Fremont
One part of Seattle that I felt a great affinity with (and this will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and also knows Seattle) is Fremont.
Fremont is home to the giant troll.
Trolls come from Scandinavian folklore. The Fremont troll lives under the George Washington bridge. They are ugly beings with big noses and long arms. They live in the dark, away from sunlight; in caves or under bridges are likely places to find them. They are attracted to shiny things (the Fremont troll holds a VW in his hand); children and ‘luminous women’ are at particular peril when there is a troll around.
The troll is a piece of interactive artwork; people can climb on him
This one time centre of artistic freedom and ‘counterculture’ (it contains a statue of Lenin rescued from Eastern Europe) is fast becoming very gentrified (Google, Adobe and some other tech companies have offices in the area by the Lake Washington ship canal).
Lake Washington ship canal
The Fremont rocket. It bears the Fremont motto, De Libertas Quirkas, which means Freedom to be Peculiar.
One of the independent breweries in the area.
Put a bird on it
Sarah’s useless Fremont fact: Originally a separate city, Fremont was named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of its founders.
I had an excellent (albeit a little tiring and far, far too brief) time in Seattle. I met some awesome people. The highlights were:
Tessa, my host on airbnb, who gave me a stone to hold every morning with my affirmation for that day. She’s an interesting woman with many stories to tell.
Danny, who cleaned the apartment and who I spoke to for around 15-20 minutes. Don’t you just love Americans and the way they share everything with you 20 seconds after meeting you? I have people in England I’ve known for ten years or more, but know less about their lives than I do about Danny’s.
Someone tried to point out which of these houseboats featured in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, but I couldn’t get which one they were pointing at. I’ve never seen the movie (I hate rom-coms) but might mean something to some of you
Categories: USA
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Oh I love the troll. Yes, I think I could live there as well. It looks like my kind of place. Unlike when I look out the window at the moment and it is a typically very wet and soggy Bank Holiday Monday. I think I will have to put Fremont on my list of places to visit. Safe travels my friend x
Yeah I forgot it was bank holiday there; I think ours is next Monday, but hopefully no rain as I’ll be in San Francisco by then. You should go to Notting Hill Carnival; that’s a great rain-soaked activity.
So true about the over-sharing of Americans. And the under-sharing of the Brits. Canada’s sharing factor is probably mid-point between the two. Anyway, great post, Fremont looks crazy fun.
You know I don’t really mind the oversharing; in a strange way I feel like I’ve had some real conversations here. As opposed to the UK where I”m talking to people all day but never really get beyond the weather and moaning about the buses. Sometimes you have to know a British person for so long before we talk about anything real, and I am trying to change that in myself because I hate small-talk. But yes maybe some kind of middle ground would be nice.
I hear you. Empty small-talk makes me squirm. But so does somebody telling me all about their personal life within the first 15 minutes of meeting them. haha
I’m with Karen – – -THANKS for the close ups of the troll – Brilliant.
Liked the way you told this blog in pics.
Especially like the rocket sticking off the corner of the building declaring ” De Libertas Quirkas”
MAY THERE BE MORE
Freedom of peculiarity – that is
yeah I”m a big fan of peculiar. I’m off to San Fransisco today so should be plenty of strange goings on there too I think