Seattle - Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
The bus journey to Seattle went pretty quickly considering it was 5 hours,but every 30/45 minutes there was a stop which broke it up nicely.Some of the views were beautiful but unfortunately the bright sunlight through the windows made it hard to capture a decent photo of any of it.The bus weaved through the hilly terrain with lots of woodlands and lakes at the bottom of the valleys it really was nice on the eyes.In the far distance you could see lines of mountains so as you can imagine,a very scenic route. Arriving in Seattle I had about a 15 minute walk to the hostel which was located in Belltown.The hostel itself was nice and clean and the staff were incredibly friendly,it was a nice place to stay and the location was good too being a short walk to most of the sights in Seattle.That evening I went to the shop and bought supplies to save on eating dinner out then headed to the seafront to have a look about.The seafront is pretty with the islands in the distance and mountains forming the backdrop so it's a nice place to be although there is a fair few homeless guys begging all along the seafront however you find them everywhere in Seattle.I took a look into one of the piers which was full of arcades and shops and eerie old statues and machines which creeped me out a bit so I left pretty sharpish!The next place I visited was a place called 'Ye Olde Curiosity Shop' which was also a museum and had all kinds of weird and wonderful artifacts to see as well as buy.Inside there was things like mummies,stuffed two headed calves,stuffed 3 headed ducklings,actual vampire killing kits and all kinds of other things.Strangely enough this freaked me out less than the amusement pier!I left the shop and headed more into the town area to see where everything was before heading back and having dinner then settling in for bed. The next morning I was up for breakfast before getting showered and heading to the Seattle centre which is the opposite direction to downtown where I headed the night previous.The centre section is marked by the space needle which has featured in several films and you can actually go up it for a fee I wasn't willing to pay.There is also a skate park,stadium and several museums here which I didn't bother to visit choosing to try and make Seattle a saving week.After wondering around the centre for a while I headed to the seafront and had a rest enjoying the view.I then walked up towards the piers again past the Olympic sculpture park and eventually ended up eating some deep fried salmon and chips. After this I headed into downtown again and had a browse in a few shops before heading into the library and printing off my flight ticket for when I leave.The Seattle library is an impressive spectacle itself and after doing what I needed to do I headed back to the hostel and had some dinner before bed. The next day was a Friday and was another day spent walking around downtown looking about and going up to the stadiums the far side of downtown then heading back again for dinner and a quiet evening.Saturday I caught the ferry across to Bainbridge island and walked around this small city for a few hours.It was completely different to Seattle,being that it is much more like a little country town although it is known as a city.The island itself is beautiful and one day I would like to live there!its so picturesque and the views are incredible.i decided to hire a kayak here for an hour and go up and down the estuary flowing around through the island.This was one of my favorite days so far I really enjoyed the kayaking and the beautiful views.The weather was great too so it was all in all a great day.When I returned in the evening I made some dinner then took advantage of the 21 seat cinema in the basement and watched a film,joined by my German roommate Micheal.After the film Michael and I headed up to capital hill to get a couple of beers and hang out.It turns out Michael writes software for twitter back in San Francisco but had taken 3 months vacation and was currently doing voluntary work by making audio players with data on them to educate people in poor countries.We stayed out till about 2am then headed in. The next day was a lazy one for me at the hostel just generally mincing about and getting my washing and what not done.That evening I went out with my 3 roommates for a meal courtesy of Gabe,who works for the government and due to staying in the hostel had saved a fortune on accommodation and so had plenty of government money available to treat us all which was ever so nice of him.Gabe was from Washington DC and was in Seattle for work conferences and our other roommate was a girl called Patience who was just traveling.So myself,Gabe,Patience and Michael all had grilled salmon and vegetables and a beer which was delicious followed by a coffee from Starbucks or in my case a hot chocolate.After coffee we headed in for the night and I was soon asleep. Monday was again a day of walking and looking around for the final time in Seattle before heading in and having dinner then chilling out with a few new faces from the hostel.The night was again uneventful other than getting all packed and ready for the next morning where I flew to San Francisco.Michael was just about to go when I woke up so I got him on Facebook and bid him farewell before getting showered and heading to breakfast.In my usual casual way I got ready although this was a time to rush and when I eventually got the train and arrived at the airport I had 35 minutes before my flight left which turned out was too late to get on even for a domestic flight so I ended up being put on the 5pm flight instead!it was my own fault really but the walk from the hostel to the station and the airport station to check was rather long and therefore added a good 25 minutes onto the journey which just took me over the check in limit time!The 5pm flight was delayed until 6:30 so I decided to go back to downtown seattle to the library for Internet and phone charging purposes for a few hours before heading back and eventually catching my flight.