"This is Seattle?" Seattle by pemberlypark

I am truly sorry to give such a negative review. Seattle was awful. I was recently there on a Friday night, staying in town before heading out on a cruise to Alaska. We went downtown and to the famous marketplace. There were so many homeless people and teenagers who appeared to be homeless that it was sad and scary. I am not talking about one or two. I am talking about dozens.....For the most part they were loud or rude. We saw drug deals taking place on the street and inside the coffee shop where we had stopped to relax....So much graffiti everywhere....boarded up buildings, barbed wire around buildings.....very ugly..... I enjoyed looking around the market, but not enough to put up with the negatives.. We took the link light rail....great price, talked to a very nice lady, it covered some of the city...it would be nice if it covered more...... we did have to arrange transportation from the rail depot back to our hotel.

We also stayed overnight in Seattle on the way back home from our cruise. We tried to give the city one more chance....This time we took the bus service because the link light rail did not go exactly where we wanted to........ the bus is cost efficient, goes all over the city, but it was full of mostly people who looked like they were waiting to commit a crime. I believe some of them did. It was raining but we could not wait in the bus stop, the stench of urine was unbearable. This city reeks of urine and something more...I'm not even going to guess what...... We took the link light rail back to our hotel instead of the bus and had to walk several miles since where we departed from was by the bus stop and we had not made plans for the shuttle to pick us up at the rail depot........ If the City of Seattle wants my tourist dollars they need to clean up the city......I wanted to see the Space Needle, oh well it probably smelled like urine.

Two positives...........Every glimpse I had of Mt. Rainier was stunning....every view and every direction........I had dinner at Pike Place Chinese Cuisine, a tiny place with pretty good food. I had Chow Mein......my friend had Sweet & Sour soup as an appetizer, they served me a bowl at no charge. The Chow Mein had a very good flavor, meat tender, lots of vegetables.....the service was ok.



107. Pike Place Chow Mein ......................................................... 8.25

Choice of Barbecued Pork, Chicken, Beef, or Vegetables

• Pros:Mt Rainier, public transportation
• Cons:crime, homelessness, smell, public transportation
• In a nutshell:Scary in Seattle