how to spend 24 hours in seattle
an excerpt from “The Magical Travel Guide To Seattle”
Hi Friends,
This is an excerpt from “From the Magical Travel Guide to Seattle” a companion zine I’m making for my feature, Dylan We Need To Talk. A zine is basically a small-circulation, self published work. Seattle has a rich history of zine culture, and I thought it would be a fun way to build out the lore behind Dylan We Need To Talk.
I’ve been rambling to everyone lately about how I think zines are making a comeback. With the rise of tech/ai, there’s definitely been a push towards tactile, physical media. Will talk more about this in a future blog post!
10:00 AM | Pike Place Market
Begin your journey where the magic and the mundane cross paths at Pike Place Market, one of Seattles most iconic and oldest public markets! Most tourists come for the flying fish and flower stalls, but if you wander deeper into the labyrinthine halls, you’ll stumble upon hidden gems like the Market Magic Shop. Just outside, you’ll find Swami the Mechanical Fortune Teller nestled in his glass box. Drop in a coin, and he’ll dispense a fortune card.
But beware: on rare nights, Swami slips out of his glass box. Some locals swear they’ve caught glimpses of him wandering the halls looking for his favorite treat, salmon candy.
12:00 PM | Lake Union Boat Ride
Head to Lake Union, where you can hop aboard a classic wooden sail boat—or, for the more adventurous, a hot tub boat (highly recommended by the author). But keep your eyes peeled: beneath the surface swims Luella, Nessie’s lesser-known cousin and Lake Union’s resident sea monster. First spotted in 1894 by a half-drunk sailor named Old Gus, Luella is notoriously shy, but rumor has it she has a soft spot for country music and ring pops. If the water starts to shimmer, look again—you might just catch a glimpse of her!
1:00 PM | Lunch at The Salty Moon
Dock your boat and head to The Salty Moon, a harborside café with creaky floorboards, driftwood furniture, and fogged-up windows that you can’t peer through no matter how much you try to wipe them clean. Their ever-changing “Catch of the Day” might include fish of the more magical nature, like Glowfin Snapper, Whispering Mackerel, or the elusive Moon-Eyed Trout, known to vanish mid-bite.
(Rumor has it the chef is a former selkie who traded her seal-skin for a Michelin star)
3:00 PM | Seattle Underground Tour
Descend into the Underground City, the forgotten ruins buried beneath Pioneer Square. After the Great Fire of 1889, Seattle was rebuilt one story higher, quite literally paving over the past. The official tour offers tales of fire, reconstruction, and sunken streets—but if you hang back near the old purple glass tiles, you might spot the ghost of Margot the Mime, who hasn’t spoken in over 100 years, but is excellent at charades.
Some say a time rift cracked open during the Great Seattle Fire, and down there, the veil between the worlds is paper thin.
6:00 PM | Dinner at The Dazed Diner
Make your way to The Dazed Diner, a neon-lit 24-hour joint stuck in perpetually in 1974. The food’s good, the music better, but the real star of the show is their Déjà Vu Pancakes! Patrons often swear they’ve eaten them before… even on their first visit. But what makes these pancakes a must try is that they bring back treasured memories even ones that you may have forgotten in the cobwebs of your mind.
8:00 PM | Babayaga
Next stop: Babayaga, a music venue in Pioneer Square. The owner is rumored to be a sea hag who washed ashore during WWII and decided to open a punk club. These days, you’ll find sailors, witches, and washed-up rockstars trading sea shanties and love curses over cheap drinks. They have an eclectic lineup of new and upcoming bands, and once a year, a few performers who may or may not have recently crossed over into the afterlife at their infamous All Saints Day Ball.
10:00 PM | Fremont Troll
Time to make your way to Fremont pay homage to the Fremont Troll, located under a bridge. Legend says the troll governs a secret nightclub beneath the bridge, where Gen Z fae and vintage-coded dryads dance until sunrise.
1:00 AM | The Mariano’s Food Truck
If you’re out late after the party winds down, follow the smell of garlic and to Mariano’s, a food truck owned and operated by a family of vampire hunters that appears exactly 33 minutes past one in the morning, only to those who are truly hungry. Specialties include Elote de Bruja, Tacos de Sombras, and Papas Hechizadas.
I had fun writing this!
Let me know if you have any other ideas of magical locations I should add!
Thanks for reading, as always.
Xx Gisella
what i’m consuming 🍰
I’ve been reading a lot of Khalil Gibran lately- who apparently is the third most popular poet of all time! I did not know this. I only came across quote about bees and flowers from his poem “On Pleasure” and got hooked.
There are so many poems that I absolutely love, but I wanted to share one with you in particular. We face a lot of rejection in the entertainment industry. And this poem is a reminder to enjoy that rejection, because sometimes with success comes complacency.
Defeat
Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness;
You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,
And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.
Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance,
Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot
And not to be trapped by withering laurels.
And in you I have found aloneness
And the joy of being shunned and scorned.
Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield,
In your eyes I have read
That to be enthroned is to be enslaved,
And to be understood is to be leveled down,
And to be grasped is but to reach one’s fullness
And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed.
Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion,
You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences,
And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings,
And urging of seas,
And of mountains that burn in the night,
And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.
Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,
You and I shall laugh together with the storm,
And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,
And we shall stand in the sun with a will,
And we shall be dangerous.
who i am
Hi, I’m Gisella! I’m a repped screenwriter based in Seattle. I directed a feature-length documentary and most recently, my pilot Body Brokers was on the 2024 Blacklist Latine List. Follow me on my journey to get my first screenplay green lit 💚
such a fun read! Makes way for a fun seattle lore tour once Dylan we need to talk is a blockbuster