13th to 17th May 2010

So I will start this short Oregon blog picking up from where I left off at Emeryville. I got on the train okay and even though I asked for a window seat, idiot conductor gave me an aisle seat and then wouldn't let me change it the moron. Due to that it led to me being woke up twice by him, once when my upper half of the body accidentally went over towards the window seat and then second time when someone else came to sit next to me. This guy then used my arm rest as his and kept talking on his phone for an hour. By that time the red wine kicked in and then I woke up to sunrise and the conductor saying Welcome to Oregon. With help from lots of coffee I actually started to enjoy the train ride which went through some pretty spectacular scenery. I almost wished I had an extra little time to stopover in one of the little villages and discover areas around there. I knew around Salem my favourite make of Pinot Noir is from there. Anyway, lots of snowcapped mountains, forest, clear rivers and lakes. On the way even saw the bridges that inspired the film The Bridges of Madison County. Unfortunately, the view was blocked off and the train went round the corner once the view had cleared :( Lots of lovely little towns along the way before the train pulled into Portland. By this time I was absolutely exhausted and just glad to get off the dam train but it was an adventure. Arrived at my lodgings and just unpacked what I could, freshened up, went to find some food, relaxed and had an early night

The next day I was collected my my friend Angie and we went to just outside the city to the Japanese Gardens, an authentic garden. It was absolutely stunning, the way all the flowers and plants were laid out and all the water features and other landscapes. It was very relaxing to walk round there, saw some pretty huge Koi Carp in the ponds and marvelled in peace and quiet. Afterwards went up towards Hawthorne where Angie and I spent 20 minutes trying to get into a bus stop as every entrance was blocked up, then we gave up, went to buy lunch before saying goodbye. Angie's a lovely person, so great meeting her. Afterwards I had a little walk around Hawthorne village which is full of cool crafty, boho style shops, a real chilled area to hang out. I then took a bus into Chinatown to have a look and found another garden this time a Chinese style garden and went round that one. Like the Japanese one it was spectacular, very peaceful and was able to sit down and have a cup of tea.

The next day decided to go and explore the museum quarter where I heard there was a brilliant farmers market. I walked from the city centre taking random pictures of people and points of interest. There was a demo going on that day, plus ppl playing chess on outdoor chess tables in the square. I headed up towards the museum section and towards the farmers market. This Farmer's Market is famous for a reason and there was so many stalls everywhere it was a cross between a small community market and Borough but without the craziness. I had a quite good look around and bought lots of things to take back to the hostel and eat. Proper salad leaves the right colour of green. Afterwards stopped off in the POrtland Museum of Art which was cool, missed going round galleries but only manged an hour before it closed for the day. The next day I ventured down into Portland centre and headed down towards Waterfront Park and the Saturday market which is also open on Sunday in the Summer yay. It was exactly like Camden but on a smaller scale and there were fantastic clothes, food, soaps, jewelry etc to be found. Due to lack of space in the case I manged to not buy much stuff. After the market continued down along the river and managed to run into a Doggy Day walk. Dogs everywhere!! THe evening went out for something to eat before getting packed for the next stage of my trip up into Washington State....