Cafe Nerdosa.

The spirit of Seattle, its genius loci and the feel of the city, is very similar to that of Glasgow. In a general sense, Seattle doesn’t give a truckload of fresh fecal matter about what you think of it and, as a result, its people are the most friendly and welcoming. The streets are brimming with commerce, nightlife, street-art and aggressive individualism. When this spirit bubbles up into its inhabitants, an egalitarian self-confidence is expressed.

Jack’s Fish Spot, stuffed into the centre of Pike Place Market, serves freshly cooked fish at a frantic pace. From a UK standpoint, this is the place to get good fish and chips at a good price. The man dealing with the orders from the lunchtime rush immediately pegs my accent and starts telling me about his time playing the Edinburgh Fringe with an American theater troupe, performing Dante’s Inferno and getting horribly drunk afterwards. He tells me this while still taking orders from the next few people in line, young professionals in smart suits getting clam chowder to go. “Who the hell are you?”, he barks at them, in order to write down a name for the order. The manners are not contested by the customers. It’s really good chowder.

The first Starbucks is a few buildings down the street, clogged with tourists. There are dozens of better cafes, bakeries, restaurants, street vendors and market stalls on this street, selling every manner of edible wonder. Starbucks is one of the great corporate deities, however, and this is its birthplace. So it brings in the crowds.

Yes, we went to the Space Needle.

And, yes, the view from the top is incredible.

There’s even a Starbucks, there.

Directly next to the Rotating Restaurant and Gift Shop, there is the EMP Museum. Not a museum about electromagnetism, it turns out, but a temple to modern pop culture. The relics of geekdom are abundant and varied.

The Chair.

The Shirt.

An entire exhibit on sci-fi. An entire exhibit on fantasy. An entire exhibit on horror. Conan’s sword. The glove of the Six-fingered Man. Mr Pointy. Lieutenant Commander Data’s uniform. Sting. “And my axe!”

Upstairs from all of this, tributes to Hendrix and Cobain. Iconic guitars and fragments of guitars. The original photograph for the cover of Nevermind.

Entry for the museum cost the same as that for the Space Needle. My personal excitement is a clear indicator of which I preferred.

Other wonderful discoveries included So Much Yarn, a shop we read the name of and immediately had to verify. Naked City Brewery, a brewpub with incredible beers, food and atmosphere; they show old movies on a projector and create beers with names such as “The Spy Who Came In For A Kolsch”. In every place, genuinely friendly and welcoming staff.

Passing by the Washington State Conference Center, we started seeing young people dressed in the manner of video-game characters. Had we missed the chance to attend a convention? Alas, it was so. GeekGirlCon had been taking place over that weekend and, based on subsequent research, may have been worth the price of a pass. A few hours later, however, we did pass by the same street and witness the D20 Brass Band, glowing green and audible from blocks away. They transformed the street corner into a musical playground. I’d consider moving to Seattle just for the chance to join their group.

The day after, we made up for lost opportunities by investigating a game store called Meeples, in the pleasant west-side of Seattle. Their selection of games and supplies was decent and there was plenty of table space. What really made the venue special was their enormous library of open board games, free for anybody to play, and their awesome staff. We stayed there for a few hours, enjoying their cafe and playing new games.

We also took the time to wander Discovery Park, another island of arboreal green in the midst of a modern city. This space seemed busier than Stanley Park had been, although it was a pleasant Sunday. Lots of joggers, lots of families. One young family had, apparently, hired a professional photographer to come with them and take pictures. The well-dressed mother marched along the dirt trails in Dolce & Gabbana heels while the photographer tried to goad a toddler into photogenic poses next to a tree.

Seattle seems to have the right mixture of post-grunge impudence and casual cheer to be interesting and comfortable. Oh, the weather was also fine. Was almost wishing for more rain…