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Published: September 1st 2009
Jimmy Doesn't Stop for the Snow
Hendrix was a Washington local and this statue of him sits, rather fittingly, outside an awesome record store on Capitol Hill.Where Am I Now?
All good things must come to an end, or so I’ve heard. Personally I think this is bunk as good things just meld into less good things when you’re too lazy to do anything about it. It’s all about making the best of where you are and what you’re doing, and, when it comes down to it, knowing when to say “hey, stop it, I’m changing things up”. To be fair, I have had a pretty good run of things, not very many people have the chance to travel the world for seventeen months, and all I can hope is that I made the most of that chance as now I find myself putting down the most tentatively small of roots. This is where I could bore you with statistics like everyone else does, tell you how many buses and trains I took, sum up all the kilometres and then contrast that to, oh I don’t know, probably Marco Polo or Michael Palin or some such adventurer/explorer. I could also write a top 10 list of places to see, things to do, etc. etc., but that would be me assuming that I knew best and if
4th of July 2009
We went down to gasworks park in the afternoon of this years Independence Day. As far as I could tell, the holiday is all about inflatable heads, flags, weird sideshows, and fireworks. there is one thing I’ve learned on my travels it is that I
never know best. So, to spare you all that nonsense let me just say one thing: damn it was a lot of fun, I’d do it all again any day.
Travelling became my life in its entirety, I had nothing else. I did it for so long that I actually forgot what it was like to not travel. When I finally put down my backpack my mind was filled with ambitions of what I was going to achieve with my new settled life. Things that I had missed while travelling: I wanted a kitchen, a living room, I wanted to know that if I meet someone today I can see them again next week. I wanted to feel that I had time to do whatever I wished to do. It sounded like freedom, like a really good idea.
Many times before I’ve heard phrases such as “recharging your batteries” thrown around as explanations of why we stop being itinerant and this is a very plausible statement. After enough time on the road the buzz disappears, or at least it did for me. I wasn’t treating
Alki Beach
Seattle sits on a bay, next to a sound, down a giant inlet, shaded by a gigantic island, from the Pacific. Given that, you can't really expect any beaches around here. This is about as close as you can get, here at Alki Beach. This was a cold evening last summer where I met the people who would eventually become my closest friends here. what I saw with the same awe I had when I began my trip. Things were still wonderful to see and I still got a kick out of it all, but it certainly didn’t have that miraculous sheen that travelling is supposed to. Now, after all I had seen, I was more interested in the simple things in life than I was in seeing another temple. I could very easily have kept travelling and I didn’t stop out of practicality; I stopped because I honestly wanted to stop.
I do believe that my travels so far have made me a better man. I certainly feel as though I understand the world more than I did, although, in a stunningly counterintuitive way I feel as though I understand myself less. I’ve seen so many different ways to live, most notably I’ve learned how possessions and money appear to actively make people
less happy, that now I have absolutely no idea how to live my life. The choices are just too many now, whereas before I was nothing short of blissfully ignorant. My aim now is to take all that I have seen - all of the friendly faces beaming at
The Columbia Center
Tallest building in town, and fittingly sedate and brooding in my opinion. At some point I'm planning on going to the observation deck near the top floor, but it's hard to find a day with the right combination of weather to make the view perfect. me out of genuine intrigue, all of the love and hospitality I was shown from people who had nothing else to give, all of the majestic, sublime, and inspiring places I saw, and the collection of small yet golden lessons I have learned from people who see the world out of different eyes - and to use these lessons to live my life better.
I must apologise to all of my readers for being so tardy in my writings. I know how long it has been between journals and I am sorry for that, but I do intend to rectify the situation. One reason behind the delay may in fact be that I feel as though I have little of interest to say at this point in time, but let us see what I can come up with here. At the very least I will bring myself up to speed so I can get on with the more interesting things lying ahead of me.
I am now, and I have been for the last 15 months or so, in Seattle USA. This is a very strange city, one I never would have pictured myself living in, but then
Summer in the City
Early last June, just as "summer" was beginning. It was still quite cold to me, but the sunshine was very welcome after the long winter (it began all the way back in Mongolia...) again, there are myriad motives that play on people and we can never predict our futures. My motives for coming here are not of interest now, it is far more interesting to see if I can shed some light (some insight as a friend just demanded of me) on this place.
Let me begin simply. I am in a café known as Victrola; it is my favourite place to sit, relax, and watch the world walk up and down the street outside. This is Capitol Hill, the gay/young-people/weird/do-whatever-and-no-one-will-care neighbourhood of the city. This is a place where you can walk around doing absolutely anything that you feel like and get away with it; this place makes America look as liberal as you could ever imagine. Right now the sun is shining outside so the day is no longer the dismal, rainy one I was predicting. In fact, the sun has been shining for most of the last month and we even had one day where I didn’t require a jacket (it was 37 degrees that day and everyone nearly keeled over dead, except of course me, who was seen in black jeans walking around basking like a lizard). This
Seattle's Public Library
Hmm. . . the distracting architecture might detract from my reading, were I ever to go inside. is summer, it is nice, everyone is out in their best clothes. Even the hipsters managed to take a break from their tight jeans for a minute and all of a sudden colour was the de facto norm.
However, this is not a normal month for Seattle. But then again, nothing in Seattle ever seems to be normal. When I first came here I was warned that it rained all the time. Then, after a few months I remarked that it really hadn’t rained at all, in fact, it has only really rained once since I’ve been here (and that was hilarious because nobody seemed to be able to comprehend what a thunderstorm can be like). In response my friend simply said that it has been unusually dry this year. Then, in winter I was told that it would be cold all the time but it would probably not snow at all in the city, until of course it snowed constantly for a week and we all went skiing in the streets (I love snow, so for one week I didn’t even notice that it was cold, even when I had to wait two hours for a bus that
Tallships in Tacoma
Last summer, around the 4th of July (an apparently auspicious date here) there was a festival of old-time ships in the harbour. I found it mystifying that the USA built a replica of the Bounty, a ship most notably associated with my part of the world, but there it was flying the Stars and Stripes. didn’t arrive). To this they remarked that it was an unusually snowy winter. Last summer? It was unusually short. This summer? Unusually hot. Either global warming is making a surgical strike on Seattle alone or people here have goldfish memories.
The word “weird” comes to mind when I describe the people here. Everyone aims to be weirder than everyone else. For example, yesterday I saw a race of strange bicycles. Some of them were almost five meters tall, one was a farming cart pedalled by five people. Everyone in the event seemed to have gone out of their way to make the most odd contraption possible, and if they couldn’t do that, they went out of their way to make themselves look as odd as possible. This city created more weirdness than you could imagine: off-road unicycling comes to mind.
People watching is a great pastime here as you really do get to see the most intriguing cross-section of humanity. Even if you take out the homosexual contingent, which produces some of the most extreme exhibitionists (I stood next to a newly wed couple of seven foot men in the most fashionable weeding dresses I’ve ever seen while
All of the Ships
Lined up at the pier. watching the Pride Parade), you will see a never-ending parade of intrigue. From the simple things such as the attendant at a convenience store who wears nothing that isn’t fluorescent orange or yellow and has hair to match, to the dominatrix and her gimp walking on all fours down Broadway, I can barely even begin to describe the things I’ve seen here. But that is what makes Capitol Hill the interesting place that it is: the fact that people can look, be and do anything they want.
Things That Are Fun In Seattle
Seattle has a lot of things going for it, I have to say. If you like food and beer then this is somewhere you should visit. Mircobreweries abound and I haven’t even come close to tasting every available brew even after a year; there are simply too many of them. Once again, everyone here wishes to be more weird than anyone else and this manifests itself in what we label snobbery. Seattle has beer snobs, coffee snobs, chocolate snobs, and wine snobs. There are people who talk about where to find the best Pho while refusing to use the obvious answer: Vietnam (for those
Flags
I've noticed that the people over here have a phenomenal fascination with their flag. While in cities I play the game "who can see the most US flags?", usually the winner can find around five from any vantage point, more if you're on the roof. playing at home, the consensus seems to be for a place in Queen Anne). Similarly, you can find people arguing about where to find the best Ethiopian food, or the best cupcakes, or the best organically grown pineapple within a 100km radius (which is a dumb point because any pineapple grown within 1000km of Seattle is going to taste terrible, sorry, it’s true). Being opinionated here is like breathing elsewhere, you just have to do it. You would think that this would make for a horrible society of raging violence as five million opinions railed against one another, but it has instead lead to a universal introvertedness. Everyone here has their group, their clique, and they stick to that like glue, never venturing out into other circles lest they meet someone who disagrees with their ideals.
As an outsider this is the biggest drawback of the city as it is incredibly difficult to meet, mingle and become a part of a clique. Collectively known as the “Seattle Freeze” this is a widely discussed issue. Furthermore, as a relatively un-opinionated person I can’t even fake my way into a group here because I neither agree nor disagree with most people.
Sunset at Alki
West of Seattle, on the other side of Puget Sound, the Olympic mountains rise rather majestically. On a good morning I can see the entire range from my bus to work, snow-capped through most of the year. It is quite a pretty view to wake up to. However, I have somehow managed to find myself among a fantastic group of friends who seem to have rallied together by virtue of us all not fitting into the other snobs around us. Somewhat ironically, we now seem to be a clique of our own defined by the fact that we don’t fit anywhere else.
I have lost my drift here though, so I shall return to the positive aspects of Seattle. The landscape around the city is certainly beautiful in an understated way. Aside from the seemingly unending suburbs which stretch 50km in every direction, once you are out of the city you find yourself in a pretty wilderness of darkest green, craggy peaks, walking trails and waterfalls. I wouldn’t call it the most spectacular place in the world for nothing here is the grandest in the world, but by virtue of variety there is certainly enough beauty here for me to be happy. If you ask a local what they think of the northwest, they’ll tell you straight away that it is the most amazing and beautiful place in the world. If you then ask them if they’ve seen anywhere else they will waver a little, dodge
Wait, That's Not Seattle!
That's right, it's Hong Kong. I had to fly back there to get my US work visa last July. I have lots of stories to tell from those few days, where I worked as a private detective, ate my fill of good-ol Chinese staples, and got dragged out till 4am in all sorts of seedy bars by Mr. ABC when I had a 6am flight back to Seattle... maybe it's best I don't tell you about that. the question and tell you of that one time they visited the east coast, but the fact that this place elicits such unquestioning love indicates that it is indeed worthy. If something is too beautiful to leave, do you need to verify your love by leaving, seeing everything else and then returning? Or is it enough to simply be content with what you have and to leave your love untainted? I am clearly the wrong person to answer that question, so I accept the local idea and try my best not to force a passport application down their throat.
I am trying to look back through my mind to the most interesting or exciting things I have done here in Seattle. I learned to snowboard (badly) for snow still makes me giddy like a child. I visited Mt Rainer, a gloriously prominent volcano that rears to the south of the city (on an aside, my bus-ride to work takes me across a bridge which affords a fantastic view across the city towards the mountain, and on a clear day it is nothing short of a miraculous way to start the day) only to find that it was such a
View From Mount Si
East of Seattle, about 40km or so, you will find the Cascade Range. It is a very old range so it isn't the tallest, but all of the mountains there are incredibly steep. The first one you come to along the freeway, essentially marking the start of the mountains, is Mount Si, which rises behind a small town. I hiked to the top with some friends for some remarkable views. Not bad for a forty minute drive from the city. miserable day that we could not see more than 10 meters in any direction - hardly the ideal way to view a mountain. I have hiked in the Cascade mountains, swum in a sound (ok, I dipped my legs into it and nearly froze to death even in summer), seen Bill Gates’ house and a tyrannosaurus, had a beach party in an apartment (it was about 5 degrees outside so we faked an Australian beach for my birthday), seen the world premier of a Broadway musical, played cricket in the snow (sorry Ben, not on a mountain), and I have eaten a lot of food from more cultures than I could count.
It is interesting for me to think of the oddities that I have found here. For example, of all the places I have been, one of the most interesting Buddhist statues is here in Seattle, in the Asian Art Museum. It looks very much like a lot of western Indian statues, mixed with a hint of Tibetan influence, yet the man looks Greek. By all accounts it is a statue of Sakyamuni, the symbols and motifs all agree, yet he is wearing a toga, has curly hair
and a distinctly European nose. Why? Well, because it was made in Pakistan just after Alexander the Great conquered that half of the world. Even once explained, it is truly an odd sight to behold. Similarly, there are hundreds of small intrigues around this city, from the free Art Gallery down the road, to the Tudor house and garden a block over, to the volcano fountain in Cal Anderson park and the block of English row-houses further along the hill. It is these little things that I notice from time to time which are now beginning to form my ideas of this place.
An Attempt to Summarise
You may have been able to tell that I’m having difficulty writing about Seattle. This is the third attempt actually. There are a number of reasons for this but I am trying my best to describe my thoughts of this place succinctly and accurately, for my own benefit. In some way I am certain that I am enjoying my time here, even though I am looking forward to leaving on another adventure. The simple pleasures of hanging out with my friends here, eating well, talking about everything and anything, and
Mount Rainier
Barely visible through the fog/haze is Mount Rainier, the highest mountain in Washington state. Like all tall mountains around here (St. Helens, Baker, Adams and Hood) it is a volcano so it rises way above everything else and is visible from pretty much anywhere. In fact, you can see it from the city on a clear day, always looking down on us like our personal guardian. I perk up when I see it in the morning. taking pleasure in the ordinary are very enjoyable for me, yet they do not lend themselves to interesting text here. I could tell you stories of my friends, who they are and what they do, but I fear that this would either become a gigantic tome or I would drift off into obscure ramblings. Additionally, I am trying to surmise more than a year of my life in a single fell swoop. That is clearly a difficult task even for writers much more talented than I. So, rather than telling of specific stories, events or anything like that, I am trying to surmise what this city is like.
I just wish to convey the essence of Seattle, something which in itself is very hard to nail down for this is no homogenous city. Every section of this town (for it feels more like a town than a city) is different, completely different. If I take a ten minute bus to Fremont I find myself in an artist’s commune, near where I work you find nothing but fishermen (the boats from Deadliest Catch moor there sometimes), one part of town is for yuppies, and another is nothing but Asian grocers
Freeway Park
Hidden in the middle of the city, around the corner from my apartment actually, is a small park that was built over the top of the freeway. Beside the constant noise of cars, this is the most serene place to view the buildings of the city, especially on a cool and crisp evening like this one last Autumn (sorry, last Fall). and restaurants. How can you describe a city that has so many segments that are all dissimilar? It really is a place that you have to see to believe.
I could describe to you a million details, such as the odd collections of clouds that form over this city, building upon each other to form some of the most spectacular skyscapes I’ve seen, or the cute and modern buildings in downtown Seattle, that end as abruptly as they begin leaving nothing but 1960’s apartment buildings in their wake. I could describe the orange sunsets that glow over the tops of white peaks in the Olympic Mountains and light everything in the city with the most charming glow, or I could talk about the crazy homeless people that yell at everyone and no one at the same time when I walk the streets. There are just too many of these things to fit on a page. And truthfully, it is the combination of all of these details that make a city. If you visit a city for a day you can get a glimpse of what is there, but you are not going to see it for what it
Autumn in the Olympics
Hiking to some hot springs on the Olympic Peninsula last Autumn. Just as the leaves began to turn ever so slightly. truly is. Spend a week there and you will have a good idea of the general vibe of a place. But I have to admit that my thoughts of Seattle have changed so wildly, in all directions, over the course of my time here that I don’t believe I will ever understand it all. To be honest I don’t even notice anything that is mentioned in tourist literature any more, so my entire perspective of this city is based on normal, everyday activities. I wonder if I am now a changed man, what happened to the always-excitable vagrant that ran from adventure to adventure, always seeking new things to see and do? Now I find myself repeating the same things each week; eating at the same restaurants, going to trivia nights on a weekly basis, and hanging out with the same people. I am content right now to be doing this, content for I know that it is only for now, for a short time. I am biding my time, recharging my batteries, and learning things about myself that will come in handy soon.
Perhaps this is a bad way to describe a city, and it certainly is no
Autumn
Even though this is the evergreen state, Autumn brought more colours than I imagined possible on trees. Even just walking from work to the bus stop brought reds and oranges that looked very unhealthy for the trees, but apparently is perfectly natural. This was one of the first red trees I saw. travel journal, but this is me right now and until I have written about this I can not move on and write about what happens next. Perhaps some of my photos will be more effective. I apologise if this is not what you expected of me, but please rest assured that there will soon follow a story from Abu Dhabi, a tale from Charleston, notes from Delaware, San Diego, Canada, and Maryland. Possibly even Africa if fate smiles in my direction. The big question for me now, is simply where to next? I would like to thank all of you out there who read my journals during my travels, I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. And don’t think that this is the end of the story, for good things only ever come to an end if you want them to. Think of this as the intermission, go use the bathroom, grab a drink or some popcorn, and then join me for the second act coming soon.
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bill
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intermission
Yes, Seattle is a bit ambiguous. Abu Dhabi is a whole different animal, as I am sure you will discover!! I was there 18 months ago, but I am sure I wouldnt recognise it even now.