Goodbye USA, Hello Brazil!

After another dreaded 20+ hour bus journey from Denver, in which the guy next to us got arrested, we arrived in Chicago for a big McDonald reunion! It had been 5 months since last seeing my mum, dad and brother at Christmas in Whistler and 5 years since seeing my family who live in the states! It was great to be reunited with everyone and even better in an amazing city.

After Chicago and some emotional goodbyes it was time to head to New York via all over the place on the Greyhound bus. We were staying in the Bronx so it took us a while to get to the main site seeing places. We just had two days there so we had to pack a lot in so we could see all the main things we wanted to. We took the free (yes, free!) ferry to Staten Island which gives you a good view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline – which didn’t disappoint.

In the two days we spent time at Times Square, walked around Central Park, saw the Friends building (disappointed Central Perk has now shut down), went to Grand Central Station, saw the Empire State (didn’t go up) and went to the 9/11 memorial – which was a very humbling and surreal experience.

So the USA Journey Begins…. First Stops Seattle & Portland!

‘We’re not interested in the travelling/backpacking thing’ said Laura and Kyle a mere 7 months ago… We are now owners of backpacks and I’m currently sat writing this from a hostel about to travel for another 6 months-ish! Ah, how things change!

Our first stop was/is Seattle, where I am currently writing this where I started writing this (We are now on a 21 hour bus journey to San Fran, but I’ll get to that!) We had planned to take a trip to Seattle whilst we were in Whistler but never got around to it. So, Seattle was always going to be our first stop after Vancouver plus it made sense logistically.

We made a decision to not visit Vancouver Island (on this trip) as the weather wasn’t looking great and it’s best to go in summer to take advantage of the beaches and activities. So the day after deciding this we headed to Seattle. With it being a very last minute decision, our choice of affordable accommodation was slim pickings. We found a hostel, The Green Tortoise for $38 a nights in a great location, we couldn’t pass this up.

I’ve been somewhat of a sceptic of staying in hostels but we were both surprised how good it was. The free tacos been served an hour after arriving definitely swayed us! The rooms were pretty good, although we couldn’t get in the same room due to booking the previous day and the bathrooms for a hostel were great. Highly recommended. We even bumped into some people we knew from Whistler!

Seattle was good, we saw the main things we wanted to – The Fishermans Market, The first Starbucks and The Spaceneedle.  The Fishermans Market, as become a tourist attraction (Google – Seattle Fish Market videos), so that was really cool to see. Although there wasn’t quite as much fish throwing as seen on the video. The Space Needle was also cool to see, albeit from a distance and the ground.

We met up with a fellow travel blogger who lives in Seattle, Kimberely from On This Trail. It was great to meet someone from the blogging world and even better a local who could show us some of the sports not all tourists would get to see.

 

The famous fish throwing market

The Space Needle at night

Where did I park my boat?!

Thanks for showing us this spot Kimberly!