As good as this trip’s been it has a pretty awesome way of just getting better.
The last few days we’ve spent in Seattle have really continued the good work started by Portland selling me on the Pacific North-west. Seattle is a really really great city. As good, to me, as San Francisco is disappointing… but a little more on that later.
We left Portland by train for the 3 and half hour trip through gorgeous country to Seattle and arrived around lunchtime, pulling into the city next to the focus of our trip, SAFECO Field.
Then, for the afternoon we walked. Clean, leafy tree lined streets along wide pavement in a bustling city full of welcoming people reminded me almost instantly of Sydney. The weather – a perfect sunny Sydney afternoon in early Decemeber – didn’t hurt and though the vista of distant snow capped mountains around the city ensure I never got too close to forgetting where I was, the vibe that undercut our weekend just made us feel welcome.
That’s a welcome missing from California where smiles are forced and a little hollow, where tourists are tourists and locals don’t want anything to do with them and everything is just a little… or a lot if you’re in LA… more phoney.
I’d been to San Francisco once before and didn’t really like it then. It’s absolutely a very cool place with awesome locales and there is no doubting it’s deserved reputation as a world class city. Sure it’s fucking freezing and all but it’s also cold; it’s just not … friendly.
This return trip, partly a promise to Her that I’d give it another go, didn’t change my mind. Really, it solidified those feelings. We had great fun there, but it was always with people. Good people like Mike and Evan, Marie, Chris and Jose… great times and we were absolutely treated as valued guests. But alone?
There’s some things I’ve seen in cities with a lot of tourists. Cities welcome them, and their valuable tourist dollars, in so many different ways.
In Tokyo they’re happy to have silly gaijin and genuinely like and want to help but you’re definitely an honoured guest the whole time.
New York moves ever onward and there’s a feeling that no on there is really a local anyway, everyone is just a transplant from somewhere else along for the ride.
Barcelona? It’s a living city and you can walk around and look at the shit they are happy for you to see but the locals don’t care if you do or not because it’s almost midday siesta time and maybe they’ll worry about you minyana.
Sydney tries too hard, like we’re always looking for that International acknowledgment that we do belong on the World stage even though maybe if more locals looked around they‘d realise how lucky they actually are to be in what is close to paradise.
Paris smiles and lets you enjoy what they’ve known all along – it’s the best place on Earth and as long as you want to think that way you’ll enjoy it too.
But San Francisco? It’s like they set up some places for tourists to go… Fishermans wharf, Union Square, the Bridge area… and they want you to go there. And you will. But everywhere else, well, it’s a living, working city and if you want to check it out you can, but… well…
Seattle’s not in that category of city and there’s less tourists but they mix so well with locals and no one is upset to see you there… We spent two days walking around or catching the bizarre public transport or driving around with friends and I couldn’t stop shaking my head as the place just kept getting better and better. I think I learned something this week and I’m really glad I had that chance.
