Seattle Adventure: Finding Link's Flute
As many of you have noticed from the articles last week, PAX was fantastic. Plenty of games to see and play, lots of activities, and plenty of people to meet. The only downside is that it only lasted for three days. Being that it was Labor Day weekend, however, I decided to make the most of the Monday in Seattle and go an see some of the touristy sights of the ever-lovely "Emerald City" (sidenote, up until 1982, Seattle's nickname was 'Queen City', go figure). For my excursion, I wandered around downtown, went out to Puget Sound, and rode the elevator up to the top of the Space Needle, only to find that they serve Starbucks at the cafe at the top of the needle. The highlight of my day out in Seattle, though, was walking around Pike's Place Market.
Besides having the sad history of being the birthplace of Starbucks Coffee, Pike's Place Market is an open street market where people sell a variety of wares ranging from jewelery, to games, to fish. The infamous 'fish throwers' of Seattle are here during certain times, throwing the catch of the day around. Well, in my strolling around the market I actually came across a a rather interesting instrument on sale shown in the picture above, The Ocarina of Time. The ocarina on sale was pretty close to the one that the Zelda series continues to use in the newer version of the game, and it even came with a book on how to recreate all your favorite tunes from the varied games. On display there was the "Song of Time" from the Nintendo 64 version of the game. I was just so happy to see this little bit of game culture prominently on display in the middle of such a crowded and busy market in Seattle, especially the day after PAX had ended.
I almost bought the item, mainly just so I could play Epona's Song anytime I need a horse to whisk to where ever I was for a quick getaway, but in the end I had to move on so that I could apparently see a store where they made fresh cheese in a giant vat. Which just goes to show that finding a Ocarina in the midst of a tourist excursion is somewhat like finding a diamond in the rough.
PixelPoet
Posted to Miscellany on 8 September 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: link to the past, ocarina, pike's market, seattle, zelda
I have a blue Ocarina of Time from Songbird Ocarinas (WOW the site is geeky now). I got it so long ago. It's lumpier, lighter blue and not as perfect looking as the ones you can buy now. I also have a more traditional ten hole blue soprano ocarina from Anita's Ocarinas that's also very nice and more like Link's, but much, much harder to play than the five hole kind, which you can pick up and play with ease even after putting it down for years (speak of the devil. Yesterday I ran into my five hole ocarina and played it). I should get a "regular" five hole so I can play without looking like a total dork. I don't mind looking like a total dork playing the ten hole one, though.
I got an ocarina from the market for a birthday of mine, many moons ago. It was a simple, flat, circular one and in no way resembled the Ocarina of Time, but it was cute and I had to have it! =D
Dunno where it went, tho :/
Quick correction: it's just "Pike," not "Pike's."