For the Record

Not in New York at the moment.

Have spent the past few days in Portland, Oregon, the other side of the country. Previously before that I spent a week in San Diego with friends.

Pretty amazing looking at New York on the news at the moment and recognising what they're talking about.

New York part II

Am now a little better.

Had a tourist day. Which mostly involved getting stuck in 'train jams' on the subway (no pictures because not even I'm that depressing), but also going out to Liberty island and checking out Times Square.

NYC from Liberty Island. Taken by a very kind french dude.

Times square is where the nightmare-ish visuals from cyber-punk come from. Except more annoying and less Spider Jerusalem running around on top of cars.

I tried to take an arty shot here. Didn't really work.

Liberty Island doesn't really have much on it. The infrastructure, especially for an area that seems to be entirely about tourism is kinda poor. Very patriotic, but really a huge tent for your airport security gear, old broken docks and poorly maintained boats...

I suppose that's most of NYC though. Lots of money floating around over the top of struggling barely coping infrastructure and loads of people all ignoring each other.

New York

New York has been interesting. Have mostly only seen the inside of a toilet bowl. Whatever I picked up on that last day in San Francisco, it was nasty. I was very worried I was going to have to discover what non-evidence based healthcare was like at a doctor's or hospital.

Am now well enough to move around slowly and having small meals. Hoping tomorrow I will actually see some of New York Comic Con, and the day after see some more of New York when not completely dazed and dehydrated. I'm nearby central park at least, it'd be cool to see more of it.

Had to organise heading to San Diego next to visit friends today.

Hopefully you can all see this screenshot clearly. This is the airline booking website.

The first flight on the list is basically ideal. Just the pricing of the economy lines of tickets vs. the "first class special" ticket had me amused.

I went the first class. Because I can, and also because I'm pretty sure once my baggage gets taken into account, it'll be less than $100 difference. It's also partly... the reaction American's have to me in fancier places than I should be? It's pretty funny.

No idea where I'm heading after San Diego. I don't really have any plans. Head back up towards Oregon maybe? I really liked Oregon and didn't see enough of it the first time around.

Haven't updated in awhile.

Enjoyed San Francisco. Very strange city. Very segregated in a strange way. Took it easy and went to the international vegetarian festival and met cool peeps. Kinda was in the wrong mood to appreciate it though. Did learn about vegan/nut cheeses though and well. I now have a book and riccotto cheese can be made from macadamias :D

There's something wrong with the fact that the best cheese by several miles that I have tasted so far, in America, has been vegan.

Currently on a plane to New York. In the middle of the night.  Because in America, you can get 'reasonably' priced wifi on domestic flights. But poor organisation of your important infrastructure.

The future is a bizarre place. Cannot wait till my sunnies come with virtual enhancements to the real world. Can you imagine being able to IM (like emailing, but shorter and instant) while walking around and through your eyes? Or while gardening? Well if you can't you should Doktor Sleepless, but otherwise let me look forward to it.

And now I try and nap.

San Francisco

So tonight is my third night in San Francisco.  I haven't really done much or written much about it for a few reasons.

The first evening I got here around 7.30pm after 7 hours of driving. My tomtom (the GPS navigator I have) decided to take me in enough circles and weird directions for me to get into the city area right into peak hour traffic. So you can imagine my mood. Then it kept pointing me to the wrong hotels! So I was a bit exhausted when I eventually found the correct motel.

Motel I'm in is central but weird. It has automatic lights on timers over the Study and in the Bathroom. So when I'm showering, I have to periodically stick my hand outside the curtain and wave to turn the lights back on.

I resolved to sleep in and do nothing on my first full day in the city. I mostly succeeded, but then I remembered that Amanda Palmer was doing both a (free) ninja gig and signing at a record store and then a full proper performance with her current band, The Grand Theft Orchestra.

I was quite far back.

So with the aid of googlemaps and SF's confusing bus system, I managed to make it to the record store. That was fun, in a dodgey-ish kind of area, loads of hipster cafes, 'tobacco' stores and tattoo and piercing parlors. This is the forth 'gig' of some kind that Amanda Palmer has done that I've been able to get to, the first outside Perth and the second 'ninja' gig. I love how she'll just rock up to an area, no real preparation and proceed to force everyone to have fun.  I got her new album signed too which was cool, even saw her husband Neil Gaiman (v. famous sci-fi and comics writer) wandering around the store at one point.

This shot doesn't really show how foggy it gets. But I like it anyway.

So that was nice. Afterwards I managed to find what must have been the only restaurant in this entire city that couldn't work out what vegetarian meant, but I got a decent meal out of it in the end.

I can't really make up my mind about this city. It's very hilly, the drivers are kinda nuts and it get's really cold in the evenings. There are rules absolutely everywhere too and every cafe that has free wifi (easiest way for me to plan for what to do next) is filled with computer geeks talking up their big projects to one another.

The graffitti around the place has been fun.

Start Wars, a graffiti image with what I think is George W Bush's face in a Darth Vader helmet.

Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to manage being an actual tourist. Today was all about getting decent clothes and working out the preparation for what I'm going to do in New York. I have been asked to interview a very famous artist for a website I guess I'm now volunteering for. Which is exciting, but means I need to start preparing.

I'll be here a couple of weeks. The International Vegetarian Conference is here, on the 5th of October which a few friends are going to, so I figured I might as well go. After that I'm going directly to New York, but straight into the NYCC events. Which will be fun. A friend I made in Seattle will also be reporting there, for the same website I am.

Arizona and Nevada

Decided I didn't like Los Angeles much, so headed out East towards Arizona. To see the Grand Canyon. Didn't book or plan or anything.

It mostly worked out. Spend one night in a small town called Needles (on the border of Arizona and California). The town was scarily friendly. Like I had to greet and talk to everyone at the pub to get a room in what was possibly the dodgiest motel I have stayed in so far. I might have freaked out slightly when I found hairs in the bed I was given.

When I went to a restaurant to get food the locals there treated me like I was some sort of cultural event arriving. The boy serving me was friendly, but couldn't stop imitating everything I said because apparently my accent is just that exciting! Then when leaving I was cornered by the a alcoholic dude that lives in the motel wanting to spread the word of god or whatever. Friendly, but in that slightly surreal, I don't know if I'm about to get murdered way. At least everyone liked my hair?

My hair back when I was in Redmond, Washington State. Just imagine it faded towards grey and more regrowth.

Strangely enough, the alcoholic dude gave me good advice. I ended up the next day in Williams, Arizona (it was on the way to where I was planning to head). It's a tiny tourist town, about the size of Manjimup but entirely tourist orientated, with the main attraction being an old train line (with renovated carriages from all over the States) that runs up to the Grand Canyon. It was pretty nice! Some decent restaurants with vegetarian options, lots of old Route 66, 'Native American' and cowboy memorabilia tourist shops.

Being 'robbed' They had horses and everything.

The day up to the Grand Canyon was pretty fun. Before the train left there was a fun wild west cowboys skit and on the way home the train was 'held up' by the same guys in a 'voluntery robbery' and chased by the sheriff. A lot of tourist trap and cheesiness, but it was a lot of fun. Also meant I could enjoy the Canyon properly instead of being too tired and sore to really appreciate it.

Squirrel! Also the Grand Canyon in the background there.

The Canyon itself was just amazing. It's one of those things you can't really take photos of, the scope is just too huge and has a presence the camera can't capture. I did try though.

Not even close to capturing how beautiful this place is.

I'm heading back inland and west. Mostly because I seem to be allergic to the Mountains and deserts. I'm sick of sneezing and blood noses. I'm at a stop over somewhere in Nevada, I'm hiding in a hotel a couple of days because I blistered my feet quite badly over the past week and I'm sick of my feet hurting. On the way here I did stop at Hoover Dam.

A big dam

I wasn't really that impressed with Hoover Dam. The tour and parking were expensive and didn't show you all that much. The speeches and movie they got you to watch didn't really put the Dam into context either. Just a bunch of dry facts with a thick layer of patriotism that I had to try really hard not to laugh at. No real humanity, which was frustrating.

The bridge and some of the structures on the otherside. It is hard to take a good photo of a thing you are standing on.

I sound harsh and it is an amazing structure, particularly when you remember that it is 100 years old... but I would have liked a little less America, the future of Modernity! being shoved in my face and more about the people and the conflict involved in such a massive engineering feat. I mean a lot of poor and desperate people died building the bloody thing, some analysis of how and why, rather than just a plaque and a vague statement of how deaths weren't properly recorded would have been good.

American flag between some appropriated Egyptian statues and iconography. Because who needs an objective view on history when you have AMERICA. (Again, at Hoover Dam.)

Los Angeles

I'm in Los Angeles at the moment.

Nothing really to say about this place. It's big, spread out, smelly, dirty. Driving was pretty scary. Californian roads are pretty terrible and the drivers absolutely terrifying.

I came here mostly for Comikaze, a pop culture convention, so I could meet Eliza Frye, the girl whose artwork I keep buying and covering the house in. Turns out she was very cool and lovely, so I've now got even more of her stuff. 

I also got to meet a whole heap of the girls involved in the Womanthology project, which was pretty cool. Barbara Kesel (a writer) is amazing, very quick and witty so talking to her and listening to her speak was worth it.

The Womanthology ladies

Walking around and exploring also meant I stumbled across the red carpet for the Emmy awards, while everyone was arriving and having their photos taken. That was neat I guess. Not really my thing.

I also bought (very cheap) concert tickets for on the 25th here in Los Angeles for Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. I'm excited to be going, but I really don't know what to do in the week in between. I'm thinking I might drive to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, I've already been in this city too long.

Sorry I don't really have any pictures. I figure you guys aren't interested in the stupid number of comics I bought.

Keep forgetting to update

In Las Vegas at the moment. Just here for a night as it was on the way from Denver to LA.

It's not really my thing here. Just so over the top in it's silliness ridiculous consumerism. From what I can tell people drink, gamble and buy stuff. Maybe also take photos of the lights and themselves with random costumed people walking along "The Strip".

US$40 for a night in a four star hotel though is pretty nice. Suspect though I'll be unimpressed when I find out how much parking overnight cost me.

Also they have a flying fox across the mall thing. Conveniently my hotel is near the end point and so that was an easy way to get back. Got this brilliant picture from it too. Photo is a photo of the photo they took of me. Apparently electronic copies are a bit beyond them.

Best bit of this city.

I'm sure at some point I'll be organised enough to write about Wyoming, Salt Lake City, Colorado, my friends in Denver and southern Utah.

Belated photo post.

As requested some images.  From Portland through to Idaho Falls. I don't have any of Salt Lake City yet. The drive was nice here but all the stops (and what I've seen of the city) have been kinda ugly.

The Rose Test Gardens in Portland were amazing. I couldn't get any landscape shots that did the place justice. I definitely picked the right time of year to visit this place.

I did have fun trying to be all arty taking close-ups of the more interesting flowers though. I loved the two tone roses and the dark purple and black ones were also pretty cool.

The 'authentic' Japanese gardens nearby were amazing as well. This is about the point where my camera ran out of batteries and I started using the ipad though.

You can kind of see one of the huge Coi(sp?) they in this picture on the bottom right hand side. Also in the background the huge fir tree forest the entire garden was set in (which is not very authentic, but was beautiful).

The view from the top of a hill rest-stop in Rural Oregon.

The rest-stops here are amazing. They all have buildings with vending machines, drink fountains, airconditioning and automatically flushing toilets. Since Idaho I think all have had free wifi and most have loads of tourist information (booklets and not just signage) plus payphones. Some have even had free coffee! The wifi has been fantastic. My tomtom is mostly pretty good, but it doesn't always show me the quickest or most interesting way. I also sometimes forget to book accommodation until I get halfway to a destination.

Me at Idaho Falls. Under a bridge. Unfortunately I didn't think to get a photo of myself until I was past the falls. I'll save those for another post though. It was strange being basically in the middle of a desert in the center of a continent and all of a sudden WATER EVERYWHERE though.

I'm currently in Salt Lake City, Utah. I traveled east from Oregon through Idaho and tomorrow I set out further east through Wyoming to Denver in Colorado to meet a friend of a friend who is letting me stay with her a few nights. She assures me she has cats that like strangers patting them! I might be missing Diesel the Cat a little.

Since the last post

Currently in Idaho, some place called Mountain Home? Would be partying but accidentally ate enough to nearly die. Do not try and out eat Americans.  Seriously I spent two hours with all my chest and stomach hurting so bad. Such a bad idea. I am never trying food again unless I know exactly what is in it and how many calories.

Anyway what I have been doing:

I spent a few days in Redmond WA with Jovana. Basically a satellite city of Seattle funded by microsoft for it's employees for the nearby employment centre thing. Still obviously under construction, dunno if I'd like it there in say, 5 years time but otherwise was totally just a bloody fairytale story of urban planning. A five minute walk from her apartment in the town centre and we were picking blackberries! Also the only place I have been and not seen homeless people!

Picked up the rental vehicle from SeaTac and after a few days of practising driving (scaring the crap out of both Jovana and myself several times) I headed south down through Washington to Portland, Oregon.

Portland is not the prettiest city, but it's South (maybe?) side has the prettiest gardens and the rest of it is ugly but very interesting. Stayed a couple of days longer than I originally planned and saw loads of cool stuff. The second hotel I stayed at was too trendy for me. They were cheap but fun and aimed at young people who like fun things.

Also Portland has a lot of second hand book stores. Yeah :/ That's another package home when I hand in the rental.

Headed East on Thursday because I wasn't sure I could handle a night of drinking with backpackers in full party mode. The drive was amazing. I am finally starting to understand the whole rolling hills concept.

Spent last night in some town called Pendleton, it's primary industry seemed to be two large prison factories. Like apparently the two prisons are how all the laundry gets done and jeans get made. Which er, is a little scary! Taking into account America's high rates of incarating the mentally ill and african-americans... plus a habit of avoiding industries moving offshore through allowing privatised prisons to provide cheap labour... I mean it's great that you want to buy locally made guys, but if it's locally made by a prison, trapping people from low socio-economic areas into production lines and low-skill labour with no training... Is that actually better for _anyone_?

I'm not painting a pretty picture here. But that's kind of what most of America is. The most picturesque things surrounded and built up by some pretty horrific layers underneath.  Two speed economy is a phrase that gets bandied around a lot in The West etc... with Australia's mining boom, but I think we hide ours in the suburbs a lot better and maybe aren't as desentised as America seems to be. Also we got nothing on the level of how it happens here. We should probably keep it that way.

Still the people in the town were scarily friendly, just like people all throughout the rest of Oregon. Seriously, Canada has nothing on those people. It was starting to freak me out. I cannot emphasis enough how well everyone, except for the backpackers, treated me.

Mountain Home is nice enough. The speed limits went up by 10 miles and the roads got a lot worse when I got to Idaho (so you know, at least that isn't a problem just in Western Australia) but the rest stops got nicer and the views got prettier. This is the smallest town I've stayed in so far. Only 14k! I still don't really feel like I've hit anything I'd call rural exactly, but I am getting weirder and weirder looks for both the crazy hair and the fact I'm a girl by myself.

I am loving the driving though. Now that I've got the hang of it a bit more. I know when Chris travelled he did a lot more socialising and group stuff. But I guess that's the difference. He is a quiet person that quite likes socialising... whereas I'm quite loud and obnoxious but really prefer doing my own thing. Other travelers I've just found quite tedious. Plus seem to scare away the interesting people that otherwise come up and chat to me for whatever reason. Even if it's in Oregon and they're worried that I look lost and confused.

Heading some more East-ish tomorrow. I want to drive up to and around where-ever is pretty in Yellowstone before heading down to Salt Lake City and then to Denver to see another friend. That is if I get any sleep tonight. Dude next door to me is snoring his arse off with the tv turned RIGHT up.

I might go back to Oregon if I have time after New York in mid-October. I feel like I barely scratched the surface and I am a bit more in love with it than the other places I have been.

Part Two of Vancouver

I should probably write some more about my stay in Vancouver. Before I forget it all.  I had an awesome time, it was lovely hanging out with Alex, Liz and Tearles for a few days. Slightly intimidating though, I forget how much older and smarter so many of my friends are. :P

We all went up to the hills, to a park that had a suspension bridge and on the other side a tree top walk that was like an Ewok village. Also a birds of prey rehabilitation/carers thing. Owls are huge! But I still haven't seen any Bald Eagles. I should get on that. 

We went up to the top of a dam and that was pretty cool. Apparently it's absolutely nuts in winter. We did get to the top of the hill (I've forgotten the name of it) but it was so stupidly foggy we couldn't see anything which was a shame. About halfway up though was a lookout with some fantastic views.

On the Monday, Tearles caught the train home, Alex went to work and Liz and I hung out all day (she had flexi time?). We didn't do much, I had loads of laundry that needed to be done, but we did wander through some nearby parks and got lunch at the local shopping centre and chatted. I maybe found a shop full of all sorts of trashy arm socks, gloves and studded belts and all that teenage stuff I absolutely lurve, but try and pretend I'm too much of a grown-up to enjoy.

We hung out at the park a while afterwards. I swear it was like a sickening disney movie. We spent ages spotting rabbits and squirrels, ducks and canadian geese (which Liz kept trying to convince me aren't as MEAN as farmyard geese but I think it's a trap). The number of rabbits though was amazing. BABY BUNNIES. So cute. Apparently they are mostly abandoned pets which is sad, but at the same time, that the land can support them and naturally has birds that'll help keep the population of them down is just crazy.

I'm told this is what happens when you're in a country that actually has rain.

The final day I spent mostly wandering by myself around central Vancouver, with my gear in Alex's car, so he could drop me off at the train station after work. Usual exploration for me. I found a hairdresser who did a fantastic job of my hair and actually put 'stopper' in through my hair to stop the dye running and fading so quickly. Like Wildilocks really should have been. Also tidied up and fixed a lot of the problems that I'd had with the hair. All for like 2/3 of the price (including the huge-arse tip I left her) that I would have it done for in Perth. With none of the problems. So good. After that I wandered around some more, was snubbed and people were rude at a comic store I found, so I moved on and found a few second hand bookstores that were just amazing. And also a huge fire risk.

 I don't know. I don't think I'm very good at this travelling. Instead of seeing on million things or drinking until passing out in a gutter in Edinborough (Hi Anil!) I seem to just enjoy wandering, listening to the conversations and going through the second hand bookstores.

It's funny what the bookstores say about a place really.

No photos today because I forgot to transfer them again.

Me vs. Seattle Round 2

I'll write about the rest of Vancouver later when I have all of the photos on hand.

So last night I got back into Seattle, but this time I'm in the International District. I'm heading to Redmond (a satellite city and 'home of Microsoft' where a friend lives) later today, but she doesn't get home till like 6pm.

My train got in at 10.10pm last night. I decided it'd be easiest to walk from the train station through to the hostel I was staying the night at. Supposedly it was only 300m.

This was probably not my greatest decision, all weighed down with all my (obviously) touristy luggage, with my tired, slightly drunk confused look on. Had quite a few looks from people that made me go hmmmmm. Didn't help I got my directions confused and didn't want to pull the ipad out.

Then when I was less than a block a way two large gang-looking dudes stopped me and wanted to 'ask me something'. Apparently originally they thought I might be homeless? Pathetically, this made me feel sad that they'd think that, I'd only just gotten my hair cut and redyed that afternoon (and the lady did a really good job).

Anyway, stopped by two dudes looking like they're out for trouble, asking me questions, I figured, well this is probably the end of the holiday, robbed, injury or death here we come. Once they worked out I was lost though, the dudes were like, oh okay, gave me directions, advice and a hug. And I still have all my stuff. I didn't really want the hug, but hey, I was in no position to do anything about it, and the dude was saying welcome my hood, so I guess it was friendly not skeezey intent?

It was a weird encounter. I mean they moved right along after I said thanks to finding their mates, presumably to go cause trouble for someone that wasn't me. I can't figure out if I misjudged them horribly or if this is the magical Australian accent effect people keep telling me about. Or if it was something else entirely.

It makes me sad though, to realise that this encounter has basically proven, I'm safer wandering the streets looking like a tourist in the middle of the night in the dodgey parts of an American city than hanging out mates at home (except for craft day peeps). I mean rationally I already knew that, certainly I've had enough of those experiences, that have forever branded me that crazy angry don't touch lady, but still.

Maybe that was the best bit about GeekGirlCon, I could cheerful nerd out to my hearts content, but not worry about people being sleazy. Or being hated by the resident feminist group when I yell loudly about being grouped and people protecting that person.

Hm. That wasn't meant to get so cynical.

In any case. I cannot be bothered with today. My luggage is all with my hostel until my bus and I have zero patience with anything. My current plan is to surf from free wifi place to free wifi place and drink and eat loads of terrible Starbucks food. And glare at everyone, generally be a grump and maybe catch up on some writing. Because I feel like it.

I'd post pictures of the new hairdo but I left my camera in my luggage. It looks absolutely amazing though dudes.

Vancouver

Is very pretty.

It is awesome seeing Liz and Alex after two weeks of only talking to complete strangers or incredibly new convention friends. I may be ranting and blabbering a bit much at them.

Liz and Alex. In Canada showing me cool places.

Wandering around the Vancouver Convention Centre looking at all the cosplay and anime kids (impressive costumes, even if some girls seemed a little young for what they were wearing*) and accidentally running into Tearles while going across a pedestrian crossing. I believe this is called Perthing.

I am in awe of the Vancouver river foreshore. Makes Perth's "plans" even more embarrassing. My pictures seem to have disappeared though, which is irritating.

We ended up hanging out for the afternoon together (he is staying with Alex and Liz too, I just didn't think I'd see him till this evening) checking out a little interactive 1812 battle museum and also the Vancouver Art Museum.

Liz and Alex have shown me around Stanley park, we've gone to the most amazing book and comic store (a lot of second hand stock and just wow) and then a more boring usual chain store Chapters, whih is basically like a borders and underwhelming in comparison to the overstocked and overflowing and fun of the other store. We had a drive alongside the river so I could geek out at the logging industry here. To get the logs from whereever the forests are to the woodchip mill, they literally tie them up and use tug boats to pull and steer them down the river! It looks amazing! It is also the reason why there are so many old logs just sitting on all the beaches (pulled up in lines to make nice seats not just left half rotting though).

You can see old logs on the edge of the river. The seem to be delibrately left there, maybe to dry?
We weren't sure

We also had lunch in Davis Road Village (I think it's called). Basically a long strip of road that has developed into a queer neighbourhood. Pride flags are everywhere, the bins are painted pink and it seemed a pretty active community. Like community, not just the usual random gathering of people that 'local' city places often are. It was very cool.

The prescription drug ads everywhere in N. America take getting used to.

Tomorrow we are apparently going to an all vegetarian Dim Sum restaurant. I am stupidly exciting about this.


* Yeah. I'm officially old. I wanted to go up and demand to know if their mother knew they were out of the house in that outfit.

Transport

So, I haven't rented a car yet, I'm not planning to until I get back from Vancouver (apparently it's easier and quicker to border cross on a train).

I haven't needed one, I've just been wandering through downtown Seattle, venturing up to the University District and around Pioneer Square. The variety and amount of public transport is pretty amazing.

I particularly like the cable buses? Like normal buses but on strings! The drivers are very friendly and been so cool especially when I've been confused. Today though I saw one have some sort of accident, there was a huge bang, sparks and then "arms" that attach it to the overhead wires kind of deflated down. I don't think any wires actually came down, but the whole network of them overhead was jingling. Fortunately I wasn't planning on catching that one.

There's also trams and the monorail and the light rail "SeaTac" that got me from the airport to my first hotel. Plus like one million buses. The monorail is cool, but only takes you a walkable distance.

Americans have weird ideas about what is and isn't walkable. They're all about 'but it's too hot today'. Don't get me wrong it's hitting just that side of unpleasant here atm, but seriously it's like mid to high 20s.

Also there are taxi's. I'm catching the train tomorrow, and went to talk to my hotel reception about the best way to get to the train station (I couldn't find where it was).  The conversation went like this:

Me:  Oh okay that's quite close, do you reckon bus it or cab it
Him: Depends what time does your train leave?
Me: 7.40am
Him: Definitely taxi. Easier.
Me: What do I do to book a taxi here?
Him: Just come down when you're ready to leave and when you check out we'll ring you one.
Me: ... you don't need to book it tonight?
Him: No, there's a little waiting time, give it 15minutes before you actually have to go.
Me: Seriously????


It is also likely to be incredibly cheap. This is witchcraft there is no other explanation.

Basically the score from what I can tell.
America: Taxi's, public transport, nerds & cheap books. 4
Australia: Cheese, wine, cider, sensible money, functional healthcare, infrastructure and postal services. 7

Wonder how Canada will measure up. 

Still in Seattle

Summarising a few things because I have been lazy. So. Here is the stuff I've been up to in the past week or so.

Space Needle: Wandered down to the Space Needle and World Fair 1962 area via the monorail from the Westlake Centre. It was all pretty cool. A weird mix of old style (50 years old) buildings and archetecture that was obviously intended to be all about the future. Layered on top of this is more recent additions/upgrades/renovations. So like futurism layered with actual contemporariness. Or something. There was fair type stuff going on all around it (due to the 50 years thing) but all the musuems and the Needle itself were expensive. So I decided to pass on the rides and most of the stuff to wander around the grounds having fun and pondering retro-futurism.

EMP Museum: I did go to one museum, the music and science fiction museum. While the SF bit wasn't the greatest, Avatar really not being my thing, it did have some interesting history and items on show. Even if it wasn't nearly in depth enough for a nerd like myself. I was very impressed at the Nirvana exhibit though, that was amazing. As well, seeing the AC/DC exhibit that was shown in Perth last year (I think) laid out in a much more professional setup was very cool. The cafe here was utter shit and where I learned that "with chips" on a menu here doesn't mean "with chips".

GirlGeekCon: I could talk about this for ages. Basically I had the greatest time. Made friends with and met many awesome people. Met many awesome comic book famous people as well. Got heaps of my books signed, even got given a book by one of the authors. Made friends with the guy who runs comicsbulletin and he ended up taking me to the end of a press type function (where I got to chat with Gail Simone and her husband) and to this insanely cool indie bookstore... Learned all sorts of interesting stuff, they had heaps of activities and talks about how to deal with the tech industry and learn all sorts of stuff. It wasn't "crazy feminist" just a relaxed and fun event where you didn't have to deal with the skeeze and 'but you're a girl' attitude, instead jut enjoy talking about comics and being given advice on how to do whatever it was you wanted to do.  I want to go again next year.

University District: I adventures on the cable cars (which are crazy awesome) to the fringes of what I'm fairly sure is the university district the other day. Didn't do much as such there, visited a few interesting looking stores and basically surfed from cafe to cafe (they all have free wireless and it was super hot) while I waited for the check-in to open at my next hotel. Very beautiful there and I had heaps of fun exploring the area and  adventuring to find my way back.

Friday morning I take the train to Vancouver to spend a few days with Liz and Alex and Tearles. I'm coming back to the US via Seattle again to visit Jovanna, and then my plan is to rent a car. No I don't have dates planned past that. That is what today and tomorrow are for.

Pre-GeekGirlCon'12 Seattle

I had two days of not being horrifically jetlagged or at Geek Girl Con.

Cheerfully wandered around the city, getting myself lost. Ended up at the Pike Street Markets, which I'd heard a lot about. So I went for a hunt around, partly for snacks, and also a map.

It is an amazingly cool market with so much awesome shit. Like the Subiaco Station St markets crossed with the Schools farmers markets, but bigger and on all week (with loads of interesting shops underneath). In a beautiful location.

The view from the outer stalls at the markets

Including two second hand books and a place that advertised itself as the oldest comic shop in Seattle (or similar, I can't find the plastic bag with it written on it). So er, I may have gotten distracted.

Top row: Batman Mad Love, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock-Knock Jokes and Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir. Bottom Row: White Jenna (Jane Yolen), Searoad (LeGuin) and The Witches of Wenshar (Hambly)

In my defense, most of these are either really hard to find, or I really wanted to read and stuff is stupid cheap here. Plus I knew that after GGC I'd be sending a huge box of comics and books home via the post anyway. The Hambly book in particular I've been hunting around Perth bookstores for, for something like a year and a half now.

A small selection of the tomatoes available at only one of the stores.

Food here is pretty weird. On the one hand you have a lot of (most) easily obtainable stuff, which is mostly plasticky unreal stuff that if you were in Australia would have all sorts of weasel words and quoatations around it. Especially cheese and 'avocado' on sandwiches here. On the other hand the variety at the farmers market, the freshness is astounding and would be hard to get here. AND is cheap compared to Australia. I bought a huge pile of fresh and tasty cherries for $2 while wandering around.

NOT PICTURED: the armsocks I really have to go back and get because OMG they look so warm and comfy. I don't care that its the wrong season (here). 

Service is much better at cafes and restaurants to a disturbing degree. But then that's all about getting the tip isn't it? Don't even get me started on how creepy and confusing tipping is. Woooo way to blame the customer for endorsing business's to stuff over one of the most vulnerable (to stuffing over in this way) of employees, American government. Tax also often isn't mentioned in stores. Its just a lovely surprise when you take your book/food/whatever to the register. How that is legal and not misrepresentation I don't even...

For me so far this traveling and exploring business seems to be all about the small differences and changes and effects. Talking to people and soaking up vibes rather than seeing the big shiny things and tourist attractions.

This might be because I did my ankle on the bad leg in on the second day (tripped on some stairs). It's mostly fine, not swollen or that bad anything, just the muscles aren't enjoying the hills or my usual (bad habit) of compensating for my knee on shitty terrain. So a minor annoyance. :P

Flight

So turns out, even in wanky business class with crazy seats that you can turn into sort of bed, the flight from Melbourne to LA is not fun at all. It didn't help that by the time I got on I had been awake for over 26 hours I guess though.

I wasn't really able to sleep properly kept waking up out of tiny naps from nasty nightmares or something that would make me kick and sweat and generally be unpleasant and confused. Also my bad knee was doing all sorts of weird shit and is still slightly swollen.

Still most of the trip had no-one near me, the last third had a lovely lady who was given a free upgrade after the girl next to her in economy got utterly wasted and passed out.

LA airport customs was also not fun. Did the crazy prison x-ray thing, did the waiting for an hour in line in a non-airconned room full of whining Aussies (seriously, when did we get more miserable than the poms? Jesus Christ). And also did the running around completely lost and unable to find a shower or a decent bottle of water or a dunny without a line a mile long. So on my last flight from LA to Seattle I smelled pretty special and felt even worse. Fortunately the dude next to me kept picking his noise the entire time so I'm not too worried about the impression I was leaving.

Seattle airport had free wifi thank god, so I could look up where my hotel was. Unfortunately I wasn't wearing my glasses... so you can guess what happened. Yep, misread an 8 as 5. So after taking the seatac (sp?) light rail into downtown Seattle, I spent a fun hour wandering around and annoying the crap out of all those charity sellers by asking for directions. The gay rights person that thought I was a dude had the best reaction, I must say.

Fortunately in the end I wasn't far from where I was actually meant to be. Turns out there are loads of Hyatts around Seattle so walking into the wrong one solved pretty much all my problems. Or gave me directions anyway.

Eventually I found my hotel, showered and then buggered around on the internet awhile. It took me like five minutes to work out how to turn the water to hot! Tried and failed to work out how to turn off the bloody lamps in my room. Then went to sleep for what I thought was a nap but turned out to be 3pm-ish to 5am-ish heavy sleep. With all the lights on.

And that was my first day in Seattle WA.

The next day was more interesting as I found the Pike Street Markets but I'm still working out putting pictures up so I might write about that later.

For those that travelled with me as a child (hi mum!) you will all be pleased to know that I can still only manage about a half a day walking around before my feet start hurting. Really seriously, I can barely stand type hurting. I believe it was the cause of many tanties as a kid because oh my god I can't walk any further, why are you making me do this pain...

Anyway.

So I'm taking it pretty easy and reading or working on projects about half of each day. It's really nice being able to set my own pace rather than try and keep up with people who have invincible feet. Being able to enjoy what I see rather than being able to unable to think of nothing but the pain... I'm beginning to understand what people get out of this.

Melbourne

Posting my first actual traveling post here.

I'm currently killing time for two hours (I think, time zones make my head hurt) in Melbourne airport waiting for my connecting flight to Los Angelos. So far trip has been strange, business class stewards were hella nice to me and even gave me a bottle of wine that was mostly full when we landed. Score thinks I, that's one way to fill the four hour stopover. Apparently my travel role model is Mr Sharma, so er, that bodes well for America.

Unfortunately wine was taken off me going through the customs as not allowed. Lady yelled at me to because apparently the response to 'you know that's not allowed?' is not 'nope, where do you want me to throw it?' Should have drunk it in the domestic section.

First travel lesson: easy come easy go. Also reading signs at 3am is hard okay.

Currently in the business class lounge (yeah I know right) eyeing off the food thing trying to work out if it's free. People seem to be just going up and grabbing. But the dudes face when I walked in was pretty good, so I don't want to push my luck. On the other hand, I think that's booze in free-looking food fridge.

This is all typed on the iPad btw guys, and also it's like 5am to my head and I haven't slept since 6.30am yesterday. Also oh god. Huge group with loads of babies just rocked up. :-/

Bugger it I'm getting me some of this food. Smells to good.

Before...

It's four days until I fly out.

I'm currently at my second last day of work.

I have my passport, international drivers license, travel insurance, travel card, ESTA, shoes and suitcase. I've even had my haircut and dyed.

 I don't know how to use the MacBook air I bought 2nd hand for the trip. It's light and was cheap though and I'm sure I can work it out eventually. I also don't know how to get blogger to stop using US spelling.

I haven't heard back about my visa credit card. I haven't gotten any American money. I still need a wallet and backpack. I need to do epic amounts of laundry before I leave and also register with smarttraveller.gov.au

For a trip that I wasn't going to organise at all, a lot of organisation seems to be creeping it. Hopefully by the time I board it will all have gone away. Welcome to a glimpse of the my mindset that getting ready to travel alone for the first time is giving me.

 August 7th to November 3rd 2012, may you be incredibly interesting times.