Portland, Oregon

Keep Portland Weird. A well-known expression Portlandians are proud to use. But is it deservedly so?

Downtown Portland

When I stayed in Corvallis to finish my master’s thesis, it was the perfect home base to discover more of Oregon. Much to my confusion, Portland isn’t Oregon’s state capital (spoiler alert: it’s Salem). It is the biggest city in Oregon though, and that makes it worth a trip.

I booked a two-night stay in a hostel in downtown Portland and I was ready to go. I discovered there was a direct Greyhound connection between Corvallis and downtown Portland, so that seemed perfect. Oh boy, I was so wrong. Knowing America mostly from TV series and movies, I had a much better impression of Greyhound busses than they actually were. To summarize, the bus was more than an hour late, very filthy, and don’t get me started on the smells. Let’s just say the ride to Portland wasn’t a smooth one.

Things got better once I arrived at my hostel. I like my privacy, especially when I’m sleeping, so most hostels are not suitable for me. The new trend of pod hostels popping up all over the world fixes that, though. Those hostels are still low budget, but you get some resemblance of privacy. I choose The Society Hotel, right in the middle of Chinatown. They have private rooms if you want, but also an impressive hostel-style bunk room. It’s been a few years, but I was pretty impressed by the place back then, so I definitely still recommend them.

Portland Fun Facts

• Portland has an amazing roller derby team. I got obsessed with roller derby after watching the Brutal Beauty documentary starring the Rose City Rollers. If you like a badass unique sport, definitely try to catch a game if you are there.

• Portland’s name was decided by a coin toss. The founders of Portland, Oregon came from Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine. To decide how to name their new city, they did a coin toss to decide who got to choose. Clearly, the guy from Maine won. Funnily enough, Portland Oregon is on about the same latitude as Portland, Maine.

• The Unipiper. I will not explain further, just google him.

• The creator of the Simpsons, Matt Groening, is from Portland. You can find many references to the series all over town.

• The city is filled with miniature horses. If you find a metal ring on the sidewalk, you can leave a tiny toy horse attached to it. The Portland Horse Project came to life so people would realize the beauty in the details of the city.

The “Weird” Things

Portland claims to be weird, and I must admit there might be a few things that could be considered weird. I loved all of them, and if that means I am weird too, then I graciously accept the compliment.

My absolute favorite food-thing is without a doubt Voodoo doughnut. I have a massive sweet tooth, so of course, I had to stop by this massive donut shop. Not only do they have every flavor you can possibly imagine and then some, but they also have some awesome merch. My favorite “the magic is in the hole” mug comes from this place. I also discovered the weird but perfect combination of maple syrup and bacon. Yep, the bacon maple bar is the best human invention since the wheel.

When you say Portland to a booklover, they immediately tell you about Powell’s. Powell’s City of Books is literally an entire block. Yes, you read that right: the store is an entire block big. Not only that, they have 3 floors. There are more than a million books in that store. When you enter the store for the first time, you get a map. The store is so big you actually need a map. And trust me, you will use the map, because you get lost so easily between the dozen of rooms and hundreds of shelves. Whether you are a book lover or not, Powell’s City of Books is a must-see for everybody.

Visiting a big bookstore and a yummy donut shop, those were the “weird” things I did in Portland. Pretty much a normal day if you ask me, so not really worthy of the claim “weird”. However, Portland does have some rather unusual events. To name just two, why not check out the yearly naked bike ride or adult soapbox derby?

My 7 favorite things to do in Portland

1. Get a bacon maple bar at Voodoo Doughnut

2. Get lost in Powell’s City of Books

3. Visit the Oregon Zoo

4. Eat yourself fully at one of Portland’s food truck festivals

5. Take a breather in the Keller Fountain Park

6. Search for the famous White Stag sign

7. Get away from the city and take a hike on the Lower Macleay Trail and visit the Witch’s Castle

The not so fun things about Portland

It has to be said, there were a few things in Portland that I didn’t like so much. I must amid, I was having a really awful weekend when I visited Portland, so I might have been a bit more sensitive to these things. However, after talking to some other travelers who’d visited Portland for the same time, we came to more or less the same conclusions.

I visited Portland in September 2017. The first thing I noticed after getting off the bus was the homeless people. Don’t get me wrong, every big city is bound to have homeless people, and I’d seen more than my share in Antwerp, but what shocked me was that most of them were laying there high with needles right there in the open. I know now that I’ve lived a sheltered life in a small town and I lived in the “good parts” of the big cities when I was at University. So it was quite a shock for me to suddenly see the real world.

I say this not to shame homeless people or people struggling with addiction, but because it opened my eyes, and also because I was a little scared at first. Why? Probably because I heard my mother’s voice in the back of my mind warning me it wasn’t safe for a little girl all alone in a big, strange city. I’m a lot stronger and more independent now, but it’s not unthinkable that that voice comes back every once in a while in a moment of doubt. This is not a bad thing - fear is a good instinct - as long as it doesn’t come from a place of prejudice.