Before I continue on with the story of our road trip, I felt like I hadn't talked about Portland enough. I mean how else will you get to know the city I fell in love with if I don't allow you to walk in my shoes for the other days we spent there. Forgive me if this post will be long and windy as we walked aimlessly in the streets of Portland getting a little bit lost on purpose and getting a little bit high along the way.
We had two full days and two half days in this city. Seattle is Portland's older brother, who's already cool and have made a name of it's own in music, sports and pop culture in general. According to residents of Seattle, Portland is the baby brother who wants to be just as cool but doesn't quite make the cut. So when I got there, I wanted to see for myself just what that meant. Now maybe because I am the little sister to three cool brothers, that I didn't see Portland as a copy cat of the hipper, cooler Seattle at all. This is what I discovered: Portland, just like me, is a whole city stuck in its own snow globe. Contained and stuck in a time warp of sorts, creative, and bubbly on it's own.
Walking in the early morning of our second day, we saw a mixture of old architecture blending with modern cable buses, unique bike stands sharing the sidewalks with Benson bubblers. When we asked people for directions, everyone was willing to stop and chat. "Where are you from?" And yes they gave directions as well. Portland is divided into five quadrants; that's right. But that is only the beginning as to the "uniqueness" of the city. So they gave directions in terms of NW, SW, NE, SE and North. Burnside Street divides north and south and the Willamette River divides the east and west. It takes some time to get used to, but once you get the logic it should really be easy.
Then we saw Roseland. Remember when we were in university and our organizations would produce concerts as fundraisers for community projects? We used to mass produce photocopies of posters for the shows in 8.5 by 11 paper size and post them all over campus. We saw similar looking posters of bands like 1975, NBHD, Foster the People, and Ingrid Michaelson outside the window of Roseland. It was a corner establishment that didn't look much of anything from the outside. But as I pressed my nose on the glass window, a gentleman came by and asked us if we wanted to come in and have a look inside the theater. Mr. Friendly was telling us that there was a concert coming up and maybe we would want to watch. The Neighbourhood.
Upon reading more about the Roseland, I found out that this place has seen the launch of careers like that of John Mayer. It is also often used as venue for music videos. It didn't feel like it was nearly noon as we left the theater because the streets remained fairly empty. Was it due to the transport system or the bikes? We were getting hungry so we thought of looking for Voodoo Doughnut. What we stumbled upon next was a store named Red Monkey.
We met the store owner, Torry Pendergrass, who designs all their products from watches to guitar straps. You see their products on TV, and in movies, that I couldn't help but be starstruck in the presence of an artist. But that's just me falling into the Portland spell deeper and deeper with every step. I bought a watch which reminds to always be true to myself. I am a writer and I must continue to see the world as one such writer.
Harry had an appointment at a radio station so we didn't have time to get any doughnuts nor any lunch either. We had to rush to the other side of the Willamette river to the station. There we were welcomed by the DJ, Gustav, who runs the show mostly on his own for the entire day. It was pretty strange to watch two DJs talking shop. Just as our luck would have it, they gave us tickets for the concert of The Neighbourhood at Roseland Theater. So we decided right then and there to extend an extra night at Portland.
We took a cable bus back to the Pearl District to grab lunch from one of the many food carts found in the city. We couldn't decide which one so we had bbq sliders.
Our quest to find Voodoo Doughnut continued. We were told by friends that it was a must stop. As we were walking, we asked for directions from a Portland Police. He walked with us part of the way to Voodoo. He and Harry chatted about the TV series, Grimm. He told us all sorts of trivia about the filming of the series. So cool. So we got there, got in line and bought some goodies. Since we were just a street away from the river, we walked there and found a park bench to eat our doughnuts. We had only one each. They were good but not outstandingly forget your name good. We decided that J.Co. was still our common favorite doughnut shop. We gave the other two donuts to the couple sitting on the next bench beside us.
I digress if I tell you that the previous night we decided to go to Whole Foods for dinner. After dinner we went to Powell's Books and I bought a few books. I limited myself to three books since I already came to this trip with two books and three small notebooks to begin with. He bought two books at Changi airport because the latest John Grisham book he bought came with a paperback copy of A Time To Kill, which he then passed on to me since he already read that, for free.
Notes From A Blue Bike cannot be more serendipitous of all book finds. I bought this in ebook form some few weeks back when my blog coach mentioned about it on Instragram. Since 2005, I've been wanting to simplify my life choices. So finding this author's blog The Art of Simple has further my resolve to make a conscious effort daily to live simply. I found out that she lives in Oregon. Naturally, I had to buy the book where she explains how her journey started. Silent Spring is a book for Hazee. I asked for any book requests from my friends back in Manila and she responded immediately. I found a used hardbound illustrated copy and I knew that was going to be my choice. At Powell's Books, the new and used books sit side by side on their shelves to give the customers a choice on which one to purchase. Depending on the condition and print of the books, sometimes the used books can be cheaper or more expensive than the reprint. I went to the poetry section to take a look at books by Pablo Neruda and Shakespeare and had to stop myself from buying anything. I just simply drooled and held the books in my hand reverently for a few seconds. My third and last choice was Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter and Sweet. This was the book written and inspired by the Panama Hotel, our hotel in Seattle. I had to purchase it as part of this trip. There was no other choice.
For that evening we headed towards Bagdad Theater, a theater-pub where you can watch movies with pizza and beer. We watched Divergent with pepperoni pizza, popcorn and each with our choice of beer.
The following day saw us wandering the streets of downtown Portland some more. Like the previous days, we found Portlandians so laid back and very friendly even to foreigners like us. We mostly prepared ourselves for the concert for that evening.
At the end of the trip, Harry asked me what was my favorite stop in this Go West trip. It was this city for both of us, hands down. Portland has left an indelible mark in my heart. If I were ready to retire right now, I would move there, move my own blue bike from Toronto, and work as a bike tour guide. Rainy, cold weather included. It would be the perpetual sweater weather.
'Cause it's too cold
For you here and now
So let me hold
Both your hands in the holes of my sweater.
- The Neighbourhood
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