(this weekend was so big, it's taken me the rest of the week to compose this email!!)
That's a helluva lot of activity over a weekend. No matter i felt so knackered on Monday morning. A decidely more low-key approach to the next two days methinks.
Woke up Monday morning to yet another stellar weather day, all sunshine and blue skies, and a pleasant mid-teens temperature (altho they operate in farenheit down here - and i have no idea how that system works!) What's up with the weather? That's 3 days in a row down here! I was expecting the famous Seattle drizzle and grey skies, the depressing kind that isn't that heavy, but still soaks you to the skin. But hey, I ain't complaining!!
The Pike Place Public Markets (www.cityofseattle.net/tour/pikep.htm) are one of the most famous in America and an historical icon of Seattle, having been operating since about 1911. Situated virtually a few blocks from the Pacific ocean, it has the freshest of the fresh fish and other seafood imaginable.
I saw a Discovery Channel doco on this market once, and it can best be described as a free-form funhouse of sights, smells, sounds, and characters. When an order is placed, fish vendors throw 15 and 20 Pound salmon and halibut across the aisle with the theatrics and drama of a stage show - it's quite a spectacle! It's quite the touristy market, with lots of arts and crafts and prints and paintings on sale, as well as the usual fruit&veg, and flowers, etc. You can (and I did, at a very leisurely pace, I might add) spend hours checking out the 3 floors of shops and stalls.
Seattle is also famous for its love of coffee, and across the street from the market is the very, very, very first ever Starbuck's coffee house. Now, i'm not usually a fan of the big corporate behemoth, but made an exception in this instance, ordered a cappuccino, and bought a 1/2 kilo bag of it's 'Pike Place Blend', taking the obligatory "i was here" photo as well!
Wandering down to the waterfront, I got quite an unexpected surprise. There's a single streetcar line than runs along the docklands/waterfront area and on up to Pioneer Square, and they're using the old-school W-Class Melbourne trams that we phased out about 10 years ago. So for old times and nostalgia sake, i just had to take a ride on an old Melbourne tram in Seattle.
Pioneer Square is Seattle's oldest district and was the home of the original "Skid Road," a term born when timber was slid down Yesler Way to a steam-powered mill on the waterfront. It's fortunes have improved somewhat in the modern day, with all the old mills and warehouses being converted into art galleries, coffee houses, bars and apartments, and is very chic indeed. A planned quick stop in one of the chic-est cafe's cum art galleries, Zeitgeist (www.zeitgeistcoffee.com), had me sitting there about 2 hours later, just chillin' and relaxin' with a magazine and some damn fine coffee(!) as the events of the past two days caught up with my body (y'know I can still party like it's 1999, but the recovery is harder and longer than it used to be!!)
Aside from catching bands, the other supremo importo thing I had to do here was catch up with my good, good buddy Jennifer, an awesome, fun chicko I hung out with during my time in Edinburgh. She had visited me in Melbourne, and now it was time for me to reciprocate. So Monday evening I hopped a bus out to Wallingford and spent the evening with her and her boyfriend Ben. It was just like old times - 30 seconds in the house and i had a spliff in my hand!
They took me out to this cruisy little bar called The Sea Monster (club-vibes website review - Located in the heart of Wallingford, the SeaMonster is a dimly lit blue and green oasis for twenty, thirty, and forty somethings in Seattle that need exceptional music, intelligent conversation, and a good stiff drink.) Monday is Open Mic Night, and when we walked in, an awesome blues guitarist was plying his trade. But as can happen with Open Mic nights, you gotta take the good with the bad, and we then had to endure some homeboy dickheads doing thier worst bitch-slap-ho-suck-my-dick gangsta rap. Contrasted with that tho, to follow was some rapping of a different kind, an awesome stream-of-conciousness, power-positive social-politico verse, kinda in the Ani Di Franco mould. that was much nicer. The big bonus of the night was that one of Jen's friends was bar-tending that night, and gave us about 80% off the drinks! Did i mention i was having a GREAT time in Seattle?
Now I have to say I hold Jen in pretty high esteem. She's fun, she's awesome, and she's cute. Her stock rose even higher when she told me what she does for a living - she is the nanny for Dave Matthews of Dave Matthews Band! (www.davematthewsband.com) Get this - she gets to tour with the band, travelling most parts of the world, looking after his twin 3-1/2 year old daughters, and lives pretty much rent free in one of the places he owns (the one in Wallingford i was at). How cool is that!
After we returned from the bar and had another spliff, it was kinda past the last-bus-home time for me, and so i was put up on the mattress in Dave Matthew's kids playroom. It's bigger than my kitchen and lounge combined, and is full of all the awesome toys you could want as a 3 year old. What a life.
Tuesday. My last day in Seattle. All over already? Damn, so much to do, so little time. As previously mentioned, this town has an awesome rock'n'roll pedigree. As an illustration of this, as I was walking around town, I passed theatres advertising gigs for no-less-than-legends Joe Cocker for 'one night only' and Bob Bylan (for 3 nights!). Oh, and David Byrne of Talking Heads fame was in the Robyn Hitchcock audience on Saturday night. This town is awesome for star-stalking name-droppers like me!!!!!
I just realised I haven't made mention of my-main-man Kurt Cobain in this 3-part epic. I did some research to see if I could visit his memorial gravesite as well as Jimi, Bruce and Bob's (i'm on first name basis with them all now!! ;-) ). It turns out he was cremated and had his ashes scattered in the Wishkah River by his home town of Aberdeen, Washington. Given that that is a few hundred kilometres away, it weren't all that feasible to pay homage there. The home where he killed himself is closer to town, but that has apparently been demolished. Oh well.
So, after a few quiet beers back at the hostel it was time to bid farewell to the rocking-est of rockin' cities this side of the black stump, Seattle, and jump a 4 hour bus ride back to Vancouver.
That concludes my magical mystery tour. Hope you enjoyed it, and wasn't too long for you!!
Adios, Tony
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