some of their traditional foods, they had a quiz where if you got all the questions correct you could win a prize, and then you could buy food tickets to try a "Hun Dog". Hungary also let you see some Hungarian dog breeds, and walk around the inside of the embassy. The interior was full of beautiful architecture, and let you get a great glimpse at the country of Hungary.
One of the Hungarian dog breeds!
Some more of the dog breeds playing!
Another embassy that had a short line was Luxembourg. Similar to Estonia, it was smaller on the inside, but you were able to get a stamp on your passport, learn about what to see if you wanted to travel there, and view a traditional table setting. Their dining room had an amazing ceiling that was colorful and fun! On the way out they let you sample some of their traditional carnival food. It was a warm cinnamon covered fried donut like creation...it was delicious.
The Italian Embassy was close by the UK, so in a quick decision, we decided to see how bad the line was...it was long...so we quickly just kept walking toward food. Since these embassies were close to the US Naval Observatory, we decided to find food around there and went to Sprig and Sprout. Our initial food choice was a place called breadsoda, but that ended up being a bar and we didn't want that. Sprig and Sprout was a Vietnamese Pho and Sandwich Shop. The pho was delicious, and the sandwich was a little spicy. Overall it was a good choice, as the weather was a little chilly out.
By the time we finished eating it was 2:45pm, and the EU open house ended at 4pm so we decided to pick one final embassy. We went with Sweden, as this was close to a metro stop, and the line wasn't too long on the app. We were 3 miles away though, so we opted to take an Uber which from Sprig and Sprout cost about $7. It was worth it after how much we had already walked. Once we arrived at Sweden, we saw there wasn't a line at all! Similar to other embassies we went through our security check point and walked around. There was a band playing some music, a line for free coffee and cookies, and downstairs they had a kid's exhibit, an art gallery, and some tables giving away free items. The inside of the embassy was very modern and sleek. There was a pretty pond inside as well.
Overall, we enjoyed ourselves, and it was fun getting to travel through some European countries! The picture below shows all the items we were able to collect, which lets us have some great mementos from the day! A big thank you to the EU for putting on this event! Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to see more of our pictures and travel tips!
Blue skies,
Kat