DAY TWELVE
We were only in Portland for a couple of days so we decided that the quickest way to learn about the city and see the essential sights would be via a morning walking tour — luckily we found a free tour run by Portland resident Erik Kennon that promised ‘an entertaining voyage through the bike, beer, food, eco and art culture that makes Portland one of the most unique cities on planet earth.’
Even though the tour was titled ‘Secrets of Portlandia’, it didn’t actually have anything to do with the TV show Portlandia but it definitely gave us a taste of the kinds of Portland culture that inspired Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in writing that show. From the “world’s smallest public park” through to the food institution Voodoo Doughnuts (that serves up doughnuts shaped like Voodoo Dolls filled with raspberry jam and complete with pretzel stakes), the tour visited plenty of quirky sights across the city and appropriately enough, ended in front of the famous ‘Keep Portland Weird’ sign in Old Town.
One of the most interesting parts of Erik’s tour was the section on the impact of the economic crisis on Portland and the ways in which the local community responded to the lack of jobs by setting up their own small businesses — as evidenced by the vibrant ‘food cart’ culture that is thriving across the city. With cuisines available from all around the world, we opted for lunch at a Lebanese food cart and coffee at Portland’s own Stumptown cafe.
A visit to Portland would not be complete, however, without a trip to Powell’s City of Books. The largest independent new and used book store in the world, Powell’s occupies a full city block and was a must see on our itinerary.
After touring around the various sights (such as the pillar in the Science Fiction section with signatures from various SF authors including Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan), Cai settled in the Science Fiction section while Iain browsed Film, each of us picking up around 20 books before we realized that we wouldn’t be able to fit them all in our suitcases. We whittled them down to 10 books and agreed that we could always throw away non-essentials to make sure we had enough space in our luggage. I mean, who needs clothes when you have books?
We then caught the bus back to the Hawthorne district and went for a stroll around the local shops and cafes. After our shopping spree in Powell’s, we decided that we should only pick up absolute essentials like food, drink and… rings shaped like cassette tapes.
While not as famous as the chic Pearl District or the hip north-east (that houses the feminist community centre that was inspiration for Portlandia’s Feminist Bookstore), the Hawthorne District had plenty of interesting sights to explore – from the McMenamins Bagdad cinema to the funky secondhand store Vintage Pink.
Portland had lived up to our hopes and expectations with all their independent coffee shops, quirky microbreweries, and locally sourced food carts… hell, even the dentists are artisanal here.
