I biked 22 miles on Saturday, but I'm not counting them toward my trip because they didn't take me closer to my ultimate destination. Rather, they simply took me around Seattle.And what an amazing city Seattle is.
I spent all day Saturday in the biggest city in the upper left corner of the country, and I probably could have used a few more days to explore. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a fulfilling experience.
One thing I quickly noticed about the city is how multicultural it is. Whenever I walked out the door of my friends' house just north of downtown, I'd hear several languages on the street.
The different restaurants reflected this diversity, and I got a little taste of this. On Friday night, after a long day on the bike, I was treated to the best Thai food I've ever had -- in a burrow of Seattle.
Saturday afternoon, friends Brian and Kaila took me to the International District, which includes Chinatown as well as a bunch of other countries' unofficial towns. We waited for about 45 minutes in a Chinese restaurant to hear our name called, but it was worth it when I tasted dim sum dumplings for the first time.
It was truly a unique experience, as waitresses walked down the aisles with different food items that you could choose to eat. Whenever we chose, say, the shrimp dumplings or sesame dessert one, she would take our slip of paper and mark it off.
Luckily, I wasn't by myself. Otherwise, I might have kept grabbing plates as the ladies cruised the aisle with the hot, steaming, delicious-smelling food -- and that would have resulted in a huge bill. But it was quite the experience nonetheless.
So was what we did next, when we visited the gigantic international food supermarket in the District. As we walked down aisle after aisle, I glanced at food items I had never seen -- or even heard of -- before. For every "Gatorade," there was a Japanese or Chinese energy drink. The same could be said of just about every food item.
In the vegetable section, I noticed eggplants the size of golf balls and sugar canes -- yes, all kind of sugar canes in the veggies section.
The great thing about the store was that it not only featured all the international-brand foods, but it also had your typical American foods. It could be a complete shopping experience, I figured. It could also result in very large bills at the checkout line, I realized.
That's the thing about big cities. I think it's harder to live thrifty in them because of everything that's around you, all the smells coming from different corners.
I experienced another aroma Saturday night when we ordered takeout from a local Indian restaurant right in Brian and Kaila's neighborhood. Again, it was the best Indian cuisine I've had, and coupled with Kaila's delicious fudge cookies -- I hope I got that right -- I felt heartily full and content.
It was time to burn some calories.
So Saturday night, Brian, a couple friends and I headed out to a nearby club named the Nectar to see a hip-hop group from Portugal named Buraka Som Sistema. With D.J. Sega -- a Philly man -- first throwing down some beats, a diverse crowd got into it and then the group came on stage and the place went nuts.
Everyone was dancing and jiving to their words (there were two main singers and then a woman who made intermittent appearances) and music -- there was also a drummer and two other sound guys -- for a good hour and a half. It was the coolest, hippest performance I've seen in quite a while.
And it didn't end there. Later that night, the group and Sega hosted an after party in the International District inside what I deduced must be a shirt-making factory. It took us a while to find the place, but finally we did and we grooved to Sega's beats for a little while longer.
It capped off a great weekend in Seattle, which also included my Saturday afternoon/evening bike ride. One thing I love about the city is how biker-friendly it is. There are bicycle lanes everywhere, and drivers are very happy to make room for bikers and show that they care about sharing the road.
This made it easy for me to ride all over the city, exploring a little bit of downtown and then heading to the northwest section over the Fremont Bridge and then all the way to Golden Gardens Park along the Sound. I chilled there for a good half hour, watching all the activity as people grilled out and just relaxed on the beach.
Then I climbed one of Seattle's many hills and made a peaceful, but long, journey on 77nth Street all the way back to my temporary residence by one of Seattle's handful of lakes, Green Lake. I was never worried about coming to an intersection I couldn't cross.
I didn't experience all of Seattle -- not even close. Heck, I didn't even get to a baseball game (the Mariners were away).
But the city I saw was all I expected, a place I could certainly see myself in -- both as a visitor or as a resident.
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