Seattle reminds me of England, in some ways: very wet. When it rains, it really rains. It would be foolish not to expect showers during any trip to Seattle. I didn’t let the rain dampen my time there, but I can imagine quickly feeling that motivation washed away. Much about Seattle is not striking much, but there are lots of activities to keep locals engaged with the city and a steady flow of visitors. There are a variety of different interest groups. There are meet-ups for hiking and fitness, and some take part in tightrope walking or fire-ball dancing.

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The hostel was located in Freemont, which is a hip area in the northern part of the city. I ventured out to explore Freemont and took a “Cocoa Tour” at the famous Theo Chocolate factory. They made the chocolate on site, and we were walked through the factory and the entire process of the making of their chocolates and confectionaries. We finished in the chocolate shop where all the chocolate was completely fresh and straight from the factory. They were all too delicious, and if I’d have been flying home straight away, I could easily have spent the rest of my budget in that store! The flavours were intense and distinctive. Theo Chocolate is known for its ethical trading and excellent quality. Freemont also boasted yet more ice cream shops, boutiques and festivals. One boutique stocked high end clothes and another was a perfumery that was heavenly to walk into, greeting you with a calming trickling fountain at the entrance and showcasing the perfumes in delicate vintage wooden cabinets. They stocked perfume collections from all other the world including Europe and Australia. The collection was very carefully picked by the owner to provide exclusive fragrances yet still covered the full spectrum of smells. Another boutique close by stocked (very) expensive and luxurious lingerie - maybe another good reason to visit Seattle? Just down the road however, was an underground shop that stocked vintage pieces being sold for as little as ten cents. So Seattle, it seemed, catered to all income earners and not-so-earning earners.

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In the evening, I met some travelers at the hostel: an Indian man travelling up to Yukon and a friendly European who was working at the hostel, Luke. Luke had a stuttering syndrome but clearly so much to say ,even if his physiology didn't give him the privilege of voicing it. We all visited Gas Works hill, a hill they like to think of as a park from where you can see beautiful views of the Seattle skyline at night. That evening, the park was alive with a live performance by acrobats, fireball dancers, yogis and all sorts of circus delights! It was completely unexpected. Many locals had gathered to sit atop the hill that overlooked the city, whether friends catching up or family sharing in the local community delights. From the hill, across the wide river, you could see the entire city of Seattle lit up in the night just over the lake that separated us from the Seattle buzz.

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I started my next morning visiting Pike Place, Seattle’s infamous local market. The sea food sold there was deliciously soft and fresh which was unsurprising given that Seattle is well-known for its Pacific sea food, like Vancouver Island who shares similar waters. Flowers, food, jewellery and more, the market was a very popular local haunt - and a large market at that. I then took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island to visit Bloedel Reserve. Unfortunately, the windows on the ferry were completely fogged up. It was like wearing steamed-up glasses that I couldn’t take off. It did not stop raining all day long, but I carried on my day unabated despite being outdoors all day in the rain as I explored the reserve. It took several hours to walk around the reserve. The rain actually made it even more beautiful than usual because it brought out the vibrant, lush green colours of the plants, trees and well more plants. (Any botanical expert could easily share more vivid and prolific descriptions - hell even a generalist gardener could than I - because the diversity of plants and forestry used to design the reserve were so vast and intelligently curated that it was worth being in the rain for.) The reserve is an internationally renowned public garden and forest preserve. There was every kind of fleur and fauna, including a lot of spongey moss. The reserve was empty – I saw only two elderly women pass me throughout its entire grounds. At the reflection pool, I saw a beautiful, peaceful deer at the opposite end, unaware I was there to watching it patter about, but despite its ignorance, it did not stay out in the open for long and soon disappeared behind the trees. Inside the reserve was a Japanese garden and tea house made of bamboo. I had no time to visit the Japanese garden in Portland so it was great to catch it within the reserve. The entire layout and every fine detail within the Japanese garden had a very clear purpose and intention. I saw a plethora of different greens and intensities across the reserve. It was beautifully maintained and carefully designed. It was entirely green. There was no fleur and fauna that was not green except the occasional, subtly coloured flower. This is because the gardening artist designed it for the colourblind so that the visual was based on the design, arrangement and selection of different plants, not the colours. Bloedel himself was color-blind so he focused more on texture and shade instead of vibrant flowers. Bloedel’s mantra was, “Nature can do without man, but man cannot do without nature.” Having to travel over to an 'island' to visit this park, it seems Seattle might need a little reminder of this like many cities.