Sleepless in Seattle
Well, well, well....kinda fallen behind with the blog, but there's a simple explanation really, namely that internet access is kinda hard to come by on campsites across Canada and even that said the comms technology here is on par with Sierra Leone so now I've got the chance here we go...
Photos to accompany this posting can be found HERE.......
Ok, left London on Tuesday June 7th to catch a flight to Copenhagen where I would be transferring to a Scandinavian Airways flight to Seattle. The Scandinavian Airways flight from London to Copenhagen left with the promptness of the English Railways system so my arrival in Copenhagen gave me just enough time to sprint to my flight to Seattle. Greeted by the flight crew I was notified that the aisle seat that I had booked had been given away, naturally I don't swallow that sort of shit without a fight so I pointed out that the least I would settle for is an upgrade for my inconvenience... and do you know what, they obliged! So, sweet as a nut.. Business Class to Seattle will just have to do. Now I don't know whether all flights to the US now have a mandatory policy of force feeding passengers in order to get them fully 'food trained' for life in the US but I can safely say that this one did in fact enforce this policy. I logged all meals, drinks, snacks etc and it was as follows (and no, I am not bullshitting, this is the real deal... or should I say meal deal):
- Drink and snacks
- Full meal with 3 rounds of bread rolls
- Ice Cream
- Drink and snacks
- Ice Cream
- Sandwiches and drink
- Fruit
- Drinks and snacks
- Pizza
- Ice Cream
and yes of course I opted in for the full monty, that's a lot of food for a 9 hour flight especially when you're expected to fit in some sleep somewhere amongst all that bingeing. Anyway, great flight and I also had time to finish my book (excellent read) 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom and to watch the film 'Hotel Rwanda'(superb). Now another feature to this great airline that I was thoroughly impressed with was the following. All SAS flights have an undercarriage and plane nose camera that you can watch at any stage of the flight. So as well as watching the undercarriage camera of the landing in Seattle which was kinda cool, I watched as we flew over Greenland whilst listening to Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) which I have to say was a rather haunting whilst at the same time relaxing experience.
So yeah, Seattle. After the insanely extensive immigration checks, twice interrogated by half-wit immigration officials and about 10 bag scans I finally managed to start my trip in Seattle eventually making my way to The Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle, in my room there were the almost-obligatory mute Japanese dudes fast asleep in the middle of the day. By the way, has anyone been to Japan and are you not allowed to sleep there? I am beginning to believe that that is the case because they're all clogging up beds in hostels around the world doing nothing other than sleep. Anyway, after making my bed I headed out into downtown Seattle for some action. I managed about 3 hours of wandering and orientation before the jet lag battered me around the back of the head and so I took off back to the hostel to chill out. Next thing I knew it was time to feed myself so I helped myself to some free curry at the hostel before heading off to find anywhere that showed the Lions rugby game. Finally tracked somewhere down at around 5 mins before kick off and then had the pleasure of giving several brief resumes of rugby rules to the many locals passing through the bar. Thoroughly exhausting and bedtime for Chopper came round immediately after the final whistle.
Wednesday I actually had a bit more energy so decided to do the tourist thing and haul my ass up the space needle after taking the monorail out to Seattle Center. It was here that I heard something odd, I hope you appreciate the strangeness of this and that it's not a 'you had to be there to get it' scenario, but as I was getting the Monorail back to downtown an American couple came upto the ticket booth just as the monorail pulled in and asked the ticket dude the following: "Sir, could you please tell us whether everything is OK on the system today?", me being me naturally had to ask them what in the name of Colonel Sanders they were talking about. "We just wanted to know whether the monorail is running smoothly today as we are about to take a trip to downtown." Now I don't know about you but that's some weird shit.
Anyway after that I did some very thorough exploring of the streets of Seattle and headed back to the hostel to meet some new people... Met Adam from Phoenix and Jordan from Bakersville, both top blokes that were the basis of my amusement and company for the next few days. Had a few cans of 'Mickeys' (great stuff at $1.20 a pint can) and grabbed some food before bed to make sure I was fully set for Thursday's stomp to Bruce and Brandon Lee's graves.
Thursday morning headed to the Merchant's Cafe in Pioneer Square for a hearty breakfast and some inside info from the cafe owner on my route to Bruce's grave then checked out the Seattle Art museum before heading back to the Green Tortoise to find Adam and head out to the graves. An hour and a half walk there and the same back kinda took the wind outta my sails but the experience was priceless and will always be a positive one for me. Sitting there next to Bruce for half an hour was a very therapeutic and humbling experience that I feel priviliged to have been able to do. Nice.
Friday I had booked an early start for a 12 hour day trip (250 mile round trip) to Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier can be seen from Downtown Seattle and it's 235,625 acres (97% is designated Wilderness). It includes Mount Rainier (14,410'), an active volcano encased in over 35 square miles of snow and ice, and the park contains outstanding examples of old growth forests and subalpine meadows. So off we set through Eatonville along the Nasqualle River, through Elbe (German settlement) and then onto Rainier Base Camp for some whoop ass views of the mountain. The only downer to the trip occurred while we got to base camp as a Chopper flew overhead with a bodybag (confirmed the bad news at Info Centre) as a hiker had fallen and died shortly before we got there. So with feet firmly on the ground we headed back towards Seattle via Narada Falls and Box Canyon Falls. Once the scenery was worn out the driver decided to give us all a US trivia quiz, in which I had a distinct disadvantage being the only non-American out of 10 people, pleased to say that I didn't come last and even managed to get myself into an argument with the driver as he swayed away from US trivia to ask us who got the 2012 Olympics, I shouted out nobody yet and he was like: "Wrong, it was announced that Paris have won the bid." You can imagine my reaction and seeing as nobody could back me up as they hadn't got a clue so we had to agree to disagree. As we all know it's not been decided yet... Don't we?
Saturday was a truly bad weather day so I monged out at the hostel for most of the day, the highlight being when some American dude was denied a bed at the hostel he decided to pick up the PC monitor and throw it at the wall... the Russell Crowe of backpacking I guess... Police turned up and arrested him, truly quality rainy day entertainment.
And the next update will follow real soon kids as I 'fill you in' with my wacky exploits of the past 20 days across Canada, watch this space..................
Ciao for now, Chopper
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