The bluest skies you'll ever see are in Seattle... No rain at all today! No clouds even- very, very lucky for this time of the year. I think the maximum temperature for tomorrow is about -2 or something ridiculous. Today it was about 6 degrees I think, which sounds freezing but it was actually really nice.

I didn't end up going to the dead bodies anatomy display thing, because I figure I see enough of them without having to pay $20 to do it, so I went up the space needle yesterday instead. 520', or 60 levels high, it gives some pretty spectacular 360' views of Seattle, Mt Ranier, English Bay, Puget Sound and the surrounding islands. It was built in 1962(?) for the space themed world fair, hence "space needle" and as well as the observation platform there are viewfinders, telescopes and interactive maps which was pretty perfect because it allowed me to get a grip on my surroundings and which district was which, as opposed to pulling out my map on every street corner.

I considered going out when I got back to the hostel last night. i.e. Hitting the town. But then remembered that I'm 20 years old and that I infact cannot hit the town in this country. That was disappointing. Until I found the satelite t.v room was totally empty. Not so disappointing. Also, my hostel room was devoid of people last night except for me so it was pretty cool to not have any random girls snoring all night!

My phone turned itself off AGAIN last night, so it's totally time for me to buy an actual alarm clock! I did wake up at 7.30 though, grabbed a bagel and hit the road. There was a lot of city I want to see in the 2 days I'm in Seattle!

First thing this morning I hit the Public Market on Pike street. Since it was so early not a lot was going on so I went to the ORIGINAL Starbucks and grabbed a cup of Christmas flavoured coffee (don't ask me what was different about it) and I headed down to the waterfront to the ferry boat station. I caught the ferry to Bainbridge Island, which is like a district of Seattle but takes about 35 minutes to get to by ferry. It's more like a small town unto itself and it was cool to get a away from the big cities for a couple of hours. Just quickly for Grey's Anatomy fans, if I had to guess I'd say Bainbridge Island is probably where Derek and his trout loving, wildnerness man house is located. I also tested a couple of Grey's hypothesis today.

Hypothesis 1: Elevators are an aphrodisiac.

Theory disproven. And I took two elevators just for validity.

Hypothesis 2: Ferry boats make people want to be adulterous and get divorced.

Theory disproven. No hint of adultery on the vessel.

The ferries are cool though, they're really huge and have cafes, pinball machines and vending machines in them. I stood outside for most of the ride and although it was sunny and not too cold, as soon as the ferry started moving, it got FREEZING because of the wind resistance. I wasn't cold, per se because of my coat and scarf, but that wind was probably the coldest thing I've ever felt!

After I got back to downtown Seattle, I checked out the markets which had begun to bustle in my absence. There was fishmongers throwing salmon and lobster to each other across the aisle to stir up the crowd (it was working) and this wall that has gum ALL OVER it. Every person in Seattle must have stuck gum there at some stage and it's totally disgusting and yet kind of cool. I stuck mine up there too and took plentiful photos.

I was starting to get pretty catatonic by this stage but I pushed on, and got the monorail to Seattle Center and went to the EMP (Experience Music Project) and SFM (Science Fiction Museum). They're joint buildings and the title pretty much sums up their purpose. The music museum had this amazing interactive room where you could learn the hooks and chords to Nirvana and Hendrix songs (they're both Seattle-ites) on guitairs, pianos and drums. I headed back down the monorail and to the International District where my hostel is after that because I'd been out for around 10 hours and had developed persistant cramping down the back of my left leg, it was time to call it a night.

I just went to this Chinese place around the corner on the advice of the hostel receptionist for a tofu sandwich and had a 10 minute discussion with the proprieter which consisted of me going "tofu sandwich, TOFU, TOFU, TOFU" and him going "What? What?". So I switched tactics and went "BEANCURD". No luck. Eventually we came to an understanding and he assembeled the sandwich, which by the way was incredible and is now resting in the fridge beacause it was that big I couldn't consume it in one setting. I also had a grape flavoured sunkist, which was both as delightful and as disgusting as it sounds. Think carbonated grape hubba bubba in liquid form and you have a pretty accurate comparison.

Before I go back to Vancouver tomorrow I'm going to try and get back up to the EMP to buy this bag that I stared at for about an hour and then try and explore Pioneer Square and the International District which is conveniently located about 5 minutes from the train station. Wish me luck in not being mugged between here and there with my backpack on! It's like a beacon for homeless people to come up and ask for money! Which I find a bit derranged because if I'm backpacking I obviously have no money and they've probably eaten more recently than I have.

There seems to be some sort of concert going on in the common room. I'll go check it out after the singer stops saying "testing" into the microphone. Once or twice would be enough. 45 times is probably overkill... Just saying.

Goodnight, Australia! :)