Portland: Fold up Bikes and SK's

A friend of mine kept begging me to visit: hailing the coolness of Portland, Oregon, I decided I needed to escape the routine and mudane of home. I had visited the city once before, a few years ago, but I spent most of the time travelling to the beach or driving through Washington. This time around, I got a real taste of the city and what it has to offer.

Good Old Outdoors:
If you love the outdoors, Portland has everything to offer. Full of trees, yards of flowery gardens, hilly streets and mountains, rivers, lakes, and the ocean only a few hours away, there is so much to do, you can’t help but get overwhelmed. And despite heat waves in the summer where the weather can get over 100 degrees, the weather is typically cool.

Transportation:
Transportation in Portland consists of either your car, which is typically a Honda or Toyota Prius, or the bus and a bike. The city is built perfectly for pedestrians and cyclists, who have the right away. Cars will stop to let people cross and bike lanes are made intentionally for all the cyclists in the city. At one point, I was on the bus and as it waited at a stop light, about 15 cyclists passed us over the bridge. In fact, I loved riding the road bike I rented. Advice: do not ride a mountain bike unless you really wanna workout! I got used to the hills, which some were killer to get up, and the bike was faster than driving. The buses run frequent and 24 hours on some routes and the MAX rail takes you around the city, even to the suburbs. Also, there is a free-fare section, where you can travel for free. Honestly, it’s easy to fake out that you’ve paid for a bus ticket. It depends on the bus driver. $2 dollars for a two hour time frame is kinda expensive, but the day ticket is only $4.75. The city is set up so that it is real easy to navigate, especially if you are a visitor. If you get lost, just ask a Portlander. They are friendly.

Night-life:
Pick up The Mercury or the Willamette Week and find all the variety of things to do. Free music shows go on in The City Center downtown and in the various parks throughout the city. Wanna see a movie? You can see new ones at the theater, but there are cooler ways to watch them. Theaters like The Baghdad on Hawthorne, show older movies for $3 bucks and you can eat pizza and drink beer in an old style atmosphere. Or watch a movie on the rooftop downtown or bring the family to the park for one. Pubs and bars are all throughout downtown, Broadway, Burnside, and Hawthorne and if you just want some coffee, there are plenty of small coffee shops. Karaoke, dance, burlesque, politics, open-mic, you name it, it’s going on somewhere.

Food:
Although Portland consists of mostly Caucasian transplants, it is culturally diverse. Whatever mood of food you are in, Ethiopian, Lebanese, Thai, Japanese, veggie, Mexican, American, Greek, most restaurants are family owned and priced well, with decent portions. Check out Burgerville, a local owned fast food type spot. They use only the best parts of the cow and have specials according to what is in season, like the Wally Wally onion rings or the Oregon Cherry smoothie.

Shopping;
Key word: Vintage. Everyone wants vintage this or vintage that. The Red light has a whole section of $5 dollar clothing and tons of cute dresses under $20. If you enjoy the retro look, the various vintage stores offer you plenty of choices. However, if used is not your style, downtown offers the usual mall choices. Target and Walmart are somewhere far in the suburbs. Big chain stores like that are not seen within the city limits because of a space regulation law. And naturally, there are plenty of bike shops and crafty things to find. Check out the Saturday and Sunday market downtown, which is full of food, music, self-made art and crafts, and talent.

Overall city rating: * * * * * Move there! Now!
There is something for everyone and people are friendly. You can go out alone without feeling lonely, yet people respect your space. You can dress however daring you want and not be judged. It's too bad the economy sucks and there are no jobs. I love that there is no income tax. If it's 5 bucks, it's 5 bucks. Just think about Austin, but 100% better.