Seattle

Last moday was a holiday which meant a long weekend for us. We used it to go on another trip - this time to the States. It seems so fancy to go to the States for just one weekend, however it is only about 6 hours driving. Nevertheless, the US is still the US, which means we had to cross a border to get there, fill out a lot of stuff and pay 6 dollars to get into the country. It's not like in Europe, where we are spoiled by being able to just enter another country without anyone even noticing. We left Kamloops at 2 am so we arrived at the border at around 7 in the morning which meant that at least we didn't have to wait at the border. We filled out our forms, gave our fingerprints and answered all the questions we were asked (Where are you going? What are you doing there? How long will you stay? ...) and then we made it. We were in the United States!
The first difference we found was, of course, al the flags changed. Instead of the maple leaf we saw the American flag everywhere. Second, gas prizes were suddenly shown in gallons and temperature in Fahrenheit. And third, somehow it seemed more civilized. In Canada, you can drive on the highway for hours without seeing any houses and hardly any cars. As soon as we entered the States, it seemed as if we entered cicilization. First of all, there was way more traffic and there was also more houses and farms and "life" around us.
Out first stop on friday was an outlet center about an hour before Seattle. We bought some stuff (not too much, you know, I'm not this kind of label-person) and then went on to the hotel. We lived in a nice 4 star hotel a bit outside Seattle but we got a really good deal and unfortunately we had some problems with our first booking and had to take the only thing that was left for the long weekend.
In the evening we went to the city where we had a nice dinner at the cheesecake factory and walked around the city center for a bit.

Cheesecake - It's impossible to eat one of those alone

On saturday we were really lucky with the weather, considering that it is supposed to be always rainy in Seattle. We went to the Space Needle first thing in the morning where we took the elevator up to the top to get a wonderful view over the city and the harbour. Then we went to a glass museum right next to the Space Needle. Later, we went to the city center and visited the Pike Place Market and the Original Starbucks. In the evening we had dinner and then we went back to have some wine at the hotel while 4 of us went out. (Legal drinking age in the US is 21, so no bars and clubs for me.)

Mariona and me on top of the Space Needle

On Sunday the weather wasn't that good which is why we decided to visit the EMP Museum. This museum is huge and has various exhibitions about music and art. Funny thing: Jason, a friend of mine who lives in Portland (about 3 hours from Seattle) was in town for the weekend as well and, thanks to facebook, as I found out about that, we aranged to meet. He was an Au Pair in Salzburg during the last year and now returned home in Ausgust. It was really nice to meet him again.

Mariona and Jason having a jam session

After the EMP museum we went to the city again and visited the market once more. On saturday we arrived quite late which is why most of the shops were closed already so we could see a bit more this time. For dinner we went to a really nice Italian restaurant. The place was tiny and this evening the most amazing thing of the whole weekend happened. We were having our dinner when on the table next to us five Americans in their fifties took place. As the place was so tiny, they were sitting really close to us. The first thing they said was: How's you Pizza? Are you still eating this? After that tehy started talking to us, asking us about our studies and everything. We talked to them throughout our whole dinner and we actually had a really nice conversation. They kept telling us that we are such nice people and that they are happy that we are the future. They bought us a bottle of wine and then, after we had finished our meal one man said: And by the way, your dinner is taken care of. We were stunned. We had only just met those people and they just paid our dinner for 7 people. We told them that we couldn't accept this and that it is too much but they kept on insisting and told us that they know how student life is and that we don't ahve much money and they told us that they ust want to do us something good because we are so nice people. After we left the restaurant, all of us were so stunned, we couldn't say anything for a few minutes. In our society it is hard to find some really nice people out there.
What I liked most about the city (apart from these nice people) was the street art. Seattle is one of those places where you can just walk around with your eyes open and you will find art wherever you look. So, if you ever go there: Keep your eyes and mind open and pay attention to details. 

a wall full of chewing gum

On Monday, we decided to go home right in the morning because it had snowed in BC and we wanted to avoid the traffic jam. so we came back on monday in the late afternoon after a nice weekend.