Wednesday; Epic adventure day part 1

Somedays it's the simple things that make me feel the most at home and in my element of being far from home. It's the oddities and the abstract days of unusual adventures that tickle my spirit and make me feel the most adventure sated and happy. 

Wednesday was one of those days.

Wednesday was probably one of the best days of that in my travels ever.

It started with waking up on a brisk Winter morning, doing the little morning routine of food, coffee, shower etc then bundling up into warm clothes and heading out for the usual cold but beautiful walk to the bus. I spent the bus trip reading "Numbers in the Dark", getting completely lost in it, completely content with not knowing at all what I was doing for the day or where I was even going, somehow already happy just in these stories, not yet leaving each moment as it came. I refused to wear my headphones as I hopped off the bus and began to walk; it stops me from talking to people and would remove a lot of my adventures if I had left them in. My feet and hunger took me towards the market place, and a conversation with a stranger lead to a recommendation of a little Russian bakery for my brunch. This is how we discovered the amazing deliciousness of Peroshki!

No caption can explain the deliciousness

Imagine some amazing meat, spice, vegetable and cheese concotion inside an amazing baked bun with spices on top. Then slap yourself because there is no way your imagination could possibly have compared to the glory of the real thing. This is the nom nom nommy bun we took with us (the steam is so good to keep you warm!) to explore the markets further!

In the next hour we met so many amazing people and got lost in the stories of the people at the market place. There is a simplicity to the beauty of true adventures; either they are your experiences that draw you into the moment, or they are in the stories of others. I often find my favourite ones are the little moments I find in the realisation of life being in the details as I hear fragments of someone else's tale. Also it doesn't hurt when those tales come with quirky taste testers... like chocolate pasta!

This is Max. He likes the chocolate pasta and the rosemary garlic linguini and reading with his cat.
He let me try all the flavours.

Max is the reason I ended up with fruit pasta (penne, nice and easy to carry a bundle of in the bottom of my bag) and rosemary garlic linguini (BAD PLAN. It wasn't till a minute after I bought it as I went to try and put it in my handbag that I realised I had bought this packet of delicate, breakable pasta at the start of the day. At the start of a long day where I was probably going to walk a lot. Then possibly go out at night. Excellent idea Lisa.). But I tucked it into my bag anyway and managed to have it sit neatly in one place and not break all day! Insane! Clearly I was meant to have this pasta.

This is Lagaia. She like the sweet peppers and ginger jelly and going for picnics.
She had the best laugh I have heard in a long time and made me laugh and smile a lot too because of her happiness.

So many jellies! I haven't the time to do justice to how much fun I had chatting to these market stall people, but it was lovely just ambling around solo chatting to them and having them all openly give me their stories and flavours and happiness. I had a really warm morning with total strangers.

This is Geneille. She likes to hum while she steams the milk.
She made me a sugar cookie coffee. 

So after a while I decided I required a coffee. Introducing, Geneille; who lived up to my good natured bantering about whether or not the coffee shop was truly capable of producing Seattle's "Best" coffee and even threw in a white chocolate and rhubarb treat for me!

In the little side street I was suddenly cast back to France with the weather of Denmark.
It's like my travels are all merging together!
Merging together with delicious delicious coffee...

This is the shop where we also met a small dog that seemed to somehow be a regular there. He poked his nose in then trotted over to the counter, sat behind the line and waited patiently. I sat quietly watching him with curiosity and saw Geneille spin around and suddenly see him, grin and flick her hand to invite him over. So he quickly hops up, tail wagging and runs to her (tail now wagging furiously) and she pulls a tin down from between two coffee tins, opens it and pulls out a dog biscuit for him! Ha, twas adorable. His owner seemed to be a regular there, the smiles between them all had a sense of warmth and familiarity, it was lovely to just sit and watch. And then suddenly we meet Alan; the sausage man! Alan was the man who began to dance while waiting for his coffee and tried to bait Geneille into dancing, then went looking for straws loudly declaring there were no red ones to be found and that this was a comical disgrace. I grinned and pointed to a stack and told him they were there, they were just wrapped (Like a Christmas present for you Alan!) He laughed at that line and we chatted for a while. He promised me a polka dance if I came and found his market stall; he was Alan the sausage man. I nodded. Of course I did, as though I would pass up another odd invitation!

So after my coffee I began to wander, looking for this market stall and ended up in a little card shop. See I have this thing about finding a little canvas, print or card of the places I visit every time I travel. My favourite is the little painting of Marseille that I found in the markets just as they were closing up and the lady seemed disappointed that she wouldn't be able to sell the one she just did because it was so late in the day. I told her it was beautiful though and I was sure she'd be able to sell that the next day without any problem. She was so happy she sold it to me instead for half price. It sits next to my bed now. But anyhow, I found some little cards of ink drawings of the Seattle Markets for my America trip! Yay! As I wandered on, I simply could NOT find this sausage shop and instead ended up in some inside lane of other odd shops I'd never seen. This is how I ended up in Tenzing and Momo's; an odd little apothecary.

Full of bottled mysteries and powered magic!

Which is where, just as I was leaving, I caught the eye of a young man, a little taller than me, blonde, standing leaning over a desk with his grey peacoat bunching up onto the old wooden drawers, excitedly pulling off his gloves and chatting to the owner about some sort of new concoction in the shop. I laughed a little at the sight of his enthusiasm in a warm way, I was merely enjoying observing someone at home in the market place as I had been all morning, when he looked up surprised, grinned at me and then I was already out the shop. I didn't give it a second thought as I found an even odder shop full of wind up toys till I was leaving the alley way again and suddenly heard a voice behind me;

"You were sure standing outside waiting for a long time" 

I spun around to see the same grin and flashing blue green eyes walking casually right behind me.

"Don't flatter yourself, I was playing with the toys next door!"

"There are toys next door?!"

His grin fell away and his eyes were now shining with intrigue and surprise. I laughed and immediately turned on my heel, leading us back into the alley way again.

"Come on. Now we have to go. You can't leave without seeing these toys."

Such an array of awesome wind ups!

And that is how we met J. And thus began my day of mystery market place adventuring with him at my side.

The rest of the day till the sun began to go down was spent laughing, exploring, traversing the many many intertwining inside and outside alleys of the markets, swapping stories and playing games. J has the mind of an engineer with the heart of an inventor and the playful curiosity and adventurous spirit of one of the lost boys. I have never had a better market explorer partner in crime on any of my adventures. As the day was slipping to evening we were rapidly approaching his last bus, so agreed to get a coffee and walk to the stop. This is how we arrive at the story of the coffee!

Razor Blades; the coffee that sounds bad but was actually awesome and was invented for Lisa
So standing in line at Starbucks J asks me if we have Starbucks in Australia...

"Yeah we have Starbucks, but I don't think we have all these Christmas flavours like you do since it's summer for us. I've been trying them all while I'm here, they're amazing!"

"Have you tried them all now?"

"Nope, there's still around 4 I haven't gotten to drink yet."

-Move up queue-

"You should just ask for all of them. In one drink. :D"

"Ooooo yes! Though I don't think they'd do that..."

-Move up queue to very near counter-

"Just ask for it in that accent of yours and then act all confused and Australian. They'd be sure to give it to you!"

"Shhhh you're giving away my game plan! Now it'll never work!"

-Guy behind the counter laughs and says-

"No that would totally work, I love accents. I've actually been trying to practice different accents, I'd love to have a British one, but the Aussie accent is really hard."

"Oh now you have to show me!"

"Okay okay I can say one thing. *Practices behind his hand* Okay, I'm going to say "Razor Blades"'

-Our faces drop and look a tad perplexed-

"It's all I know how to say!"

"Okay! Go go go go!"

-Clears throat-

"Ray-zorrr Blades."

:)

*Endless applause from us* (It was actually the best I've heard so far!)

So after giving him some pointers to make it even more accurate...

"So, since I helped you out with your accent, will you make me this weird Christmas drink?"

"I will make you up your very own one with Christmas flavours."

"Ohhhh yay! *Claps excitedly* thank you so much! What do you call it?"

"Razor Blades."

And then J saw it and ordered one too! So back out into the cold, with slight rain, we began to drink our odd coffee concoction and walk to the bus guessing flavours. Cinammon... pumpkin spice... chai? ...mocha! ...no that's creme brulee... can you taste vanilla? Maybe that's eggnog! Oooo it's gingerbread too! As we stood under the awning, waiting for the bus in the dimming light laughing, he told me about his film work and people watching, I told him a story I made up about the man standing on the other side of the street and about Calvino. He didn't know who he was, so on a whim I pulled out my second hand book, paused, then handed it to him with a smile. A sign of trust, I would lend him my book for the bus trip. As we swapped the coffees around between our hands to pull books out and put them in other bags, we ended up getting confused about whose was whose and decided to have fun by writing each other a note on the other persons coffee cup. So at 5pm in the rain at the bus stop we each wrote three simple truths about ourselves, smiled, hugged, put him on a bus, waved and then went our separate ways. I walked down the road smiling reading J's truths on my coffee cup when I bumped into a man who had his back turned to me. I looked up to apologise... and that's how I met Ky.

~Continued in part two of Wednesday; epic adventure day~

Writing a blog post while drinking

Pregame; Verb. To drink. Derived originally from tailgating before a sporting event such as a football game, it later became known as drinking before any gathering. It now refers simply to drinking, because any activity afterward is acceptable to drink for.

Deciding to write a blog while drinking and getting more and more drunk as I go; an unusual challenge that any good blogger would leap upon!

One corona

So tonight I am going out with Taylor while Nic's at rockclimbing. We've just come home from seeing Microsoft's prescreening of The Hobbit and Japanese food with Noah (who has the most fantastic name ever) and I now have 3 hours till Taylor comes to get me at 10:30 and am faced with two choices; find a balance between going-out clothes and the bitter winter, walk alone, catch a bus and go adventuring in the bars alone till she shows up (not all together a terrible idea, I've done this on other nights and had a ball) OR I can enjoy the warm apartment and pregame solo (lol aka drink alone) till 10:30 when she'll pick me up.

The decision has therefore been made that I shall stay home and boogie to music while I get ready to go out and that I shall write a blog post as I drink that shall not be altered at all and shall go through the stages of me getting progressively more and more tipsy as I retell stories of my adventures to you. Hooray!

Two coronas

Okay so I seem to be getting all my menial tasks out of the way now before I drink too much; eg bank transfers are a BAD idea when drinking, but facebook messages and emails to my gym are a good idea. I should get changed too and do my hair. But first, more meaningless story telling for you all! I shall give unedited musing on my time in the USA. For instance...

Observation: Things at the movies today were not as cheap as I was mislead to believe they would be in the states. I was severely disappointed by this reality... 

the popcorn tasted of ashes in my mouth... expensive ashes.

I should probably do my hair/makeup now before drinking too much. Probably, lol, but no. Instead I'll watch clips of Whose Line is it Anyway and prowl the internet like a 20-something does :D Then after another drink I'll tell you a story...

Just finished the second, hmmm how many standards are coronas again? Is it 1.2? GOOGLING IT! Oooo it's 1.3, so we're 2.6 drinks in! Gogo gadget maths skills. Time for a shower because this country is freaking freezing and that probably is a smart thing to do before we reach 3.9 drinks...

Corona 3

Okay so we're now showered and changed and sitting with a third cold beverage, the ordeal of doing my hair meant that the drinks are being well spaced thus far. So instead of just launching into my next America tale (the Wednesday, which is the most epic day I've had so far, so I kind of want to do it justice), I have turned to facebook for inspiration! I have asked for questions from friends pertaining to my travels and shall answer them now as they come in.

3 Coronas and a Blue Moon

My impatients wins out over being bothered to find facebook people to ask questions! Why don't American beers tell you standard drinks? That seems foolish, doesn't it? I suppose they didn't account for the demographic of young women who write blogs while drinking when they designed that labeling scheme. My prep time has reached the point of being basically ready to go out, hooray! And with an hour and 20 mins to spare :D I am side noting myself a little message to say "Hey Lisa, maybe leave this as a draft till tomorrow when you re-read it and decide if it's acceptable to post". Mainly because my rambling is most likely quite boring to read, though I do like to pretend that everyone is fascinated by the asinine musings of my mind, especially when drinking!

This drink is awful. Do not drink Blue Moons. That is my first answer to the question from Emma!

"What are the top 5 Do's and Dont's that aren't in Lonely Planet?"

Well, first of all Emma, great question and thanks for playing! I do NOT promise my answers will be at all remotely helpful. They will be completely tailored to my own taste and random rambling. Very specifically they will be about Seattle.

Do's:

1. Go to Pike Place Market. It's amazing value, good cheer and epic food. It's a lively, bustling happy market place and it's open every single day. It's also by the water front so it makes for an awesome walk and will always do the trick when you aren't sure what to do.
2. Talk to people! Cannot stress enough that the thing that makes my stories great is other people's stories. I can't remember if I'm supposed to use an apostrophe of possession there or not. I am a nerd. This only worsens when I drink.
3. Have at least one day going solo with no plans and start saying "yeah why not" to ideas, this will lead you on a merry chase!
4. Go to The Unicorn Bar, ChaChas, Sky High, Whirlyball and any other odd places YOU might stumble across, the fun is in the little places you find!
5. Embrace cold, inclement weather. Seriously, Seattle is known for its rain for a reason, you need to be on board with rain being "cosy" before you get here!

Dont's

1. Drink Blue Moon. This is the beer I'm drinking now, I do NOT like it nor recommend it.
2. Forget that life isn't always in the stories in your books or the preplanned activities. It's out there. It's in the little odd details, the moments and the fun you have when you're making it up as you go.
3. Waste too much time staying in and watching tv. I do this when I'm too lazy and comfortable; they aren't the stories you remember.
4. Berate yourself too much if somedays you DO sit inside and enjoy just watching tv and hanging out. It's okay to let your mind and heart go to where they want to be sometimes, even if that's just simply sitting with your brother in front of the fire watching a tv show you both love.
5. Stay sobre all the time. Yay, drink sometimes! Even if it means posting an odd rambling blog post. Do it, and enjoy the party :)

Seriously I am NOT enjoying this blue moon, let's get to another corona soon! Hopefully by the time I've answered this next question from Renee I'll be there!

"Favourite random American that you have to make/ear to stave off hunger?"

Uhhh... uh oh... am I too deep into beer land to understand this, or does it truly not make English sense? I interpret this question as "Favourite American...person?" and "how have you starved off hunger?" I'm sincerely doubting myself here (thanks Renee) but that's all I can glean from this...

My favourite American so far would have to be J. I haven't told the story of J yet, but he and I had a full day of being epic partners in crime in the market place together and he's one of the coolest people I've ever had an adventure with, so I'd have to say he's my favourite. You'll have to wait till next post to meet him :)

How have I starved off hunger? Honestly this is mainly because of the sheer generosity of a few people and my recklessness with money when I travel. My brother, Nic, has been insanely generous while I've been here and bought me a lot of amazing meals. I realise I'm a suck up now, but sincerely, it's been crazy sweet of him and I appreciate him to death for working hard just to treat his little sister to an amazing holiday :) thank you Nic! But I've also been spoilt by another friend M (also, upcoming story) while I've been here AND then the whole reckless with money and/or my weight while I'm over here thing helps. Sorry to the guy I'm going home to, I'll be fit and healthy for a while when I get back, so forgive my holiday laziness and gluttony now mwahahah. You ride the money wave while you travel you see... oh you don't see? I'll explain...

The money wave of Travel; (courtesy of Joe who educated me on this when we lived together) The travel money wave is a concept that explains your fluctuations in spending money when you travel. See you usually have a set amount...ish... that you're going to spend when you travel (This time I managed to squirrel away around $500 somehow right before I left), and you then begin your travel and RIDE THE MONEY WAVE. It goes like this...

YAY! We're travelling spend money wherever!

Oh, wow, we should slow down on spending, don't want to burn through all the money...

FUCK IT! WE'RE TRAVELLING, WOOOOOO SPEND ALL THE MONEY!

Whoa we're going to run out of money, let's be sensible for a while

Screw it, this is what the money was for, drinks on me!

We want this to last the whole trip, let's be thrifty for a day

Let's be reckless for a night!

I hate you

You love me! I love everyone! YAY SPEND ALL THE MONEY!

*Repeat indefinitely*

The money wave is a fantastic thing and such an odd experience. Enjoy it, you are never beyond its grasp. And the beauty is, once you're educated on it, you will never forget it! (You're welcome).

4 coronas, A blue moon and a diet Coke

Not going to lie, am a bit tipsy by now. Also that blue moon was hideous and had to be chased by a diet coke that I put this odd American "energy" elixer in; it's sort of like instant red bull stuff. Nic is also home, hooray! And is probably coming out with us. It's around 40 mins till we leave and I'm trying to bait him into catching ip with me in drinks (this may end badly). I've stopped backspacing if I make spelling mistakes so you can laugh at me in my coronary spelling mistake land. I still have some fan questions to answer before we can venture out into beer and dancing land!

"What's your favourite American phrase?"

I love saying "Sure" in an American accent. It sounds silly and different to our and they say it all the time. I've invented it as a sort of game with M whenever he (or now anyone else american) says it I repeat it quickly in an American accent. Since it's a game, it's now my favourite.

"Have you tried to pass yourself off as American?"

Yes, and semi successfully too, buit only ever in a bar (damn I spelt but wrong). It inevitably comes up as a point of conversation when you're out; the idea of faking accents. Apparently I can fake an accent better than most, but it's probably just from theatre and stuff, it's fun to put on an American accent. Meanwhile they CANNOT do our accent at all... 

...though to be fair its a weird ass accent.

Our next question comes from Dave! A man I become fonder and fonder of with every facebook appearance in my life he makes...

Does spraycan cheese have any relationship to actual cheese, and is there any kind of use-by date?

In my understanding, spraycan cheese is the second cousin by marriage of real cheese. It's the weird person your mother says you should call "uncle" who lives in a caravan "by choice" and can't seem to keep down a real job but is always "just on the edge of a great deal". With every bite you take of its spraycan goodness, it replaces part of your soul with processed glory. The use-by date is really just for amusement and was written by the creators as they smothered their laughter that anyone would ever even buy this shiz and put it inside their bodies. The apocalypse will see the survival of cockroaches, twinkies...and spray can cheese.

So somewhere around this beer and coke I have found myself singing along to songs, dancing and excitedly inviting Nic out too... back soon after this drink since I actually have HUMAN company (sorry internet... you know you're my real love, but this idea of "human" company is new and exciting!)

Two seconds later...

Nic: "I wonder what Cherry beer tastes like?"

Lisa: "TRY IT! \(^o^)/"

*Nic adds Cherry flavour to Corona*

"It tastes like... Cherry! Try it!"

*Lisa tries*

>.< BLERGH!!!!

"We're full of good ideas." ~Real Allen Household saying

This is the point I've decided beer is getting harder to drink. Hence I shall stop here... probably.

Lol jokes

Besides we have another question from the lovely Matt!

"Who has better pick up lines in the bars lovely? Americans or boys back home?"

Well, ignoring the fact that I have an epic boyfriend back home waiting for my silly ass to get home, I will objectively assess the pick up lines of men here and home. Though you guys are pretty universal with your techniques...

And I'm pretty universal with my technique...

The obvious difference is that HERE my accent does me huge favours, so I've had men use random intros like asking me which bars around here are good, and when I reply that they're probably asking the wrong person, I immediately get the same line over and over:

"Wow, I love you accent. Where are you from?"

I then get three wrong guesses and a perplexed guy haha but it's sweet enough that they find my accent charming. Though I have had the most "creative" pick up ever while I've been over here (see post; The Science of Glass and the Art of Picking Up) and in general since I go out solo a lot when I travel, the ratio of being hit on overseas to at home is a lot higher, so it's hard to compare. Plus the American accent is charming in its own right, so I'm amused hearing the men's pick up lines over here, even if they are cheesy sometimes. That said, I'm looking forward to going home to an Aussie guy :)


Ha I'm totally not editing this before I leave nor leaving it till tomorrow. DRINKING LISA FOR THE WIN!

PLAY A SONG!

This is what I'm currently insisting from Nic! And what better song could he choose as we fetch another beer than... TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES HYPERZONE HEIST! :D Excellent! Childhood and beers should always be mixed (If you want to give your psychologist more income) follwoed by the theme music from columns which we used to play on Sega Mega Drive! We are geniuses, which I have no hesitance in saying after a few drinks now!

*Lisa begins to excitedly shout* WE SHOULD PLAY THE GAME!
"What columns?"
"FUCK YES!... I actually meant the 3 headed broadway star game from Whose Line. BUT YES. THAT IS A MUCH BETTER PLAN!"

So while Nic tries to set THAT up I'll confess I'm stupidly excited to play columns though it's unlikely. Perhaps tomorrow. Crap we only have 10 more minutes! I should drink more! That's a good idea! And what have I learnt from one undergraduate uni degree and one year of med? It's how to drink hard! :D Sorry Dad, I know you thought it was a lot of medical knowledge... maybe that too... but mainly it was how to deal with high stress situations with alcohol :)

Yay med school!

Okay this has been awesome, we have filled in 3 hours of me drinky drinking more and more (trust me if you were here you could tell) but now I must away to the American night for more fun with Taylor, Nic, Dancing and AWESOME!!!!

See you all soon for a legitimate story!!!!

Tuesdays by myself

It seems an unavoidable truth that when I travel, some days my introversion wins out over my extraversion.

 I inevitably long to wander by myself and enjoy the company of myself.

I remember this same sensation when we were in france and felt its familiar form seeping into my bones on Tuesday. Luckily, I make for fantastic company, so I was well on board with this plan for the day and could afford to take the whole day to make up a plan as I went.

This post is about a day I spent simply, with no touristy desires, and shall be told in the form of travelling quotations...

Phase one; where should I go? I do not know what I feel like doing, or where I feel like being. I do not know what to do.

“It is solved by walking.” – Algerian proverb

And so my mind was given time and space to tinker with its thoughts as I bundled up in a scarf and beanie and jacket, gave my head some music and stepped out into the cold (which just for the record I am continually surprised by when I step out of a warm apartment) and began to walk. I find it thrilling how quickly I become happy and excited by the dissonance between the chilling cold air and the heat from my blood when I begin to walk harder. It makes me laugh and grin and feel happily tired and alive; I look like a total crazy person walking along the side of the road laughing to myself. It's excellent. But I realised I had to choose where I was going. Did I go to the bus stop and go into the city, or did I wander and explore the small town near my brothers house that I could probably walk to within 40 minutes?

Phase two; The decision to wander.

“Half the fun of the travel is the aesthetic of lostness.” – Ray Bradbury

The decision was made as I saw a case of stairs winding from the road up into the trees and heard my brain say the familiar phrase "I wonder where that leads?" and of course, my feet were already leading us over the road towards the curiosity. I suspected these might be the notorious "fireman's steps" that my Dad told me about (supposedly exhausting training steps) and I remembered they probably lead into the town. Upwards we go!

CONQUERED!

Phase three; Streets be my friend.

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” – G. K. Chesterton

Let's hope that eidetic brain function kicks in soon and that you took a good look at that google maps overview of this town before you left the house, because we have no internet or way to look up where we're walking... you're on your own here Lis. Excellent :D The next hour was a lovely walk with myself along the rainy streets, stopping of course to enjoy the gravity defying sensation of a swing that I found along the way (if you know my stories, you'll know I have an affinity for many odd things, one of which is swings. And I never miss an opportunity to swing on one), kicking up leaves, playing with a dog, admiring the Christmas-decorated beautiful houses in the winding streets and just generally happily accepting any little sights, smells and sounds the streets of the town had to offer me as I wandered along thinking my little thoughts.

Other people's houses

WARNING Seesaw ahead!

With other people's little suburban lives in them

Eventually I even managed to end up in the town I was aiming for!

Finding the coffee shop I had been told about, however, was a little less easy. Dad had mentioned this place that I apparently had to find, but had given me only the details of...

"It shall remain nameless... for I cannot remember the name. I think it's next to a store called Simplicity Decore"

Great. So now cue me wandering around Downtown Kirkland having now also forgotten the full name of Simplicity Decore and only remembering "decore". I stepped into an odd tea shop, took a little breath and hesitated as I realised how dumb I was about to sound... then proceeded to say it anyway...

"Hey! So, I realise I'm about to ask for help finding a place with really vague and unhelpful clues, but is there any chance you know a coffee place in this town next to a place that might have the word 'decore' in it?"

Biting my lip and thinking I sound like a complete moron, when much to my surprise the assistant's face lit up as the reply came back "Oh, yeah! <insert name, I've already forgotten it again dammit> I love that place!"

And suddenly I had directions, thus bringing us to...

Phase three; Coffee, Calvino and Company

“Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting.” – Robert Thomas Allen

The door gave a pleasant tinkle as I stepped into the warm cafe from the street. The walls were lined with photos of their most faithful customers and the room was decked out with little tables and chairs, long desks and big squishy couches and sofas. A friendly young guy grinned at me from behind the messy marble countertop and asked what I'd like. Yes, this would be my home for the day. I ordered a cappuccino, already excited to eat the foam, and settled down into the depths of one of the large couches, and began to let my mind be enchanted and drawn far away by the words of Mr. Calvino. (A really good book full of insightful and odd short stories that I fall in love with and then later lose in another story to a guy I meet in the markets. I do this knowingly, but still lament my loss, sigh. This story is continued in another chapter.)

This cosy mental travel throughout time and countries through the words and thoughts of another took me through three hours and another large cup of "Mind Tea" before we met our next character; S. At some point when I was reading, a young woman and an older man sat down on the couch opposite me and also began to read. I stole a glance over my book to check out what they were each reading and scan my new companions. The young woman was beautiful, with the charm of an artsy dark haired, dark eyed, slouching-beanie clad 20-something, reading a book about climate change, the man was older, white hair and glasses, looked intelligent and confident, I forget what he was reading. I became lost in my book a while longer till I began to catch notes of a conversation drifting over the top of my book. I peeked over to see another young man crouched near me chatting to the girl about the book and an upcoming Christmas party they evidently both knew of before hand. The evesdropping and secret smile at their jokes soon turned to banter and chatter and before you knew it we'd all met and were roaring at jokes and stories as though we'd known each other for years.

These people had the feel of a home, something I could have had if I had chosen to stay here in America. But eventually night was rapidly approaching and it was time for us all to head off again. I saw them off and spent a little time packing up before giving the amazing tea maker another tip and heading out into the evening.

The view as I stepped outside. Isn't my town pretty?

Phase four; Little rattling bus home

“Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.” – Kurt Vonnegut

I sat happily enjoying the little rattles, twists, turns and bumps of the bus I was beginning to know well; the 255 (the one and only bus I know how to take) and rode it all the way back to Forbes Creek Drive where I hopped out, thanking the bus driver for getting us all home safe, and shoved my hands down into my pockets and began the walk home.

It's odd, but the mile walk in the dark along the wet-leaf lined road from the bus stop to the apartment is almost my favourite part of every days adventure. It's the final round up to every day and has all the essential elements for an introspective scrubs-voice-over-style wrap up; Cold, warm clothes, the briskness of the walk, being solo, beautiful nature, little houses with dim lights and smoke wafting from chimneys, a full day of memories and experiences for my mind to mull over, music, happy exhaustion and just long enough to make you tired, but not so long that you resent the walk at all.

I had a lovely day of not being touristy, of being chilled out and happy and solitary, and a little bit melancholy. I'm going to miss this place. I'm going to miss travelling; the freedom of anonymity and impermanence and the spirit of adventure. So here is the final thought that I leave today with, my final quote and love note to a day spent wandering solo...

“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.’” 

– Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

The Science of Glass and the Art of Picking up

Monday

Taylor.
I'll pick you up at 11.
We'll go into Seattle
It'll be an adventure!

The day begins with a gingerbread latte (I'm drinking so much liquid Christmas!) and having fun doodling in a coffee shop with my first Maximalist poem (obnoxious, taking the piss out of poetry poems). So, you have caffeine in your system now, great!

Now... where is this here Spaceneedle you speak of?

Suddenly we're galavanting the streets of Seattle with an amazing local woman named Taylor towards the space needle! Happily calling out through the spattering of rain, hoods up, breath pluming out of us as white mist, cue an entire day of joyfully crying "yeah, why not!"

Look down, now up, what's this? Suddenly you're in the Chihuly Glass exhibit; a place that looks like Willy Wonka made sweet love to your imagination, raised a love child purely on sherbet who is currently on drugs. It was amazing.

Brought to you by the good folk at Sherbet Mind Drug Co.

It was exploding with awesomeness.
These photos don't even begin to do it justice!

Also, I found the flying spaghetti monster!

This is how we came to meet our first character in our series of tales; T. With mischievous eyes and a certain cheeky charm, the garden's photographer who snapped this photo for us...

Yay, us!

then went on to be able to banter sufficiently for my stupid sense of humor, so, in my usual oh-I'm-overseas-I-can-just-be-unusually-adventure-seeking-and-friendly manner, when I heard him describe "The Unicorn Bar" as this odd circus themed place this then ensued:

"...and it has amazing drinks apparently."

"Wow, sounds amazing! Have you ever been?"

"Nope"

"Do you want to go on an adventure?"

"Yeah"

"Cool, I kind of just wander around your country now inviting people on adventures. Write your email down here for me and let's go explore this place tomorrow or Wednesday night!"

"Sure why the hell not"

~This chapter is continued in the Tuesday/Wednesday chapter...

So after a stunning exploration of the gardens, coffee and musing about the odd man staring at the Christmas village, the only sensible thing to do was to go exploring in the Science centre!

A tiny village full of Christmas!

It turns out that, despite our gleefully childish hearts, the science centre is somewhat marketed at young Young adults and mainly functioned to provide a resource for endless ridicule from us as we half walked, half struggled to breathe from laughter from dusty electronic dinosaur to fake planet to bugs. We DID however manage to then nerdily burn away half the afternoon playing giant chess...

Casually neglecting the real rules along the way...

Can the bishops move forwards AND backwards, or is everything perpetually marching forwards?
Do you have to land on the piece or just jump over it?
Wait isn't that checkers?
...Maybe we should google some of these rules :/

And haphazardly knocking pieces around till we decided that we had proved our superior intellects to the children at the centre.

This is me and my king whom I lead to a triumphant victory!

But before we were kicked out, the butterfly gardens were also beautiful.

O hallo little butterfly
You so pretty

As were some of the comically large instruments...

I'm out shining Hendrix by playing it, not behind my head or with my teeth, but from the inside!
What now Hendrix?

The day adventure turned to night adventure as we excitedly walked and chatted our way through the cold to a restaurant called "Tutta bella" where we had some of the most mouth watering pizza in the world and longingly discussed London and Europe travels.

Night walkers

Before you knew it, we were once more on the streets heading towards an amazing little bookshop, when SUDDENLY...

The most hysterically awful way I have ever been picked up by a guy
~A tale of tragedy, woe and hilarity

"So, I guess that's where-" Her absent minded chatter with her friend was interrupted by a raspy voice behind her.
"Excuse me miss, this fell out of your purse" He looked disheveled at best. A faded cap was pulled low over dirty untamed hair, broken glasses sat taped together on the ridge of a nose that also looked to have been broken a few times and his oversized coat did his street walker look no favours. He was prodding a small folded note at her arm, somewhat avoiding her surprised eye contact.
"Oh! Ah, thank you," Her voice was light and kind to the odd man, but was clearly surprised by the bizarre and unexpected moment. She took the note instinctively and opened her mouth to thank the stranger, assuming he had acted in good faith, but he was already giving a sharp nod and then hurrying away down the street. How bizarre. With their conversation broken, her friend also stood silently for a moment.
"Did you drop that?"
"I don't know. I mean, I guess so, that's nice of him..." She trailed off and narrowed her eyes puzzled as her mind ticked over. "Wait a minute. My notes are all flat, folded inside my wallet which is then clasped and is in the bottom of my hanbag...which is also clasped shut. How the hell would this have fallen out?"
They looked down the street, but the man was out of sight. So she went to unfold the bill, which began to lift at one corner and then would not give any more as a crackling sticky noise gave away the seal of the note. Lisa began to laugh "What the fuck is this?"
Her friend's nose wrinkled. "Just throw it in the bin! It might be drugs or something!"
"What he planted drugs on me then ran away? That makes no sense, I'll just open it carefully and if it's anything sus I'll drop it in the bin right here."
So she tenderly pulled the corners of the note apart... and out fell the fucking funniest thing she had ever seen:

Is that a photocopy of his license???
...And then on the other side

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry gentlemen, I've found Mr. Perfect now, and he wants me whether I am "now pregnant" or want to get pregnant!
We have a date to discuss this further by the dumpster under the bridge on 3rd Ave tomorrow.

10 minutes later, she and her friend began to be able to breathe again as the laughter died down to disbelieving breaths and giggles. I mean, I have to applaud this guy for his keen marketing ploy and honesty, but COME ON DUDE know your target market a little better. I do not pretend to be the greatest woman for men to desire on Earth (I need not pretend, for clearly we all know this to be true), but if you're going to decide to use this particular method of courting women, the method of looking like a crazy dirty street person who dupes you into taking their drivers license and offering pregnancy, maaaaaybe you want to aim for say, I dunno, crazy old desperate women... not 21 year olds... I think just my mild sanity puts me out of his range...

Phew. Hehe, anyway, alas we had to venture onwards! Here my phone ran out of battery so I didn't get to take any awesome photos of the final parts, but hopefully your imagination does it slight justice!

The evening wound up with one of the most epic second hand book shops I have ever been to called "Twice Sold Tales". For one thing it's a giant maze of aisles lined with old amazing books with piles and little alcoves made of stacks of books, it has a huge range of styles, genres and odd books and, best of all, there are 7 (hunt for them in the aisles, on the shelves, watching you from a doorway and count them!) big fat cats that live in the shop! They roam about doing their own thing, watching you silently and sleeping on the biggest books and are the most awesome addition to any bookstore ever. One of the cats, the softest big orange cat named Schmoo, took quite a liking to me and strolled around after me as I hunted the aisles for Calvino, Longfellow and Lightman, purring and rubbing against my legs. I gave him a good pat and scratch behind the ear and he proceeded to climb up my arm and sit perched on my shoulder. He made himself quite at home while I found my books, and was one of the coolest furriest adventure companions I've had so far. I also found three books by Alan Lightman!!!! I have no clue if that means anything to anyone else, but he wrote my favourite book "Einstein's Dreams" and I've never found any of his other books before...I cleaned out the shelf :D

So 12 books, 7 cats, 3 coffees, 2 museums, 2 adventure partners and 1 hilarious story richer, I finally got home at 10pm to watch an awesome movie with my brother and finally fall asleep, exhausted.

And it was only Monday...

Preface to Tales of Brave Adventure; The Character table of contents

If you want to find yourself; travel solo

If you want a well planned trip; travel with family

If you want to connect with someone; take a friend

If you want an adventure; take Lisa.

I make no guarantees for your safety or sanity

So here we are after a full week of solo adventuring through the city and wow, I have never had so many adventures in such rapid succession. I really have to write them out now before the memories get buried in the snow pile of more and more amazing days. So, without further ado, the following is a brief summary of some of the adventures of the past week. Unfortunately, given I know a handful of people read these posts, and more importantly they know ME quite well... some of my secret (and probably best) adventures shall go un-transcribed and remain a mystery unless I have a few drinks some night and tell you the hidden archive stories of my trip to America...

Guest starring;
Taylor- Old friend, funny clever young blonde woman. Plays the role of adventure compadre and tour guide.

T- Photographer with twinkling eyes. Plays the role of fellow Unicorn wrangler and well versed story teller.
S- Stunning, artsy young woman sitting on the squishy couch opposite me in the coffee shop. Plays the role of total stranger turned coffee-shop-and-extended-discussions friend.

Jy- Young, sandy-haired inventor. Plays the role of Market Place partner in crime and my favourite character.

Ky- Slightly older funny street advocate for charity. Plays the role of evening entertainment, walk companion and soul warmer.

Ka- Messy haired hilarious compadre to Ky. Plays the role of third member of evening walk's intrepid trio.

M- Dark haired, dark eyed male Lisa. Plays the role of new found tight friend, adventure partner, pizza partner, unicorn wrangler and future whirlyball instructor.

Jk- Blonde haired, hilarious young bartender. Plays the role of instigator of the roping of Lisa into the trio of M, Jk and Jm, Unicorn wrangler, beer provider and new found liaison.

Jm- Semi-Buble-resembling young Canadian medical Register with some fleck of Irish in there somewhere guy. Plays the role of clever, funny and friendly third member of the M, Jk, Jm alliance, advocate for Lisa, medical patsy, unicorn wrangler and new found liaison.

Lee- 50 something year old, very rugged up friendly but slightly socially odd man. Plays the role of art walk instigator, wine procurer, adventure partner and story teller.

Victor- Older, Mexican, well dressed artist. Plays the role of artist, flatterer, wine provider, art provider and story teller.

Chris- Fraiser Crane. Plays the role of art walk orphan, art game partner, adventure buddy, story teller, art educator and complete stranger.

Sn- Young professional Indian guy at Clever Bottle. Plays the role of cocktail compadre, story teller and ear for Lisa's concepts. 

Emmil- Extremely cheerful, funny, bubbly Okalahoma girl in soap shop. Plays the role of late evening re-energiser, partner in laughter, hand pamperer, thief for Lisa (literal partner in crime), late evening bus walk companion and future adventure partner.
Js- Cheery eyed, scruffy muso. Plays the role of trying-to-get-served-at-the-bar-compadre, beer advisor and challenger in napkin lyric composition vs napkin poetry composition on the topic of "That moment when you put the washing on but forgot about it and now it's been in there a bit too long and smells a little bit and you're not sure if you should rewash it or just hang it up anyway".

I will get these epic stories written at some point in these next few days.

This is my attempt at a promise!

:)

For now, this is the table of character contents for our magical tale!

It's the little things; 6 Things I've learnt so far

1. What gets me into trouble; my accent. What gets me out of trouble; my accent
   There is nothing quite like being completely misunderstood because of the way your words sound, then having that same feature be your redeeming factor :) Though I'm not entirely sure why I get pegged as British, South African and/or New Zealand before Australian. Do Australians just not come up here often? Or is there an abundance of these other foreigners up here confusing them? I have no idea, the mystery continues every day that I'm here, but it certainly seems people get every accent other than American confused. It is very nice being able to have my accent get my out of trouble though. Oh you accidentally pulled the bus cord late? That's okay, because you're Australian! Oh you don't know how to find that street? That's okay because you sound charming while you smile and try to ask how to! Oh you like the sample of our market food? Do you want a whole pile of free stuff because you're Australian? Oh you accidentally stabbed me? ^.^ That's okay! You were probably just confused because you're Australian!
2. We pass on the RIGHT here Lisa
   *Bump bump bump* Why do I keep accidentally bumping into so many people?
   *Gets onto wrong escalator*
   *Gets confused trying to drive a shopping trolley through the aisles*
   *Something feels off walking on this side of the footpath*
   I constantly have to keep reminding myself that over here it's RIGHT not LEFT for traffic flow and, ergo, have had no end of moronic collisions when force of habit wins out. It's such a small adjustment, but I'm forever surprised what a difference it makes, and how deeply ingrained it is in everyone in so many small areas like footpaths and shopping aisles and escalators...
3. Crossing walks are sneakily silent here
   Such a ridiculously small detail, but it's the little things you're constantly struck by. I *keep* on standing at traffic lights and almost forgetting I have to diligently watch for the little white walking man to light up because that delightfully peppy *bipbipbipbipbipbipbipbip* of Australian crosswalks are missing! A cool feature they have though is that the walking symbol has a timer that starts counting down so you know how long you have to get over the road. Now I just need to work through my twinge of missing the bipbipbips :)
4. No american can do a good Aussie accent
   This is a simple truth. Everyone ends up sounding either British or like they're gargling marshmallows, it's kind of hilariously bad.
5. All the monopoly money here looks exactly the same and tipping is an awful system
   Argh! You have no idea how frustrating it is to try and find the correct money when you're in a queue, or have your hands full or are in a dark bar WHEN ALL THE MONEY LOOKS THE SAME. The only difference is the small number in the corner and the presidents on the other side. It's all the same size and colour and texture and it's incredibly annoying :( Then there's this whole tipping system wherein you first of all have to deduce which premises you actually tip (because HA it's not everywhere, that would be too simple) then you have to sporadically do maths to calculate a suitable 15% tip. Oh and every price EVERYWHERE is before tax so when you actually go to buy something it's not the price you were told. Money here is the worst.
6. Inclement weather, art galleries and markets are secretly magical ways to revive ones soul
   This too, is a simple truth. But it's my favourite truth so far, and it's where I'm off to again now :)

The first few Daze in America

You may recall this is where we left Lisa, dozing peacefully after her long long plane adventure... 

CUE 4 HOURS LATER! Suddenly we're awake and confused! O.o

The sun is gone, toilets are flushing anticlockwise, it's actually cold and accents are flying around everywhere! 

Where are we, you ask? That's right, we're in America, land of the free, home of the baked... or something like that (we are in Washington after all, the now legally weed-embracing state).

So after getting my groggy little head up and into a shower (seriously, look at it going the wrong way down that drain!), which, hold on I'd like to stop and point out, was (like many of the things in Nic's apartment) a complete puzzle to try and make function. Stupid America, everything is different here. I put on a fresh set of clothes and felt slightly less zombie-esk just in time for Nic to come home from work so we could head out for dinner!

Hey I know this kid!

My first meal in America was at a Red Robin;

A diner so American it's as though it's parodying itself!

America; founded on freedom, liberty...

...And diabetes!

After I was tickled enough by the concept of waitresses who automatically refill your raspberry iced tea, baseball on the tv and the idea of calculating tips wherever you go (this part is awful), we braved the cold Bellevue night to seek out the Microsoft building!

Lisa Allen; Queen of soft and small things!
Geddit? Ha, man I'm hilarious.

Even just this little walk was so enchanting purely because of the nostalgic wintery cold and soft glow of fairy lights on the street posts that sparkle and play on the black pools of water on the sidewalk, forever wet from all of the Washington rain. I can bury my head in the depths of a warm scarf with the bitter cold pinching my cheeks and be cast back to Denmark or our cold walks in France... and feel right at home. I like it a lot.

But let's bandy right on past my introverted musings and get to the fun of the Microsoft building, which was AMAZING! Apparently clever creative geeks need a plethora of floors filled with entertainment; including pool tables, giant couches, indoor putt putt, giant fridges filled with free drinks and massage chairs.

Hello and welcome to Microsoft what can I interest you in?
Coffee? Tea? Excessive amounts of quirky furniture?

Or perhaps a genuine American Root Beer!
It tastes awful! :D

"What does this button do?" ~The story of how Lisa was attacked and broken by a giant massage chair!

Such a beautiful view of the lights of the city, and such intriguing messages written on the window...
"Look how beautiful the world is, but what are you doing here?"

We had fun playing and wandering the halls but eventually were both ready to concede how tired we were, went home and crashed after a long first day. My second (and even third) day proved what potent effects jetlag and plane rides have on your brain and muscles. After Nic had scooted off to work, I tried to do some yoga to warm up my stupidly sore muscles. Never before have I been so stiff and in poor form when attempting to resemble a dog that is facing downward or a semi-paralytic pigeon. You know what's good for sore muscles? ROCK CLIMBING!

False! :D

But this is what we did anyhow! I went with Nic and one of his German friends, Daniel, from work. The facilities here are huge compared to the ones on the gold coast, stacks of walls and bouldering areas (bouldering walls are the ones that only go about 5-6m in the air and just have tricky paths to try and climb to get there). It was insane!

Plenty of options of where and in which method I would like to embarrass myself!

(I kid, I'm actually an okay climber, but this blog would be less fun if I was competent at things... like travelling.)

I should explain now that, when I travel, I completely discard any hesitations of being social with strangers and throw shyness to the wind. This makes for many of my stories being far more fun, filled with adventures and other peoples stories and featuring many guest stars! (Don't worry, many of these stories coming of the various characters I have met thus far on my escapades) This is how I came to meet Michael at rock climbing :) There is a certain natural bond you develop with those other exhausted corpses that fall off a bouldering wall next to you and collapse on the giant foam floor; perhaps this is the bond of the defeated and should be shamed, I do not pretend to know, but I stand by its honorable ways none the less. Either way, after a brief obligatory mocking of each others climbing skills, I happily enquired into his line of work then paused and turned my gaze suspiciously...

"Wait... don't tell me you're also a computery guy..."

*Michael grins sheepishly*

*Lisa groans and flops back onto floor*
"And you all as well?" *Nods to surrounding men*
*Everyone smiles and nods*

-.- I'm so out numbered.

And that is how Lisa came to learn that there is a 97% chance that every single person you meet in this city either works for Microsoft or Amazon!

But several bumps and bruises, victories and interesting rock climbing characters later, it was 9:30pm (Yeah everyone here works till around 7 or 8pm and so they do weird activities stupidly late) and time to head home before the evil jetlag monster reared its head once more MWAHAHAHAHA!

I am Jetlag! I am here to eat your soul, blender your brain and replace it with pollution!

So my first few days were really just a bit of a mess of body clock adjustment, unpacking, getting my bearings, catching up with my pretty epic brother and odd activities! The next few stories (I've been pretty slack with my scooping up the cupfulls of blankiness for the bloggy goodness, sorry bout that) are when the adventuring really begins. But who DOESN'T want to hear about my messy jetlag filled first days!? :D Clearly not you, random character reading this rambling load of nonsense, since you're here still reading away at the end of the post! 

So grab a bottle of wine and a woman (or a man) (or a dog) and get ready to have your cups poured full of adventures! Stay tuned blankers!

Coming up;
"It's the little things; the handful of things I've learnt about being an Aussie girl in America so far"

"'I wonder where that path leads' and other bad stories of Lisa Allen (ace adventurer and lieutenant of getting lost)"

"Pumpkin spiced beer, lies and other night time adventures in Capitol Hill bars"

"The infallible magic of the market places overseas" ~A guide to regaining fragments of your soul

"Adventures with Taylor" ~The story of why I want my entire house to be made of blown glass
And more... possibly with clever titles, probably delayed and almost certainly full of absolute rubbish :D

Get excited.

An extra love note to you all:
It's actually kind of fun and eerie when I get my creep on and see the data of you readers. It blows my mind that around 100-200 people read the nonsense of my galloping adventures. What is that!? That's ridiculous! You guys are amazing!