Seattle Keynotes

Pancakes are always fluffy

I saw one of those highway trucks! I was as tall as the wheel!

Mobiles here are so chunky. Apparently its not cool to have a slim, small mobile phone.

These guys really live under the illusion that they have learnt to make good coffee.

Due to the release of Star Wars: revenge of the Sith, this country has gone insane.

Double Cheesburger and a three dollar shake… a real taste of America

Beef Jerky is GOOD

Unlike Florida which I’ve visited before, Seattle has very steep 45 degree slopes

Hot American women can only be found at the Key Arena. Outside, I’ve seen nothing but geckos and blubber-whales. I officially give up.

The Seattle state library is an architectural gem. Must visit.

The Columbia Tower is a 76-floor, menacing darth vader. Look it up.

Mike and the great basketball game

YES! I went to the Key Arena to watch game 4 of the NBA playoff series between Seattle Supersonics and San Antonio Spurs… the game was AWESOME, such an amazing experience. Even though I was in a $35 seat (which I got for free anyway) I got an awesome view of the court, cheering the Sonics to a 18-point-lead victory over the Spurs. Great shooting and some slam dunkin from both sides, and during every break or timeout there were stuntmen, breakdancers, spicy hot cheerleaders, and the sasquatch team doing dunk stunts or shooting t-shirts to the crowd through a bazooka. After the game, there were happy faces all round, and I joined Brad and Angie (who I met at the game) at the pub where we had some strange tasting beer from some microbrewery. Brilliant Sunday evening which I’ll never forget.

Tour of Seattle

Long day today at Downtown Seattle.

We visited the Pike Place Market, the oldest operating market in all of America, where you can buy everything from fresh fish to seattle shot glass souvenirs (got one for the collection of course). They also had massive crabs for sale, about as big as a football, and giant king prawns which probably cost ALOT. Most striking was the way the fishmongers sing out aloud together and then throw fish across the shop to eachother, quite entertaining. I also learnt the meaning of Beef Jerky, which is basically dried, salted, peppered strips of beef. You buy it fresh or in packets at the supermarket (as we later found out) and you eat it just like you’re eating a chewing gum. Yumm, beef flavoured gum J I’m in heaven.

We then walked through the shopping streets and malls… and funnily enough you don’t find those good ol’ American prices anymore. Everything has gone up in price, from t-shirts to nike shoes.

After about 4 hours of walking, Mike got hungry. Which was to be expected since he didn’t want donuts again for breakfast and just had 3 glasses of orange juice. So we stopped by this awesome brazilian restaurant. This is how it works: you pay $15 and you get to take as many trips as you want to the salad bar (some very tasty stuff I’ve never seen before), and on your table you have this red/green coupon. When you leave it face up (green), it means “please go ahead and fill my plate with fresh meat”. So this guy comes round every 2 minutes with some different meat on a spit, and he just carves off some and dumps it in your plate… AWESOME! Really juicy tender meat cooked to perfection, worth every buck.

Visiting Seattle is pointless if you don’t go up the Seattle Space Needle, a 600 foot tower with a revolving restaurant up top and an observation deck overlooking all of the city. The view from up there is more spectacular than beautiful, as you can see how far the city stretches out, all the parks and highways, the towering skyscrapers, the monorail, and the lakes joining up to the sea. I could even see the Key Arena where I hope to watch a basketball game tomorrow.

Azteca – the Mexican experience

After work, Emilia and I went to eat at Azteca – the Mexican restaurant across the road. Typical Mexican music, all-mexicano staff, and a menu full of unpronounceable words made it just that little more fun. My meal consisted of:

Mushed kidney beans with melty cheese
Mexican Salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, celery, onion, carrot – all shredded)
Sour Cream (thick, one blob)
Guacamole (thick, one blob)
Mexican Rice (soft and light, with herbs)
Tortillas with chili sauce (tourist hot)

And the best main course ever…

King prawns wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese, on a bed of bell peppers and onions

Divine.

Redmond, Seattle (Washington, USA)

Weeeeee! its 8:10 pm (5:12 malta/denmark time) and i'm lying on my hotel room bed with my laptop connected to the hotel wireless. This is at the Mariott Fairfield Inn in Redmond, close to Microsoft HQ, and after a 10 hour flight from copenhagen. Flight wasnt as bad as i thought, probably because we got fed twice, got sweets and drinks every hour, plus i had a nice double cognac to keep me going. During a 10 hour flight, i managed to watch 3 and a half movies and play all the games on the small touchscreen in front of my seat. I am now addicted to blackjack and can't wait to blow a few grand at the nearest casino. That is, when i actually have a few grand.

Seattle looked just like copenhagen. Green trees and grass, wide roads, rush hour, and rain. Its about 15 degrees here but it should go up over the next few days ( i hope ). Anyways, details about seattle will come another day because now its sleepy time... its been over 12 hours since i left europe.

over n out

Malta Night with Malta Mike

Last night we had "Malta Night" hosted by our very own "Malta Mike" (thats me btw). Cooked up some traditional foods for some friends in the dorm. We were 8 in all so i wasnt cooking for that large a group, but its amazing how many pots and pans you can use for just 8 people.

On the menu we had:

Starters
- Bigilla shuna bnaqa zejt taz zebbuga u bil galletti
- Gbejna tal-bzar
- Zalzett Malti

Main Course:
- Imqarrun fil-Forn (bla bajd)

Dessert:
- Helwa tat-Tork li kont diga naqqart nofsha
- Karawett fil forn

Drink:
- Xi forma ta Sangria, jew kif nghidu ahna... "Sangrijja". Cheapest red wine, orange juice, sliced fresh orange, sprite, and fresh mint leaves for that slap in the face. This was obviously more mediterranean than Maltese, but i don't think they'd want any more Bajtra after last week's TDC.


Most memorable quotes of the night:

"Where are the Maltese girls?" - Jonas
"more of the grey stuff please" - Soren
"goat cheese scares me" - Bo
"goat cheese scares me" - Jakob
"wow this is really good" - Ulrich
"how the hell do you crack peanuts like that?? TEACH ME!" - Alan
"super stor pellas!" - Mike
"haha look at how many peanuts Alan ate" - Jonas
"apple computers are just the best" - Alan

Paradise Lost concert at The Rock

Just returned from a 4-hour concert at The Rock, Copenhagen's underground rock and heavy metal arena. The gig kicked off at 9pm with 2 supporting bands, both of which were awesome. First band was some good old heavy riff crunching noise kindof like machine head. Second band was interesting too because they were palestinian and played a fusion of traditional middle-eastern music and heavy stuff which sometimes sounded like Dream Theater's old days. Finally, Paradise Lost started off their 2-hour set with the ominous keyboard sounds of Embers Fire (Icon, 1993), followed by songs which spanned practically every album, including my favs Shallow Seasons and Forging Sympathy.

The Rock is a cool place with good staging and AWESOME sound, i'll definitely be back soon.

Moving to new room

Kristina Marcussen was kind enough to let me have her room whilst she's away in Greenland for the summer. Looks abit nicer than room 213 actually, and now i have Jonas and Allan as direct neighbours. My new address is:

Rådmandsgade 61,
Room 219
2200 Kobenhavn N.
Denmark