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BOLTBUS NW!

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  • MirandaJulyMirandaJuly
    andy wants to know if "loser freaks" are allowed to ride and whether there are baby-free trips.
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    Who cares? WIFI! $6!
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    They have this from Iowa city to Chicago and you can bet I rode that shit. There are drunk kids listening to rap videos out loud (no headphones), crying babies, weird smells, the bathroom is HORRIBLE, etc.

    BUT! You are cruising down the highway in a big old bus, and the scenery looks awesome, and you don't have to drive your car, and it's like magic!!!!!!!

  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    6 hours in Seattle, on a Saturday, for $14.00. I love it.

    Jantzen, what should I do in Seattle for 6 hours on a Saturday? Other than visit my uncle in Ballard, and eat that Pagliacci pizza, I don't have a clue what else to do.

    Can you give me a Seattle itinerary?
  • the_owlsthe_owls
    Top Pots donuts

    Look out at that water scenery

    Fancy Seattle Library

  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    What's that vietnamese restaurant that gives you a cream puff after your lunch?
  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    Is it like a standard thing everywhere
  • distant_shoedistant_shoe
    WOAH BOLT BUS SEATTLE PORTLAND????
    CMON CHINA TOWN BUSSES, U SLEEPIN!!
    THIS IS INDEED REALLY FUCKING TIGHT
    VBSTOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    WHATS THAT HIPPY BUS CALLED?? THE ONE THAT GOES TO EUGENE??
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    The international district (where the bus stops) is big on the instant Seattle list.

    Recommended:

    Daiso. A Japanese drug store about half the size of a 7-11. Everything is $1.50 unless marked. Everything is Japanese cute. So many useful things and so many cute things that you wish were useful!

    Daiso is across the street from Uwajimaya, the big asian grocery store with the awesome bookstore inside it, Kinokunya. PDX has one in Beaverton, but SEAs is better!

    One block north of Kinokunya's door is the ff-ing awesomest bakery I have ever experienced, Fuji Bakery. It's french/japanese which means they have hot fried pork curry buns next to fresh baked chocolate-cream filled mini-baguettes next to salmon brioche next to asparagus quiche next to wasabi rolls next to flaky brandy-soaked cherry puff pastry boats next to cayenne cheese rolls next to.........!!!

    Fuji Bakery is across the street from the place with the best hand-shaved noodles. Or go around to the other side of the block to Thai Simple, amazing fresh curry plates for $5 each with spices his friends fly over from Thailand.

    Or, for the new thing in the neighborhood, check out the vegan pizzas at World Pizza run by the two nicest guys in Seattle, no lie. Have a beer, you are on vacation!

    Another half block east, I think it is, turn down the alley to find the Sun May curio shop. It's just like the shop in Gremlins where he buys the cute little guy that isn't supposed to get wet. Place is totally packed with insane exotic geegaws and baubbles, many decades old and priced at like 25 - 50 cents. Things like obscure comic books, kimonos, wooden boxes, political buttons, ink, office supplies, photographs, old magazines, toys, porcelain animals, political tracts of various kinds, vintage wind-up toys. A family favorite.

    If you got back out to the street and continue east past the Wing Luke Museum across the street is the most awesome Szechaun dumpling shop. Get 10 dumplings and a chinese pancake. Feel so healthy!


    Alternative: Long walk along the waterfront

    Turn west from Fuji, and follow Jackson to the waterfront. Maybe stop at zeitgiest for a panini. O, then maybe you should go meet the cool art dealer, Scott Larrimore. He's a goof. A serious goof, I guess. He used to have the biggest space, then a year ago he decided to have the smallest space. It is a block north of Zeitgeist and then to the left. A small glass room with some kind of contemporary thang on the floor and Scott sitting there on his bench probably talking to a lady in fancy clothes. Throw a peanut at him and see if he picks it up!

    Keep going until you hit water and then just walk up the waterfront, maybe stopping to see the mummy in the Olde Curiosity Shoppe or getting a snack somewhere. At the end is one of my favorite public spaces in Seattle, a beach that has been created by the sculpture park. Sit on a log. Take your shoes off. Look at what the town billionaires did for the people. So fancy. Zigzaggy hills and block long photoscreens. People at leisure. Admire what happens to driftwood when it floats for years in the briny deep. Go back to the street, cross the railroad tracks and see if the tree museum is open. If it is, go in and look at that big fallen down tree they have in there. It's like a forest lab for space people. Maybe you will walk over to the pavilion and go look at those big Richard Serra pieces. Pretty neat. There they are.

    That's a lot of walking. Better go up the hill by first street and take a bus back to Pike Place Market. Or walk all the way over to Seattle Center and take the monorail back downtown.

    If you are strong again after your monorail ride why not walk a few blocks up 5th ave and go into that m-f'n Koolhaas Public Library masterpiece? Go to the right when you enter off 5th avenue and then climb the crazy red stairs into the weird fourth floor sex cave. What an epic dutch joke. My god. Then up to the fifth floor to see all the people in rows on their free internet. Then up the little yellow escalator into the bookstacks. From here up, the whole building is a spiral organized around the ascending dewey decimal code. Walk up the next 4 floors just taking the spiral and browsing all the stacks. Dig the top, glass roof open to the sky except where there are vinyl pillow square clouds. Slip back behind the elevators to the leap. Hang over and enjoy the drop. How long will they let us think about jumping before they close this feature down?

    Don't jump. Choose to live another day. Choose the elevator. Go out the 4th ave door. Sit by the Henry Moore for a minute. Maybe poke around in the lobby of the immaculate sixties financial tower it sits beside. Slip down the stairs and dig the Fuller inspired octet trusses. The groovy mid-century chairs in the ground floor public space.

    Maybe exit on third and look for an entrance to the bus tunnel. If you are done, head south to your bus back home. If you are down for more, catch one of the 70-buses (71, 72, 74, 75, etc.) heading north to the U District and go see the Gary Hill exhibit at the Henry. Hungry again? Find decent pho on the ave. Bookish? Try Magus, not bad. No Powells, but still.

    Good luck!

  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    isn't that hippie bus called the Green Turtle or something?
    Def got Turtle in the title
    Katy took it once, said somebody played guitar the whole time and there are no seats, only throw pillows
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    I don't think there is a Green Tortoise any more. I think they stopped that service in the nineties. Now they just do special events and charters. What they call "adventure travel". They also operate hostels in Seattle and SF, maybe Portland too?

    Boltbus is going to take a huge bite out of the craigslist rideshare business. I've been ferrying paid passengers as often as I can. With Amtrak at +$30 (Greyhound too!) and with their limited schedule, passengers are happy to pay $20 for door to door service. (Roughly what it costs in gas.)
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    Green Tortoise Alaska Expedition. 27 days touring Alaska by bus. $2500 w/food. Tent camping & sleeping on the bus. (Hostel nights not included.)

    This concept really brings out my misanthropy.
  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    Thank you so much. That is exactly the itinerary my heart wanted.
  • the_owlsthe_owls
    TOP

    POTS


    DONUTS



    http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=top+pots+donuts&fb=1&gl=us&hq=top+pots+donuts&ei=K6GpT4SiHuaTiAKJucGiAg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CCMQtgM
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    (You better go to Top Pot Donuts so you don't get punched when you get home.) The one downtown - Google Exhibit A - is the most accessible to an Instant Seattle visitor.
  • ed_chigliaked_chigliak
    edited May 2012
    I used to take the Green Tortoise between Portland and SF when visiting the west coast. The dinner stop at their rural hideaway included an optional sauna....nothing like being naked with your bus driver after eating a meal you all prepared in a parked school bus kitchen. Then the benches in the bus magically folded down into sleeping platforms and you woke up rolling into SF and breakfast was served in the old bordello Tortoise hostel. It was very exotic to this midwesterner and I enjoyed it.
  • the_owlsthe_owls
    I will not punch you, I just want to stress that if you LIKE donuts then it's really the place to be.

    I think LT will be super happy with the Fuji Bakery you mentioned!
  • LelandLeland
    Yeah I dug it too, Eug - Oly quite a few times in the early eighties. Very humane, especially compared to the alternatives at the time. I never did the overnight though.

    I can tolerate almost anybody for a stretch of hours, but a month? Ooo-whee!
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012


    Also, re: donuts - The one on fifth (downtown) is quite a Mod affair, spatially. And the donuts, too are very special. Kind of MadMen-y, even. Very unapologetic about their biases. My hunch is that L_T would get a charge out of it.
  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    I like all things that have been made with care.
  • LelandLeland
    Lady Friend got here for a dollar. (On the first day!) Said it was fun.
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