Posted 11:27 AM by Blah blah

Patrick's Seattle Pix. People I Met. (Photos)

Patrick's photos from Seattle:

Photos.

Patrick and I stayed downtown in Hostelling International's youth hostel. Having lived in or seen youth hostels in Saratoga, Yosemite, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Paris, I truly liked this one the best.

Our hostel was very modern, clean, and friendly. Each room had two bunk beds, for four people. We got a card key for both entering the hostel and our rooms. We all ate continental breakfast from 8-9 am in the group dining room. That's where you make friends. The hostel was open 24 hours. They had DSL Internet access with an Ethernet cable and, if you brought your laptop, you could go on the Net for free.

I have not seen most of these details at other hostels.

The whole experience reminded me so strongly of my favorite place to live in the whole world, which still is International House Berkeley, my college dorm.

The best part of travelling is always the fascinating people you meet. Our hostel was stocked with plenty. In just two days, I met:

- A Japanese girl from Hokkaido who was preparing to coach skiers in Japan's national ski team. She had gone to Canada and Colorado to get special training. She planned to train the Japanese coaches and teach the athletes to think more independently during competition. She had been a competitive skier herself.

- An Indian lady from Chicago who was an urban planner for the county there. We had fun talking about various ideas for improving public transportation and barriers to sustainable development.

- Two guys (one from Australia) who were going to Alaska to work on a fishing boat. It's a popular and very tough summer job.

- A Chinese girl, originally from Beijing, who was getting her PhD in architecture at the University of Hong Kong. She was tickled by my experiences volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and marvelled at how Americans are so into volunteering for social causes. In China, people rarely volunteer, she said. She had just come from a conference at Cornell University. She offered to be my tour guide in Hong Kong.

- Two English brothers from the city of Oxford who were exploring the U.S. for a month. The older brother had just finished studying physics at Oxford. Next he'd be doing research in nuclear fusion. Friendly as he was, I could barely understand anything he said. He MUMBLED everything, like this:

(To be continued...)