Monday 22nd May
It was safe to say we weren't disappointed to be leaving Portland. It had been alright but certainly wasn't anything to write home about. We woke at half 6 and were greeted by plenty of light streaming through the curtains, which made the remaining packing and clearing the room nice and easy. We picked up our complimentary coffee and bagel and took it with us on the walk to the train station. It was a nice easy walk which was helped by it still being cool. We still managed to work up a bit of a sweat by the time we arrived though. We checked our bags in upon arrival at the station and then sat down to eat our bagels. We hadn't long consumed them when an announcement went up that we had to check in at a desk in order to be given seat numbers, so we all piled into a hasty queue and checked in. We picked up a cold drink just before the train was due in but ended up waiting for about 20 minutes longer, as the train was late. Eventually, the large crowd was called forward and we all clambered up on to the train. It was a completely sold out train, so there wasn't a seat to spare. For the whole 3 hour journey, we had to tolerate a group of schoolchildren shouting at one another but it didn't prove too distracting, as the scenery, once we hit Puget Sound, on which Seattle stands, was pretty impressive. Once we arrived at just gone 12, we retrieved our bags from a conveyor belt and started our walk through Seattle to our hostel. It was pretty much just straight down one road, so it wasn't too hard. As always, we were too early to check in, so we passed some time by visiting a supermarket and grabbing a drink in the Starbucks on the corner of 1st and Pike, which is known for being the original Starbucks coffee house. By the time we finished our iced coffees, 2 o'clock had rolled around, so we walked back to the hostel, which was on the opposite side of the road to the Starbucks and checked in. We'd gone a bit gimmicky for our stay in Seattle. We'd opted for a double bed in dorm, as it was cheaper than getting 2 separate bunks. We were immediately unimpressed with the room, as we were on the top bunk and the ladders and lockers made it an incredibly tight squeeze. Seeing as we were only in town for 2 nights though, we didn't bother with kicking up a fuss about it. We stowed our bags in our locker and headed down to the kitchen for some lunch. Seeing as it was such a nice day out, after lunch, we headed straight out to enjoy some of it. We did end up inside for most of it though. Our hostel was right next to Pike Place Market, which is a huge market place selling fresh fish, produce and all sorts of arts, crafts, gifts and tat. We spent a good couple of hours browsing all the stalls on all the floors of the market before reaching the end and being greeted by a great view out across the sound. Once we'd seen enough, we spent some more time browsing the adjacent streets. We managed to pick up some pin badges and spent some time perusing a map shop, just for fun. We decided to stop for another coffee before heading back to the hostel about 7, just in time for dinner. We sorted bags and things out first, seeing as we didn't want to spend to long fussing around the room every time we had a shower or needed something out of a bag. Dinner was an old favourite, beans and pasta, made with America’s version of baked beans, which are seasoned with bacon and brown sugar. It was pretty hard to tell the difference, so dinner turned out to be pretty good and very filling. After dinner, we braved the tightness and stuffiness of the room for what would only be one of two times.
Tuesday 23rd May
It turned out to be a pretty warm night sleep but that served to make the shower first thing in the morning thoroughly worth while. Once refreshed, we had our fill of the free cereal at breakfast and returned to the room to find everyone else in our room had checked out, although we were sure it would be full come the evening. When we stepped out on to the streets, it seemed significantly cooler than it had the day before but we were in the shade and the day hadn't had a chance to warm up fully yet. Our first destination was the Space Needle, which is a tall observation tower that was originally built for the 1962 worlds fair but has since become an icon of the Pacific Northwest and, more specifically, Seattle itself. We were finding Seattle to be an incredibly walkable city, despite it being built on fairly steep hills, so we arrived at the Space Needle quicker than we expected. We weren't planning to go up it, due to Charlotte's fear of heights, so we just admired it for a while before heading off in search of Puget Sound. We made our way down a steep hill before getting stuck with the railway between us and the sound side park. A bit of walking got us to a bridge that took us over the train line and in to Myrtle Edwards park, which was right on the shores of the sound. We instantly fell in love with the views and the location. We found a bench to sit on so we could relax and spend some time enjoying the place. It was another beautiful day but the cool breeze was just enough to take the edge off the heat of the sun. The blue waters of the sound looked appealing but we left them to the two huskies that someone walked down to the edge of the water. The container ships were coming, going and anchored up waiting for whatever their next task was and in the background were the snow capped peaks of the Olympic mountain range were clearly visible beyond the water and the land. It was idyllic, very liveable and not many places had come close to being so appealing, to us at least. We spent a good half an hour just appreciating the view and enjoying the weather, before peeling ourselves away. We started walking along the coast, back towards the market/hostel area. We stopped by the Olympic sculpture garden but left thoroughly disappointed that there was only one sculpture to look at and it wasn't particularly good. We left the parks behind and walked past numerous piers that houses either posh apartments or posh restaurants. When we arrived at the Aquarium, we knew it was time to head up the stairs (there were stairs because the hill/cliff was obviously too steep to run a road down) in order to hit Pike Place Market. It was slowly ticking towards 1 and we were starting to get a bit peckish for lunch, so we stopped by the hostel to look for somewhere to eat. The stop proved pointless as we never did find anywhere, so we resolved to heading out and finding a place which, from vast previous experience, never ends up well. We had a quick glance at a café inside Pike Place Market but balked at the rather steep prices, so we headed through and out the other side. In a moment of blind inspiration, I decided to cross the road with Charlotte following, before Charlotte decided to just stop at a sandwich shop that had a fairly long lunchtime queue hanging out its front door. Over time, we've slowly got better at finding places to eat and part of it had been by just picking somewhere and going for it. It worked out incredibly well this time, as the sandwiches at Michou Deli, were fantastic and substantial. A “whole” Sierra (which was chicken with chipotle dressing) and a “whole” portobello sandwich later and we were pretty content. Our next stop was a coffee, from a coffee shop other than Starbucks. We like to try and drink at local coffee chains and although Starbucks is about as local as you can get in Seattle, we fancied somewhere a bit different and a bit quieter. We found one called Fonté, which suited us and we plonked ourselves on an outside seat in the shade and whiled away an hour drinking a sizeable Americano. Seattle was a nice city, it just didn't have a great deal to see, so we were perfectly happy relaxing and watching the world go by. We stopped by the shops once we were done with our coffees, picking up some pasta for our dinner. Despite the fairly early hour, it was half 3, we walked back to the hostel and relaxed in the cooler communal area downstairs from our room, we got up to date with blog and photos. We packed before it got too late and the room became too busy. For dinner, we rustled up some tuna, pasta and cheese before calling it a day and returning to the sweatbox. The quicker we got to sleep, the quicker we could be out the room and never have to return. Seattle had been nice though!
Somebody tell us what's goin' down, don't need another ...
James and Charlotte
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