The Evergreen State.

Seattle.

Seattle was great. We had really beautiful weather and one of the best couch surfing hosts. 

Carlos was his name and his ability to squeeze as much into the day as well as knowing everything about the city was very appreciated.

When we arrived he invited us to a monthly meeting he has with a bunch of other couch surfers at a local pub, We got to mingle and exchange stories and even though they were all strangers because of this one community we could cut all the bullshit and just get along.

 With a few hours spent at the pub the decision was made to continue on to someones house, i say someone because i cant remember his name..

Another first happened here. My first Hookah experience. Strange apparatus but it was cool besides the fact that it was an Ed Hardy design which i paid the dude out for.. fuck Ed hardy.

Day 2 

Up bright and early as i have to sent somethings home because The greyhound has a weight restriction(which in the end didn't matter) so we head to FedEx and turns out to post all my shit is $350. Fuck FedEx so then we drop off the rental car in downtown Seattle and continue to the Post Office, spend a good hour there to try and sort out everything that i am allowed to send home. $100 later we can finally see Seattle. 

Pike Public market was first on the list. We cruised around, checked out a few stores, got a sample of the most amazing Smoked Salmon i have ever tasted and headed to the Russian Bakery for a very tasty cheese bun contraption. 

Pike was packed full of people, it was a really cool atmosphere but you kind of wonder how many people were actually residents and not tourist.

2nd- The Gum wall. this is exactly was it sounds like, a wall full of Gum. This was really cool but also really gross. In true tourist fashion we put our mark on that wall.

3rd- I didn't get a photo of it because at the end of the day it was just a Starbucks but we went to the very first Starbucks and it was how it was originally, a little battered but with the biggest line i have seen at a Starbucks which seemed pointless to me, you could just walk a couple of blocks and you would find another one.

4th- EMP. Amazing. When we were driving into Seattle i really wanted to stop in Aberdeen because of Nirvana but when we found out it was 40 miles away in a direction that we were not going we couldn't really justify it so when the EMP had a Nirvana exhibition i couldn't of been happier.

Old t-shirts, smashed guitars, awards, letters, original photos and every possible description of film clips/albums and their influence of the Grunge beginnings. I was super happy that i got here for this.

We followed onto a Jimmy Hendrix exhibition and then the play room. They had guitars, drums, vocal rooms, decks, recording studios. you name it, it was there.

It was here that the ' Fragiles' formed… pronounced frageelies.  Jaymee, Carlos and I had a 10 minute session in the recording studio to record the song ' Tracey is a whore' which was a part White Strips rip off part shambles work of art that will never reach the public due to differences in the band. Basically Jaymee thought i was a whore, i said that i was not and Carlos decided it was best not to invest in the discussion, we briefly reconciled to record 'Twist and shout' by the Beatles in a sell out projected audience but upon watching the video  and seeing our lack of chemistry we felt it was time to depart ways.

Avatar exhibition was next. Not as good as i was hoping but we still got to be transported in the world of the actors. There was a machine set up that would scan your body and then when you moved an Avatar on the screen would move as you were. 

We spoke Navi, saw videos of the how the actors had to act out the scenes and worked one of the cameras that they used in the movie.

5th- A fountain. this may not seem that exciting to you but when Jaymee came to Australia 2 years ago we finished one of our nights out with jumping around in a fountain and we wanted to relive it on our trip. we were running out of time and although this isn't quite how we wanted to do it we still got to play around a fountain, something that we could cross of the list.

6th- the troll under the bridge. again this is exactly was it seems, a troll under a bridge. This part of town, that i have forgotten the name built this troll to unite to community.

7th - a quick walk to a stranger neighbourhood. Carols told us that this part of town thought they were pretty much better than everyone else and built a solar system/ universe statue to show that they were the centre of the universe.. weird but they did offer a chocolate store that provided us with samples to give us a new kick to the afternoon.

8th- We walked around the waterfront to the Google offices

9th- THE MOST AMAZING PIZZA I HAVE EVER EATEN. it was vegan but i am still craving it now. IT WAS AMAZING.

10th- Walked down University Blvd or The Ave as it is called and ventured into a pretty cool vintage store

11th- the frat houses and University of Washington. Now these Sorority and Frat houses made me want to go to school over there. They were massive and screamed parties. School was out and there was still music and parties happening and the houses looked exactly like the movies, it was pretty sweet.

Carlos then showed us around his hopefully soon to be school and told us all about the history. The School was massive and beautiful. Most of the buildings were old and Harry Potter like, this also reinforced the feeling of wanting to go to school here.

We stroll back to the house and finish this crazy long day with watching Scott pilgrim Vs the world.

So to sum up Seattle.

Carlos definitely made the stay better, we saw a lot of things that we may not have come across or known about if it wasn't for him. He knew so much about the city it made me ashamed that i wouldn't be able to do this in my home town.

A must for the West Coast.