Portland!

Re-posted from August 25, 2010

portland was amazing! we absolutely loved it! we went there for about 5 days at the end of our northwest trip. we stayed in the northwest international hostel and it was really nice! it was made up of 3 big, old houses in a neighborhood converted into a hotel with hostel rooms, hotel rooms, separate bathrooms, kitchens, lounge rooms, patio, garden, etc. we had to stay in two different rooms there just because of timing (we stayed in one for half the trip and another for half the trip) but we liked both rooms.

the public transportation in portland was great! in the central downtown area they have two types of free pub. transit: a streetcar and a train and the buses are really cheap. the pub. transit also goes way out into the surrounding suburbs which is really convenient.

our first night we ate at some of the food carts for which portland is famous. people just set up these little trailers all over the city and sell all kinds of great food out of them! jens had ukranian and i had mediterranean and they were both delicious!

i love the pedestrian lifestyle there- public transit, lots of sidewalks, food carts you can walk right up to, public parks, etc. they're also really bike-friendly. they have bike lanes all over the city and the people in cars are aware of them so they don't have as many accidents as other cities.

they also have tons of stuff going on all the time! we went to a random event there called bridgefest where they celebrate the cities bridges lol there were all kinds of works of art representing the various bridges, there was cheap beer and wine, some snacks, music and a dance performance!

on friday we went to the HUGE farmer's market they have on the psu campus every fri. and sat. it was enormous! it was mind-blowing! i loved it! that right there made me want to move to portland! lol they actually have various farmer's markets all over the city everyday but the psu one is the biggest. there were tons and tons of vendors selling organic produce, meats, breads, spreads, desserts, etc. there was live music, food carts and tons and tons of people! we spent hours there roaming around, eating food samples, listening to the music and just basking in the wonderful, liberal, hippie vibe :o) they even had recycling and composting bins all over! all their cups, plates and utensils were compostable! how cool is that? i felt right at home :o)

after that we went to the famous powell's bookstore. it's the size of a city block! literally! it's the largest used bookstore in the world so of course jens was in heaven! we spent like 3 hours in there and only got through about two sections of it! we bought tons of books and were able to ship them to our house right from the counter so we wouldn't have to pack them in our suitcases! it was awesome!

we ate a late lunch at rocco's pizza and it was so good! we got the tomato basil pizza with cheese but they also have vegan and gluten-free options. that's another thing that surprised me about the city. they have vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options at almost every restaurant! it's the norm! can you imagine???

that night we went to the playwright's festival and saw a dance performance and a play for FREE! the play was called gnit and it was really funny :o) for a late dinner we went to teazone and got a mezza plate and chai tea and watched a band play.

sat. we went to the saturday craft fair which was almost as big as the farmer's market. it was so cool! there were tons of people selling their handmade wares, plus food carts and yet again- live music! portland apparently loves live music lol i bought some cute little soap truffles- it's soap that looks like truffles. they look good enough to eat! i also had mehndi done on my leg and i loved it! it was so pretty and it only took the woman about 5 mins. to do! i'm thinking about trying to learn how to do it myself. it looks pretty easy but i dunno lol

after eating african food at the craft fair we headed to the beerfest! yes! another festival! you buy tickets at the door and then go try all the beer you want! 1 ticket is a taste and 4 tickets is a full beer. jens and i had 14 tickets each and it was a bit much lol mainly because a "taste" of beer is like 1/3 of a mug lol they had live music too of course and we watched a breakdancing show that was awesome!

we got so tipsy we had to go back to the hotel and take a nap lol that night we had a really late dinner at typhoon- a thai place. it was ok but not the best meal we had in portland.

next day we went to another farmer's market and had lunch at a food cart there that was soooooo goood! it was a pulled pork bbq sandwich with some kind of berry bbq sauce plus a fancy salad with blue cheese, nuts and berry vinaigrette. all of it was organic, local and in season! we bought some stuff for a picnic that night and then we went to voodoo donuts! we knew the place was famous but we were shocked when we showed up and the line was out the door and around the building! i had to put sunscreen on just to stand in line lol i think we were there 45 mins. before we got our donuts and i have to say i don't think it was worth all that! they were good donuts but not better than i've had before. the reason people like them is they have unique flavors and shapes of donuts- like the signature voodoo doll donut with pretzel sticks stuck in it and raspberry filling and the old dirty bastard which has chocolate frosting, oreo cookie crumbles and peanut butter drizzled over it Po: they also have some with fruit loops, maple frosting and bacon and one called tex-ass which is an enormous glazed donut lol the size of 4-5 donuts!

so we got our donuts and went to stumptown coffee to eat, drink and read which was nice. then we walked to couch park to hang out for a while. the weather was really nice the whole time we were in portland- sunny and warm but not hot. a little chilly at night.

that night we went out to sellwood (a suburb) for an outdoor concert by the water. i loved that neighborhood! there were all these cute little houses with gorgeous little gardens and lots of people walking down to the water for the concert. you could really feel the sense of community! we ate our picnic of olive bread, alsatian sausage, pesto cheese curds and peaches and listened to the band and watched people playing on the water. it was so nice! we'd love to live in that suburb. even though it is a suburb and it's small it still has public transit access to downtown and it still has a bookstore and coffee shops and antique stores and a yoga studio and all kinds of things!

after the concert we went to the green dragon which is a brewpub and had some beers and chips and salsa.

the next morning we wanted brunch at byways but we got up too late so we went next door to cha cha cha's for some tex-mex and it was really good! so now that i know portland has good tex-mex i can move there! :o) after that we took a tour of the rogue rum distillery, tasted some liquors and had some beer. then we went to an open mic at our hostel and it was a weird crowd. mostly older people and their kids. a kid even performed on stage and unfortunately he wasn't good at all lol jens got up there and played a couple of his weirdest songs which really didn't go over well with that crowd so we shrugged it off and went to eat lol

thankfully dinner totally made up for the weird open mic! we went to jake's for crawfish and it was wonderful! it's a really old establishment that's been there forever and we had a great server! we had wine, crawfish boil, salad and key lime pie and we were in heaven the whole time! i'd love to go there again!

our last full day in portland was my 27th birthday! so we got coffee and pastries for breakfast and then went to the rose garden because i love roses! portland is actually called the city of roses so i guess it's just another sign that i should live there ;o) the garden was huge and had so many different kinds of roses that there was no way we could look at each one. i took so many pictures! it was great! we ate the rest of our farmer's market finds for lunch and then went to the japanese garden. it was really nice too! very peaceful :o)

we were gonna see a movie downtown that night so we headed down there and caught yet another free live concert and they were probably the best band we had seen the whole time we were in portland. really fun! the movie we saw was called winter's bone and it wasn't one of those uplifting birthday movies but we still really liked it.

we had brunch at byways the next morning and then we flew out!

it was an awesome trip and we can't wait to go back- OR MOVE THERE! lol :oD