Green Lake

Last night, I couldn't sleep very well because on the one hand, there was a rock concert or something like that nearby, which was pretty loud, and on the other hand, while I thought that the room temperature was something between ok and a bit cool, another roommate was sweating. As I didn't want the window next to me opened because of the cold and the street noises, she brought an annoying air conditioner into the room. As this was even more annoying than an open window, in the end we compromised to open the window a little - the street noises were less annoying than the air conditioner. Either way, I didn't sleep too well last night.
As I had also not been very fond of Seattle so far,  I started into the day a bit annoyed and with no expectations. In spite of that, I actually had a nice time here today.
I walked to Green Lake (about 2 km north of the hostel up a more or less steep street), since I have been told that it should be nice there. On the way there, I discovered a really nice rose garden. The roses weren't blooming yet but there were many other interesting plants.
The park next to Green Lake was also very nice to walk through. Green Lake itself was just a huge lake, with way too many people walking around. Still, there were some nice places and a lot of animals to behold. I saw a lot of cute dogs, several birds and even a squirrel. The highlight for me was a duck with more than ten little chicks. The walk around the lake was about 6 km long.
After that, I walked back to the hostel. So to sum up, I walked more than 10 km today. As I took many breaks along the way, I was gone the whole afternoon.

This evening, I bought some rice, broccoli and some dover sole from the nearby supermarket and cooked myself a delicious meal. 

Downtown Seattle: From the EMP museum to the Pike Place Market

Seattle still hasn't impressed me. But to be fair, I think I just don't get this city. To me, it feels dirty, the people seem weird (although they are all very friendly), the wind is too fierce and there all all these ugly pieces of metallic junk that people call art.

But let me recount my day: After breakfast (mostly just corn flakes, fruits and toast with sweet stuff on it - I already miss the cream cheese they had in the Vancouver hostel), I got myself a ticket for the EMP museum online and printed it at an UPS store. Next, I went to the nearest bus station and took the first bus to Downtown.
I got off a bus not too far from the space needle and started exploring the nearby area. Apart from a big red piece of metal and a huge fountain that sprayed it's water a bit too far (I felt water drops on my skin as the wind was blowing in my direction), there was nothing interesting.

The EMP museum was right around the corner and its metallic exterior walls were shimmering in the sun. The museum had several interesting exhibits. I mostly enjoyed the horror and the fantasy theme, where you could see props from several famous movies.
There was also a huge exhibit on Hello Kitty - I had never seen so much Hello Kitty stuff in my life (and since I used to love japanese stuff in my teenage years, that actually counts for something). There were Hello Kitty dresses, ties, toaster, backpacks, sticker, plushies, bikes, statues and so much more!
For musically interested people, there were exhibits on Nirvana and on guitars. I just skimmed through these rooms. However, you could also try out some instruments (keyboard, drums, guitar), which was really fun. There was also a room where you could stand 'live on stage' and play a song to a virtual audience - you didn't actually have to be able to play anything though. It was just a fun experience.

After the museum, I really needed to eat something and since there was a Mc Donalds nearby, I tried the Big Mac there. For some reason, I expected it to be bigger than the one in Germany, so I was actually a bit disappointed by its size when I had the burger in my hand. Still, it tasted quite well, but a bit different from the one in Germany.

My next goal was the pike place market. However, I took a detour to the Olympic Sculpture park. In the end, I could have easily done without that park, since there was nothing worth seeing - only some ugly, mostly metallic pieces of so called art.

The Pike Place Market was already starting to close down when I got there. Nevertheless, I got a good look around. There were a few really cool shops (one of them sold real life sized stand up cardboard figures from famous TV shows like supernatural) hidden on the lower levels of the market. I aso got myself a nice snack - a cinnamon apple roll.

Just after six, I took the first bus back to Fremont since I was very exhausted.

First impressions of Seattle - where is the WOW?

My Greyhound bus arrived shortly after 4 PM in Seattle. It wasn't too hard to find the next bus station and from there, I took the route 28 express bus to Fremont Ave and 38th Street North. After a short walk, I arrived at my hostel here in Fremont. After unpacking my stuff, I decided to take a stroll of the neighborhood. The girl at the reception suggested that I should check out some park, which I did. I guess that the parks I have seen in Vancouver kind of spoiled me and my expectations since I didn't really consider that park here in Seattle to be anything special. In fact, I am still waiting for that 'WOW'-feeling I had in Vancouver almost every day. Seattle is nice but that's it so far.
After the park, I walked back to the hostel. On the way, I checked out the Fremont troll, a huge stone figure which was actually the highlight of what I have seen in Seattle so far (well I have had nice skylines in Vancouver so those don't impress me anymore here).

Finally, since I had already been starving for a while, I got myself some prepared lasagna at the supermarket. While heating it in the hostel's oven, I got a few tipps on what to see around here and a few other cities from two guys (one of them is currently working here - I didn't get his name - and the other guy was called Steve), who were also using in the kitchen.

Throne and Games

Last night I went to the improv theater in Granville Island to see Game and Thrones, a fun impro play using the characters from Game of Thrones. The play was really entertaining, starting with the death of [spoiler] at the end of last season. Littlefinger was directing the whole experience while Gilly, Sam, Thormont, Brienne, Jorah Mormont and Ramsey fought for the position of leader of the night watch. Every time, luck or the audience or Littlefinger decided who would die after an impro battle.
Thormont won the first half of the show by killing Littlefinger before he could kill him.
In the second half, Daenerys, Tyrion and Snow joined the play and all of them fought for the iron throne. In the end, John Snow won.

After the show I walked home, enjoying the city lights from the bridge connecting downtown and Granville Island. It was actually my first time being out at night so this was a nice sight at the end of my time in Vancouver.

Right now I am sitting in a Greyhound bus on the way to Seattle. We have just passed the border (which is always a bit scary in my opinion) so now I am officially in the United States of America.

The Vancouver police museum - an arresting experience

When I got up this morning, I was surprised about my australian roommate Jodie still being here, because she had told us yesterday that her plane would leave at 10:30 AM. As it turned out, the plane was actually supposed to leave this evening so she still had the whole day in Vancouver. Originally, I had planned to spent the day relaxing at the hostel. However, Jodie convinced me to join her at the Vancouver police museum.
It was a 20 minute walk to the museum, which was located just past Gastown. The museum itself wasn't too big but had some interesting exhibitions. The room I most enjoyed was the coroner's office. I thought it was quite interesting that the museum's building used to house the city's Coroners Service and Analyst Laboratory.

After the museum, Jodie and I ate some soup and a salad at a small restaurant called the Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant itself was nicely decorated and there was some kind of old tram inside.
After a few more shopping and picture stops with Jodie, we went back to the hostel together.

In the evening, I finished watching the first season of Fuller House in the hostel's netflix room.

Walking through Vancouver

Just like yesterday, I felt pretty tired and exhausted today as well. So after breakfast, I just went into the hostel's netflix room to watch some Fuller House. My roomate Julia joined me since there was nothing else we could do - the lock on the door of our room was being changed and thus we couldn't enter our room for a while.
Julia and I left the hostel around noon for a walk - there was a small park south of Downtown that someone had recommended to me. Since we didn't know where else to go, we decided to check it out. The park was nice and partly located on some small island. We took a short break there. Then wevclimbed down to the water to watch some birds and afterwards, we went on in the direction of the Science World. On the way there was a bakery that actually sold some German bread.
Since I was close to the Main Station, I tried to find out from where my Greyhound bus is supposed to leave on Thursday.
After that, Julia and I went through Chinatown and to the Canada Place for some pictures. Next, we went back to the hostel to relax as we were both quite spent.

In the evening, Julia and I cooked the food (chilli con carne) that Nienke left for us when she left the hostel this morning to live with her host family here in Vancouver.

My second visit to Stanley Park

Since I hadn't seen the Indian totems in Stanley Park yet, I decided to pay the park another visit. My australian roommate Jodie joined me.
We had expected the weather to be very nice and warm, however, the sun was hidden behind the clouds so that I was actually freezing a bit. In spite of that I kept hoping that the weather would get better and thus kept going (it actually did get a bit warmer late in the afternoon).
The way along the coast was very nice again and it wasn't hard to find the Indian totems. They looked quite interesting, depicting several animals in an Indian style.
After checking out a Gift shop, we tried to find the Beaver Lake. As it turned out, that lake is not really a lake but rather some kind of swamp which was a bit disappointing.
Jodie still wanted to meet some guy she had met on the plane on the way to Vancouver so she left early while I still went to see a lagoon. The lagoon was actually the highlight of the Stanley park for me today, since it was quite beautiful and I saw a cute squirrel and several birds there.
After a while I went back to the hostel. Due to me already being pretty tired, the way back was extremely exhausting.

Nevertheless, after a short rest I went out once again to eat some Sushi (it was quite cheap, 9 CAD for 3x6 maki). My other two roommates Julia from Germany and Nienke from Holland joined me (although Julia didn't eat anything at the sushi restaurant as she doesn't like sushi).