By the time we got ourselves dressed and ready, it started to dramatically pour with rain. At least Seattle was living up to its reputation for us! This put a pause on our plans since we were both wearing sandals and only
possessed one umbrella between the two of us. Instead, we used the time wisely to book some more of the rest of the trip.
After a while it stopped raining so we mooched on over to investigate Chinatown. It certainly wasn't the most inspirational of Chinatowns, let's say that. And the area around it was pretty rough; lots of homeless people and crazy people, what we are coming to realise is sadly part of the American backdrop in big cities. We had a pretty good lunch in Chinatown, although for some reason I got spaghetti instead of noodles with my sweet and sour chicken? Strange but true.
After our Chinatown experience we walked down to Pioneer Square to do the Seattle Underground Tour. It basically takes you under street level one floor to what's left of the original town of Seattle before it was destroyed by fire in 1889. After this, they realised that building a city on the mud flats of the shore wasn't such a good idea and raised everything above tide level, thus a floor above the original city. What remains of the original buildings aren't really that impressive and in European history standards it may as well have happened yesterday, but the tour itself was very enjoyable. It started with a twenty minute introduction with some background information; our tour guide was hilarious, quite the stand up comedian. There was a section where she explained one way that the city managed to find the money to rebuild everything (via tax on prostitution), but described it all using euphemisms of seamstresses and sewing, partly so it went over any kids heads (making it more funny) but secondly because all the prostitutes in nineteenth century Seattle actually listed themselves as seamstresses. So all in all a slightly cheesy but enjoyable tour!
Following this, we headed back to the hostel and ended up booking the ultimate final stages of our trip! No more hostels and journeys to organise!!! We've discovered Megabus US, which is even cheaper than Greyhound (this could perhaps be slightly ominous...) but why not get a bus from Toronto to Philadelphia when it's only $31?! And one from Philly to Washington DC that's only $7. It will be financially worth it even if we are mentally traumatised by what/who we find on the bus, I'm sure.
For some reason, tonight we both got an urge for tapas, as neither of us wanted a full blown crazy meal. We found a place online which looked quite nice and headed there just after 8. Little did we know the treat we would be in for...
Firstly, we got to sit outside in a little courtyard which was perfectly sheltered and stayed warm until we left at about 10 o clock. Secondly, we got ourselves half a litre of sangria... Thirdly, the food was incredible! So simple yet so nice...two things we particularly enjoyed were asparagus and aioli, and dates wrapped in bacon with goats cheese.
However, what made the night was our chance meeting with the two women sat opposite us. Somehow we got talking, and never stopped! They were called Kathy and Ranita and were absolutely lovely. Not only were they very interested in us and our travels, but they gave us lots of advice about things to see and where to avoid at night. They were also very open to discussing America and it's failures, i.e. the healthcare system and the railway system, which we thoroughly enjoyed! It really was great to meet them and we exchanged email addresses so that we could send them our blog and so that we could look them up if we ever came back to Seattle!
Finally, as we were leaving, our waiter, a guy about our age, approached us and said he overheard us say we were going to Philadelphia as that was his hometown. He then gave us loads of advice about things to do and where to avoid (seems to be a running theme here) which was really nice!
So, overall, a much more eventful evening than we had anticipated and one which we very much enjoyed!
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