Seattle
Boy, what a day! I woke up practically being expelled from the hotel. It turns out it was a mistake on their part. The computer said I would leave today instead of tomorrow. So all is ok now. It is a really nice hotel, so I would have been very upset to have to leave it.
As I woke up, it was raining. When I finished taking a shower, the sun was shining despite weather reports to be to the contrary.
Seattle is really a marvellous city when the sun shines, which according to Seattlelites is about twice a year. I am a real lucky guy, then. The cloads are picturesque, though.
I drive downtown to Seattle Center, where I stumble upon the Northwest Folklife festival. Another strike of luck, after I wasted $5 by being to stupid to use the parking fee machine. The festival is a happening with hundreds of artists performing live on several stages, for example the "Grateful Dads":
There is food from all over the world:
Of course, the stereotypical german Bratwurst has to be there as well. Yuck.
For my german readers: I was really astonished that I could use my Eurocheque Card with an US ATM machine. That makes life so much easier, although I fear to see the next bank statement citing the fees for that.
Of course, some people are dancing in the streets.
For others, the world is the stage.
In between acts, the stages are busy with people preparing.
The audience receives special attention. There are dozens of workshops for the visitors. One is Scotish dancing.
As you would expect, the comercial side of the festival is professionally developed. There is a shop where you can buy CDs, Videos and Books from the artists. The store has a backside where artists can check in their products.
All sorts of political activists use the festival to raise support for their various issues: Ban animal traps and improve the educational system.
They even do basic democracy work: Registering voters for the presidential election. They picked a couple of extremely sexy girls for that. I wonder if that has anything to do with President Clintons various scandals? Sex sells, period.
Initially, I planned to make good use of the nice weather and go up the Space Needle. However, I would have had to wait in this monster queue:
This is after another, similar queue at the ticket booths, mind you.
So, instead, I decide to take the Monorail downtown. The purple building you see in this picture has not opened yet, although I would really like to see it: The Experience Music Project (emplive.com), an interactive music museum.
Downtown, I walk through Pike Place Market to the seaside.
At Pier 55, I board a harbor cruise ship to take a sightseeing tour. I take a couple of really nice pictures of the Seattle skyline and the Olympic Mountains. Something is strangely familiar about Seattle. Don¥t you think it looks like SimCity? All my SimCities somehow look like Seattle.
After the cruise, I meet some relatives of Jonathan at Ivar¥s.
I head to the Seattle Underground Tour. In Seattle, obviously even the restaurants are now dotcoms.
The Underground Tour is booked until 5 pm so I purchase a ticket. The busses downtown are free from 9 am to 7 pm, so I head back to Pike Place Market, where I spend a little more time watching the Low Flying Fish of Seattle. Unfortunately, it is too dark to catch the fish while flying.
America, beware! Nutella has finally arrived in the States. I think it will take about 5 to 10 years to get Americans as hooked as the Germans are.
The Seattle Underground Tour is some sort of practical joke played on the tourists. It claims that some streets in Seattle have been raised so that the basements became the sub-basements. The tour leads to some of those former basements. I rather enjoy it, although other customers do not seem to be able to get into it. Anyways, the audience is extremely split in the opinion about the tour. You learn interesting things, i.e. that after the city council discovered a very lively prostitution business going on in the city in the 19th century, they started taxing it, whereapon the cities income from those taxes accounted for 87% of the total income. I get to shoot some interesting in the dark pictures.
In this picture you can see the "ghosts" of the underground:
I go back to the Seattle Center and the festival. A african music gig is on.
It is getting dark. As you might know by now, I am into night pictures with my digital camera.
Directly by the Seattle Center, there is a football stadium. Signs saying "Professional Soccer tonight" lure me into the stadium. Unfortunately, the game is over.
It was Seattle against San Francisco. I was surprised to find that there seems to be a Second Division professional league in addition to the National Soccer League where Lothar Matth‰us and his New York Metrostars are now loosing. The people I spoke to at the game claimed that Soccer was really picking up now in the States, especially with children.
I am back at the hotel now with a pizza for $15. Amazing how some of the food is so much cheaper and other food is so much more expensive than in Germany.
To be continued with the final episode: "WWDC Trip - Day 15 (Sunday)"!