Portland is made of awesome.

That's an actual fact, in case you had any doubt. People in this city are so cool it's almost painful. And when they aren't cool pers se, they are the very definition of west coast hippies, beards 'n all (well, unless there are some playoffs going on that i don't know about - there were a staggering number of impressive beards). Large swathes of the city are effortlessly hip, but without being uninviting, and most of it is beautiful to boot. The area I stayed in and the adjacent neighbourhood are just street after street of pretty, old houses nestled in lots of lush parks and tree-lined avenues. Everyso often you come across a main thoroughfare where European-style cafe culture is thriving, and at the moment, stunning weather accompanies it. It must have been nearly 30*c, but at just the right humidity that it feels cosy, rather than stifling. You might have guessed by now that i rather enjoyed Portland.

I arrived on Monday morning after a bewildering combination of bus trips from Penticton - well, it was simple enough, but everything seems rather bewildering when you 'sleep' on a bus and arrive into a new place at 4.40am... The trip from Penticton was easy enough, except for the actually leaving in the first place. Back in Vancouver I had another some luggage to pick up from a friend in Kitsilano. Out of a misplaced stubbornness not to get any Canadian cash out just as I was leaving the country, I didn't have any change for a locker and carted my large backpack as well as a smaller daybag all across the city with the expressed aim of picking up yet another bag. Think I might be a glutton for punishment...

That madness out the way, I dumped everything I owned out on to the grass outside the station and attempted to put it all back into two bags, and rapidly became very thankful that I'd got my baggage weighed for my luggage tag *before* attempting this... It did all fit. Well, maybe that's not strictly true - I left a pile of expendable stuff next to the bin, rather hoping that one of Vancouver's wayward strays might take it as an early xmas present (which is probably more likely than those of you unacquainted with Vancouver might think, especially around the station). That was the 2nd of 3 culls in recent days and might not be the last, depending on how impatient I get with carrying all my worldly possessions around.

All packed up, I head for the bus and attempted to sleep. After making amazing time out of Vancouver, I was rudely awoken at the border, where, after some frustration (a common part of my US border crossing experiences) they let me into the country. I am starting to wonder whether being at least a little bit stupid is part of the job description for US border and customs guards. Without exception, they seem to be incapable of logical thought or normal interaction. This one wanted to know why I didn't have the green slip that they give you when you enter the country from the last time I came. He seemed to be oblivious to the stamp he was looking at that said "april" (6 months ago) and the fact that if you're not coming back into the country in the next 3 months that they take it away from you as you leave the country... I mean, isn't that more or less what he does all day? Maybe I've just been unlucky...? Oh well.

As some of you might have read on Facebook, there is nothing to do in Portland at 5am, especially on a holiday ('labor' day). We got in, and along with a girl I'd been chatting to at various stops, we spent about an hour chilling out at the Greyhound station (thankfully a little more inviting than Seattle's had been at midnight), all the while trying to find a early opening cafe to go sit in until the hostel opened at 8am.

Much as i Hate to say it, Starbucks came to our rescue, and so my American adventure started with me blogging in Starbucks - Oregon is all about the coffee though, right? (I mean, I actually had ice tea, but nevermind...). After dumping our bags me and Mayetta (? something along those lines - one of two girls i met that day who had weird indian names and yet not an indian bone in their body) parted ways for a bit - she had urgent money things to sort out and i wanted to explore.

To start with i went on a mission to find breakfast. Unfortunately, the coffee shops that i'd been recommended were either closed due to the 'labor' day holiday, or packed beyond belief (presumeably in part because of the others were shut). Much excitement occured when i came across Whole Foods in the middle of town. I'm sure I blogged about Whole Foods before, registering my great excitement at its amazingness as a grocery store, but lamenting that it was so expensive. Well, this was even better - all the Whole Foods-y goodness but cheaper (still not exactly 'cheap', mind) :) and it had alcohol too! Not that I actually wanted to buy any at that point, but after 10 months of having to plan purchases of alcohol in advance and go to a separate store, the liberty was rather exciting. What's more, beyond the simple cheapness, it was also at this point that I discovered that Portland has no sales tax. Win.

By this point it's like, 10am, and I feel like I've already done rather a lot, though not achieved a huge amount. One of the girls at the hostel had suggested that the Washington, and the gardens within it were worth a visit, and since the weather was so perfect, i thought i would sieze the day before it likely rained the next. If I've learned northing else living in the North West it is to expect rain tomorrow and then just be pleasently surprised if it doesn't turn up.

I decided to go and see if the Japanese gardens were worth the ticket price, supposesedly the most authentic example of a Japanese garden outside of Japan, according to, er... someone... The gardens were awesome, well worth it, but also enjoyed the ride up there. Portland has a light rail/tram system that is mainly over ground, but they go underground to take you to the hill, and in the station they have made exhibits about the geology of the area and stuff about how the railway was made. Very informative... Neil I saw this and thought of you:

They had a rock core from the whole way down to the station layed out sideways along the whole length of the platform.

The lift told you how many feet under the surface you were as you went up, and also had a diagram showing you when geological periods you were travelling through as you went up the layers. Kinda neat.

Anywayz, got to the top - this park is huuuuuge. It's amazing it all survived in a city like Portland. I keep reading everywhere that this is due to innovative and forward-thinking landuse strategies the city has - apparently it's a beacon of good planning, maybe Matt knows these things... In any case, it's an awesome park with huuge old ceder trees and things, and lots of different areas nestled in different corners, and one huge portion of it is an arboretum.

First stop for me was the Japanese Garden. It was beautiful, and very peaceful too. Nice way to recouperate a somewhat flagging (by this point) Rachael. I dont' have too much to say about it, but here are some perdy pictatures:

Next stop, the International Test Rose Garden. I didn't even know such things existed. Basically it's lots of new breeds of rose and they put them all out and keep and sell the most successful. Meh, lots of roses. Very pretty.

I wondered around the park for a while, but decided it was time to head back to the hostel to check in when i found that I was really just looking for shady, dry places where i could have a nap... ::)

On the way back I came across a woman walking her rabbits in the park... as you do... They were soooo cute. I mean, Just look at this one.

Awwww!!!!! *squee* So cute :D Fluffysquishylovely thing! :D

Anywayz...

So i wandered back to the hostel through the North Western district that I was staying in which is known as the Alphabet District.

I was actually most pleased to discover this, because when i first got in and we were trying to find starbucks I asked some random people for directions and they told me that the streets all went in alphabetical order, i have to confess, i did wonder in my sleepy haze whether they were being facicious. But, no, there's an actual sign and everything. It's such an extremely useful way to name your streets too. I mean, for as long as i lived in vancouver i still couldn't reliably tell you what order all the downtown streets go in. And yet, it's more interesting than Salt Lake City's version, which just takes it to the extreme. In SLC, the streets are just called 'A', 'B', 'C', etc... Very, um, utilitarian, but not so interesting.

But, i digress. There was more to this district than a sensible taxonomy. The mains streets were full of interesting quirky shops and tasty looking cafes. Inbetween, the residential areas were just full of beautiful old houses, each in a different style to the next. It looks like a wonderful place to live.

Making it back to the hostel a little early i picked up some lunch in the cafe across the street, and at the same time met up with Mayetta who was doing much the same thing. After lunch we had a beer together - Portland being the micro-brew capital of the NorthWest 'n all, and then headed to check in. My plan at this point was to have a nap before heading out again. However, the weight of my bag was bearing heavily upon me in various literary ways. So, instead of sleep, i ended up repacking and culling for the 3rd time in 2 days. However, I feel it was rather successful. I can now carry all my stuff without any trouble, it's under the greyhound weight limit (as long as i take my boots off the back! Cutting it fine...) and I don't appear to have chucked out anything i subsequently wanted. :D But i still didn't get any sleep.

Oh well. In place of sleep, food is always a viable alternative. While I sort of intended to buy some groceries to cook, i found myself magnetically drawn to WholeFoods, and in the end you may aswell just buy stuff to eat there. There's clearly something wrong with me that i enjoy eating in a supermarket so much, but everyone has guilty pleasures, right?

And speaking of guilty pleasures, by this point I wasn't too hungry anymore, but I also wasn't quite as tired, so i may as well make something of my evening and do some more exploring.

Now there was one thing that i had been told about by a number of separate people that was one thing i couldn't miss doing in Portland. To quote one of them:

While in Portland you will notice everyone walking around with pink boxes. You might ask yourself why does everyone have pink boxes? Well the answer is pretty easy. Their filled with doughnuts from Voodoo doughnuts. And yes they are delicious. Believe it or not the maple glazed bacon doughnut is one of the best things I've ever eaten. So go there and be prepared to wait in line. Defs worth the wait.

So, i went to get doughnuts. I mean, it's a 24 hours doughnut shop, so it was perfect for late evening exploration. It was deifnitely fun. They have crazy flavours, the whole place is pink and you can get a perfectly legal Voodoo doughnut wedding if you like... crazy people. I rather enjoyed the silliness of the whole place, however, i must admit, that the donuts weren't the best i've every had... (Tim Hortons are better! Kind of miss Timmy's!). I guess you can't have everything! ;)

On my way there I also checked out Powell's Book Store, which is somewhat famous around the area. It's, like, the largest second hand bookshop quite possibly in the world - it's huge! The main building takes an entire block and is over at least 4 levels, and they have 4 other shops in the city too! How exciting!

Thoroughly overstimulated with food and sugar and books i ambled happily back to the hostel and fell asleep :)

The next day I set out to see the bits of the city i had so far missed; most of downtown, in fact... Downtown did nothing but further endear Portland to me. I started at the central square and wandered on from there through clean, bright interesting blocks of all sorts of curiosities. There doesn't seem to be any particular mainstreet in downtown Portland, just a main area, which makes for excellent mindless wandering.

Awesome.

Times square - only 2 and a half thousand miles to go! (plus all the extra ones for the canadian diversion!)

For lunch I checked out a few of the plethora of food carts that are

scattered around the city and had the nicest Thai sweet and sour that I've had since leaving Thailand! Yum :) All the while I sat by the waterfront by an ever-changing pavement fountain thing - the kind that seem to be getting so popular in every city in the world right now. Still good to watch the kids playing in them though. Fun times.

Fountain and carts ticketed of the list, I decided to go and have a look at Portland's SkyTram. It's a very space age bubbly thing that looks rather cool and a round trip is only 4 bucks, so there's not too much to lose.

It actually goes up to a teaching hospital on the hill and it's unclear to me whether it was build more for the hospital or more for the tourists, but in any case, it gives you a great view of Mount St Helens. Portland really doesn't have much of an interesting skyline itself, so the volcano is it, but still worth it.

Mount St Helens in the mist

For the remainder of the day I mainly chilled out in a couple of coffee shops on offer, and with a couple of hours to spare headed to the one micro brewery that i'd been recommended. Dad, you would have liked it. It was all bike themed (no prizes for guessing where i might have got this recommendation...). Lot's of shiny and older frames hung over the bar to decorate (?) it, and bike themed beer events to go with their sustainable, organic and otherly wholesome beer. Good fries too. Mmm.

And that was really that for Portland. I could have stayed there fairly indefinitely. Nice city. But alas, the greyhound was calling and so i headed off onto my 3rd greyhound of recent days. Only 17hours to Salt Lake City!