„Keep Portland Weird“

Though we have been to Portland a couple of times before, we noticed for the first time how „weird“ this city actually is. Our theory is, that locals don’t want visitors to know about it, they wanna keep it a secret. Everybody expects San Francisco or Brooklyn to be „weird“, but not Portland. People expect good breweries (there are 50+ of them around), cafés and – most recent trend – destilleries, but not necessarily an exotic, creative, screwed scene.



Didn’t see so many weird people, so many offbeat shops (mostly „retro“, „vintage“ or second-hand), coffee shops and stylish, industrial-retro themed, chic restaurants on one day before. Most visitors probably stay in downtown, where most hotels are, around Pioneer Square, Pearl District, Old Town/Chinatown and the Cultural District. For the first time we explored the neighborhoods east of the Willamette River river: Central East Side, Hawthorne Blvd. (SE), Alberta Arts District and Mississippi Ave. (both NE) and though the "scene" is spread out, it's worth the trip.
We saw the strangest hotel we’ve ever seen, called „Caravan - The tiny house hotel“ and consisting of four different types of caboose-like tiny guest quarters, we watched a lady walking her two goats on a leash,

and checked out the real food carts scene. Trucks, busses and vehicles of all kinds usually assemble on empty parking lots and are much more creative from the outlooks as well as from the food being offered than the ones we’ve seen in NYC or L.A.

We found a couple of amazing leather shops, some long established with saddles, boots and tacks, some fancy and fashionable (as Orox). Of course, we spent some time at Powells, allegedly the World’s largest bookstore - heaven on earth for booklovers! - and plan to revisit tomorrow morning.

Portland’s restaurant scene is spectacular, we were wondering whether people in Portland ever cook anything at home. Had a wonderful meal in a place called „Aviary“ thanks to gift certificates we got from Tourism Portland - utterly creative and unusual!

But, there is always a drawback: despite of all creativeness, wealth and tolerance we noticed that there are much more homeless people and bums on the streets than in other cities of the same size. Surprisingly enough, there is a section in the History Center dedicated to the problem of homeless people. Though we watched the video and read the texts we didn’t quite understand yet how the discrepancy between wealthy WASPs, drop-outs, weirdos and poor homeless people and drug-addicts.

First thing we did on wednesday after arrival and meeting with a tourism rep was the Art Museum. Besides „regular“ art they do have a really outstanding indian collection. Same for the History Center just across - especially „Voices of Oregon“ gives a good idea about the State of Oregon and is very instructive thanks to live-size „environments“.

Wednesday evening we got tickets for a basketball game of the Portland TrailBlazers (NBA) and though the Rose Garden isn’t the Rose Garden anymore, but the „Moda Center“ (after some Health Insurance company), the Blazers are still the Blazers. Atmosphere is great there (about 20.000 fans) and the Blazers are always good for a great shows. Also, they played terrific this evening and won.

Our boutiquey, hip hotel fits well into the seen. Turquoise recamière, lush ivory-colored drapery, mocca-colored doors and crystal chandeliers in the room, an artsy lobby, artwork everywhere ... at the beginning we almost felt out of place…