Seattle to Portland

On my second day at Seattle we met up with Caleb and Rob, to Aussie guys I knew from Big White who came down to Seattle so they could get a cheaper flight to New York.

They went and checked out the Space Needle (that big tower in all the photos of Seattle) and all the other things Simon and I had done the day before. We went walking up to Capitol Hill. Our destination was Volunteer Park where Bruce Lee is purportedly buried. On the way we found a lot of cool stores with old and random books and just the most random things that I want to buy and horde. If I had a magical suitcase that could weigh nothing no matter how much I put into it, I would probably go to town on my credit card.

We kept walking up to the point where I realised that we were well and truly lost. After some nifty directions from some helpful locals we eventually found the cemetery. When we got there it began to rain, as it usually does in Seattle. I realised that the place was an Asian cemetery and as such one in four of the people buried there were named Lee. Simon wanted to press ahead for the search but by this point I was cold and wet and well over Simon's search for some dead dude's grave. I also realised quite quickly that Simon's general sense of direction sucks the balls so I took charge and we eventually found a bus stop that took us about 2 blocks from our door.

That night we hung out with Caleb and Rob, and we watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords on Caleb's laptop.

The next day we all went down to the Pike Place Market across the road from the hostel. It was a pretty cool market. There was a rib cook off going on and it smelt pretty good. I also got my photo taken outside of the very first Starbucks (there really is one on every corner). We then went down to the Seattle Aquarium where I got some fun photos, which I someday hope to post up on the Ineterweb.

The next day, Simon and I parted ways with Caleb and Rob and we caught our bus to Portland. About 20 minutes into the trip the bus got rear ended by a mini-van and we were delayed by an hour and a half while we waited for the cops. I'm not sure what the big deal was because when I saw the damage it was only a fender bender, but the bus driver was fretting.

We finally arrived in Portland at abut 4:30pm. Simon wanted to walk to the hostel with our backpacks despite the fact we had no idea where we were or where the hostel was. I put I stop to his foolish notions and we caught a taxi for five dollars.