Ping! I’m awake, it’s 6am. At home I would have looked at the clock, realised I can reasonably stay in bed another couple of hours and still not miss the day. I would have gone back to sleep, woken at midday, cursing the fact that I’d missed half the day. However I’m not at home I’m on HOLIDAY!!!! The anticipation of the first real day of my holiday is too much, so I carefully climb out of bed, trying not to wake the other girls in my room and head off to the showers. I was warned about hostel shower rooms and urged to take ‘shower shoes’ (flip-flops) however the showers at the Green Tortoise Seattle although not exactly sparkling were certainly not in a bad state of cleanliness or repair. I was pleased and soon to be refreshed and ready to start the day.

After my free breakfast of toast with PB&J, I love that stuff, (sometimes I think I was an American kid in a previous life). I head off to explore the city.

It’s 7.30am on a Saturday morning in Seattle, the sun is shinning (am I lucky or is all that talk of rain just to put the tourists off?) and there’s hardly anyone around. It’s great I feel like the city is calm and it wants me to relax. I walk from the Hostel down 2nd Avenue through Belltown. I find ‘Singles Going Steady’ a record shop that was recommended to me, get excited then realise it’s ten to eight in the morning, the place doesn’t open for like 3 hours or something!

I spent the next 4 hours walking around the city. I walked to the Seattle Centre, it was so quiet, a few people walking dogs or pushing babies around, there were a few homeless people still sleeping on benches but that’s just a part of life in any city. One fellow asked me for a cigarette, I gave him one, telling him it was a menthol, he pulled a bit of a face but took it anyway, he did not however thank me. I have to say that in general the homeless people in Seattle were never pushy and on a number of occasions actually made me smile, they are the ones I gave the quarters in my pocket to.

From the Seattle Centre I took the Monorail back downtown. Monorails have always been one of those things which disappoint me. I climb into the carriage and it feels like I’m at a theme park and then all it does is carry you across town. Meanwhile I’m sitting there expecting the ‘ride’ to suddenly lurch round a corner or hurtle downhill at tremendous speed. The Seattle monorail is very handy but it’s a short ride which doesn’t really show you much of the city and it’s not a white knuckle ride either!

From 5th where the Monorail deposited me back downtown I decided to walk up to Capitol Hill. I’d found a gig in the local listings paper ‘The Stranger’ which looked like it might be my cup of tea. A band called ‘Stars of Track and Field’. They’re named after a song by Belle & Sebastian, who are one of my favourite bands, and the review suggested some other influences which I like the sound of too. So I decided to try and find the venue in advance and make sure I’d be OK to get a ticket. In addition I wanted to find Volunteer Park, I knew it was in vaguely the same area and seeing as it was such a beautiful day I thought a bit of sunning ones-self and a bit of writing might be in order.

I must have walked 25 blocks, and I hadn’t found either the Park or the Venue (CHAC Capitol Hill Arts Centre). So I decided to stop for lunch, again 'The Stranger' was my guide and I had lunch in a Café they recommended ‘Café Septieme’ on Broadway. I had a delicious omelette with ‘home fries’ (my new favourite thing), lots of coffee, good people watching and the cutest waiter. I took advantage of this and asked him if he knew where the venue was, a good excuse to chat to him as well as gain useful information.

The venue for the gig I wanted to go to turned out to be just down the street and I was able to find out that I didn’t need a ticket and doors were at 8.30. I chatted for a while with the girl in the office and it wouldn’t be the first time that I was really touched by how friendly the people in Seattle are.

After goodness knows how many more blocks I finally found Volunteer Park. The park is lovely there’s the Asian Art Museum, which I would have liked to visit but I felt that it would have been a shame to be inside on such a lovely day. There is also a little conservatory with orchids and tropical plants. The orchids are lovely but so delicate that they are behind a wire mesh which kind of spoils the viewing pleasure a little. There are other crazy looking plants which aren’t behind bars and it’s a cute little place to spent 30 minutes or so.

The park also houses a water tower which I believe you can climb for a great view of the city. There is a reservoir type thingy which in it’s self isn’t very exciting but it clears the way for a pretty good view of the city even without climbing the tower.

I wandered round the park for a while and sat in the sun until it started to get cloudy and the wind picked up, that familiar ozone smell crept into my nose and I knew it was going to rain. I made my way to the bus stop to head back downtown and just made it to the shelter before the rains came. And came they did, the sky opened and the rain was bouncing off pavements and running down the road in streams within minutes. Being from the UK, I’m used to these type of sudden downpour, but back home I would have thought it a terrible nuisance. Instead I sat and watched as the things around me changed colour as the rain saturated them, smiled at unfortunate people who got caught without an umbrella, and didn’t mind getting wet when the bus came and I had to leave the shelter to get on.

So it’s Saturday night in Seattle, famous for a great music scene, home of grunge, final resting place of Jimi Hendrix, and I’m ready to experience it first hand. I catch a bus back up town (public transportation in Seattle is really good, I never waited more than 20 minutes for a bus, and most of the time it was less than 5, the bus drivers were helpful and the fares very reasonable). I get to the gig at 8.45 walk in and the place is virtually empty, at the bar I ask about the entrance fee and I’m told that they haven’t set up the door yet and not to worry about it. Result, free gig! However nothing is ever that easy, the girl behind the bar asks me for my ID, I’m 28 years old, I was 17 the last time I was asked for ID back home, I did not even think about needing it, even though I kind of knew that the law in the US is very strict and that they ID everyone, I did not bring my passport to the gig :-( I have to catch a bus back downtown, retrieve my passport, bus it back to the gig, by which time the doorman is on and I have to pay the cover charge!

I had fun at the gig although the bands weren’t particularly good. I was a little worried at first, I got back to the venue by 9.30 and it was still very quite. It turns out that bands can play a lot later in Seattle, back home in the UK most gigs tend to be over by 11.30 whereas here the final band didn’t even start until 12.40!.

I chatted to the girl behind the bar and to a few people including Mike, a short, rather unfortunate looking chap who told me he ‘managed’ one of the bands. He didn’t seem to be doing much managing, more getting drunk on Long Island Iced Tea and trying to chat me up!

I was rescued by the girl behind the bar, I think she was feeling bad about having to send me away earlier in the evening. She introduced me to her flatmate and his friends. They were really nice and I spent the rest of the evening chatting to them and avoiding Mike who by the end of the night was looking somewhat worse for wear.