Seattle
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2008
1
13
22
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Seattle,
Washington,
United States
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday December 11th
Right now I'm sitting in a library in Seattle, Washington. I looove Seattle! It's so nice! Well, apart from the cold, but it's no colder than it would be back in London (a month in the Californian sun made me forget what cold is) The people, the shops, the food, the sights... it's a really nice place.
I left for Seattle in Tuesday evening. After lunch in the mall, Paul and Amanda drove me to Long Beach airport in Los Angeles. It's one of the citie's smaller airports and tiny compared to Heathrow. There's only 4 departure gates and one cafe. The plus side of using a small airport was how fast it was to check in, go through security and board the plan (also pretty small) and the flight itsself was only about 2 and a half hours... nothing compared to the transatlantic flights I'm used to. The time went by so fast as onboard Jetblue they have TV sets for everyone with about 100 cable channels and radio channels as well as free drinks and snacks. For a budget airline the same price as the likes of Ryanair, they were great!! I watched this fun rock music quiz show on the way (and got most of the answers right) then before I knew it I'd landed in SEA-TAC airport.
It was gone 11pm by the time I arrived at the Best Western - a lovely hotel with nice big rooms and a coffee maker, power shower and cable TV. After a good nights sleep, I got up, had my free breakfast in the hotel then walked a few blocks down to the seafront. It was fairly cold, probably about 10C, but as I was walking around all the time I didn't feel too cold. After walking along the seafront looking at all the boats and piers, I went in the famous Pike Place Market. Even though I don't like fish, it was cool to watch the men at the fish stall singing and throwing fish to one another... although I stood well out the way! The market was amazing, lots of little stalls and shops selling food, gifts and just about everything. I did a lot of xmas shopping, buying presents for friends and family (but I won't ruin the surprise by saying what I got!) I also went in the original Starbucks in the market, where it all began back in 1971. It was pretty small inside with no tables and the queue took about 10 minutes, but it was worth it to sample a latte from such a historic landmark!
After a few hours on the market, I walked up to the Seattle Center, where the famous Space Needle is located. It's so tall and futuristic looking, like something out of a sci-fi movie. In fact, there is a Sci Fi museum right there next to the needle. After dropping my shopping off at the hotel, I took a guided bus tour of Seattle. It was on a 'duck' vehicle - a land and water vehicle first used in WW2 which can drive on roads then turn into a boat when driving into water. I went on the same thing in Miami earlier this year and it was a lot of fun, and so was this one. Our guide was really funny and pointed out interesting and obscure facts about the city. Apparently the residents of Seattle drink on average of 4 lattes per day, the average age of a resident is 34 years old and the most popular occupation is lawyers. We saw the market and several squares from land, then launched into Lake Union to see some pretty (and expensive) houseboats including the one used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle and one owned by a Microsoft billionaire (the company started locally) which had a glass cellar under the water which is supposed to resemble a fish tank.
After the tour it was about 5pm and getting dark and I was pretty hungry, so I found a Japanese-Polynesian restaurant where I had chicken katsu and rice, then went to a local cinema and watched Cadilac Records, which was really good (go see it!) I was sooo tired by the time I returned!
This morning I walked all the way across town to the International District, which is mainly Chinese as well as many other nationalities. I went in the biggest Oriental supermarket in the Northwest and looked at all the cool foods, then went to a Tapioca tea house and got my favourite boba tea. I'm currently in the library but about to log off and go back to the Space Needle to go up in, and go to the Music Project next door which is a music museum type place where you can also create your own music... should be fun! Then tomorrow morning I'm going 3 hours over the boarder to Canada... hope it's not too cold!
