Greenspace in Portland
19.06.2008 – 21:54
It had to be a good sign, after the whole drama in Olympia and a lot of rain the sky cleared up and I could feel the sun rays, when I got off the train in Portland. Walking to the street car station I found this furniture store called “Hive” that uses almost the same graphics as the night club in Zurich with the same name. Made me smile. Somebody was heavily inspired here…
Anyway I met Scott and Rose half way to their house and we had great vietnamese food for dinner. I stayed with them for three nights, before I switched couches to Noel and Dan in south west Portland.
Next day I spend walking around down town and trying to figure out a typical Swiss dessert. Another couchsurfer was going to cook vegan lasagne and I decided to add something sweet to it. As we thought about planning a Zurich meets Portland event for Internatinal Couchsurfing day (June 12th, I guess) chocolate fondue was not an option, so I had to figure out something else. I ended up making a “Schwarzwälder Torte”. It’s not really Swiss, but Swiss enough to make some couchsurfers happy. And it really worked out. Thanks to my sister who texted me my favorite recipe for “biscuit” (french) - not biscuits - the base for the layered cake, I finally succeeded in making a “Schwarzwälder Torte” with fresh cherries, lots of Kirsch (kind of a cherry distillate) and lots and lots of whipped cream and chocolate. All organic, too.
Well, the Lasagne was already really rich, so we had to go for a walk first, where we found this suspicious slides (Dia-Positive) , a hotel room key card, some business cards and matches. We felt that this was part of a big thing. Like CSI Portland… We still work on the first episode of this exciting new crime show.
Scott took me to the columbia gorge, along the old highway (a windy street, almost like a Swiss “Passstrasse”) where all these waterfalls are. Luckily we went there during the week, when there are almost no tourists. It felt really good, just walking out in the nature, getting a lot of oxygen and relaxing the eyes in the never ending green of Portland’s surroundings.
The city itself is also really green. There are a lot of parks and also trees just along the street. And they have this wonderful park on the east side of the city where also a great Japanese Garden and the Rose Test Garden are. Gives also a wonderful view over the city, when you’re standing at the top.
So I got my stuff and changed houses to Noel in the south east. They were a great couple, too. They have chicken and grow some own vegetables. And they got me a bike. I should spend a lot of my time biking this weekend. As I already had a lot of bussing before and the weather was so nice, I always biked downtown, sometimes stop on my way to check out Hawthorn District or eat something at the Press Club at 26th and Clinton SE. It’s in the middle of nowhere, this crossing with a few restaurants a shop and a theatre. The Press Club itself is definitely worth visiting. They cook fantastic breakfast and lunch for really modest prices. Ich mein find mal en Ort, wo für 2$ en riisige “Biilagesalat” überchunsch. So i de grössi vomene grosse Blattsalat für 12 Fr… Sogar na mit Nüss und allem krasse feine züg!
Yes, so I biked downtown, up the hill to the Japanese garden, back again. Was a great day.
En the evening we gathered up near Powell’s the biggest independent bookstore ever and prepared for a Freeze event. Was quite fun, it only bothered that most people weren’t really impressed.
On the weekend, the Portland Gay Pride was taking place at the waterfront. I biked downtown again to check it out and got kind of stuck there. As I entered the place, this great funk band was playing. So Jonas ends up dancing in front of the stage and everybody else either sits on the benches or stands way back just slightly moving around. What happened to Portland, that they don’t dance to great funk music? Anyway, my dancing solo had an effect. After the concert, one of the sound techies walked over to me, greeting me with “Hi, Dance boy” and we chatted for a while, before he had to get back working. We kind of kept running into each other the whole weekend. By the end of the weekend knew his name and his number, although “Dance Boy” and “Sound Man” sound cooler than “Jonas” and “Bill” I think. There were actually quite a lot of these people, that I run into again and again. Like this guy working at a booth fundraising for some organization. Portland seems to be quite small and everybody knows each other.
Well, I saw some more concerts, like the one of Sophe Lux - definitely check that out! - a local band, that mixes electro with classical music, pop and strange costumes. Amazing!
I almost got sun burned on my right side of the body, as I was always standing in the same direction, facing the stage and the sun was shining down on me. I was amazed by the fact, that they had somebody on stage instantly translating all the songs in gestures. There was always somebody there, so the mute people could also enjoy the concerts and the moderation. Which was brutally honest. I’m not sure if it really helps, when I drag queen stops her show, getting some huge pile of paper saying “Now it’s time for our sponsors. I know you don’t like that, but we have to do it…” I mean, did any body really listen to what she read from these papers? But now I know, that bank of america is the gayest bank ever. At least they were the main sponsor.
So I partied until late night on Saturday, slept in on Sunday drank a lot of water (Ein stutz für en softdrink macht das echt eifach.) talked to random people and some, ate the typical festival catering food and bought some cheep rainbow stuff.
In the meantime Noel and Dan climbed tree hood. They had to get up at 5 am, just shortly after I came back from clubbing, and got far up to where they have snow. Well, I was quite glad I wasn’t in the cold snow but in the warm sun.
After all, I must say that Portland is an amazing city. A lot reminded me at home. The green, the environmental friendly people (they recycle here!), the good beer, decent public transport, the trees again, the river, bikes all over the place (they even have a lot of dedicated bike lanes and bike trails!) and the friendly people in general. I have definitely to come back, one day!