June 9 2010 - Rain, Rain, Nothing but Rain

Hello there,

So I finlly made it to Salt Lake City and wow was I glad to get here and find a shower. So what have I been doing since yesterday night?

As said yesterday, I took the Greyhound in Seattle to get to Salt Lake. Sitting at the station waiting for the bus made me realized that people who take the bus really are wierd and sometimes creeoy people. I honestly was a bit worried to get on. It was the first long ride this year. We'll see how it goes.

So the bus would go to Stanfield Orgon where I had to switch to another bus. Of course, what does noemie do? She gets off at the wrong place. tank god I realised it early enough so no drama.

I got to Stanfield ant 1.30am and waited there till 3.30am for the next bus. Luckily, this was the last layover. I waited in a McDonald/Subway/TrucStop. there is no real Greyhound station there. While observing the other passangers, I couldn't believe all the crap they eat at all times of the day and the night. I mean how can you eat a Big Mac Menue at 3 in the morning, seriously? And then all the chips and chocolate, milkshakes and soft drinks.....

Eventually I borded the last bus which would now go all the way to Salt Lake. Luckily I got two seats for myself again. meaning, I got something simular to sleep.

After the next food stop, it was about 11am, a woman asked the driver when she had to get off. Well, she had missed her stop. She said she had fallen asleep and forgotten to get out. You must be a pretty havy sleeper in my oppinion if you fall asleep at like 9pm in Washington and only wake up at 11am somewhere in Idaho. She was supposed to get out somewhere in Washington. Too bad.

There were also two teenage girls on the bus. They changed three times and did their make up on the bus (what the hell for?). I look like crap when I'm on a long busride.

Other companions on the bus? three little kids and three dogs. Yeah, it wasn't super quiet in there.

Anyway, I got my personal bus rule now, so if you ever take the greyhound, here they are:

1. If you plan on sleeping, set your alarm on your phone to make sure you want miss your stop.

2. sit in one of the front rows, the creepy people always sit in the back.

3. keep your headphones in even if you don't listen to music anymore. people wont start talking to you (of course if that's what you want, loos the earpieces)but you can still heare what is going on around you.

4. Try to get two seats, it's the only way to get something simular to sleep,

5. Don't even think about going on without a blanket. It's always freezing in there.

All the way to Salt Lake City it was raining, and I mean relly raining. Looking out of the window I felt like we were dricving in the middle of nowhere. For miles and miles not one singele house, just dry dirt and some other cars.



Yesterday in Washington, everything had been so green, here everything is brown.

View from the bus in Washington State.

We got to Salt Lake on time. Now I had to find the hostel. I looked at my map and realized, the Greyhound station wasn't where Lonely Planet told me it was (I should have gotten the new edition after all. After an hour of walking, I finally got to the hostel, completely dead. all I wanted was a shower and a bed. Shower, check. Now it's off to sleep.

talk to you later.

xoxo

p.s. the slow internet connection gives me a hard time uploading pics, but they'll get there sooner or later.

June 8 2010 - On the Road to Salt Lake City

Hello there

So this morning I went to the Forks Coffee Shop to have breakfast. I orderd a cream cheese bagle and got coffee refills. I felt so American :) It was great, I loved the dinner feeling :)

I took the bus back to Port Angeles and let me say, it was one funny ride. there were some Quileute people in there and some others too and they wanted to know everything about politics and school systems in switzerland, my trip etc. When I got off 90 minutes later, I had gottan a proposal and a job offer. It really was funny.


On the way from Forks to Port Angeles. It really is pretty here!

Now I'm sitting in a kind of shuttel to get back to Seattle (yes there's wifi in this little bus) with onlt elderly people and a guy with several Louis Vuitton suitcases and bags. There I'll take the bus to Salt Lake City. It's gonna be a long ride (28h) but I guess I'm used to it.

That's it for now.

Talk to you soon

xoxo


p.s. we just passed a buss that said "senior group" on the side and "recycled teenagers" in the front :9 excellent!

June 7 2010 - Dazzled by Twilight

"In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exixts under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America." (Twilight)

(You all know this sign :)Although, Forks can hardly be called a city if you ask me)

Hello there,

Well today it did not rain in the tiny town of Forks when I got here! I had finally made it to the mecca for twilight fans. The "city" where all is happening.

Can you tell I'm excited? :)

Honestly, I'm wondering what was happening in Forks, or how they made money before the whole Twilight thing happened. Literally every store has a Twilight section, pictures of the movies are in like every window and every restaurand has a Twilight dish like a Bella Burger or an Edward sundae. So yeah, Twilight is omni present here.

I was really looking forweard to visiting the dazzled by Twilight store (I found out there were actually two). The main store is just awesome, with trees in there and dimmed light really great:



However, nothing in there yelled "Buy me, you need me!" I was really a bit disappointed in what they offered. However, I did find something for the girl I left at home and isn't on the road again, just like promessed, you'll get something from Forks.

Honestly, I thought I was a Twilight Fan but what is going on here is a whole other story. Grown ups running around in Team Edward/Jacob shirts buying a sorts of stupid things and taking fotos of every littel thing that could possibly have something to do with the Twilight World. I totally get the meaning of the word Twihards now. Still, I couldn't stop grinning while walking around, people where already looking at me wierd.

My Twilight tour was supposed to leave from the store at 3pm. However, nobody showed up. At 3.10pm I asked the rude girl in the store and she informed me that it left from the other store and that now I had missed it. Great!!! Of course this was happening to me. Things like that have my name on it.
So I ran over to the second store and asked the lady if she could put me on the next tour. there was no next tour today. She was absolutely nice and drove me to the Forks Highschool where I caught up with the group at about 3.15. So I really haden't missed a lot.

That is also seen in the movies

Her husband. the tour guide, told us a lof of background information about Forks and LaPush. If you want to see all that watch the documentary Twilight in Forks, it's great.

The Tourbus!

We went to tons of great places, I'll updated the fotos as soon as I can but right now I'm sitting in the Forks public library, which is really tiny, and am running out of internet time.

UPDATE: PICS ARE HERE!

Bella's red Truck

The sign says 'home of the Swans' so that's where Bella would live


So this is Forks hospital, yes they do have a hospital! On a really busy day they have 11 people to take care of! They also have this:
a reserved parking spot for Dr. Cullen. Rumors say that Peter Facinelli, the guy who portrais Carlisle will soon make use of that parking spot.

Next we made our way towards Jacob's house

and of course to the beach, in this case, Rialto Beach, loved it



we didn't make it all the way to LaPush but saw some signs of it...


...and of course, we did cross the treaty line. There's even a twosided sign, if you come from Forks it says,

and if you come from LaPush it says


Let me just say this, I am completely in love with the olympic penninsula. It feels more like Canada than the States, it;s absolutely gorgeous, all green and with an ocean, breathtaking!

That's it for now, I'll be sitting in a bus for the next 30 hours so it will be a while till I update from Salt Lake City.

Talk to you soon

xoxo

June 6 2010 - Killers in Port Angeles

Hello again

So this morning I woke up bright and early (4.30am) but managed to doze till 8am. I spend the morning walking around Seattle in the rain, using the internet and writing the first post cards. And look what I ran into on the way:

Oh my beloved vitamin water!!!! And...

The best mexican fast food you can get (It was still closed though)!

Then, before I knew it, I found myself at the oh so familiar greyhound bus station again.

I was sitting outside waiting for my "special" bus when a drunk guy cam out of the building and started walking around talking to himself. So the greyhound people tried to get him to leave because he wasn't going on a bus anyway because he was drunk. So the guy got really mad because he had already paid for his ticket. Well after anout 20minutes the police showed up (on bikes!!!) and took him away (he did get a refund before being escorted!)

Shortly after that my bus pulled in. It wasn't one of the usual greyhound buses, it was more like a shuttle. Way more room than a big bus. The ride to Port Angeles started, along for the ride, 3 ladies well over 70. After about an hour we loaded on the ferry. 20 minutes ferry ride and 2.5 hours driving later I was in Port Angeles.







on the way to Port Angeles

Finding the hotel was easy. So I checked in and then walked around the city where found the dazzled by Twilight store...



...and also the Bella Italia where Bella and Edward had their first date in the Twilight book. They actually do serv mushroom ravioli but unfortunately, the were so full they wouldn't cook them for me! What a pitty (They would probably have been overprized anyway).



Almost next to the restaurant is the movie theatre and I was just in time to see Killers. So that's exactly what I did. Very funny movie with Katherine Heigel and hottie Aston Kutcher.



Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND69q158IZI

After that I went back to the hotel. and now, here I am sitting on the hotel computer and typing while trying to keep my eyes open (still jetlag I guess). So this will be it for now. Tomorrow: Off to FORKS!!!

talk to you soon

xoxo

p.s. My computer has not been able to connect to the internet anywhere till now so I have to use public ones which do not allow me to put my pictures on them so this is the reason there are no pics yet. But I will update them as soon as I can.

June 5 2010 - Odyssey to Seattle

Well, hello there thanks for visiting

So today was the day I was finally hitting the road again. More like the sky if i think about it now.

Mum and Dad drove me to the airport on Saturday morning where I took the plan to Atlanta. And that's where the trouble already started. So I was sitting in my seat, waiting for all the other people to finally store there huge carry ons and to finally start. That's when we got informed that we would be over 1 hour late!!! I knew then already that I would never make my connection in Atlanta. What a great start!

Moreover, there was only one big tv for everyone so I only got to see 3 movies instead of like 7 like on last years flight. And of course I had already seen Valentin's day, Dear John and 500 days of summer before. The woman sitting next to me, she was from Bern, told me she didn't know what to do if she would miss her connection because she doesn't speak English, she's close to 60 I guess. So I told her we'd figure it out when we're there.

Luckily immigration didn't take long in Atlanta although the unfriendly woman looked at me more than weird when I told her I was travelling alone. For some reason she didn't seem to believe me. Anyway, Heidi, that's my neighbour an me made our way to the delta counter to get rebooked on new flights. After a drink, Heidi gave me her address and assured me she had 2 very good looking sons LOL! We then went our separate ways. That's when I finally had time to buy 'The short second life of Bree Tanner' can't wait to read it!
After eavesdropping on a conversation about politics 3 people on the gate were having, it was finally time to board. Luckily, no delay this time!

I got to Seattle at 9.00pm which means I was awake over 24 hours now and I really had trouble keeping my eyes open. I waited half an hour for my luggage then made my way outside to take the 174 bus to the city. I couldn't wait to shower and finally get some sleep.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened!

I found out that the bus I was supposed to take didn't exist anymore. What was I supposed to do now?
I went back into the airport and started looking for an information desk which i found three floors up. So they told me that there was no bus to the city from here and that I had to walk all the way to the highway and the 174 would go from there. She said she thought there was a bus every hour.
I started thinking and decided I wasn't going to walk half an hour in the dark just to maybe find out that there was no bus anymore or to wait an hour for it. I would take a taxi even if it cost me 40 bucks. Next problem, where on earth were the taxis???? Usually they are parked in front of airports which was not the case here. I asked about three people who didn't know eighter but kept saying: "Yes, yes, this is a very weird airport" I thank you I hadn't noticed and how is that helping me now.
I was starting to get impatient, I really just wanted to get out of there. That's when I found a mother and daughter couple who were also looking for the taxis. Together we found them in the building across the street from the main building. I was really happy to finally be on the way to a bed!!!

When I got to the hostel it was about 10.30pm. But before hitting the pillow I went into the house across the street from the hostel. What that building was??? Well, I have to admit, the one and only reason I was in Seattle for the third time check it out:



I know, I'm crazy but I really wanted a Seattle Hard Rock Shirt and I thought, why shouldn't it be the first thing I do? So I just went in and bought it.
Back at the hostel, I jumped into the shower and then went to bed. I tried to get on the internet but of course, the connection didn't work.

So like this post, the day was really really loooooooooong.

Next step? Leaving the Grey's Anatomy city and entering Twilight country. Next stop, Port Angeles. Can't wait!!!!!!!!!

See u later.

xoxo



p.s. I don't know if I will find internet in the next 2 days so I don't know when I'll be posting again but I'll try to be quick!