Have you ever been to the Capitol of your own country? What experiences have you had there and what did you do?
I’ve been to the capitals (a capitol is a building) of at least 20 countries including my own.
I’ve lived in or within short proximity of Washington, DC my entire life.
I visited the US Capitol building when I was 12 with my family. Somehow we arranged a private tour with some sort of congressional aide.
I live in DC and grew up in the area. I don’t think I’ve actually been in the US Capitol since I was a littel kid. A few years back my niece worked as an intern there giving tours, but I never took the opportunity to go.
I’ve been to DC four or five times over the years. I’ve been inside the actual Capitol once or twice - definitely only once in the actual dome part.
US: I lived in DC for several years. I grew up in Reston, which is about 20 miles away.
Korea: I lived in Daegu, but visited Seoul 4 or 5 times a year. I still go there when I can find an excuse (Seoul has the nearest H&R Block office to me when tax time rolls around).
China: I’ve kind of avoided Beijing as much as possible, but will be meeting friends there in a couple weeks. I had to do a long layover there once and the hotel the cabbie brought me to was filthy and looked like a crime scene. I’m reliably told the rest of the city looks much the same way.
Canada doesn’t have a capitol. It has the Parliament buildings in the capital city, Ottawa.
I worked in Ottawa for a year, and have visited it several times. In the summer, one of the attractions is Kingsmere, the summer estate of former Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in the Gatineau hills.
The Parliament buildings themselves are worth a tour, as is the Supreme Court building. The War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown are just outside the precinct for Parliament.
There’s also loads of museums, particularly the War Museum and the National Art Gallery. There’s also the Canadian Museum of History, which has a great section for kids.
Here’s a thread from last year on the topic: Vacation (short) in Ottawa.
I lived in Washington DC for five years, Panama City, Panama, for 23 years, and Wellington, New Zealand, for a couple of years.
Otherwise, capitals I’ve visited include:
Ottawa
Mexico City
Guatemala City
Managua
Tegucigalpa
San Jose
Bogota
Caracas
Quito
Lima
Buenos Aires
Port-of-Spain
St. John’s
Nassau
London
Paris
New Delhi
Manila
Yaounde
Libreville
Nairobi
Antananarivo
Canberra
Suva
I interned in the Senate Office Building (Hart). Spent a lot of time in all parts of the Upper House.
Other than than, I have visited DC now and then. Can’t tell if the OP is asking about the Capital City or the capital building. DC has lots of fun things to do, and I think there was a recent thread on that very subject.
I was born in the capital of my country, and I’ve been in the Capitol as well.
I love these, if just for the trip down memory lane, but also for the excuse to post a list that no one else will care about, or probably even read.
Washington, DC
Quito
San Jose
London
Dublin
Paris
Brussels
Amsterdam
Vienna
Athens
Rome
Berlin
Moscow
Helsinki
Seoul
Hanoi
Phnom Penh
Vientiane
Bangkok
Wellington
Canberra (passing through only)
Cape Town and Pretoria, but not Bloemfontein
Mbanbane, but not (IIRC) Lobamba
I live there, so probably.
As has been pointed out, that’s capitAl, not capitOl. But yes. Have been to many capitals including my own, Washington DC, three years ago. Stayed almost a week, and we just did tourist stuff.
Been to many other countries’ capitals too and even live in one, Bangkok.
I’ve been to it but never in it. The last time was a couple of months ago. I was interested to see that the dome was covered in scaffolding.
Dang, 52 years on Earth and never noticed the different spellings…
ETA: Including post #2 explaining it to me.
I have been to Washington DC many times.
Other capitals I have visited:
Tokyo
Caracas
Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago)
Havana (visited age ?9 ?1958 on a pre-Castro family cruise)
Singapore
Kuala Lumpur
Cairo
The Hague
Copenhagen
London
I have twice been to Washington D.C. Once when I was 10 and then a few years back. The vibe is that of unspeakable corruption, the gray and white buildings of the most powerful government the world has ever seen interspersed with a grassy mall with such lousy upkeep that would embarrass any American male homeowner and dangerous slums less than a mile away. The thought that the locus of the nation’s bureaucratic inertia of unstoppable gooey force is run by an officer corps of 525 of the biggest idiots from around the country and their own personal staff of hand chosen brown-nosing rumor junkies who would otherwise be on the dole makes me appreciate that they set the premise for The Daily Show every night. It makes my state capitol, Sacramento, seem like a pantheon of elder statesmen by comparison. (And I don’t think highly of them either.) D.C. is like the pervading evil of Las Vegas unleavened by high morality of Vegas’ over-the-top consumerism.
Virtually ever other powerful government in world history was much worse, so D.C. does have that going for them. Plus the Smithsonian is cool. Rising sea levels should take care of all of this. The irony will be lost on them.
Australia doesn’t have a capitol. We do have a capital city, Canberra, which is the most boring place on earth.
I see someone’s never been to Vientiane.