Portland stirs time gone by

I’ve spent the last few days in Portland, Oregan, having arrived from the beach town of San Diego.

Why do I like this place?

“How do I love thee?  Let me count thy ways.”

For a start, it’s cooler. I don’t normally dig the cold but the lower temperatures are a novelty after travelling through India and while San Diego isn’t hot at this time of year, its weather is more akin to India’s warmer climate than the cool of North West USA.

So Portland is different to what I've been around lately - the people are rugged up, in an alternative, down to earth sort of way and remind me of the type of person one sees around Brunswick or Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand.  Many of the men have bushy beards, most people under 40 are tattooed and everyone wears a wool beanie.

Portland is set among a beautiful landscape, the air is cool and crisp and the place has a friendly vibe.  It seems colder (in spring) than Melbourne's winter – so climate wise and population size (close to 600,000) it has more in common with New Zealand or Tasmania.

It is clear from earlier blog posts that I have a fondness for New Zealand.  Add to that Tassie, I went twice to Hobart for weekend getaways last year to see MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and both times ate at the fabulous 'foodie' restaurant Garagistes.

Today on St Paddy’s Day in a quaint, little bar called Interurban in the Portland suburb of Mississippi, I sat at the bar with wooden interior, three mounted deer on the walls, across from rows of whisky bottles (single malt a certain young Kiwi's favourite tipple) and I fell quickly down memory lane.  I found myself reminiscing about that short, sweet interlude in South Island, NZ, where I sat in a bar similar to Interurban  - with my company drinking whisky - and despite the chill outside, felt warm.

All this wrapped in, Portland has been a special place for me to visit.  But it’s also in part for these reasons why I choose not settle here.

Life’s like that. You don’t get too far ahead living in the past.

I head to Seattle on Tuesday. Surely I won’t feel the same romantic sense I do here (having said that, my early 20s were heavily influenced by the Seattle grunge scene and there’s a lot of film and TV that I’ve enjoyed that's set there (Sleepless in Seattle, Singles, Frasier, Grey’s Anatomy, The Killing)).

Seattle is renowned for its hi-tech community, Bill Gates founded Microsoft there.  It’s where savvy entrepreneurs take risks backing ‘start-up’companies setting their sights on a successful future. 

Not a bad place on premise.


Photos - the Portland bar Interurban.