Sleepless in Seattle

Well actually I slept quite well (which is a thing that is becoming more of a rarity on this trip as my back has been behaving quite badly) but I'll stick with the cheesy blog titles for now.

So we dropped off the rental car at the airport about 5pm, and Nina was being picked up by her friends, but me and Uli had to make our own way to our respective places. Which was totally fine. Nina very quickly let us use her iphone to check the internet to work out the buses, and I was in such a rush that I chose a route with the shortest amount of changes but didn't check the total time it would take me. As it turns out, now knowing the city a little bit better, it was a ridiculous route. I first of all had to wait a good 40 mins for the first bus (and I fully acknowledge that I should have used the public phones at the airport to call my friend, but I didn't want to miss my bus. Having only one route to get to my friend's house, I decided to stick with it. Getting dropped off the first bus to wait for the second, I realised that we were deep deep in the suburban wilderness of Seattle. There was no one to ask. Getting on the next bus, it was 7pm, and when I asked the bus driver how long it would take, he said that it would take just under an hour. Asking if I could borrow his cell phone to ring my friend, he said "that's going a bit far". Accepting this as fair, I asked the only other person on the bus who said that she would, but she was probably the only person without a cell phone in Seattle. I asked a couple more people (offering them a couple of bucks, but knowing that in the states everyone is on a contract so it costs them nothing extra) and they looked at me like I was crazy.The said "I don't think so" with an air of such disdain that you would have thought I had just asked them to jump off a cliff. Anyway, frustrated, tired, hungry and a little concerned that my friend would be worried about me, I finally got off the bus about 8pm, and found the apartment. Now if I hadn't been so tired I would have realised that there was a call button on the outside of the apartment. However this guy who was on his cell phone at the door, was covering this and when I asked him "do you need a cell phone to ring in? I don't have one" he replied "I don't know what to tell you" and walked off. Thinking I needed a cell phone, I asked about 4 more people to use their phone, all of them saying no, and finally exhausted, I found a kind person in the supermarket who let me use hers. After realising that I could have saved myself the trouble and just used the call button, I felt a bit stupid, but nonetheless it was great to see my friend Danica and meet her boyfriend Erik. Telling them the story about how no one would let me use their phone, they were surprised but guessed that people weren't listening to me, but are so used to being accosted by homeless people for change, that they just say no.

We went out to dinner and had a great night, and then the next morning, determined to have a great day, I got on the bus and wandered to Pike Place Market. Which was, by the way, awesome. It's a famous market, and I wandered around for a while before, stopping to watch the famous Pike Place Fish Market where they throw the fish from one side of the area to the counter. It is a bit of a smelly place, but it was very cool.

Pike Place Market

about to throw the fish to the counter amidst many onlookers

Meeting Danica for lunch at a Russian place (Erik and Danica had decided to take me on a foodies tour of Seattle), I wandered down to Pioneer Square where I took a fascinating and very funny tour of the underground. Very cool.

In the immortal words of Mr Bowie "down down underground"

Meeting up with Danica afterward, we met Erik in a Korean BBQ restaurant where we were provided with the meat, and we cooked it on a grill at the table. I say "we" but really, other than a photo opportunity for me, Erik cooked pretty much everything.

Pretending to cook.

Erik the real chef of the night takes over

Danica had taken the next couple of days off, and so we had a great two days together, doing cool things such as going to a gorgeous view of the city, seeing the troll under the bridge, and taking a chocolate factory tour of this amazing chocolate company who produce fair trade and organic chocolate with flavours such as Chai Tea, and Coconut Curry. We also went to a HUGE thrift store where I bought books 9 and 10 (my bag is getting very heavy now, so I am hoping that that is it, bookwise).

The city of Seattle as seen with the lovely Danica

The Fremont Troll who lives under the bridge

Thursday night, I caught up with a friend Justin (and his amazing yellow car!), from New Zealand, which was great. We went to dinner with some of his dance buddies and at some point had a heated debate about the merits of Ebook vs real book (I am totally for real and he was fighting on the Ebook side.)

Justin and his amazing yellow spaceship car

Next day, met up with another kiwi friend, Mark in the afternoon and on the bus I was running late so I decided to give the Seattleites one more chance to be nice to me and lend me their phone so I could let Mark know I was running late, and the girl in front was so nice and did. Where was she when I needed her the other day? Went to the university where he is studying to drop some stuff off and then had a couple of drinks before meeting up with one of his friends later on. We also went to a drag show which normally isn't totally my thing, but it was pretty good. I realised how much Cher actually does look like a drag queen because the man impersonating her was the spitting image!

I know that it is hard to believe but this is a man and not Cher

Saturday was my last full day in Seattle. It was the Fremont Fair and parade for Summer Solstice and it was amazing. Unfortunately we were slightly too late for the nude cyclists all dressed in body paint, but the parade was just awesome. Met up with Mark afterwards, and hung out, and the phone connection was so bad that I couldn't get hold of Justin who was also there. Had an amazing time at the fair, people watching, eating the free samples for lunch(one of them was hummus and pita bread chips-Yum!) and wandering through the market. I was coveting this awesome clock made out of forks and spoons, but had decided that I couldn't really afford it, when Danica surprised me by buying it for me! I tried to refuse as it should have been me getting her a gift to show my gratitude for letting me stay and showing me an awesome time in Seattle, but I let her buy it for me, buying Danica and Mark dinner instead. It made me feel a little better. The clock is awesome though!

All I saw of the naked bikers

Some of the cool parade




Pigging out on the free hummus and Pita with Mark

my new wall clock

The next day, Danica and I left nice and early to make it to the bus station for my bus to Vancouver. Unfortunately fate had different ideas. Someone had decided that it was an awesome idea to bash the wire door opener of the apartment parking lot, so it wouldn't open despite all our efforts. We still had time for a taxi so we called, but 25 minutes later, it still hadn't arrived, so we called another. Of course 5 minutes later both arrived at the same time. Taking one, not sure if I took the first or the last I explained that I had a bus to catch in 15 minutes. Although he said the Greyhound would be late, he was amazing, and drove very skillfully, weaving his way to the station. I made it just in time for the bus, only to sit and wait 15 minutes for it to depart.

But, I didn't mind. I had made it to the bus and the adventure to Canada was underway.

Sorry for the novel(again). Did I mention what a great time I had in Seattle!