Seattle

To many people of my generation, Seattle is first and foremost known for being the birthplace of Grunge music. My guidebook also reminded me that Starbucks coffee, Microsoft and Boeing have their headquarters up here. Other than that, I knew rather little of what to expect of this Northwestern metropolis.

The first day I stayed with Julian (second from left) from the Couchsurfing website, who works as a programmer for Microsoft. He had a nice, big house and I slept very comfortably in his guest room. In the evening we went to a bar where I met some of his friends.

The next day I ventured into town, walking round aimlessly, curiously wondering what would await around the next street corner. Seattle has some very beautiful neighbourhoods but also a large population of homeless people.

Although being a fairly large city, the public transport service is awful. A pointless monorail system connects downtown to the “Seattle Centre”, a complex of amusement parks, museums and concert halls. Paul Allen, Microsofts co-founder, has put a lot of money into a tram system originally called South Lake Union Trolley. Apparently it was not until locals started printing SLUT t-shirts that the developers realised what the acronym was. The system now bears the slightly less offensive name of South Lake Union Streetcar, or SLUS.

In the afternoon I met up with Emma, another couchsurfer. She showed me Pike’s Place Market - a lively place where you can buy anything from fresh fish to vintage clothing. In the evening we had dinner in Ballard, a part of town which was once an old Scandinavian fishing village.

The next day Emma and I went for a stroll in town and met with Anne (another couchsurfer, on the left) and Emmas friend Lauren (the one with the amazing dress). In the afternoon we went to an alternative music / art festival which was full of interesting acts.

written by  niklasbergstrand on January 20, 2009 from Seattle, United States
from the travel blog: Niklas in America
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