Day 11: Exploring Seattle

View from the Bank of America
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Well my day started with a shower and a shave, but unfortunately i was too late for my free breakie....and I was starving.

So in true american style I went and had a burger for breakfast!!!! Theres somewhere called Johny Rockitts diner next door to the hostel, which is like 1950's theme diner. I had a burger and coffee from there, and to be honest all i could really make out was that it was basically grease in a bun!!! maybe 50000 calories! Anyhow feeling a bit Ill i set off for the day. I was planning on going up the Space Needle but after speaking to people they said I was best off going up the Bank of America building....it's only $5 and is over 1000 feet tall!! The Space Needle is a 600ft and cost $14 dollars! So I got the lift to the top of the Bank of America, it's so high your ears pop on the way up!! The view is pretty spectacular from the top!! You can see the who city with the rockies in the background! After that I decided to go to the EMP (experience music project), so I headed back to the hostel (where they sell discounted tickets) then went over to the EMP, which is next door to the Space Needle. The outside of the building is really cool, it's like an abstract shape, covered in shiney metal, looks pretty damn cool!

The Space Needle
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So I went in with the intension of spending maybe an hour in there......4 hours after I went in I was still there......it is WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!

I went in an the first bit you get to is a Jimi Hendrix museum (cos obviously he was from Seattle), it was pretty cool, with some interesting stuff to see! They had the original bits of paper that he wrote his lyrics on (his handwriting is worse than mine!) and they had some of his guitars and clothes and various other bits and bobs! To be honest although I like Jimi Hendrix, I'm not a huge enthusiast to the Jimi Museum quickly lost its appeal, but the next bit was sooooo cool!!! It was called the Sound Lab, and you can go in there and play on all the instruments!!! But the instruments are designed to teach you to play them. So the guitars have lights on the frets to show you where to put you fingers, the keyboards keys light up to show you which note to push next, and the drums.....well the drums are SOOOOO cool! It's called the drum robot, and it can play itself. So it plays a beat, they shows you how to play it by lighting up the drums when you need to hit them. I spent hours in the Sound Lab, theres just so much to do and play with!!!

I can't work out how to turn the photos round!
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To be honest that the main attraction of the EMP, theres also a big cinema showing a documentarie on Jimi hendrix (of course!), an art gallery and a big stage with all the lights and stuff!

Anyhow, seen as I'd spent most of the day in there, it was getting on a bit so I headed back to the hostel (although i was tempted to go to Bruce Lee's grave which was near, maybe something to do at a later time!). Once i'd been and had a wash and things i went into the common room area, and got chatting to 2 girls, Sarah from near manchester and Charlotte from Germany, both travelling solo in america. They were both cool, and we decided to go out for the evening. We first went down to this art's fair, which to be honest was a little dull, me not really being the arty type, but we all got bored of that fairly quickly, so went went to a Jazz bar.....which was wicked!!! There was a live jazz band from New Orleans playing, and it was really good! And the beer was pretty cheap!! And I get ID'd here!!

The EMP
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Next we went to a Pinball bar, Shorty's I think it was called, which was pretty cool, if you like pinball! To be honest after a couple of games we got kind of bored of the pinball and went and sat outside and had a chat, where we stayed for quite a while. They we went just down the road a bit to a place called the Lava Lounge, where they serve Blackthorne Cider on tap!! Much better than this weak american beer! So we had a drink in there then headed back to the hostel.

After a quick look at my emails I went to bed!

New Orleans Jazz Band
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Seattle is cool!