the seattle update

So I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, and I've already moved three cities on since the last post. Instead of doing a day by day account, I'll just summarize everything. Mostly because I'm too lazy to blog seven posts. Har.

Let's start with Seattle. Which, by the way, has the BEST hostel of this entire trip. Admittedly, the top bunk bed was rather hazardous to my head, what with a pipe sticking out around the ladder up, and the ladder made me feel like I was a fireman (firewoman?). Also, the lack of elevators make for rather distressing moments when lugging heavy suitcases, especially since the hostel starts from the second floor. But other than that, we had a lovely bathroom that didn't make me feel like I was showering in the swimming pool toilets (like in New York). Plus the people working there were really friendly and didn't screw up our reservations. They provided breakfast and dinner (yay!). They had wireless connection in the rooms (which is far more than I can say for HI New York). And they suggested the best deals for us.

For instance, the Experience Music Project. We paid 11 when we should originally have paid 14 (I think. More than 11 anyways.) and it was the coolest exhibit!! They charted the origins of guitars and they actually had the first Gibson guitar ever made! We weren't allowed to take pictures though (darn it.) but Alvina got one with her phone so once she uploads it, I'll post it.

Other than guitars, they did a timeline of the music history of Seattle. Did you know that Seattle was the city where grunge began? They started an entire phase in the history of music. Totally unexpected, considering how...slow everything is. Okay, maybe after the streets of Manhattan, everything feels slow. Anyways. The exhibit did a history of Disney's music too, which made for some rather disturbing footage of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in their Mickey Mouse days. Hm.

But the coolest part of the exhibit came from the music rooms. There were tons of mini music studios everywhere with electric guitars, bases, keyboards and drums. Embarrassingly, I only managed to master a drum rhythm with (a lot of) help from a tutorial. But still, it was all pretty cool.

Other fun things in Seattle was the Pike Place Market, which is just like Victoria's Market in Melbourne. It's got really funky stuff in there, like this super cool comic store that had single issues of the Sandman!!! I desperately wanted the first issue, or failing that, issue #8 (Death's first appearance), but the store was completely sold out for those. Sighs. I doubt those would $8 anyways. The store also had tons of movie scripts and even the pilot episode of Heroes written by Tim Kring, complete with illustrations. But those were going for $20, which I didn't really want to fork out since I wasn't really that much of a Heroes fan.

Around the Pike Place Market (which was conveniently just right outside our hostel) was the first-ever Starbucks in the world. I bought a cuppa and mentally toasted all you MP Bux people. Heh. Got a picture to go with too! Which I will upload. Eventually. Haha. Well, I'll show it to you guys the next movie night anyways.

People in Seattle are a lot more polite than New Yorkers, although we did have a rather terrible experience when we took the bus from our hostel to the airport, where some guy very sarcastically said he'd stand instead of sitting with us and our suitcases. Sighs.

On the food side, we managed to save quite a bit since the hostel provided breakfast and dinner (yay again!), but Alvina and I splurged a little to try the oysters from Emmett Watson's, since we figure seafood won't come any fresher than at Pike Place. Oysters are so divine. And now it's making me miss sashimi. Sighs. Other than the oysters, we ate at this Thai restaurant that was relatively decent in price (although for the life of me, I can't seem to recall where now). For 6 bucks, we got a lovely meal of Pad Thai, which satisfied some of our Asian food craving. But the smell of the restaurant is kinda like NTU's Hall 2 canteen - and that's not a good thing. Ah, wells. At least we got yummy food in return.

I think that pretty much sums up the Seattle phase of my trip. I'll blog about San Fran soon. In the meantime, I'm gonna go shower and sleep since I've got an 830 class tomorrow, and a long walk to get there. Sighs. I do hate hills and stairs. Which I'm sure I will bitch about in the SF post.

But that's a story for another time. Until then, see ya! :)