Day 2 was a reaaaalllly early start as we had been told to turn up 1
hour before our 6:10am ferry departure and as we were a good 15 mins
walk from there the alarm was set for 4:45am! On arrival at the ferry
terminal it became clear that there was no need to turn up so early as
we just sat waiting for 45 mins. The other thing we realised as we sat
there was that there was another ferry called the 'victoria express'
which left at 9:50am and only took one hour to get to Port Angeles!
The prospect of wandering around PA for 5 hours when we could have
been in bed was not the most welcome one at such an early hour.

None the less as border control opened we were both excited to have
our first taste of America. This came in the form of a short plump
border control lady from New Orleans with the thickest and most
steretypical American accent you could ever imagine. I got told off
for having deep 'trenches' in my thumb that made it difficult to scan
whereas Maika was perfect as always. Hmph. Once we had convinced them
that we were not neo nazis and had no genocidal plans we were allowed
onto the ferry, complete with another stamp in the passport! :)

The ferry ride itself took around 2 hours and provided the perfect
opportunity for a titanic moment at the front of the boat. Obviously
Maika was dying to do so but with the boat pitching quite violently I
had visions of us and our luggage swimming the remainder and managed
to resist. On arrival in Port Angeles we headed for a cafe, aware that
it was still before 8am and sipped hot chocolate for an hour or so
whilst playing some cards. As the small town started to get slightly
busier we decided to try and find the bus terminal where we had to
board the bus from later in the day and according a huge sign it was
only 1.5 blocks east of where we were. However, after walking at least
7 of this '1.5' blocks we decided we must have somehow missed it so I
left Maiks sitting on a park bench enjoying the sunshine whilst I went
back to have another look. After about 30 mins of searching I returned
to Maika defeated although had acquired an amazing american accent
just from talking to myself! (im not schizo... honest :) On the way
back towards the town centre we passed a small bookstore with a whole
display dedicated to Twlight. Inside we picked up a small leaflet
pointing out the various points of interest relating to the movie. We
managed to spot Bella Italia- the setting for Bella and Edwards first
date (Maika was peering through the glass just expecting to see him
sitting there!) Its obviously bought quite a lot of tourism to the
area as they were offering various discounts connected with the film
and also a number of large window displays.

Lunch came in the form of Ceasar Salad and fries in an american style
diner where we were served by a very patronising accent belonging to a
ginger waitress offering us 'Sody Pop'. Following this we headed back
out to catch the bus to Seattle :) When we boarded we noticed a
theme... obese people! One on the ferry, a few walking around town and
now our extremely over enthusiastic but never the less very friendly
bus driver. No doubt the frequency will increase as we head deeper
into USA!

The bus journey itself was relatively uneventful- a really run down
white wooden shack by the side of the road offering adult erotica and
Maika's smelly feet providing a majority of the entertainment! On
arrival at the greyhound terminal in Seattle we walked fdor around 15
minutes and found our hostel, located directly opposite the famous
Pike Place Market. We were slightly unsure whether we had booked a
private room or a dorm but the sight of a half naked, 70 yr old man,
later to be known as Marathon Man, answered this for us pretty quick!
THere are 2 bunks in the dorm, occupied at this stage by Marathon Man
and 2 Danish guys although we only ever glimpsed one of them before
they checked out early next morning. Food that evening ended up being
chicken and chips on the seafront, surrounded by lots of fat people!
Please dont feed the fat people!... or the pidgeons. haha. Maika also
lent her alarm clock to Marathon Man as he had to get up very early in
the morning to participate in a marathon being run through the city
next day by 28,000 people!

Day 3 started much later and lazier than its predecessor and by late
morning we foun dourselves wandering up towards Seattle's most famous
monument- the space needle. We ambled somewhat aimlessly for a while,
stumbling over some marathon runners at one point, before deciding to
head back towards downtown for a gourmet sandwich lunch (subway...
more fat people!) It was at this point that we decided to try and add
to our blog and having written the same amount as what you see here,
went to save it and promptly lost it... grrrr. After this unfortunate
episode we again headed down to the seafront with a long walk towards
the baseball stadium belonging to the Seattle Mariners in mind.
However, once we had left the bustle of the more touristy areas we
found ourselves in a slightly less favourable part of town and once
two women had decided to hit on Maika- "Hey there beautiful!" we made
a quick escape back up past pioneer square towards the safety of our
hostel. Again I tried to blog and after a good half hour or so of
writing I forgot to copy and past to an email or something safer and
again lost it. grrr x 2!

For dinner I had a real craving for some Pizza and, having spotted a
decent place earlier, we again took a trek towards the needle. Zeek's
Pizza was our destination and we both enjoyed our feta cheese pizza
and free 'soda' refills before again ending up at the base of the
space needle. With dusk fast approaching we decided to take the jump
and pay the $16 to go up to the 605ft high observation deck for a
panoramic view of the city. As we queued for the lift we learnt some
pretty funky facts such as: the needle can withstand gusts of up to
150mph AND the observation deck provided the setting for Dr Evil's
lair in the 2nd Austin Powers Movie! We stayed up the top for about an
hour and a half whilst the sun dipped below the horizon and darkness
enveloped the sprawling concrete mass infront of us. A short monorail
ride back downtown, shivering as we went, led us back to our hostel
room- this time containing Marathon Man, a couple of girls from Taiwan
and 2 dutch girls. More about these characters in our next blog :)

speak soon MS and AC xxx