The train journey was lovely - apart from a particularly annoying Canadian who seemed intent on talking very loudly on his phone sat in front of us - once I learned to block his voice out I really enjoyed the trip. We passed by lots of stunning coastal scenery ( the town of Bellingham looked like a good place to stay). US immigration boarded the train to quickly check passports but other than that - an uneventful enjoyable journey.
Our destination, Portland in Oregon had me very excited. I've heard so much about the place - about all the good coffee, the food trucks and generally the laid back feeling the town has - all with the added bonus of very few trump supporters. In short it exceeded my expectations - unlike any other city in the US I've visited - it has a really nice combination of feeling like a big city - but with lots of small town features. People are all very chatty, the shops and restaurants are mainly all independents - there is a nice easiness to the place. On the downside they clearly also have a big homeless people issue - more so than any of the other US cities - which I just find incredibly sad.
When you get down to the Willamette river in the city it's then that you see the industrial side to the city - the city itself has 12 bridges spanning the river - and grew as a hub for shipping timber. We took a bus ride to the north of the city to cross over one of these - St John's - a particularly pretty art deco bridge. The city isn't pretty though - it's gritty, a bit dirty - when we were there they were having some terrible forest fires and the city was cloaked in ash and haze from the smoke.
We kept ourselves busy in town mainly by eating - the city is famous for it's doughnut shops, food trucks and coffee shops. Perfect.
Some favourite's we found were:
Nong's Khao Man Gai - Food Truck on Alder Street - so good I had it twice - poached chicken with rice, coriander, cucumber and peanut sauce - simple and delicious. Served in butchers paper.
Blue Star Doughnuts - Washington Street - Unbelivable - described as doughnuts for grown up's - have the crème brulee
http://www.bluestardonuts.com/
Voodoo Doughnuts - Lots of locatons, more gimmicky than Blue Star and for me not as tasty - but the Voodoo Doll is a very funny concept - a pretzel stick to stab all the raspberry jam in his torso. Brilliant.
https://www.voodoodoughnut.com/
We entertained ourselves at the many craft beer places and an amazing old cinema called Bagdad.
https://www.mcmenamins.com/bagdad-theater-pub
We stayed:
http://dossierhotel.com/ a gorgeous new hotel bang in the centre, lovely room, opposite all the food trucks.
No comments:
Post a Comment