USA : Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

Our whirlwind tour of Seattle, we're rather sad to say, began on a bit of a sour note.
Our couch surfing host after our long drive down from Vancouver turned out to be a seemingly unsavoury, drunken character, who protested that he wasn't expecting us until next week. This left us high and dry on the streets of Seattle, but onwards on upwards we went to our next adventure as our previous host put us in touch with her sister,Tracey who lived right around the corner.

Despite the limited capacity of Tracey's cosy studio flat she welcomed two complete strangers in to her home, provided us with a space to sleep and took us out on a night of wonder around Capitol Hill. It was here that we  met the 'gay fabs' who taught us how to play darts and suggested we distract our opponent by 'giving them a tickle on the bumhole.' We both felt a kindred spirit in Tracey and the following days were filled with joy and laughter until the early hours! We touristed the heck out of Seattle and viewed the Space Needle from every available vantage point. By the end of the Saturday we were high on caffeine, chocolate tasting and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
Tracey guided us to the Freemont troll, Gasworks park, the locks, Golden Beach, Kery's Park and other very touristy destinations, where she embraced the opportunity to explore her own city and aid us in taking horribly cheesy photographs against a variety of backdrops.

After our girl time as the 'pigtail trio' we headed to Kevin and Sara's in Ollala on the Seattle peninsula where we cooked a traditional bangers and mash and jumped in the hot tub for a good soak whilst enjoying the scenery of the forest that surrounds their house.
Our main aim for the Sunday was to road trip to the Twighlight towns of Forks and La Push where we saw some awesome scenery and stood next to several token signs photographing and causing uncontrolled cringing in passers by.  Our true excitement for the day came from racing around the country lanes on the back of Kevin's Harley Davidson and tattooing one another with Henna in to the early hours.

Our final day in Seattle commenced when we reunited with our girl Tracey to explore pike Place market, indulge in awesome French pastries, laugh very inappropriately in the city library, visit  the very first Starbucks and make home cooked sloppy Joes! Yum!

Seattle was a true joy.

We had an outstanding time in this quirky, liberal and beautiful city and look forward to the next time we can visit our new friends... Or convince them to come and check out England : it's not all Downton Abbey!

Jan and Susie.

USA : You got wood? I want wood.

So, its been 4 days since our last blog and ALL of the adventures have since ensued.

Our first wobbly, mapless drive around Vancouver almost put us off of the idea of Canada entirely, but after our initial set back, we made our way through 'the hood' (East Hastings) unscathed and embarked on an exploration of Gas Town.

We ambled through the cobbled streets delighting at the quirky curio shops full of treasures and floor to ceiling stacked second hand book shops where we found books written by traditional English authors to give to our Couchsurfing hosts.

Our word of mouth adventure continued as we accosted confused and slightly scared Vancouver locals in coffee shops, on public transport, in the street seeking advice on what not to miss in this fascinating city.

A highlight of Gas Town was The Steam Clock, one of the worlds first steam powered clocks; the steam is supplied by the underground system of Central Heat Distributors Ltd, with the component parts costing approximately $42,000 and weighing over 2 tonnes.

We experienced the Vancouver ferry which took us over to North Shore, and couldn't believe it when we encountered a lovely gentleman who we discovered was from Broxtowe in Nottingham, what are the chances? Following this we took a jaunt through Stanley park where Susie enjoyed a nature walk in the woods and Jan enjoyed running from the imaginary "psycho-killers".

Thanks to Kevin and Sara we were hooked up with our next set of couchsurfers who were just delightful. Leah and Adrien were kind enough to take us in a allow us to indulge in great conversations and plenty of banter along the way. We were introduced to the world of Catan, hence the title of this post and an example of the laughter we are referring to.

After deciding to stay in Vancouver for another day we ventured up to Capalonia Reservoir and Dam where we were able to see the snow dusted tree tops of Grouse Mountain. We hitched a ride on the Funicular to the peak to admire the talents of the snowboarders and the sky scape of the city of Vancouver below. Unable to resist, we flung ourselves down on our backs and burrowed out two twin snow angels. We 'snow-bouldered' one another into oblivion before indulging in a coffee and the awe-inspiring view.

Granville Island was our final destination that day, where we enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the markets and Artisan shops with local products made by local people.

Vancouver, to us, was city full of kindness, laughter and creativity.
Our first few days on the start of the West Coast road trip were spectacular and the generous hearts of our wonderful new friends kept us warm against the chilly weather. 

Peace and love,

Jan and Sooz.

USA : Benny and the Jets...lag.

Our first 3 days have passed in a haze of planes, trains, ferries and automobiles.
After a hairy delay due to snowy conditions back home we had a pleasant and uneventful flight into LA. On arrival we welcomed the jacuzzi, chandeliered lobby and downy pillows of the Hilton hotel for our 'lay over,' this was to be our last sniff of home comforts before embarking on a haphazard journey of motels, coach surfing and hostels.

After the onslaught of mind warping commercials in LA alternating ads for fast food - '30 shrimp for 11.99, MAN that a lot of shrimp!' And ads for weight loss tablets - 'warning may cause severe diarrhoea and nausea' we found the friendly and down to earth nature of Seattle so very refreshing.
It was here that we had out First experience with couch surfing. We took the ferry over to Bremerton on the peninsula and met our hosts for the evening Kevin and Sara who provided us with dinner and a place to rest our heads, but more precious to us than this were the non tangible gifts which they give to us during our stay. Sara had a wealth of knowledge about Seattle and spent the evening enlightening us on the great things to do in this awesome city. Kevin kindly took us to walmart to buy a GPS and even better than this, he took us to Otis Spunkmeirs; overpriced coffee for a good reason - the lady serving it to you sports a different scantily clad, nipple tassle based outfit most days. It definitely draws in the truckers (and gawking tourist like us too!)

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Twilight, the infamous book, will be responsible for our latter adventures with these hosts (courtesy of Susie) as we take a trip over to 'Forks' with them this weekend. We hope we'll be able to treat them to something special to say thank you and perhaps to share a beer with them in their hot tub!

We are across the border in Canada at the moment and plan on exploring Gastown and downtown today, maybe Stanley park too. The kindly staff here at the City centre motor motel(a.k.a. the Norman Bates motel) have let us keep our car parked here while we hop the number 19 bus in to town.

Warning : do not arrive in Canada with only American dollars and an American GPS, you will be broke and lost, respectively.

Our great revelation this holiday has been that wifi is an essential travelling tool and are not quite sure how we managed in the past without it!

We hope to keep you updated over the coming weeks,

Lots of Love,
Jan and Susie.

UK : Departure... Bon Voyage.

"There is a peculiar pleasure in riding out into the unknown. A pleasure which no second journey on the same trail ever affords."

- Edith Durham


Though several months after taking our first intrepid steps toward this day, we are no less excited now than we were just moments before purchasing our tickets.
Our bags are packed and we are truly ready to 'Rock and Roll!'
The playlists have been compiled, travel literature at the ready and of course mountains of unneccessary toiletries and footwear.
See you all on the other side.

Love Susie and Jan.

UK : 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 .... Holy Shit

"The most difficult thing is the decison to act, the rest is merely tenacity."

          -  Amelia Earhart

Our journey officially begins from Heathrow Airport on the 20th of January 2013.
The preparation for this adventure started many moons ago with an off the cuff hangover related remark and has since morphed in to the monsterous beast that is now our travel itinerary.

The most challenging decision of the journey so far was 'the decision to act', who would have believed that entering a 4 digit PIN on a three thousand pound transaction would have led to such life changing consequences. Though we are under no illusions that this will be the first of many challenges which await us over the next few months.

Our destinations are as follows :

West Coast America - Road Trip!
Fiji
New Zealand
Australia
Malaysia
Thailand.

We encourage you to live vicariously through us via the medium of the world wide web, with regular updates of our antics as we travel.

Peace and love,

Jan and Sooz.