Trans-Atlantica - Emerald City Comic Con.

It turns out Washington was a kind of chilled out experience for me. As I mentioned last blog, we all came down sick, and nobody really felt up to much of anything, so we mostly just hung out and only left the house when we had too. Which usually involved going to Fred Meyer, a supermarket chain I'd never heard of until I got to Washington but now feel like I'm all too intimate with. Come to think of it, Fred Meyer himself must be a rampant egotist to brand the entire chain with his full name. It's not just Meyers, it's FRED Meyers. He may as well have just gone ahead and thrown the mister in front of it and called it a day. But either way, I digress. While it was mostly very relaxed, we did have one thing that was set in our calender. It's the reason I was convinced to linger on in the US for as long as I did. We were headed to Seattle!

For the Emerald City Comic Con! 

Now, I've been to a couple of Comic Cons in the United Kingdom before. Mainly smaller, more intimate affairs like the Birmingham International Comics Show. A fantastic event that usually took place in the Think Tank, although the last show I went too was in a hotel exhibition centre rather fittingly over Nostalgia and Comics. It always had a number of very chatty, very inspired small pressers and some surprisingly top end panels including a Walking Dead preview event (where I caught a t-shirt and will never let anyone forget it!) and a panel with Jonathan Ross about his then new comic Turf, as well as other projects that don't seem to have manifested. Although Jonathan Ross seems to be a taboo name in the more stuck up, po-faced parts of the nerd community right now so maybe he wouldn't be considered a big draw for some. But say what you like, he knows how to work a panel. 

Sadly BICS seems all but dead in the water these days, and an event of similar quality never rose up to replace it, but I've also been to a couple of larger shows like Collectormania and the first Super convention in London, so I thought I'd be relatively braced for what was to come. I was very, very wrong. You see, while the Super convention was impressive, it only really took up three quarters, if not half, of an exhibition room. Admittedly a rather large exhibition room, but for some perspective the Emerald City Comic Con took up three full floors of Seattle's convention centre. 

Needless to say, it was very overwhelming at first. 

The main floor was characterised by a teeming mass of people that just seemed to come from everywhere and take up every single bit of space there was to be taken. It took a lot of getting used too, and also meant you had to treat very carefully not to be swept away from your friends or be barged all over by some knuckle dragging dickmonger who felt like his own sense of self importance is enough to let him be carried across the Con floor on the backs of all these other peasants around him. You know what, it's not fair to characterise that person as a male, because the women were just as bad. There's no gender divide when it comes to manners, and sadly when you get a lot of people together in one place, bad manners and poor spacial awareness seem to shine on through. 

I'm not going to wheel out the 'Smelly nerds who can't bathe!' stereotype though,as  in my experience ninety percent of people at all the conventions I've been too have smelt just fine - Although, I will say there was one part of what seemed to be the main floor, a walkway that connected one lot of booths to another, that consistently smelt of fart. I'm not sure how something can smell of fart the first time you walk through it, and still smell of fart about two hours later the next time you walk through it, but it was a strange phenomena that I encountered that I can only explain by there being one extremely gassy stall vendor in the vicinity or everyone having a pact that if they needed to fart? That's the designated farting zone and everyone else can hold their breath and deal with it. 

Just as it was all getting on top of me and I was feeling very overwhelmed though, I found my calling! 

I may have a slight problem when it comes to t-shirts. I'm generally not good when it comes to clothes, and pretty much had to buy most of a whole new wardrobe to go to America with because... Well, most of my clothes are in a sad state. But t-shirts? I will buy those by the hanger load. So the t-shirt tower was to me what a flame is to a moth, and could have been just as dangerous. But as impressive as it was (as you can see, the t-shirts are piled up all around the stall right up to the roof of it) and as many great designs as there were, including a take on the Scarface poster which featured Two-Face, I only walked away with a rather fetching Adam Hughes Zatanna shirt. But you know what? I felt a whole lot better about the Con in general after that.

There were plenty more interesting stalls to prowl around, although not many of them selling things I wanted for prices I found entirely reasonable. The steampunk and Victoriana stall's seemed to be pricing their items in a fashion that certainly didn't represent their quality, although the stall that was selling wooden larping weapons was rather impressive. The variety and craftsmanship on display was staggering, especially the flaming hammer which I think was branded a 'Hell Hammer'. I was also surprised to see a booth from the woman who has been drawing all the Disney/Doctor Who crossovers. She didn't have much left by the time I got to her, but I did buy a badge with Jack Skellington looking at a TARDIS shaped door in a tree so I was rather happy with that.

And then there were the cosplayers. 

As well as a woman doing balloon flowers and swords dressed as Cinderella. Technically not a cosplayer, as she was there as part of an entertainment business, but I've never seen anyone doing balloon manipulation in costume before so it was still new to me!

Of course there were various jokey cosplayers too. I saw a man in full Gears of War style body armour that had been given a Hello Kitty paintjob, and there was a rather impressive Judge Dredd who... Was hanging around with a man dressed as a pony and only seemed to do photos where he was hugging said pony man. Needless to say, that put me off snapping a picture of him. However, if you want the absolute King of cosplayers, look no further than this guy!

Truly the best costume of the show, hands down! I mean, we never saw what kind of socks Snow White actually wore, but I can't help but imagine he's spot on!

There were some other cool things on display, including a Song of Ice and Fire art gallery that I pretty much stumbled into by mistake. It included promotional art from various merchandise, as well as original pieces like this charming ceramic plaque and a mock up of a weirwood  tree.

My absolute favourite thing about it though (aside from the people who had only watched the TV show uttering 'Urgh! Spoilers!' all the way around. That's what you get for not picking up a book!) was the mocked up action figures depicting characters in their death throes or at a time when they were doing very less than fantastically.

As you can see, they're gloriously graphic! But I think my favourite is Robb Stark. If only because of how surprised he looks. It's almost cute.

Oh, yeah, uh, spoilers... Or something.

The absolute star of the show was the Brick Nation exhibition though. It was a few tables dedicated to the Lego creations of, what I assume, was a local Lego builders club. There was an absolutely breathtaking display of Rivendell, which was a full recreation of the Elvish city with various set pieces from both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies playing out within it.

Other highlights included a full Batcave and Joker's fairground, and a fairly insane Lego city that seemed to be the creators excuse to throw everything at the wall and see what stuck. There were also some rather impressive flat pieces and some rather interesting 3D models. 

And let's not forget the full size, remote controlled R2D2!

So, overall despite a rocky start I'd give my jaunt to ECCC two thumbs up. It wasn't too unwieldy once you got used to the size of it, and there was enough to see that we were there a good few hours and still missed one or two things that might've been of interest. I'd definitely go back, although perhaps next time I'd do some research and find out more about what's going on in advance. I've no desire to stand in really long lines for anything, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check what panels and events are going on around the area on the day. 

After all the excitement we were all far too exhausted to do much else, so I never really took in any of Seattle's other sights. But I did see one thing I never expected too...

That, my friends, is the Fremont Troll, a giant sculpture under a bridge in Fremont - A rather sketchy seeming area of Seattle that I can't say I was sorry to leave, even given my desire to see a statue of a troll that was bigger than the average bus. Traditionally people climb over it, sit on it, make scared faces under it, but during our visit there was a crazy drunken man in pyjama pants trying to strike up conversation with anyone who made eye contact. So needless to say, it soon turned into operation take a few pictures and get the hell out of there! 

A couple of days after that and it was time to go home. My experience travelling back wasn't really as eventful as my experience travelling there. I managed to travel by car, train, plane and bus all in one day - All I needed was for somebody to find an excuse for a boat ride at some point in my trip and I'd have been set! I also had the very disconcerting feeling of experiencing 10am three times in one day, thanks to Amsterdam. But I got home in one piece, although that sickness I mentioned above seems to have carried over back to the home country and I'm very much looking forward to being clear of it and a real human being again. 

It's hard to look back on it all in retrospect, partly because it's such a long time and also because I always feel an innate sadness when I have to come home from a long trip, and no other trip been as long or felt so much like an adventure as this one. I always find myself mulling on the mundanities and negatives of what I'm going back too and the good times and fantastic people I'm having to leave behind. It's as if from this moment on, every day from here on out locks what I've experienced further and further away in the past, until it's just so many memories and anecdotes. Perhaps that's the wrong way to look at things. Perhaps instead I should see today as the start of a countdown to an all new adventure, I don't know what it is yet, I don't know when it will be, but isn't that the fun of the future? You never know what it might hold. Or if it'll hold those very same people you thought you'd left behind.

 Yeah. I like that a whole lot better.

 So! Until the next adventure, whatever it may be, this is Aies very much out!

Trans-Atlantica - King of the Road.

The great American road trip. A time honoured tradition that is enshrined in our media as a source of fun and high jinks. Where you can see the world's largest ball of yarn or the world's tallest ice cream cone, pick up celebrity hitch hikers and have mad cap adventures with them as you come to realise they kind of suck and form lasting friendships that will never be forgotten. Bonds that can never be broken. Yes, it is truly an elite group of travellers who get to partake in this fine American pastime and I am now one of those few! My friends, let me tell you a little secret, with all my newfound burgeoning knowledge that I have acquired over the past few days...

Road trips freaking suck!

It shouldn't really come as any surprise, as long car rides in general tend to be an awful affair. I don't particularly look forward to cruising (and I use that word very optimistically) through my own country, and there's much less of it, so a three day trek across the states?0 I wouldn't say it had no merit, but I did learn that not all states were created equal.

Our trip got off to a flying start when we left Kansas far too late and only got three hours into the drive before we hit a blizzard. Have I mentioned yet that the weather in both Kansas and Colorado has been diabolical? I mean, on the bright side it could have been worse in Kansas, the Tornado riddled place that it has a reputation for being, but it has still been pretty miserable on that front. Heck, the Tornado simulator in the Exploration Place felt tame compared to the wind outside on that very day. Either way, we were forced to pull in at Ellis. Another expedition may have fought through the storm and carried on, but we being of a more sensible creed and having a two year old in the back came to the collective decision it was perhaps not the best of ideas.

And wouldn't you know it, the next morning the world was full of blazing sunshine and even the wind that was buffeting our car around on the road was gone. It was as if the whole thing had never happened. We carried on through Kansas, which for the purposes of road tripping isn't much to shout about. Unless you like roads that never seem to end.

Or lots of wind turbines that blink red at night, which honestly makes Kansas kind of creepy to enter after dark.

I also got to see my first tumbleweed of the trip. Admittedly it was under somebody else's car, and yes I was trying to take this picture during said blizzard in Ellis, but one must have priorities!

Once we started hitting western Kansas, we may have lost the advertisements for the world's largest prairie dog (in what looked to be the most redneck of zoo's!) and the sheer delight of signs that featured Jesus poking out of a wheat field but the landscape started to become much more interesting.

From Ellis we took a very ill advised detour into Denver. You remember that homophobic chicken I talked about a couple of weeks back? They don't have a mainstream branch in Washington so we were on the hunt for some tasty, tasty food and figured the Denver one was on the way. Unfortunately it was situated in a shopping mall and we couldn't find anywhere to park, and once you're in Denver? It's not all that easy to get out! We travelled around the road system for a good hour before abandoning ship and heading back to the branch we'd already visited in Aurora. Which involved backtracking. Which is never fun on a roadtrip as long as ours. Denver itself was my first taste of a proper American city, like you see on TV and in films, all skyscrapers and busy streets. It looked fun, but I'm sure I'll be having a much more indepth look at Seattle later.

That added to our travel time significantly, meaning we had to stop over one more time in Wyoming. But once we broke into Wyoming and Utah? The landscape got really breathtaking all of the sudden.

There were views like that pretty much all the way until we wound up deep inside of Idaho (add your own perverse laugh!) and it was easily my favourite part of the trip. Everywhere you looked there were mountains, cool rock formations, snow, all capped by beautiful blue sky. Then we hit Idaho and it was like being in the worst parts of Kansas and Colorado all over again. Dull, flat, uninteresting, with nothing of interest to look at. At the risk of offending anyone from that state, I'll tell you all now - If you want to travel too or through a part of America? Don't make it Idaho. My albeit brief impression just made me never want to go back again, and I was a little disheartened we had to stay the night there - But it turns out Boise? Isn't that bad! Figures it's on the very edge of the state!

One thing I did notice from Kansas right through to Idaho was the massive amount of static. You couldn't seem to touch anything metallic in those states or Wyoming without getting a shock, and after going to bed everyone's hair was on end. It was a fairly bizarre experience, making me think I was in some kind of giant experiment.

We were soon out of Idaho and into Oregon, which brought back the beautiful landscape for the most part aside from the actual trail, which we took some of the trip on. Nobody caught dysentery,so that's okay! There was some great, distinct views to be had, and we took a trip right up a mountain - Which near burst my eardrums but it was a cool experience.

Nothing could prepare me for Washington proper though. While eastern Washington was a collection of flat land, plateaus and cow farms (we saw a bunch of cows in every damn state, by the way, it's almost like America doesn't farm any other animal) western Washington is like something out of Lord of the Rings. My friends had been calling it the Misty Mountains all trip, and having seen them I can't say they're entirely wrong!

As great as the views were, I can't tell you how happy I was to finally pull into the house here. We've been here a few days now and I still feel like death. That's another thing they don't tell you in movies, the whole experience is just really physically exhausting. Honestly, my main recomendation from the whole experience would be if somebody asks if you want to drive across America and you have the opportunity to fly? Fly. Always fly. Road trips are terrible.

So I'm in Washington until I leave now. Hopefully I'll have some interesting things to report, but I'll be headed out to Emerald City Comic Con real soon! So there's that to look forward too in any case! Until next time, stay off the road!

Trans-Atlantica - Not so Weird Science.

Good morning and welcome to what will probably be the last post from Tornado country! Tomorrow I'll be hitting the road to Washington, leaving behind my chance to be swept away to Oz forever. Don't tell me it's impossible,I saw it in a movie and read it in a book so that makes it double true!

In a continuation of my tour of fine American dining (which has mostly consisted of fast food burger joints, not that there's a stereotype or anything!) we headed out to Spears, which I can only assume is a place where good food goes to die. I've had a less depressing experience eating in a retirement home, at least there the residents always seem cheerful and chatty! Here it was like they'd taken all that was bad about those places, the endless rows of mismatched knick-knacks, the funeral dirge covers of your grandparents favourite songs, the grotequse decor, and decided that was a great backdrop for serving food. I'm not altogether sure if I was imaging the old folk smell or if it was really there.

Naturally I could forgive all of this if the food and service was good, and to be fair the sandwich I had was decent! It's not what we went there for, granted (once upon a time they did a mean catfish, I'm told, which is now off the menu) but it was decent. The chips and lemonade left a lot to be desired however.As to service, I don't want to be too mean to another human being so I'll reserve any judgement on how perpetually confused the poor young fellow serving our table seemed, but the fact he asked us if everything was okay before we got our food then ignored us from there on out? That was more than a little bizarre.

After that we headed over to my friend's sister's house, and I got an education in cake making! By which I mean I sat around,watched and ate icing and cupcakes. The best kind of education there is! I watched her make a minion cake a few days ago, and my mind was kind of blown by the level of talent involved. This time around she was making Ninja Turtle and Hello Kitty cakes for my goddaughter's early birthday party later that day, and there may have been one other addition that she had nothing to do with but I'm sure you'll all agree is a masterpiece in it's own right.

Ahem.

The next day we went out and did some more honest to God tourist stuff. We visited the Exploration Place, which is a child friendly science centre situated next to the most gorgeous river side I've seen since I arrived stateside. It features a much larger sculpture of a figure you may just remember from last blog (no, not Elvis, although that would've been kind of awesome).

The centre itself was pretty enjoyable, especially considering that it was primarily aimed at children. My two year old goddaughter seemed hyper excited to be there, and especially loved the planes and musical instruments, so it seemed to do its job well enough! Even if it was aimed above her age group for the most part. And hey, at least there shouldn't be anything overly creepy in this one...

Oh. Well, at least there shouldn't be any of the dead animals that seem to have plagued this trip...

God damn it America, I give up with you.

One really cool exhibit they had was the miniature Kansas, which I think was supposed to represent everything that's idealised about the state in one model. It was really rather impressive and I could have spent hours looking at it, and the cutaway they had outside showing how the hydraulics worked for the moving parts was a fun addition too.

I guess now I've seen the entirety of Kansas in miniature I've experienced pretty much everything there is to experience here! Not to mention the hotel is coming apart at the seams.

Well that seems as good a sign as an to get the hell out of here and hit the road! I'll see you all in Washington!