Day 11

Another free breakfast this morning, dragging us kicking and screaming (mentally) out of bed. Our first item on the agenda today was a free walking tour of the city. Clare and I had both done similar free walking tours around the world and so were surprised not to find anyone waiting when we showed up at the meeting spot 10 minutes before it was due to depart. It was another rainy day in Seattle, fog hanging over the bay and we sheltered under a bus stand as we waited. Our combined experience led us to expect a brightly coloured jacketed person, in their 20's, with either a big sign on a stick or a sandwich board they could put up. The reality was only slightly different. A guy in his late 20's. dressed in dark coloured clothes, with a tiny sign on a  stick you could barely read unless you were right in front of it. Still, he had a small ragtag band of followers and more joined as we waited. Soon there were 12 of us, and we set off.

While we'd seen the market before, we'd missed some of the stalls and permanent shops outside.... including the original Starbucks store! With a different logo for all the merchandise and a different colour scheme it was forgivable to have missed it, but they still had a line up inside as bad as any other in town. The market had changed as well, only some of the vender's are there permanently, and the area we'd got our cheese from yesterday now had different items for sale. Part of the tour was some free sampling, but in the market this wasn't too hard. All the vendors made special effort to engage any potential customers with samples, regardless of us being in the group. Soon, we passed under the market to look at another icon of Seattle - the chewing gum wall. Voted the 2nd germiest place in the world, the wall is covered with old gum - a brightly coloured mess of dried saliva. Messages had been written in the gum, a marriage proposal, logos and icons depicted. On the opposite side of the alley were signs strictly forbidding gum from being placed here, signs with gum smiley faces and rude words plastered all over the sign and the walls too. We hung around here for far too long, while waiting for a phone call to happen. Our tour was then able to take us into the underground brewing room of The Pike Pub & Brewery. These guys have been making ale here since 1989 and we got a private talk about how ale is brewed and the processes and ingredients. A quick quiz at the end to see who had been listening ended with 4 of the group getting discount vouchers - eager to try the beers later I was quick to answer correctly to win a voucher.

We moved along, finding out why there was so much art dotted around the city and other bits of the history of the place. The tour moved along to the historic end of the city, the seedy end of the city, home to the brothels, bars and casinos. While researching Seattle for the tour, the company had stumbled onto some interesting information about a totem pole erected in Pioneer Square. The totem pole had originally been stolen from a tribe up in Alaska, while the men were out fishing a band of men cut it down and dragged it back to their ship to sail home. Charges were brought against the responsible party (meanwhile the totem pole was proudly being displayed) but the judicial system in Alaska was still in its infancy so a Judge was brought in from New York. His journey took him through Seattle, where he was wined, dined and entertained in the seedier section of the city. Needless to say, the judge was well looked after and when he arrived to preside over the case in Alaska, he threw it out straight away. With the criminal charges thrown out, the tribe brought civil charges asking for $4 million as compensation. The matter was eventually settled, a whopping $500 paid to recompense the tribe and that was the end of it. Because of the location of the pole, lots of mischief went on around it and it was no surprise when the pole was eventually set on fire. Feeling slightly bad, the city returned the charred remains of the pole to the tribe who were so thankful they carved a new one for the city. So far, this is standard folklore. The tour company, while researching the pole, notice 2 upside down frogs toward the very top of the pole. In the tribe history, a number of shame poles have been carved, and traditionally they have had upside down frogs on. The question posed by this recent research is did the tribe give Seattle a shame pole instead of a totem pole - knowing full well they wouldn't spot the difference and its been a long tribal joke ever since? Who can really say, but I certainly would like to think this is the case!

Our tour continued, making its way down to the docks where we walked along and stopped for clam chowder. The seagulls down here were enormous, and soon it was clear why. The fish and chip shop we stopped at was right by the ferry dock, and customers were actively encouraged to feed the seagulls (but not the pigeons!) with left overs. Our guide showed how the gulls would go crazy and would snatch chips right out of his hand when he held it up for them. The tour finished down on the piers along the seafront edge of Seattle, leaving us to walk back up to the hostel for lunch. Streets in the city, especially down at the waterfront are sometimes difficult to navigate along as the street level was raised around 1889 and the underground streets all closed off. This explains why some of the streets are on such steep hills - you are actually climbing from old street level to new street level. Our route back from the tour led us to an elevator, so that we could rise from sea level up to new street level. It was very strange having an elevator just in the street. No shops or apartments or normal buildings of any kind - just the road stopping at the lower level and seen continuing above at the higher level. Back at the hostel we had a lunch of market food, enjoying some of our purchases from yesterday.

After lunch, we walked back into town to The Pike pub, passing yet more of the city we hadn't discovered yet.There was a big American Football game on, against one of the nearby cities, so the pub was surprisingly full of sports fans. We bought a tasting paddle so we could try a selection, then used my discount voucher after to get some drinks. They brewed an interesting selection of beers, made in lots of different styles and lots of different ways. Watching the locals interact was fascinating as well, almost like going to the zoo. After a couple of hours, we called time at the bar and headed back for home- via the market again to pick up dinner. With such good local food, at such reasonable prices so close to us, how could we refuse! The hostel had a hot tub which as tonight was our last night we were planning on trying out. It was out the back of the building, a small alley from the backdoor out towards another alleyway which had been covered over with a gate and a tarp for privacy. There was an Australian couple already in there and it was a easy way to relax after the days walking in the rain, chatting away and soaking up the heat - even when the heavens opened and it poured with rain.

I hadn't been feeling too well all day, and by now was really struggling. After dinner I just needed to rest, leaving Clare to go down to the keg party the hostel was hosting for Halloween and have all the fun. Tomorrow would be a big day, we'd finally get to see how the car was faring and whether we'd be able to continue travelling the way we had been!