Last day in Portland! I highly recommend Portland to anyone looking to explore somewhere that is, as best as I can describe it, the “Austin, TX of the North”. When I say that, I mean like, the pre-venture capital Austin. Even though I never experienced it, I can guess what it was like and it seems cool.
Everyone Left; I Changed Hostels
Everyone’s flight was pretty early in the morning except Cleve’s. He left around 10 or 11 and that’s when I started my trek to the other hostel. After Cleve and I hugged, he got in an Uber and was off. I was conveniently standing at the bus stop for the bus I’d have to take across the river. So it pulled up, I tapped my credit card, paid the 2.80 and hopped on. The bus wasn’t packed or anything so I slid my luggage between two chairs and sat next to it. The bus ride was relatively uneventful, but I was kind of concerned it wouldn’t be when some people got on. I feel bad saying this, but I was glad to see them alight, as I didn’t particularly feel like talking to anyone unpredictable while toting my luggage around. I took some pictures on my way from the bus stop to the hostel.
Northwest Portland Hostel
The hostel itself is cool as hell. It is a combination of like 6 buildings in a city block, they have a small cafe on the first floor and the coffee is pretty decent and fairly cheap. Dropping off my luggage, I only had one roommate in a 4 bed room. His name was Vito and he was pretty friendly. Apparently he used to live in Portland, so he reminisced a bit about it. Good guy. I ended up telling a couple people about my blog here so maybe he’s reading this too. If so, it was nice to meet you, man!
Shortly after getting in the room and having a brief chat with Vito, exchanging pleasantries and whatnot, I locked up my Steam Deck and took my backpack to the Japanese Garden. It’s highly acclaimed as “the most authentic Japanese Garden outside Japan” and I can see why. The place was really cool, and the gardens were quite meditative. I think it’s definitely an experience I’m glad I had after everyone left so I had things to reflect on rather than anticipate. I’ll post a bunch of pictures.
Japanese Gardens in Portland
I found myself reflecting on the entire trip while perusing the gardens and strolling through the 4 different landscapes. There was an incredible waterfall and they had a “peace lantern”, which apparently started a trend of gifting them to other gardens(?). It makes me wonder if the Japanese garden in Boston has one and who donated it. There were waterfalls, babbling brooks and incredibly curated viewpoints. The sun was hiding behind the trees and the spots that it came through to illuminate the Japanese Maple trees were absolutely beautiful. I helped some tourists take group pics, which I try to do whenever I see someone trying to take a selfie with their friends. It’s not like it costs me anything and hopefully helps them create better memories. It’s also a nice ice-breaker. When I was in San Francisco, I helped a group and noticed their phone UI was in Japanese so I said, “ii shashin da yo” (good picture!) and they were elated lol. It’s fun.
I ran into some guy in the gift shop looking at the take home kintsugi kits and then later down the road he was talking on the phone about how it might be “the answer” and help him “fix himself” so I spoke with him a bit about how he’s really looking for the book on Wabi-Sabi that they have in the gift shop and to look up more about that. I hope he does and fixes whatever he needs to.
Anyway, enough about me– pics below!
International Rose Garden
Adjacent to the Japanese garden, and just a short jaunt down the stairs, lies the International Rose Garden. It was quite a delight! The roses smelled incredible, and they were absolutely gorgeous. I was seriously impressed with the sheer scale of the garden. There was a wedding happening there as well and seeing everyone dressed so well and surrounded by such natural beauty was really nice. Maybe some day I’ll have a wedding in a rose garden lol.
I appreciated the scents and took some videos of some “busy bees” pollinating. We need to protect the bees, they put in so much work and get so little back. Thinking on it now, that’s probably a good allegory for a lot of people/animals/natural things these days… I won’t elaborate lol. Anyway, the Rose garden was beautiful and I talked to my Aunt about it when I got home yesterday. My other aunt came over today and said it was the only thing she did in Portland and it was gorgeous when everything was in bloom. I will say, there was still a large amount of roses in bloom but you could tell we were getting towards the end of the season. Imagine all the effort those little plants put in to create something so beautiful and yet so fleeting. Reflecting on their ephemeral nature makes those special moments just so much more so.
Northwest Portland Hostel
I spent the night at the Northwest Portland Hostel and if I end up back in Portland, that’s where I’m staying. The rooms were incredible clean for $40/night and the company there was really chill. I met this woman Paula who is doing the #vanlife living down in Los Angeles, and she and I immediately hit it off chatting. We spoke about everything from politics to paganism and our views were super aligned. She was good people, so we traded instagrams. She offered me a drink but I explained that I don’t drink anymore. She respected it.
That night they had an open mic session. I’m gonna get back into practicing guitar so I can play at the next open mic I end up at. My friends said during karaoke that I actually sounded really good singing “Baby I’m an Anarchist” by Against Me! so I might do that one. The song is pretty easy and I think it’s such a good and pointed message for today’s climate. Super relevant and so appropriate.
Speaking of cool people, the following morning before I left, I ran into this cool chick named Grace who was hiking the PNW trail. She had put an estimated 100 miles behind her on the trail and said it was an interesting way to see the state. I think she said it was her first time doing something like this(?) but it sounds super fun. Hopping on and off the trail and hitchhiking sounds really fun. I might try that someday when I get my life in order lol. She said the PNW beaches were perfect “crying” beaches, which I chuckled at again just now while typing it, but can totally see that. I don’t think it’s super known for its beaches, and if I went to one I’d probably cry too. Joking! Not trying to minimize her experience, as it sounds like she was working through something. Great people, great conversations and great fun.
Grace, if you’re reading this: I ran into Paula in the morning and made sure what you left found its way to her lol.
Headed Home with Tailwinds
I woke up the next morning, went to write this blog post, but got talking to Paula again lol. I’m pretty sure she and I talked for like 5 hours out of the whole 12 I was at the hostel for. So I’m finishing this post now. I talked to someone on the train for a while about her trip to Portland when I was on the way to the airport. It’s really amazing to just start chatting with strangers and they’re all pretty friendly. You can sus out very quickly whether or not someone is gonna be a good conversation partner and if they’re not you can just let the convo die naturally, but a lot of people are just good fun to talk to and I always love hearing about their lives.
When I landed at Logan, I was talking to a kid who was smoking cigarettes and we got on the topic of software and whatnot and he was airing his grievances about his company. I won’t go into detail but he and I were chatting about software and HVAC systems and I gave him some good advice about EEPROMs and factory resetting to known working firmware. Hopefully he takes it back to his company and gets a raise. Seemed like a nice kid. He’s like 23 and they sent him to Portland to oversee some installation and he was just headed back so he and I were on the same flights the entire way back which is funny. Got picked up by my Aunt at Logan express, and then went in to see the cat for a bit (she was being super cute) and then I took off to get back home.
I think my head hit the pillow at like 3:30 AM and I woke up at 11:30 AM this morning lol. All in all, it was a good trip. I had an absolute blast hanging out with my friends and it reminded me that it’s not drinking that makes a good time, but the company you keep. Until next vacation, much love and stay safe!
