Memories I am afraid I'll forget

Day 58, Seattle day 1

As drained as I was yesterday, full of new and promising memories, I forgot to write down how I received a job offer right there on the spot. Well not an official one, but at least an invitation to MOME. The girl who accompanied Gergő yesterday, turned out to have been working on internationalization at the MOME campus. Together with Gergő, they were now out and about the Bay Area and generally the US, looking for exemplary schools they can find inspiration from and take that back home with them. How fun and rare thing that is! Right? So, we agreed to keep in touch and share our experiences of internationalizing university campuses in Hungary. She asked me to go to MOME and conduct my research there, too.

Anyways, I eventually woke to the sound of my painfully early morning alarm. Except that it is not that painful if you have travel plans to wake up for! At around 5:20, I texted Yuka to ask her whereabouts. She missed the bus, or the bus driver missed her, so I decided to take an Uber to the airport, a 7-minute car-ride I was happy to pay for in exchange for safe and fast travels. Getting to the airport Yuka was nowhere to be found so I went through security and spent a few minutes browsing shops. I had time to kill, and you already know I have a thing for airports.

Yuka arrived 20 minutes before boarding, lucky enough to have caught the next bus and therefore the plane. We quickly caught up with each other and were exchanging plans for Seattle already.

Flying with Delta was a much more pleasant experience than I had expected. They served snacks and Starbucks coffee – what else, right? We were flying to Seattle, eventually. On board services are always a bargain, but this one was really growing on me. I will always (hopefully) remember this flight, sitting in a very uncomfortable middle seat (perks of economy, which equals flying cheap) drinking my tea (no SB or any coffee for me, thanks), listening to good music and thinking I'm just casually flying around the US to go on a backpacking trip with my Japanese friend. I felt on top of the world. Except that I could not see a thing from my middle seat.

Thinking we were going to crash because of the harsh movement that woke me, I jolted awake only to find out that we landed. I can barely sleep on planes, but I have this extremely unfortunate habit of falling asleep as soon as the plane loses altitude. In other words, as soon as they start to descend and near landing time. But as for a power nap, it was a blast!

Having lived in sunny California for the past two months, where sunshine warms you and paints your skin darker color than usual (Don't worry, where necessary, I apply the sunscreen. Here I only mean my ankles and hands.), I forgot what rain and cold feels like. Luckily, I was prepared with winter jacket and warm clothes. Rain and fog greeted us at Tacoma International Airport. Lucky us, the worst air quality was therefore gone.

This time I feel I need to pay special attention to my backpack. There is this seemingly amazing influencer travel couple I am following on IG, @mariefaeandjakesnow. They live their best lives, created an online business on IG and sometimes have the privilege to create their own merch. This time, I bought their bag made in collaboration with Kapten and Son. This is a bag much more meaningful for me than just 'influencers having an effect on me'. This bag, namely the Bali bag, symbolizes how free I always wanted to be and to travel to as many places as possible, experience different cultures and meet new and amazing people. Therefore, I was now over the moon that I could take this bag for a ride. Only realizing it the last day in Seattle (spoiler alert) how freaking heavy it could get! Anyways. I did not know it currently just yet. Jam-packed this bag with all the necessities (and more...) I was happily and proudly parading it around the airport. Later in Seattle, a kind older woman in the Seattle Public Library even complimented me on the bag, presuming it is Japanese. The bag was not, but my friend was indeed Japanese. I told the lady about the backpack's story and there we were discussing how she also backpacked Europe a long time ago. That is why I love the US. Random sharing of personal stories and connections. All because of an even more random backpack.

So back to the trip. After landing, we made our way to the 1-Link that took us to the city center (with a bit of detour due to rail reconstructions) by noon. We arrived just in time to have lunch at the busiest time of the day at Pike Place Market. The most central attraction of the city. Yes, here in the US attraction equals food. A lot of food. As for the first day, we went with Beecher's Cheese sandwiches, a tuna melt I am literally melting for right now. But it's late at night and I cannot eat, not that I have any Beecher's cheese handy.

Standing at Pike Place market, we just had our lunch right then and there on the spot. It was beyond beautiful to watch the skyline, people, and the city vibes. To jus observe and sink Seattle in, a city I was already in love with. There are indeed very few places I do not like, though. We went to the first Starbucks – you can imagine the line equaling about 1 or 1.5 hours of waiting time. As I came to love Chinese bakeries, we grabbed a pineapple bun and headed towards other parts of the market, where some workers are paid to throw around dead fish, just for the tourists. So sad. As precious as fish throwing was (not), we walked to check into the Green Tortoise Hostel, our place for two nights.

Green Tortoise Hostel was more than we could bargain for. When checking in, our hosts told us that they had free beer night today, free taco night tomorrow and breakfast is also served. I mean after COVID and just generally, I was not anticipating this at all. All for 91 dollars. We got our keys, locks, towels, and sheets, and took our beds (mine the upper one – the usual one I go for) happily. Previously, I did not think backpacking was a cool thing. How foolish I was. Now I was having the best time backpacking with friends, only hoping to come across even more new ones. After checking in, we headed to the Gum Wall.

Gum Wall is not something you want to know about. Anyhow, it is on the top list of Seattle's attractions, which might make you question the authenticity of travel pages and travel bloggers. But if so many of them suggest the place, then you, as a diligent tourist, will go and check it out. So did we. Poor Yuka almost threw up. You know that gagging sound before you actually become sick? Yes, poor soul made just that. Trying hard to conceal my smile, I tried to revert her attention to something else, but it is hard not to notice 10-15 meters of solid walls from bottom to top plastered with used bubble gum, glued together by human (?) saliva.

Now that we ticked this precious attraction off our list, we walked down to waterfront only to find out that the Seattle Great Wheel was a cheap thing to ride, so we hopped right on. Sounds pretty cool if I put it this way, but we actually had to wait around 30 minutes for our turns. I guess time flies by quickly once you are having fun and good music. Once on the wheel, we could see the city from the best possible angle, or at least so I thought. We kept on taking pictures and videos, not forgetting also to just simply enjoy the ride. Somehow, I could not yet shake the feeling that we were literally sitting on a wheel of fortune, a phrase with which this British tour guide referred to London Eye back in 2019, when my husband and I were on a boat on River Thames. The most fun tour guide I ever had – I still remember his lines, probably because he spoke the truth and educated us in a meaningful way, that stuck. Ever since that boat ride, if I see a wheel, I call it a wheel of fortune, as they make much more money than decency could equate. We loved the wheel so much, we went back to it when the sun set, so that we could see it in all its glory, with the lights on.

Spectacular as the wheel was, our exhaustion took over and we headed back to free beer, music, and karaoke night. Grabbing our beers, I started chatting with this 50ish older bloke from the UK, who was backpacking the US, taking the train from Chicago to Seattle. You can always find good people around. I was glad to have a chat and a compliment on my English he believed to be native American. Once we were practically sleeping on the table with Yuka, (no, not solely because of the beer, but because of exhaustion), we went back to our room and went straight to sleep. Falling asleep, I just could not believe that I was where I was, under circumstances so privileged I could not even be thankful enough for. Well, what I had learned so far is that you need to make the most of it, though, right?

22 October 2022