Seattle

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It's Wednesday 5th May, and the time has come to leave Canada and head over the border to begin our trip down the West Coast of America. First stop, Seattle. We had booked a greyhound bus from Vancouver to Seattle, and despite hearing a number of horror stories from people who have crossed the border, we passed through customs without any problems (although it did take about 1 1/2 hours and involved us getting off the bus etc). I had had an amazing time in Canada, and I was super excited about the adventures that lay ahead in America. We arrived in Seattle at about 18.00 and walked for about 20 minutes to what would be our hostel for the next few nights, The Green Tortoise. As usual, we decided to have a little walk around to check out the local area, and once it begun to get dark, we decided to pop into a bar for a 'quiet' drink. Whilst in Vancouver, Andy and I had really got involved with the ice hockey and had started to support the Vancouver Kanucks. For those of you who don't know anything about ice hockey (I am guessing that will be most people reading this!), it's a huge game in Canada and the Canadians are still buzzing from defeating USA in the Olympic mens ice hockey final (Canada also won the ladies competition). The Kanucks were hitherto involved in the Stanley cup (a competition held each year between ice hockey teams in both Canada and America). The Vancouver Kanucks had defeated L.A in the first round of the competition, and would now face the Boston Blackhawks in the next round. The game was on TV as we ordered our first beers (Budweiser, of course) of the evening (the price of food and drink is considerably cheaper in the USA) and we soon started talking to 2 Boston fans, Joe and Josh. I didn't realise at the time that Boston were called the Blackhawks, and I felt a bit stupid when I asked Joe and Josh what team they supported when they were wearing ice hockey shirts with a picture of a big blackhawk on the front! Joe and Josh were wicked fun and we had some top banter about the ice hockey and my English accent. We were soon joined by Chris (he worked for the PR section of Phillip's), and Joe got us all a round of a tequila like substance to begin the evening (the shot glasses were huge). Chris was then intent on showing everyone a good time and repaying the favour and proceeded to buy everyone a round of Jaggermeisters and Andy and I another pint as well. It was turning out to be a good evening, and we decided to begin a little pub crawl. We were joined on the crawl by Leia (she worked in a local restaurant) and Donald (a South African geezer who just appeared from nowhere!). Chris insisted that he would buy our drinks and Andy and I were more than happy to accept his invitation. In one bar, Chris purchased us all a Manhattan cocktail, which turned out to be pretty much a large glass of whiskey, and most of us left it (except Andy) as we moved onto the next bar. The next bar turned out to have some live music, and it wasn't long before Chris had jumped on stage and asked the guy if he could play a track. A few minutes later, 4 of us were on stage belting out Wonderwall by Oasis with Chris leading on guitar. It was a funny moment and Leia managed to capture it all on my camera. We found our way back to the hostel and find our way in the dark to our beds (those of you who have stayed in shared dorms in a hostel will know how much fun it is trying to find your way around a room and your bag in the dark, especially drunk, whilst other people sleep!)

I awoke the next morning feeling horrible, but decided to try and get up and savour the free breakfast. Unfortunately, it turned out to be eggs which you had to cook yourself, and in my extremely hungover and drunk state, I managed to slightly burn the bottom of the eggs! Andy and I both sat and ate breakfast like a pair of zombies before stumbling back to bed for a few more hours kip. We awoke again a few hours later feeling refreshed and decided to check out Seattle. We were in luck (again) as on the first Thursday of each month, all the museums in Seattle are free at certain times of the day. We started at the Seattle Arts Museum (SAM), which had a wonderful mix of modern and contemporary art and was like a smaller version of the Tate. We then walked over to the other side of town and experienced our first view of the famous Seattle sky needle. Alongside the sky needle was the EMP music museum, which contained a history of the Seattle music scene and beyond. Seattle is famous for creating the grunge scene and also the legendary sound of Jimi Hendrix (he is buried in Seattle). The museum also contained a history of the guitar, which was interesting.

We returned to the hostel at about 19.00, just in time for the free dinner which the hostel supply. Much to our surprise, it turned out to be a delicious spaghetti bolognese with salad and garlic bread, and about 40 people took advantage of the free meal. The rest of the evening was spent chilling out, trying to work out the next part of the trip and drinking some Rolling Rock beer.

Awoke the next morning and cooked more free eggs (this time not burnt). We tried to book another night at the hostel, but were told the beds we were in were not available and the only room they had was a queen bed bunk bed in another room (Andy and I were used to sleeping with each other by this point). We packed our bags and moved our stuff to the new room, and were greeted by the very friendly Kati from Germany (she had amazing eyes!!). Kati was 21 and had decided to travel to try and work out what she wanted to do in life. She had a key interest in psychology and was thinking of trying to find a uni to study the theory. We also met Wolle (a German guy who had met Kati earlier on in his travels). We would become really good friends with Kati (she is very kind and a top lass) and Wolle (a very funny German guy) over the next week and we are due to meet them again in San Francisco in the next few days (I am writing this whilst on an 18 hour greyhound bus ride to San Fran!). I love ze Germans!!! The rest of the day was spent walking around the Myrtle Edwards Park (on the harbour front), checking out Pike Market (this is the most wonderfully interactive and live market I have ever visited and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Seattle. The Pike Fish stall is particularly fun and actually famous for motivation and team work - Andy had watched a video whilst at work in the UK for team building - and we watched amusingly as they shouted and tossed fish to each other whilst tourists stood round taking photos. One women even got to take part and actually dropped the fish on her first attempt, but caught it on her second!) and relaxing on the green grass next to the needle.

Friday night would be spent with John Blair, a friend of Andy's from his time working in St Louis as part of his university degree. John had befriended Andy during his time in the USA 7 years ago, and Andy was super excited to see him again. I was a little nervous as Andy had told me of their legendary drinking sessions and funny stories of John breakdancing! John and his family were actually in the process of moving from Seattle to Toronto, and were currently living in rented accommodation in Bellevue (a suburb just outside Seattle). Andy and I caught a bus over the water and met John in a Mexican bar for a cheeky Margarita. We were then joined by John's wife Tana and his son Louie and John said he was going to treat us to a Sushi (Andy and I loved the idea. I was getting a real taste for Sushi as I had also had it earlier on in the day as well!). It turned out to be a really wicked conveyor belt sushi (Andy said it was 10 times better than Yo Sushi) and I really enjoyed getting to know John and his family over some lovely food and a few Japanese beers. Tana and Louie then left us boys to it, and we headed to a local pub for some partying. The rest of the evening was spent playing pool and sampling pretty much all the local beers possible, before making our way to Denny's (shocking) for some late night burgers and then back to John's apartment (we had initially planned to get the last bus back, but that didn't happen). I slept on the floor and Andy in an armchair (it was rented accommodation) and I awoke after 3 hours sleep with John's dog licking my face (insert own jokes here)...

...it was 9am and our bus to Portland was at 13.15. We still had to get back to the hostel, pack our bags and book a hostel in Portland for the night. I felt horrible again and wasn't looking forward to the 4 1/2 hour journey ahead! It had been a brief and boozy trip to Seattle (but enjoyable) and I had a feeling much of the same lay ahead on the West Coast of America. I may need another year off to recover once this year is over!

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Comments

[Shane]

having fun
Looks like you guys are having a great time!!!