Seeing Seattle and Sleeping


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 bag down the hill. The weather seemed to change as I walked...it got a bit windier, cooler, and blossoms from a spring blooming tree swirled around me. 
Blossoms abound
I had arrived at the hostel, or had I? I couldn't find it. After a quick chat with a clerk in the storefront, I learned the hostel was right there but upstairs. And so I got my first taste of non-hotel travel. Stairs, lots of them, and no porter there to help.

I consider myself to be pretty self-sufficient when I travel, but it was a reminder of how this was going to be different. I wished I had my Tortuga backpack as I lugged my roller bag and soft bag up two flights of stairs. When I checked in, I was conspicuously older than everyone I saw (at that point), but I didn't mind and no one else seemed to either. The guy who checked me in asked if I were an academic (I was in my conference outfit). I told him that he was close - I did work on behalf of a university.

After checking in and renting a lock to secure my luggage, the front desk worker guided me up another couple of flights of stairs to a dorm wing. It was older but nice. The room was for women only, and had three bunks, so six twin beds total. Happily, I had a lower bunk. 

Complete with curtains and a fan inside!
The other bunks were high up, and I realized with a start that I was not too keen on taking an upper bunk, although that had always been my kind of spot. The reason was being older and not wanting to climb up and down, and then I felt a bit embarrassed thinking that way. I'm going to have to sit with that one for a bit...am I really past the upper bunk (i.e. too old?!)

To be continued....

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