farlands | traveling near and far

As a first-timer staying in a hostel, I wondered who I would meet and talk to. There was one woman from Southeast Asia who checked in about the same time and was in and out the door right away.  I too wasn't long for hanging out in the room because the  Seattle Art Museum was just a few blocks away and there were only a few hours left when it was open. Room with a view After visiting the museum , I came back quite worn out, which museums always do to me.  Upon entering the room, there was a woman sitting on her bed, who greeted me with an extremely cheery "Hello!" when I stepped inside.  I made polite conversation and indicated that I needed to take a nap before going out to dinner with friends.  I felt a little bad, but I was tired and grumpy. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out. Common area I got back from dinner and found that the common area was full of people and there was a keg that had been depleted.  It started to feel t...

Two weeks prior to my trip to Seattle, I was in New Orleans and stayed over for the weekend. As I'll mention in an upcoming blog post, that hotel room was particularly nice, and I kept the room over my weekend personal trip. In Seattle, I stayed in another lovely hotel during the time of a conference. I decided I would like to stay over that weekend too, but after finding that all the hotels were very expensive, as were the Air B&B's, I decided to do something that I had only read about on all the travel blogs: stay in a hostel. The  Green Tortise popped immediately with good online reviews, and the location couldn't be beat: kitty-corner to the Pike Place Market ! The only other component that was better was the price. For two nights, I spent exactly $83.00 USD. For two nights, plus a locker rental. Compared to the $285.00 a night I was finding in the city center, I think that was a screamin' deal. I left the fancy Sheraton and walked with my roller ...