Seattle del 8 al 10 de juliol

Doncs si, avui es 8 del 7 del 8, aixo vol dir que faig 34 tacos, buf... sense comentaris. Arribo al hostel per la tarda, el hostel no esta ben be al centre de la ciutat, esta a ballard, que no se si es un barri o districte de seattle, o es un altre poble enganxat a seattle, pero vamos que esta a 30 min en bus del centre. Doncs aixo del ballard era una zona molt xula, estava al costat de la badia i pel nord del que seria el centre de seattle. Hi havia un port recreatiu que semblava molt gran i semblava que amb bastant de moviment. Pel passeig hi havien algunes casetes aixi xules, algunes de noves, pero algunes de velles pero aixi de fusta, potser destartalades, pero amb allo que els hi fa tenir la seva gracia; i tambe alguns pisos pero. Mes cap al nord hi havia una platja que estava preparada per fer BBQ (costellades) i al vespre hi havia tot de gent a punt de fer el sopar, passant la nit, tocant la guitarra, bebent... Mes cap al sud fins on jo veia des del hostel es veien casetes encara mes xules que donaven al mar. Jo em vaig imaginar que aixo era com devia ser una mica fa uns anys seattle, i tambe em vaig imaginar que aqui devia ser on vivia en tom hanks a sleepless in seattle, pero mes tard em va dir que la casa del tom hanks existia i que estava situada en un altre zona i formava part d'un dels punts a visitar de la ciutat. Jo no hi vaig anar i no vaig poder saber com ho van veure els que hi van anar, o sigui que jo m'ho continuo imaginant tipus ballards.

Doncs la nit seguent el hostel aquest de ballards que estava molt be, estava ple, o sigui que me'n vaig anar cap al centre a buscar un altre hostel, i bueno, a coneixer el centre es clar. Doncs molts cafes, vaja el starbucks va neixer aqui. Llavors hi havien molts restaurants que estavan be, botigues de formatges bons, pates, salmo,... no se, potser soc jo, pero diria que es nota una proximitat a canada i potser una influencia fins i tot francesa? o bueno potser no es influencia, sino una manera de fer pel nord, jo que se, pero que a mi em va agradar. Doncs pel centre els tipics alts edificis d'oficines, els carrers amb les botigues de moda principals i jo destacaria el public market, un mercadillo bastant gran, (mercadillo pero cobert i ben arreglat i de varies plantes) que era xulo pel tipus de botigues que hi havia desde peix fins a roba. Llavors, ja ho he dit, pero un bon assortiment de cafes, bars i restaurants. Pel costat dels molls hi havia com un passeig i tota una zona molt turistica de restaurants de llagosta i botigues de records. Mes cap al nord hi havia la space needle, la tipica antena del perfil de seattle, que estava a la mena de parc del seattle centre on tambe hi ha el museu de ciencia ficcio i l'experience music project que no he vist. Aqui anava a parar el famos tren monorail, que te un recorregut una mica curt i car fins downtown passant elevat per sobre els carrers. Des d'aqui cap a la badia hi ha el parc de les escultures i un altre parc a la vora de l'aigua. Tirant del centre cap al sud vaig arribar fins la pioneer square, aixi una mica “fosca” i fins l'estacio de trens i el camp de jugar a baseball.

Reme el tema grunge i tot aixo jo n'hi idea, l'unic que vaig saber veure es que semblava que la moda dels nois joves de per aqui era portar una faldilla que era una barreja d'escosesa i militar (bueno jo he dit ultima moda pero igual ho portaven els 4 rezagadillos passats de moda, tampoc no ho se). Molts tatoos tambe.

El que aqui tambe estava be que ja m'he trobat a alguna altre ciutat, es que el transport public, o sigui bus, trolley o tram, pel centre dins d'un cert limit, son gratuits, i nomes has de pagar si surts d'aqui. Aixo esta be.

 Of all the great movies filmed in Seattle, I can only remember a scene from some crappy Stallone flick--hey, Julianne Moore was in it, redhead, lay off--and that’s because I always ride the monorail. (Okay, I broke my promise about only movies I liked. Sue me.

Since I stayed at the Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle, I could visit the Pike Place Market whenever I wanted to. You can find all kinds of shops there. I really had fun looking around! Haha.

I went to visit the Space Needle, because a girl I met at the hostel wanted to see it. The tickets are 16 US dollars which I thought was pretty expensive for a ride on the elevator. When we bought our tickets, we found out that if you dined at the restaurant on top of the Space Needle, you could get to the top for free. I cannot remember the exact price for the lunch, but it was around 25 dollars. Unfortunately, we could not return the tickets. I think the view from the Space Needle was pretty good. Since I stayed in Seattle for only 2 days, I got a pretty good impression of Seattle.

Okay, for starters, my friend's sister works for Fairmont so we were able to swing an employee rate because otherwise there's just no way I'd fork over the kind of $ it takes to secure a room at any of their properties. We were greeted with spectacular service, which one would expect for the price tag, but even I was impressed at how well they treat their customers. The room was nicer, and larger for that matter, than most apartments I've seen, and having a couple of local micro brews waiting certainly didn't hurt either. The location is along one of the main streets running through town so you'll have little trouble finding the place, and also serves as a good basecamp from which to explore all of Seattle. I must admit that having been to Seattle before I really thought it was much a much larger city, but after walking all the way down to the Football Stadium its actually a very walkable city from end to end. There really isn't much else to say as its an awesome property for those with deep pockets. Hope this helps. Cheers, Jason

This hotel is a standard Hampton Inn - nothing fancy, but reliable and clean. The rooms are pretty much standard for a Hampton so you'll know what to expect. The hotel's common space was woefully inadequate for the huge amount of guests. The free breakfast buffet was so cramped and crowded that most people were eating standing up in the hallways, at the front desk or even outside the front entrance of the hotel! Waits for the two elevators took forever. This hotel is just too big for the capacity of guests it can hold. It was an absolute crowded nightmare at every turn! The location is good and is within walking distance of a large 24 hours grocery store and a McDonald's. The Space Needle and EMP museum are also a few blocks away. The neighborhood isn't the best, so if you are from the country of suburbs or aren't used to urban city life, the area may intimidate you. This is a very urban hotel.

I’ve been to Seattle at least a dozen times, but I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at the same hotel twice. This is where I stayed the last time, and since it was very convenient to a lot of fun stuff, and there were no negatives, I’m planning to stay here again. Like the name implies, it is right next to Seattle Center and the Space Needle. I actually went to the fourth floor with my tripod and shot some photos of the upper saucer at night, and you could see the people through the windows, it was so close. You walk one block west and then there’s a small triangular piece of land on which lies the amphibious duck tours, and then you cross the street and you’re there. Plenty of restaurants in the area--even a McD’s--as well as shopping of all kinds within walking distance. Also nearby is Belltown, which is the recent place in Seattle for clubs and nightlife and such. And you can take the monorail downtown. The only reason I’m giving it a four instead of a five is because one time I got back to my room to find the door hadn’t been closed properly by the maid on her way out, but luckily nothing was stolen; I’m sure no one passing by noticed. The people at the front desk were very helpful and knew the area very well, and the free breakfast was excellent, for being free that is. Who knows what’s going to happen with Seattle Center now that the basketball ball team is gone, but there’s still so much to do and see there. I especially recommend Bumbershoot, even if you don’t have kids.

I am not a food snob by any means; I know the locations of McDonald's in most major cities. But at the end of a recent trip to Seattle I decided to celebrate a just-signed deal by going to this place I'd always heard of, but never thought I would ever step inside. Every customer there, women too, was wearing a suit, but neither the seater nor the waitress--Hi, Autumn!--raised an eyebrow at my touristy garb. For such a fancy place all the workers seemed to be pretty laid back, and seemed to genuinely enjoy working there, which in this rarified type of eatery surprised me, but pleasantly. Okay, on to the food. Another thing I'd heard was that Kobe beef was the best tasting in the world, and I believe it. In fact, I ordered the burger without any condiments, just the meat, cheese, and bread, so I could really get the taste of the Japanese beef. Having never spent more than five dollars on a burger, I can honestly say this one was worth the twelve-dollar price tag. In combination with a Henry Weinhard's orange creme soda, which Autumn suggested I try, it was one of the best meals of my life! Next time I'm gonna try the steak. . . and I hope Autumn is still working there.

Side trip to Mt. Rainier N.P and Olympic N.P.

ARCE Conference 2008 - some of the GREATS came: Gunter Dreyer, Mark Lehner, Aidan Dodson.

All I knew about Seattle was that Frasier was based here and that it´s principal tourist attraction, the Space Needle, was an extra from the Jetsons. As it turns out, Seattle was also the birthplace of grunge music (in the shape of Nirvana), Starbucks and Microsoft. Nor did I realise how miserable the weather was. When a guide on our Undergroud tour told us that the official colours of Seattle were grey and light grey he wasn´t kidding. It´s not a bad city despite it´s dullness and (once again) homeless and beggars (both weather-wise and otherwise) but certainly not the ´glittering cool´that some would have you believe. On a positive not, Pike Place market was pretty cool, the shopping´s great and it would have been nice to do a boat tour, as the scenery across the Sound is great. 

We were here mainly to meet my brother Adam, who was joining us for a two-and-a-half week blast down the west coast. The coach trip across the border was a bit theatrical with the border-patrol goon (who really mustn´t have had much better to do) not quite grasping the concept of an around-the-world trip and wanting to see evidence of every little piece of our journey. He made it quite clear that he was infact God and that our entry into the US relied heavily on whether or not he believed us. So, about an hour after pulling in (the whole coach had had a grilling too) we were on our way again, reaching Seattle at around 3pm.

A quick monorail journey took us out to our Best Western hotel (travelling with Ad meant that hotel and motel rooms with two double beds suddenly became affordable provided we could put up with his snoring and other bodily functions) near the space needle. We barely had time to dump our bags before we were back out to negotiate more of Seattle´s public transport system (no Metro yet, just an underground bus tunnel that spans the length of the very rectangular downtown - a great idea, coupled with the fact that travel within the downtown zone is free!) to the airport.

It was great to meet Ad, and despite the nine-and-a-half hour flight he was in good spirits and had a massive grin on his face. An hour or so later we were back at the hotel and ready for some food so plumped for the extremely cheap hotel restaurant and nearly wet ourselves when the Bud turned out to be one dollar a pint. At around 9pm Ad, understandably, became sleepy in Seattle (don´t tell me you weren´t expecting a pun in it somewhere) and called it a night. Em and I retired to the bar where the waiter/barman/manager began renaling us with a pretty comprehensive rundown of what to do and where to go in Seattle and Portland, which it seemed had widerspread approval. On top of that, he must have been a member of the Pacific Northwest version of CAMRA. He was concerned that Brits think only generic rubbish like Bud and Coors exist in the US (guilty) and soon had me involved in an impromptu beer-tasting session with some Alaskan, Hawaiian, Californian and Washington-based offerings. Brilliant.

The next morning, feeling a bit rough around the edges we were off into Seattle downtown to cross the first of Ad´s ´US-must-dos´ off his list. The list read as follows:

1. Eat in traditional 50´s, a la ´Grease´ diner.

2. Get a tan.

3. Cruise Cali in a convertible.

4. Get a tan.

5. Have wings and endless soda in a sports bar.

6. Get a tan.

Number one, you would think, would be straightforward. Alas no, and an hour late we gave up and went to eat on the pier in a burger joint. After that, having walked the length of downtown we walked along the pier overlooking Puget Sound, and headed to Pike Place Market. From there, we discovered what is widely credited as being the inaugral Starbucks (According to someone in the market it was actually the second as the first burnt down). This being Seattle of course, there´s a Starbucks or some other coffee house every few yards, but we felt the need to have a cup of tea (how British!) in the birth of Starbucks. The we headed back home where a bagful of washing and a quiet night awaited us.

Up early, we went into town to watch the Champions League Final. Expecting to have to ask somewhere to put it on, we stumbled across Fox sports bar downtown. Heading down to the basement it opened out into a massive cheers-esque bar with enough screens for the whole city to watch. With a bar-full of Man U and Chelsea fans who´d most likely never been to a match it was home from home.

Next on the agenda was the Underground Tour, which took us to Pioneer square (Seattle´s birthplace) and under some of the surrounding streets to learn about Seattle´s somewhat strange history. About halfway through we were treated to how Ad must´ve been at school as he clearly got restless and disinterested, declaring "I´m not really a toury person". To be fair to him, the guide could have been better, and we headed to the sanctuary of one of Seattle´s abundant coffee houses, for a nice cup of tea.

After a swift turnaround we did the inevitable and went up to the top of the Space Needle. Despite now only being the seventh tallest  building in Seattle, it´s still somewhat of a local icon and due to its location outside of downtown offers great views of the nighttime skyline. With that ticked-off, it was time to sample some of Seattle´s nightlife. Dropping Em home Ad and I headed for Belltown where we happily drank away the rest of the night in the conveniently lined-up bars before being ushered out of Shorty´s, a grungey little bar choc-full of arcade machines and pinball tables, at closing time (a lousy 1.30am). Onward to Portland.

Sea-Tac Airport - 7:15 am
We're here in Seattle - still alive! The flight was relaxing and uneventful. We have an hour layover here in Seattle. There are these annoying "art" water fountains here . . . when you push the water button it makes this really loud "GLUB GLUB GLUB" noise. It's supposed to sound like natural flowing water. Yeah right. Anyway, more when I get to Los Angeles!

November 6
We leave for Panama on Wednesday! So much to do before we leave.

Just when you least expect it, you are hit by culture shock.

I was just lazing around at home when two kids knocked on the door. They said they were taking part in this youth group activity to compete to raise funds for their college education ($40K to $200K for tuition alone for a basic four year degree, and no interest-free government loans). The competition was to speak to people about their careers and so forth. Not a terrible idea, but it was "sponsored" by a magazine company which gave them points based on their ability to sell magazines to the people they spoke to, basically duping hundreds of kids to run around trying to win a prize by doing their dirty work of selling magazine subscriptions. One of the kids in particular was really American in that "all American farm boy" type of way, from Indiana (it was actually a little hard to understand him, I guess I'm not use to the mid-west accent). We signed up for Smithsonian Magazine to be given to a children's hospital, and he wrote some acronym down and asking us to guess it - it was "thank you and god bless you". I said, "we're atheists, so just your thanks is enough" and he kept on stammering "I'm so sorry". We reassured him that it was okay, we just don't want people to assume that everyone is Christian (the atheists in America often hide from discrimination under this assumption). The other kid was fascinated and actually, honestly, truly said "wow, so like as atheists and stuff do you believe that like humans evolved, you know grew up from, some type of cave man or something that existed in the past?" We had to give them a brief primer on human evolution, he was actually amazed that there was evidence that cave men had really existed and wanted to know what they looked like. The scariest part is that this kid already had a teaching degree from a community college.

It is really sad and shocking the extent to which religion has subordinated basic schooling here in America. And the extent to which community activities have become advertising ploys and commercially-driven is just plain distasteful. Another example is the Girl Scouts. In Australia, they are just groups of girls that mess around with ropes and stuff to earn badges, and raise money to go on camps by making lamingtons with their parents and selling them to friends and neighbours. In America they have to swear to serve "God and Country" (many groups don't let atheists join) and they have licensed a subsidiary company of Kelloggs (Little Brownie Bakers) to mass-produce 200 million boxes of cookies for them to sell at a commercial level.

I'm still surprised at how alien this culture can be.

Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. 80% of my wardrobe just shrinked in the dryer. Habe grad 80% meiner Kleidung von M auf XS geschrumpft. NEIN!!! Dammmm!! Wie konnte das passieren?? I didnt do anything different than in England (well we didnt have dryers in England) Be careful with doing the laundry in Amerika!!!!
Und was nu?  Wegwerfen? Abnehmen?