Advertisement
Published: February 14th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Having spoken to Stuart he said I had to see Seattle so I found a return bus ride for $60 a pretty reasonable price for a 4hr journey. The only problem being that it meant crossing the Canada-US border. There was only about 15 of us on the bus and took about 20minutes. The border police do love you to endlessly fill out forms, i also got my photo and fingerprints taken.
I arrived in Seattle at 7pm. The bus dropped me off right next to the Space Needle which looked really cool at night. I got in a taxi to my hostel, the driver was from Nigeria and didnt know directions or really anything about the city, he was friendly though and stopped running the meter when we were lost on the one-way streets. I arrived at the Green Tortoise Hostel which was really nice. Really comfy rooms, free dinner when i arrived and friendly people. I read a notice on the board that said tonight there was a trip to a jazz bar so finished my dinner and met at reception. 8 people came along, all blokes, 2 from Austrailia, 2 from NZ, 2 Americans and one other
english guy. It was a fun night because everyone else had been travelling for ages so they were telling me all their stories and where i should go as i continue my travels mostly places round Austrailia and NZ. I got some email addresses for contacts as i go round.
I got back to the hostel at around midnight and arranged with Jared (the english guy) to go see a waterfall the next day. Its called Snoqualmie Falls and is situated about 15miles east of Seattle, the bus took about 40 minutes and cost us $5. It was funny en route we encountered some American stereotypes- the trailer trash single mums chatting about how their boyfriends had ditched them and how they always loved their trucks and beer more than them. The black man who "knows his rights" and wont wear no suit and sell out to the man, and the idiots who dont know anything about the world. Haha i did meet some really nice local people as well. The waterfall was really cool and picturesque i wasnt expecting to see it near Seattle. Its also a hydro power generator.
After the falls we got back on
the bus and i read a leaflet id picked up from the hostel which said that we were fairly near the buriel place and memorial statue of Jimi Hendrix so I jumped at the chance to visit. It took a lot longer than we had anticipated and had to change bus 3 times but it was worth it. As you can see from the pictures its a pretty impressive memorial and you could see marks where people had kissed images of his face. It had lots of messages written around the monument to do with Jimi's everlasting strive for love, peace and freedom; it shows that many did not love him for his music alone. We returned to downtown Seattle and headed to some bars. Over here they have whats called Microbrews which are basically pubs which produce their own ale which is a growing industry accross the US apparently. We found a place called Pike Brewhouse which is just underneath the famous Pike fish market- pretty good english style ale.
Jared had to leave for a flight to Denver first thing next morning so i had a day of Seattle to myself. I walked from the hostel to
Seattle Central which is where a couple of museums and the Space Needle are. I went to the Experience Music Project which was amazing, i loved it. Its about how music works, what bands were important in Seattle, a lot about Hendrix and a huge collection of guitars. There was an evolution in guitars exhibit which had hundreds of models showing how the guitar has changed since its initial creation. There was also an exhibition called Taking Aim which is a compilation of photos of Rock stars compiled by Graham Nash from CSN. There were amazing shots of people like Sting, the Stones, Johnny Cash and Elvis- backstage and live action shots. There was also a cool collection of Hendrix memorabilia, costumes he wore on stage, guitars he smashed on stage and other posessions.
Free with my ticket to the EMP i got into the Science fiction museum next door which had loads of film memorabilia. Im not into sci-fi so didnt find it very interesting, to many peoples disgust ive never even seen Star Wars so i think a lot of the exhibits were lost on me. Since the Space Needle was next door i thought id pop
in. Id read at the hostel that if u have lunch at the revolving restaurant at the top you get a free lift ticket to the observation deck, so for the same price as a normal lift ticket i got lunch too. This was also a novelty for me as id never been to a revolving restaurant before. The food was really nice and service was great (they earned their tip for once) the view was stunning all the way round. From the top i spotted the Qwest stadium, home of the Seattle Seahawks american football team, problem was it was the other side of town. I worked out a tram i could get there and arrived at around 5pm, i tried to get a stadium tour but there were none on today. I walked around the other side, climbed a fence and up a set of stairs to get a view of the pitch but because its the end of the NFL season theres no yard lines or goals so looked pretty dull.
This morning (friday 12th) i caught my bus back to Vancouver and was surprised to find the bus packed, this made crossing the border a
lot longer. I later found out its because today is the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, loads of roads have been closed off and my hostel is just down the road from the BC Stadium where the ceremony is happening. Theres loads of excitement on the streets and every is waving their Canadian flag. I dunno why but the whole patriotism and excitement about the olympics seems silly to me. I dont feel the buzz like everyone else seems to be, maybe cos im not canadian. I walked quite a long way with the crowds and found a big protest going on, they were protesting against the olympics not being green and also that a lot of housing had not been constructed due to the games arrival.
Im just about to go out in Vancouver to meet a friend of a friend for some drinks. The ceremony is about to start on TV so lets see if the fuss is worth while. Thats all for now folks!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0786s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Phil Silver
non-member comment
Hendrix memorial looks awesome mate. The public library is good, but it ain't no Sydney Jones, let's face it...have a good time in Fiji, keep us updated.