I woke up early this morning and struggled to get back to sleep, so I got up for a shower then got ready and packed the bags up. While Darren was getting ready I brewed up one of the coffee pods, which was absolutely disgusting. Now I'm kind of glad they only left us decaf! We went downstairs and checked out, leaving our bags at the desk, then walked up the street. We stopped at a little cafe called Tiny's cafe, where they had a Stumptown Coffee sticker on the window. That's a coffee I'd been recommended, so we gladly went in there and ordered a delicious coffee. We took it with us and kept walking down the street towards the Mississippi Street Fair which happened to be on today. As we were getting close, there were all these dildos hung up along the powerlines all the way up the street. It was hilarious. So we got there and went to Ecliptic Brewing, where we ordered a beer and sat down. A few minutes later we were joined by Vic and Tyson and their friend Michael. They were just as nice as I remember, and they're in the beer industry, so Tyson ordered a tasting paddle and had a great time nerding out and telling us all about the different beers we were drinking. For me, their Red Ale was the winner, then after drinking those we headed uo the street together to check out the markets. Darren and Tyson got some Texas BBQ, and I found myself a voodoo doughnut, then not too much later we realised it was getting a bit too close to time for us to leave, so we said our goodbyes to the guys and walked at a much faster pace through the rest of the stalls, trying to find a sticker. We didn't find one, but I got a felafel at the other end then we hailed a cab. We went past our hotel and picked up our bags, then got the cab driver to drop us at Powell's Bookstore, where we went to get a sticker while he waited for us. This is the biggest bookstore in the ???world and takes up an entire block, but we just grabbed a 'Keep Portland Weird' sticker from the front counter and ran back to the cab and then got dropped off at the train station. We had to line up to get on the train, then once we were on, we found our seats and settled in. We had a chat with a guy from Seattle and Darren had a very quiet play of the mandolin in our almost-empty carriage, before the conductor came and told him someone had complained, and if he wanted to continue he'd have to go to the bistro carriage. I stayed in the seat as I wanted to catch up on the blog a little bit but Darren spent the whole trip back there. Apparently the bar guy's dad was a mandolin/cello/etc builder, so he was chatting to him for a while, then he got joined by a singer who sang some tunes with him too! The train ride was beautiful, passing through some gorgeous seaside/riverside/lakeside scenery as it headed up to Seattle. At one section the emergency brakes were put on, because someone was apparently too close to the tracks! Nothing happened though, fortunately. After a really cruisy train trip we arrived in Seattle, spent some time trying to work out the buses before giving up and jumping in a cab. When we arrived at our Couchsurfing address in Fremont we realised it was an apartment building and didn't know which buzzer to press! We got the wrong one first, then was buzzed through on our second try. We met our host Amit, on the landing and went inside. He had another surfer, Will from Oxford, England, and we had a quick chat and guitar jam. It seemed a little weird there, and he had forgotten we were coming until the night before so hadn't really planned on us being there. Not long later, Will was planning to head into another part of town called Capitol Hill to meet the other housemate, Hoyt, for a few drinks and invited us along, so we got changed then the three of us (Amit had to stay home to study) headed down and jumped on a bus downtown, then another out to Capital Hill. We got off the bus and went to go to the Unicorn Bar, but when we showed our ID's we were refused entry because we didn't have our passports! Apparently it's a Washington thing... So we wandered down to the next bar, which was called Sam's, where they let us in, no problems. We got a beer at the bar and Will let Hoyt know where we were and we had a chat while we waited, mostly about rude bouncers! Hoyt arrived with his friend Jane and we got a table and had another beer. We were met there a bit later by Amit, then had another drink there. We got told an interesting story from Will about a couchsurfing experience he'd had which included the phrase "He was a really nice host, apart from occasionally touching my penis" ... Anyway, after that round we decided to go somewhere else, so we started walking up the street. We stopped at a hotdog stand, which had veggie hot dogs! So I got to try American style hotdogs after all! As we kept walking, we were joined by a falling-over-drunk-girl who just started holding Hoyt's hand. I don't know exactly how it happened, but one second she was talking to Darren in an Australian accent, then next second she was holding hands with Hoyt! So random. So everyone else instantly thought of Darren as the ultimate wingman. It was pretty funny. So we went to the next place, which was a cider bar. I went first just in case, and was refused with no passport. I feigned ignorance and nicey asked about the laws around it, and I think in being nice to them they changed their mind and let us all in! Victory! We went in and ordered a beer and turned around to Amit playing the piano. He was really good! So we drank and laughed and chatted there, and Will wanted to show off his moves so took me up to try teach me to Jive. I learnt a few moves which was a little bit of fun, then I said I was tired and made Jane get up and learn some moves and went back to drinking! Darren joined in another tables drinking games and Amit and I played the piano a bit, before being told not to play it. After a while we decided it was time to head home so we left the bar and headed down the street. Will went to 'walk Jane home' and Darren, Amit and I followed Hoyt to his car. After walking downhill a while he realised we were walking the wrong way so we had to turn around and go back up the hill! We walked past a statue of Jimi Hendrix that we got some funny photos with, then through a nice park back to the car before driving home and going straight to our mattress-on-the-floor bed.