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Published: April 23rd 2006
Seattle Seaside Paradise?
My favourite picture of Seattle... a moment when the sun shone for the first time at about 7pm one evening.. it made my day.Hello once again, you have found me sitting in an Asian gaming cafe on Robson Street in the Downtown area of Vancouver... I shopped around and $2cad p/h was the best I could come up with as far as net cafe's go and this one seems comfortable. In this journal I shall cover my 5 days in Seattle and my 5 days in Vancouver, which I have been touring by myself. Im pretty tired right now, so I hope this entry will be interesting... we shall see.
The alarm blasted we awake as usual, I awoke from a deep sleep to the sound of rain gently falling on the roof of my Aunty's home in Salt Lake City for the last time. I bid farewell to Louie after a few drinks the night before and the exchanging of gifts... I got them some Australian wine to try. They gave me even more stuff, too and after all their hospitality I didn't really deserve it but it was nice. We left the house, my Aunty and I drove swiftly to the airport so that I would make my 10:58am flight... need to be there like 90 mins early to get through
Cold Skyline
My tour on the Pugent Sound Waterways of Seattle... just look how dreary this place looks. Security in domestic airports in the USA. After a slightly tearful goodbye, I left my aunty and wandered into the airport alone to check in. The flight was delayed indefinatley due to bad weather in San Francisco (the trip was with a first leg with a leer jet to san fran and then a 737 from there to Seattle ... the cheapest way to do it.) so I had to get my flight rerouted via Denver... and that flight didn't leave til around 1pm ... so it was a painful wait and I had a further 90 mins in Denver to look forward to before my connecting flight. My blood was boiling but still... Im on Holiday, I needed to chill out 😊 Eventually I made it to my destination ... the city of Grunge and Stephen O'Malley ... a hero of mike's and mine 😉 I hopped on the local bus from the airport and followed the directions I wrote down carefully and like magic I found the hostel. "The Green Tortoise" hostel it's called. They have a 2nd one in San Fran apparently. I got a free T-shirt with their logo on it when I checked in.. I
Monorail of Doom
The deserted Monorail Terminus ... should be bustling with happy tourists. won't wear it, so if anyone wants a free shirt I can mail it back to them. So now the fun begins... a huge city to tackle by myself, no faithful Horse by my side.. I was indeed alone and the master of my own destiny ... so to speak... what I mean is that I need to be the one who is open and meets new people and ooze confidence so that I don't have too lonely a time. So what did I do? Well ... I wandered around by the Docks for a bit til around 7pm, then I went and ate a "gourmet" hamburger and fries and a Budweiser (best burger Ive had in North America... at the chain "red robin") I sat there and ate as I rifled through a local rag I picked up, scouring for possible gigs that may be taking place while I was there but to no avail... no-one was playing til after I left. There were a few mainstream metal gigs that might have been good for a laugh and Kinski were playing at a "local bands" fest 2 weeks later... so I was missing out and feeling sad... it meant
Pierside Highway Monstrosity
If you look you can see the Tramline that doesn't run anymore AND the huge highway that runs alongside the Seaside... id have to find other shit to do at night during my stay. I picked up a million tourist pamphlets documenting all the fully sick things I could waste my money on while I was here and I went back to the hostel where I sat ... alone ... and read my pamphlets and looked bored. This was a bad time for me as I just sat there and looked at people and made judgements about them... I noticed a whole heap of 30somethings around the hostel... made me feel a bit uncomfortable as I wondered why the hell these people were here. As the nights went on I did find a few answers but these characters were still questionable in my opinion. It was my first night and I was alone and madly thinking stuff like "what the hell am I gonna do for 5 nights??" and worse still "where am I gonna go next??" ... the demons were out and my negative mind was displaying to me what it's known best for. I feel stupid going to bed at 9pm and just listening to music like a loner so I made an effort to sit there in the
Vancouver by Dusk
An Image of the darkness descending upon Vancouver's city Streets common area in the hope that someone would approach me. Eventually an Indian lady who worked there came and sat next to me for a short chat but that was it for my first night in Seattle.
When I woke up in the morning, a guy from my dorm came in from the shower and introduced himself. His name was Dane and of course he was an aussie ... can't escape them here. He was from Byron bay and was doing a similar trip to me. A year away from home, he just spent 3 months teaching Snowboarding up in Canada and was about to travel the states a bit and head over to Europe... so it was cool to find an actual traveler doing the same thing as me. I left him for a day of sightseeing around this big town of Seattle. My impressions of this city pretty much are that it's a cold and lonely place... it's cloudy or raining just about all the time and this refects on most of the architecture too. Everything seemed to be shaded in dull browns or greys. There was a small area that I can't remember the name of
Construction Construction
You don't see this much back in Adelaide but in North America there's stuff getting built all the time.. progression! like the "historical" area of the city just down a few blocks from the hostel that had some more character, red brick buildings and paved walkways and Trees and shrubs lining the streets... complete contrast to the rest of downtowns just blocks away. An example is the 2 story highway that runs alongside the docks... I got some pics and one will be uploaded by the time you read this. So you have this nice dockside with restaurants and touristy areas for perfect kodak moments and then behind you there's trucks rumbling back and forth accross this huge freeway thingy... it was pretty weird and just added to Seattle's dark-urban character. It's not hard to see why Sunn 0))) and the old grunge movement sprouted from this city. Seattle is a fairly young city... like 120 years or less, if Im not mistaken but it doesn't seem modern. The world expo was held there in 1962 and in that era this city would have been a work of art. That's when the world famous Space Needle was erected, at first only for that Expo but then it was meant to be demolished however.. they've kept it obviously. I went to
Deppressing Architecture
From this pic you can see the grey marinas and grey skies of Vancouver and those awful buildings that seem to be popping up all over. the location of the world expo, they have a small theme park there and a sporting arena aswell as a couple of museums but it all looked drab and run-down... like relics of an expo from 44 years ago. There was a Monorail that ran between downtown and the expo center but it no longer runs due to an accident where they crashed into each other even though they're on seperate tracks ... ? There's also a Tram (aka Trolley car) that runs (ran) down alongside the piers/docks... but guess what? It's also been de-commissioned. It sounds like im a whining tourist here but that's not the case at all. I do bring the argument that this city would be very easy for a tourist to whine about if that's the way they saw the city. I believe it adds immense depth and character to Seattle... I would compare it to Melbourne back in Australia, with it's style and aura and weather too. Even the walls covered in graf art are similar to the scene in Melbourne where people who "own" the streets so to speak also like to take pride in their own piece of inner-suburbia. Must take time
Suspension Madness
Here's that cool suspension bridge and surrounding Rainforest area... pretty impressive tourist attraction... even for the price :) to once again mention homeless people... they run the streets of downtown... they're in packs here... they converge in groups of 3+ and stand on their own street corners, they eat at their specific corner stores/stalls and walking around at night by yourself is like taking your life in your own hands... it's gut wrenching to see so many people on the streets... inner turmoil erupts within as you need to decide to give change... or make eye contact or just move on ignoring them. Moraly, these are human beings that are left to rot on the city streets but the problem is epidemical (is that a word??) and just by me giving them 10c and letting millions of others not have 10c seems highly unfair. The amount of weird "human" feelings of charity I have had here in North America is enough to make me want to run and hide.
So I spent 5 days walking around checking stuff out, blasting music... the usual shit Ive been doing everywhere so far and Im sure it'll continue. I had to make a choice on what Im going to spend my money on... I can't afford to see every single
One Last Night
Well, turns out it'll be longer here in Vancouver than planned... but this pic shows that it's quite nice to walk around here at night. piece of touristy stuff... so ive narrowed it down to "1 expensive tour/tourist attraction" per city from now on because believe me, it's easy to spend all your money on garbage. For example, these are the things I went to see that cost money in seattle:
- Science Fiction Museum - Exactly what it says... plenty of old props and costumes from well known movies etc... it was interesting but I didn't NEED to go there.
- Experience Music Project - Just like above but with music ... more interesting though... had some great grunge relics, like original Nirvana demo casettes and their original Contract with Subpop ... best thing though was a Botch/Goatsnake/Harkonen gig poster from years ago ... (3 bands I like...)
- Boeing Factory Tour - Now this place was cool... did a tour of the HUGE compound where they build actual 747 and 777 aeroplanes... a waste of cash but an interesting day trip ...
... and thus concludes the tourism dollars I contributed. I didn't goto the zoo or up the Space Needle or to the Aquarium, or to the Science Center or to the Flight Museum but I could of! and this is the story for EVERY city you goto... they have a ton of money wasters for people who are either bored or have the money to burn. On my last day I went to visit Jimmi Hendrix's grave which was free (but for how long!) and was a kinda cool trip out of downtown, I guess...
So my days ended up being spent trying to work out what to do that wouldn't send me broke. Each morning usually started with a nice walk through the Pike Place Markets which are some famous public markets in Seattle and from there it was a matter of wandering about and soaking up the atmosphere. My nights were for the most part spent being bored... I spoke with Dane a bit and had a few beers but he was more interested in this other girl who was staying there all the way from Montana... she had a friend from Switzerland with her and they were just in Seattle to check it out for a few days. I got on pretty well with Denise (from sui) and had some nice conversations and enjoyed an Indian feast one night but she always had to make sure her slutty friend stayed out of trouble (which she didn't ...) Every night "the lads" would drink cheap beer and play ridiculous drinking games and get beyond drunk ... it's fine once in a while but 4 nights in a row? c'mon ... I guess Seattle outside the hostel would be too hostile so why not sit around and get drunk. Can't do that at home with your mates huh? I survived my nights there bored maybe... unsatisfied maybe but hey this was the first leg of my solo journey... things could only get better. I mean, dont get me wrong. I met some cool people in the hostel who didnt drink but these are the ones that slipped below the radar and hit the hay at about 10pm each night...
5 nights after my arrival in Seattle (1 night too many, looking back now) I headed off towards Canada and my walk down to the Bus Station was a crisp clean walk, the sun was actually shining and the streets were deserted. I was feeling pretty good as I got on the bus at around 11am and it sped off through a quick lap of Seattle's downtown district and then northward onto the highway leading to Canada. The bus trip gave me a chance to spin some new tunes... I got the new Katatonia albun like 3 days before and had already listened to it 5 times or so (yes, it's that good) so I gave that up for some indie pop... welsh band called People in Planes... their debut album (which I ripped from Denise's cd at a netcafe in seattle!) went down quite well. The Bus trip was pretty spectacular as I was expecting, finally getting to see the real nature side of Washington State ... "the evergreen state" ... and enjoying every last second of the greenery, the waterfalls on the side of the road and the glorious lakes on the other side. The trip from Seattle to Vancouver is only about 3 hours... 2 cities are pretty close, just 2 totally different countries! Had to go through customs at the border which was a total drag ... getting the usual questions about how long ill be staying in Canada etc. I really had no idea. However 30 mins later we were heading into Canada! yay! The scenery here was much the same as Washington state of course but the road signs were displaying km/h instead of mp/h which was a blast back home... felt like I was in a Commonwealth country again. The weather forecast was in Celcius and not faranheit... small things add up hehe. Eventually got to the bus/train station and the hunt was on for an ATM that accepted VISA! It seems asif Canadian banks dont accept visa... so I ran around to 3 different atm's looking for a way to get canadian money out, as I had to catch a train to the hostel... luckily the ticket machine accpeted visa so I could get a train ticket and head to downtown where my next hostel adventure awaited me.
I booked in at the "gambie" hostel on Seymour street *not the gambie on gambie street!* due to the fact that the price was right and the reviews said it was kinda cool. I rocked up there, dumped my shit in my room and began to re-enact my Seattle hostel plan and scour the local hoods for Pamphlets!! (a backpacker's best friends) I found a Tourist information place down by the wharf and asked the ladies there some questions about a possible tour of the Rockies (real nice mountain range here in western canada... on the border of 2 states, British Colombia and Alberta) aswell as procuring assorted tourist trap info and a list of nice free places to check out with public transport yay! My views on Vancouver... hmmm... it's not THAT different from the states... it still feels like USA apart from the people here being Canadian and acting more like humans instead of machines. People here have a sense of humour and can relate more easily to Australians... makes aussies' feel more at home rather than a someone to poke fun at, like back accross the border. Bottom line, though... Vancouver is a huge city... I swear I've never seen this many skyscrapers in one skyline before. Im growing tired of big cities... I only just got over Seattle and now im thrown back into this one and coming to grips with bus routes etc, it's all too much. Met some cool New Zealander blokes on my first night here, got the heads up on their travel patterns and what they think of Vancouver etc... just general chit-chat but hey it weilded great infomation. Turns out Vancouver is the land of cheap pizza and about 4 stores down the road is a 93c per slice Pizza shop (93c + 8.5% tax = $1) so ive been eating there daily... 2 huge slices and a bottle of water for a $3.50 feed, you can't beat that anywhere! (well there's like 4 identical shops in the surrounding neighbourhood...) I also met Shellie (Shelley?) on my first night there, a crazy girl with pink hair ... we went for a walk around the marina area and it was pretty awesome. The air was very clean and the scenery was intense and beautiful... the snow capped mountains once again in the distance and the shadows of an urban forest (aka Stanley Park) to the right... the lights of the "night runs" on the Ski resort of Grouse Mountain, lit up the night sky in the Distance, creating shadows of montain peeks to either side... if only I had 6X zoom like Horse and a tripod... I may have been able to capture the images...
Vancouver's been pretty laid back... I haven't done that much here. Spent time watching Harry Potter movies at night in good company... dodging the annoying stoner bums that linger about the hostel, just like seattle's 30somethings... but these guys are the next generation it seems... pretty sad but it's not like you're forced into dealing with them and it's easy to go about your business without some stupid conversation about bullshit... my cousin's 2 year old son had better skills and worldly knowledge than some of these guys in "the Gambie" ... The laid back attitude of this hostel seems to breed loneliness and almost helplessness... people here are stagnating... makes me 100% glad I have a plan of action to leave this place and am not reliant on finding employment in order to move on... makes me feel like an "outsider' because im backpacking and not "struggling" which is irritating because it's not like im borrowing anyone's money to do this ...
Sooo... what stuff have I done here? hmmmm... spent one day feeling sorry for myself and stressing out about my financial situation (even though deep inside I have nothing to worry about) .... spent one day doing my token "one touristy" thing... which was accross the harbour on North Vancouver (like a 2nd downtown seperated by water, with a ferry connecting the people with the land) at a Suspension Bridge and national Rainforest called "Capillano Suspension Bridge" ... aside from the insane $22cad entrance fee, it was a highly moving experience. Hope to get some pics of that adventure up here soon... including the "tree tops" adventure which was just like playing Donkey Kong Country on snes yahoo! On another day I went and met my first "net buddy" ... well someone i've only ever spoken to via message boards or yahoo messenger back from years ago ... a dude called Dennis who wrote and kept the gnosis zine (metal/industrial webzine created by one of my most devoted fans 😉) so it was interesting meeting him in person, working in Vancouver's only metal store, it was an honour to browse (and not buy at those outragious prices!) and chat to "connection" I had in strange and distant city ... apart from that Ive slept alot (too much) and saved a fair bit of cash from being Lord Tightarse and yesterday I did a MASSIVE 7 hour hike all around Vancouver, from it's industrial district to it's magnificent urban park/recreation area, Stanley Park.
To conclude... Seattle and Vancouver are both charming cities in their own right... Seattle the sleeping giant.. there's plenty of growth and more skyscrapers are planned and more "grit and grunge" is being demolished day by day it seems and here in Vancouver, I swear there's at least 10 skysrapers being built as I speak ... for rich people only, I believe... Sylvester Stallone and Gwyneth Paltrow both own huge penthouses here by the water's edge. If you love harbour cities as much as I do than you would get a real kick out of both these towns but for a more laid back and slightly less american feel, come to Vancouver... if you want to revel in grunge and depression and rain, then Seattle's the place for you. A place to reflect on old times and great music from over 10 years ago now. Tomorrow I leave for one of those "kontiki" type tours of the rockies for a 4 days/3 nights trek through the natural side of Canada's west, so to say I saw more than just Vancouver 😊
After that trip im back here for one night and then a very long train trip back from Seattle all the way accross to Chicago... one last big town before NYC and then it's off to the Serenity of Bavaria in Germany for a totally different pace. Such a Hard life...
Until we meet again .... zzzzzz.....
*dies from tiredness*
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Amme
non-member comment
Hello!
I'm pretty bad at thinkging of what to say in a comment.............. but sounds like your still having many worldly experiences. Enjoy what comes your way :) And enjoy your road trip! And don't worry about money! You'll never have this experience again so make the most of it, I'm sure you did all the necessary planning beforehand so live it up :)