Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet!

Monday 18 February 2013

Seattle...and a side note!


First off, here's the side note:
Ok, so if you're reading this blog and you're like "hey, what's up with these dates? She posted this in February 2013" well basically I stopped blogging and wrote everything down in a travel diary instead. I found it was easier to do time-wise as opposed to trying to find time to sit down and write a full post in one go (this post for example has actually been sitting as a draft since about April 2012). So I'm now going back through and putting all those events onto here. If you have any questions feel free to message me (on here is fine however, if you're an ECU student reading this wanting more info, contact the international office. They'll either be able to help you or will give you my details so I can answer questions regarding my exchange!).
Anyway, I just wanted to explain that before I continued.

So. Here's Seattle.

It figures since we live so close that we should spend a weekend here and there exploring Seattle and that's what we decided to do on the third of March. There was myself, two other exchange students - one from the Netherlands (Jessica) and one from Italy (Valentina) and our American friend who happened to be a local and became our tour guide (thanks Chris!).




We left early wanting to make the most of our day away. Chris came to pick us up from Birnam Wood so we piled into his car and drove south. Chris has great taste in music. He also likes to listen to it LOUD so that coupled with Starbucks kept us awake on our journey. We weren't sure where to park when we got into the city but we eventually found a parking garage that was close to downtown Seattle and wouldn't cause us to spend our life savings on parking. From there we walked just about everywhere. We decided to head to the Space Needle first. I was pretty excited about this since it's pretty well known. We wandered down there, stopping for a hot drink along the way at Forza Coffee (which was delicious by the way - white chocolate mocha..mmmm). When we eventually got to the Space Needle we purchased tickets and had a look around. They had these little kiosks everywhere that told you facts about Space Needle itself and about certain places around Seattle. It was really interesting and it was like doing a tour of the city without actually going anywhere. After spending a bit of time wandering around we then ventured outside onto the viewing platform. It was unbelievably cold and windy up there but the view was fantastic! We didn't stay too much longer, just took some photos and Chris pointed out where he lived across the Puget Sound. We headed out through the gift shop and continued back to Pike Place Market. For those that aren't familiar with Pike Place Market it's basically just indoor market. There's shops and restaurants/cafes that are a little more permanent but there's also just benches/sections that people hire. It's pretty cool. There's a fish market there where the guys actually throw the fish back and forth to each other and across the road is where the first Starbucks opened. We didn't go in because the line was huge and we'd already had a coffee fix but it was nice to see anyway. From there we headed around the back and down towards the pier which was bustling with people. We had lunch at Red Robin (they do really amazing burgers and if you're gluten intolerant and often miss out on eating things like that, they do them wrapped in lettuce instead of in bread!). After digesting for a while we wandered back and visited the gum wall. Imagine peoples chewed up gum stuck to a wall. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. We all added our piece (which was gross but oddly exciting) and took some photos. It was an experience and that's what this trip is all about! After that we had a brief wander back through downtown and then headed back to Bellingham to spend the rest of the weekend up to our eyeballs in homework.

Overall it was one of the quieter weekends but it was fun nonetheless and it was good to have a break. I enjoyed seeing more of the city. It's got character. Chris mentioned that there's an underground tour available so maybe next time we'll look at doing that. Apparently Seattle used to be a lot steeper than it already is and so they moved all this dirt down the hill to try and flatten it out a bit and in the process created these underground basement/tunnel things. Sounds pretty exciting if you ask me!

Have a good week all.

Love Danielle xx

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