In which Layla and Roz visit the Emerald City and find coffee, cocktails and rain

By Layla

After our exotic Burma adventures, we were worried about appearing a bit prosaic... But the US is full of places people rave about, and one of those we hear most about is Seattle... And so, after a plane journey long enough to have practically deposited us in London, here we are in the Emerald City - the nickname for Seattle which is possibly bestowed due to the greenery - thanks to almost incessant rain.

A holiday in the west coast US equivalent of Glasgow? Risky, but if Frasier (beloved sitcom star of my youth) could love it, so could we! And having deposited our bags in a stylish and comfortable apartment in the heart of Capitol Hill (Greenwich Village-ish place - less cute, more cool, fewer tourists), we headed out to one of Seattle's impressive number of truly cool little bars. This one was called Sun Liquor and perched comfortably at the bar, as a lover of cocktails and the slowest drinker in the world, I was particularly delighted to find gin cocktail flights! We both opted for this and as we sat sipping them and loving the ambience of this place (which actually makes its own gin, called Hedge Trimmer Gin, we were impressed that we had boarded the plane only after work that day and were now officially on holiday, far far away, that same evening. Hooray for time differences!

We arose on Saturday and headed straight to Vivace to let Roz experience her first (of many) Seattle coffee, then went for brunch in a cool venue called Americana where we enjoyed combinations of eggs, avocado, and salsa. Delicious. Part of our reason for being in Seattle was SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival, and we had our first movie booked at the nearby Harvard Exit Cinema at 11am. Still early due to jetlag, we bought more coffee from another cool cafe (Roy's, perhaps) and headed off for a walk round a nice nearby park, where we circumnavigated locals doing various exercises, before grabbing some popcorn and settling down for The Geography Club, a not amazing but very enjoyable film about gay teens. Very satisfactory.

After the film, we grabbed a quick sandwich (Roz)/crepe (me) for lunch at Joe's cafe across the street, then walked down to a bike tour place. Delightfully it wasn't raining - in fact it was almost sunny - and we had a 2 1/2 hour cycle tour of downtown Seattle. We went past various cool sites, like the amazing glass public library, Chinatown, Pioneer Square (which doubles as the historic centre of town and the epicenter of homelessness), and then along the waterfront, up past the Space Needle, and back. Quite interesting, though the rain did start to splatter towards the end and we were glad to spot a bus bound straight for our house. A quick change of clothes and a hop onto yet another bus, and we were deposited in Queen Anne, the district that is home to the SIFF Uptown cinema. We had an early dinner in a well reviewed and very pleasant Indian restaurant called Roti, right across from the cinema, then joined the queue for the completely sold out The Way Way Back, a film about a family which was not especially interesting (for either of us) but very well done, and then retired to the after party at a nearby venue. However, after a couple of glasses of champagne it was beginning to feel a bit too much like a work drinks reception, so we skipped out and headed for a very cool speakeasy Roz had read about, the Knee High Stocking Company. We walked right through a giant folk festival (which weirdly, at 9pm, had finished and everyone had gone home to bed - our kind of music person!), past the space needle, and then, after our bus didn't come, on and on for half an hour up a big hill til we got there at last and found they were full.

A small amount of angst later, we relocated to a very nice bar, Tavern Law, where we sipped cocktails and eyed the little black phone that people were quietly using - the entry to a speakeasy above the restaurant called Needle and Thread. We glanced at each other, then I went for it - and they fit us in! Soon we were perched high above the loud, busy bar in a serene, 20s-style, comfortable bar and sipping excellent cocktails - and feeling very cheery and smug. And it was a mere 10 minute walk home. A successful first day in Seattle. Impressions: rain, hills, quirk, people not using umbrellas, lots of people with tattoos and pink hair, lots of homelessness, everyone in bed by 9pm, numerous fabulous coffee shops and genuinely cool bars, and a very fun film festival. And we wouldn't mind living here at all...

The next day with rain sprinkling down, I was despatched to buy the coffee and bring it home. But then we did venture out, to Arabica - another cool coffee shop and brunch venue, where I got obsessed with a book, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, set in Seattle, and made us stay there til ridiculously late, but we hopped on a bus and were on time to see a rather depressing Israel/Palestine gay film called Out in the Dark at SIFF Uptown. Afterwards, feeling a little dreary, we stocked up with ice cream, and walked through the ongoing folk festival - hippy-tastic! And to this weird new museum under the space needle by an artist called Chihuly - a glass blower who has made all these massive, amazing, colorful glass sculptures, including those planted in a weird, surreal, Alice-In-Wonderland style garden. It was quirky and cool and pleasing. Afterwards we went to a second hand book shop called Mercer Books and bought a couple of books, then had another coffee (when in Seattle...) and returned to the cinema, this time for 6 gay-themed short films, many of which we really enjoyed.

Bus success this time saved us from another 2 mile hike and we settled down in the excellent Lebanese restaurant ManMoom where we indulged in halloumi, wine from the winery we visited in Lebanon, and other delights... Then popped round the corner where, smugly holding our reservation, we were at last granted access to the coveted Knee High Stocking Company. Which was cool and fun and nice, and we had a couple of cocktails til a wave of exhaustion hit me and Roz impressively put us on a bus home. Public transport is very convenient here!

And so here we are on Monday morning, branching on avocado and eggs and planning the day ahead. It is tricky when there's so much to do in Seattle that's outside and there's this unpleasant drizzle. But this is such a cool, stylish, laid back, funky city. We will be fine!