Started the day exactly as the previous. Egg and bacon sanger and a bucket of latte in hipster city.
“You want the 226-ounce coffee or the large?”
“Geez, how big’s that large?”
“You’re gonna wanna bring your truck round back and I’ll start up the pump”
“Christ I don’t think I want to be awake that long in Tennessee” – Bill Hicks
Just to reinforce Groundhog Day we caught the bus and at the same stop where the ice addict was picked up yesterday. There entered, let’s just call her Misty. Misty is already on the phone and is well and truly loud enough for the entire bus to hear her conversation. It goes something like this:
“Gail honey he uses and abuses. You can’t enable him. He says he’s clean but he’s got a restraining order and a warrant out on him. No, no, no Gail listen to me he’s lying to you. I should know. You know how many guys like this I’ve been through. You can’t change him honey.”
And it went on like nails down a blackboard. I wish Misty and Gail well but something tells me those two are somehow related to our mate from the previous day. Just for the record, had Gail spoken on her phone in Japan on public transport especially in that fashion, they would have severed her hands.
So we got off the bus about 10 mins west of the city at Washington Park which is a hilly area 200 acres in size. It contains the most beautiful forest and the famous rose garden which gives Portland its name, the Rose City. I’m a philistine when it comes to gardening but you couldn’t help but wonder at the beauty of the rose garden. From there we walked through stunning bush tracks to the Vietnam Vets memorial in another manicured area of the park.
We were extremely parched by that stage so we headed to the zoo and a vending machine and after a lot of confusion we finally worked out that we could get on the light rail to get back into the CBD. Strangely to access the light rail you had to take a lift that dropped 450ft to a tunnel, not unlike Maxwell Smart in the phone booth! It was a relief to escape the 33 degree day and enter this subterranean world.
The light rail took us into the city in no time and we headed straight for the Portland Art Museum. We did however get side tracked by a park full of pop up vendors selling fresh produce and interesting takeaway food being snapped up by workers having their lunch break. Then we got sidetracked by some jazz music that was playing in a large area between two huge music theatres so we sat and chilled for half an hour. The music sounded great resonating between the buildings and the lead man from the band played clarinet and sax whilst walking around the audience.
The Portland Art Museum doesn’t rate as one of the best we have visited however it was still nice and had some pieces that we really liked. I know I’m sounding like a knob here but we have been blessed with some extraordinary museums around the world where you didn’t know where to look there was so much going on to stimulate you. We found a Warhol and surprisingly a Basquiat which is rare as his work was snapped up after his death and mostly stayed with the greedy owners. The only Basquiat’s in New York were at the Whitney Museum and there were just a couple. Damn shame really. Lynda’s favourite Monet was there today and my favourite Van Gough made an appearance. There was your usual contemporary art fare like two sticks tied together on top of a tin can which apparently has some existential meaning that frankly I haven’t the time for. My eldest Corrie is just finishing her Fine Arts degree at the VCA so I wish she would hurry up and produce something that can be exhibited over here and make me…I mean her, some money. I’ll gladly gather the sticks, the can and string if she wants. Just kidding love!
Tomorrow we are on the train to Seattle for where we will park for 4 days. We will never forget Portland and its eclectic people. Our only regret is that we didn’t have enough time to get into the outskirts and explore Oregon. This is a city and state that has its head screwed on properly. Yes it has a homeless problem like all cities but it is incredibly clean and focused on the environment to the point where they still heavily promote car-pooling everywhere, and even have signs on the freeways to turn your car off if in a traffic jam to look after the environment. The Blues Festival was a blast and raised an enormous amount of money for the homeless.
Today our bus driver gave us both all day passes as we departed the bus just because he could! I think he must have noticed us helping a homeless couple onto the bus and giving up seats for them. Either way it’s just typical of the respect that people show here. Civil rights are sign posted in buses and there are gay pride flags hanging off churches. Oregon allows you to die with dignity, smoke dope at home without fear of arrest and marry whoever you love. There is certainly a feeling that the community is trusted and treated maturely. Thanks Portlandia and thank you Portland. I hope we meet again.
