Round Up

It’s been a long time coming but here is a wrap up of the last couple of weeks of my trip for those of you I haven't seen since my return. Check the Flickr link on the left after reading and you should hopefully find a selection of newly uploaded photos.


SEATTLE

Seattle was a very average city, nothing particularly bad about it but nothing that I could find to really recommend visiting for. They have a monorail (finally I can say I’ve been on one, if only for 2 minutes). They also have a tower, but it’s smaller than most. They have the usual array of shops downtown and the cool Public Market area has a selection of small shops and boutiques next to the food and flower market (where they throw the fish around). I walked around in most of the other areas of the city too (mainly record shopping) which were quite nice.

The only touristy thing I did there was visit The Music Experience, a kind of music museum. They had a good section on Jimmy Hendrix (he was from the area), a guitar hall of fame, a history of Latin American music and also a bunch of keyboards, drums and guitars for people to play/learn in the hands on section. The highlight of the museum for me though was to see the Roland TR-808 drum machine in the flesh (geek). It belonged to some local 80s hip-hop producer that I’d never heard of but it’s a beautiful thing!


CLICK TO SEE/HEAR IT IN ACTION

The ticket price also included admission to the Sci-Fi museum. I assumed this was going to be a small thing but it turned out to be really good. They had a variety of mainstream and obscure stuff, my favourites being the life size Donatello from the Turtles movie and the super shiny old school Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.

The hostel was not in the downtown area but the extra time on the bus was well worth it as it was the best hostel I stayed in for the whole trip, it even had views of the Olympic Mountains over the bay. The owners, staff and guests were all really friendly and there was a very homely vibe to the place. Most nights were spent in the lounge listening to some music and chatting or downstairs watching a film. I did head down to Studio! @ Havana Bar one night for some Disco action courtesy of TJ Gorton, whose American Athlete blog I enjoy reading. It was a little empty but the music was good.




VANCOUVER

I got the bus to Vancouver which was fine. It was super hot for the first couple of days I was there though. I did quite a bit of walking, and of course some record shopping, but the heat got the better of me and I went to bed quite early. I didn’t feel too good for the next couple of days so didn’t really do too much, just a walk around Stanley Park and along the shops. Vancouver Art Gallery had a good exhibition on Comics, Animation and Manga. There was also a Videogame section but it was tiny. There was lots to see and it took me most of the day to look at it all. They had a small cinema area with various animated films being shown and I got to see one of my favourite movies ‘Akira’ on the projector as well as Wallace & Gromit among others. The next day I walked to Chinatown and visited Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s public park and classical Chinese garden. It was nice but the tour guide was kind of annoying. I wasted the last of my American coins in the arcade the night before I left on some old classics like Street Fighter!


VANCOUVER ISLAND

I’ll start the Vancouver Island section by explaining who people are. Mary is my Grandad’s cousin. She is married to Dick and her mum is Marge. Mary’s brother Jeff is married to Janet and they live up Island with their son Ben. Their other son Peter is currently travelling Europe, check his blog.

I got the coach to Victoria (including the nice ferry ride) and spent the first few days with Marge and her big fat cat Teah. We talked, played some cards, ate home made dinners and watched TV together. I had a walk around downtown, a poor selection in the record shops there! I went to the BC Museum, which hadn’t changed an awful lot since my last visit in 1997. Marge, Mary, Dick and me went to Chermanus at the weekend to meet Jeff, Janet and Ben for a picnic. It was another hot day and we had a walk around before I went back home to spend a couple of days with J&J in the Islands second biggest city, Nanaimo. We played some pitch and putt the first night and then went to bed early. We were up and out early the next day and after dropping Janet at work, me and Jeff had a walk in the woods at Cathedral Grove and also at Little Qualicum Falls which was nice. We went to Coombs where they are meant to have goats or sheep on the roofs of the buildings but all we saw was the grass. The weather wasn’t so good the next day but me and Jeff went a couple of places on the bus before I came back to Victoria to stay with Mary and Dick in their lovely Art Deco style home.

Me and Mary climbed Mount Finlayson one day. We thought there would be more of a trail but it was basically clambering up the rocks on a loosely labelled pathway. It was good fun though and there were some great views from the top. The next day we drove out west towards the Juan de Fuca coast and walked down through the woods to Mystic Beach which was nice. On the way out we stopped at the Salvation Army thrift store and I bought a bigger suitcase for $3.50 to take all my extra crap home in. Marge came over for dinner in the evenings and we played cards or a board game afterwards. Me and Dick usually stayed up later than Mary and watched TV.

It was a long journey home, starting with the bus from Victoria, across the ferry and to Vancouver airport. The flight was good, BA treat you very well. This time I had some nice beef for dinner and a croissant for breakfast on the way into London. I got into Heathrow at 2pm (17 hours after I left Mary & Dick). It was a bit of an ordeal to carry my heavy bags on the tube to Waterloo. I left them there for a few hours while I went to visit Paul (who I flew to NYC with). We had a chat and some Chinese food then I grabbed the records I’d sent home with him and headed back to Waterloo for the train home. Mum & Del took me back to Grans where we talked over tea and biscuits before I eventually headed to bed around midnight for a nice long sleep.