European Union Embassies’ Open House

Don’t waste your time at the French embassy. Some how it got to be very popular so in 2014 the wait time on line was 2 hours. Problem is you get nothing you couldn’t have bought at a French restaurent or a travel agency. Kind of stupid for people to cue up on long lines to buy 3 pieces of pastry for $ 5. This is after waiting 2 hours just to get pass the gates. The Italian and French embassies are ones to avoid. Otherwise you’ve be scratching your head and asking «I wait all this time just for this?»
I took 45 minutes to catch the shuttle from one end of Mass. Ave. to th e other end because of the long lines. Unless you’re too tired you’re better off just walking.
The small Embassy of Slovenia at 2410 California Street had no line all day because it was off Mass. Avenue. They didn’t have much but did have colorful native dress and live Slovenian style accordion polka.

Loved it. All embassies offered free food or alcohol and free brochures for travel. (UK and Hungary did not offer free food — you had to buy tickets)
THEN we got stuck at Lithuania/​Poland for half an hour, waiting for the bus that supposedly arrives every 5 minutes. Our bus driver would drop off and pick up people before the stop, therefore picking up folks who did not wait patiently in line, which really caused a scene. I left Lithuania at 1:30 and arrived at the British Embassy at 2:30 where they had already ran out of cool UK reusable grocery bags. There was free whiskey but nothing else. Embassy of Finland cut off the line for entry at 3:20 PM.
In spite of this, I can’t wait to do this again but would cut myself off at 1:30 since the crowds really get unmanageable then

This was a cultural event taking place in Washington DC on Saturday, May 9^th 2009. This was a great opportunity to visit many of the European embassies on Embassy row and nearby and take in the best of other cultures. Each country had its own way of showing itself off. Some featured dancers, others provided food, some gave away alcohol, some even let you figure things out for yourself. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend doing this. At the very least, it gives you a much greater appreciation for an area of town that people usually just drive through.