DESTINATION PORTLAND: Visitor Notes for the Extremely Adventurous!

in #life7 years ago (edited)

In this post I round up a bunch of the ridiculous and strange things you should do... or try if you ever find yourself in this part of Oregon, culturally speaking- Portland is a strange city indeed, and perhaps one of the strangest places I've been to yet!

I found myself recently on a trip to attend a wedding for a childhood friend of my boyfriend Jake, and we both knew we needed a vacation from the restaurant work life. We were fortunate enough to be picked up and taken around on the first day by a friend of mine that moved here from Oahu a few years ago, as they gave us a list of some of the places we should check out.

Powell's City of Books

red room.jpg

No, this isn't a post about the fabled Red Rooms of the deep web, where one can pay online to participate in live torture streamed throughout the net. Have you even used Tor? It is reaaally slow, basic text pages take minutes to load. You're better off watching your murders live at that point. LET'S MOVE ON!

This is the Red Room in Powell's City of Books, which was quoted by Times Magazine to be "the largest independent chain of bookstores in the world". With a few in Portland, this one located in the Pearl District being the largest. Hearing about this got me excited until I was like; "Oh that's it?" It wasn't actually that big. I didn't realize how enormous it actually was until Jake left to grab coffee.

If Powell's is a Bitcoin, then your local Barnes & Nobles is only a Satoshi! I came across this sign when I got lost... and realized I had only seen one of the many rooms/ floors.
1.jpg

If being a giant bookstore wasn't great enough, this store sports it's own printing press- so you can self publish your own books while you shop. If you are a collector, there is an entire room dedicated to extremely old and rare books as well. Religion, cultural Mastery, Children's folklore, and banned books are abundant in here.
2.jpg

Dive Bars and Pubs

This bar is literally called Beer O'Clock, and is located in Downtown Portland. With an impressive line of lableless draft taps, they specialize in many craft beers that can be found in the state. It may get easily overlooked, but there are a number of strange things for sale in their vending machine, including mushroom jerky. Since all beers are unique, it is a common practice to sample different ales until you find one you want a glass of. Everytime is drinking time out here, go nuts!
beer o clock.jpg

Another good place of mention is Tryst, also located downtown. Along with a nice selection of craft beer, they also sport a comprehensive house cocktails list, you name it Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, and Rum, a page for every spirit in an ambient bar atmosphere.
tryst.jpg

Our friend who was showing around was dying in the heat as our bartender showed us an old trick of holding an ice cube at the under-side of your wrist. Akin to chefs with a cold, wet towel around their necks, the gesture is said to cool blood circulating in the quickest manner! We sampled some beers here too, it was glorious! You will definitely find a bar you like down here, some come equipped with billiards, darts, or even video slots- keep an eye peeled!

Arcades and Games

Ground Kontrol

If you are a die-hard arcade game enthusiast, then you may be pleased to know that there are two major arcades out in Portland, and of course- I visited them both. Ground Kontrol in the Pearl District was up first, and yes- their sign is a Galaga ship.
3.jpg

The icing is that these arcades also have bars, and at this one- every cabinet has built in holders for your drinks, all games coin op. Many of them one quarter a play. You want a retro mind-fuck? This is your man. Games of mention include; Galaga, Bust A Move, Bubble Bobble, Metal Slug, and Area 51. WELCOME TO YOUR CHILDHOOD. Good times. Although I am not the most knowledgeable on pinball cabs, you'll find a good number of them at both arcades. The generation of one coin warriors will shed a tear, as they show off their skills once more in a bustling 80's/90's atmosphere.

4.jpg

Quarter World

The other arcade we had visited was aptly named Quarter World located on the outskirts of the Hawthorne District and many of the same games were not to my liking at 50 cents. A few great mentions though, as this arcade does have some games not at Ground Kontrol and not the other way around. I almost cried that I got to play Samurai Showdown- Rimururu is my favorite character and I'm not to sure which version the game was, but her sister Nakoruru has a wolf in this one, instead of the hawk! Being a big Taito fan as well, I had never gotten to play on an actual Arknoid cabinet until now, complete with a dial instead of a joystick. Nextdoor there is a Mario themed Bao Chinese restaurant called Baoser! Still a good arcade, but considering it's distance from the main districts, this is an out of the way quest that should be done if you plan on staying in Hawthorne that day.
5.jpg

Walking to a Different District

During the summer, you are looking at hot temperatures during the day, staying in town or going the Uber/Lyft route may be the best, but we decided to attempt the trek from Hawthorne to Downtown, and some weird stuff happened along the way. In Hawthorne there were A LOT of thrift stores, so if you are looking for trendy clothing, which we weren't, you might actually want to stop here for some shopping. Small stores, antiques, and healthy food go on for many many blocks here. Be warned, it's hot.
mural 2.jpg

Poke Trends

After walking towards town quite a bit, a Poke shop in Hawthorne caught our attention. It was called Poke Mon. What made this place stand out to us, was after a day in downtown we were deterred from eating at one of the many Poke places downtown the previous day when Jake (sushi chef boyfriend) discovered that they were serving frozen tuna. Poke Mon in terms of quality seemed a bit more legit.

6.jpg
Although we decided not to eat Poke on our trip in advance, we were able to note several ways this place earned brownie points for being more authentic in this Hawaiian comfort food then other places. The first thing we noticed was that Kimchee Tako was listed as a menu item. Kimchee marinated Octopus is delicious on another level, but is far from being a common type of poke. I've only seen it in Hawaii, and even then- a lot of poke places at home don't have it. Another good indicator was that tuna on this menu was listed as Ahi, which is the Hawaiian name for Tuna. In Japanese, it's called Maguro by the way! They are the same thing, but you are more likely to see the name Ahi in a Hawaiian restaurant, and Maguro/Chutoro/Otoro (grades) in sushi restaurants. The other great thing we saw were the sauces used on the menu, Yuzu and Ponzu are staple sauces back home in sushi, and Yakiniku (grilled meat) culture.

Over the past year, Poke has caught national attention in being another super food along with Acai and Kale, and although Oregon and Washington have done a great spin on this food- we were surprised to see a place going above and beyond to study the culture behind this strange dish.

Guardian Games

We got somewhat lost when we reached the major freeways and waterways separating us from Downtown right over the bridge, and stumbled upon a store that seemed to be an oasis in the middle of nowhere.
guardian games 1.jpg

I could only capture less than half of the store in this picture. But daaaaaaaaaaamn, you want it- they literally have it. Expansions for Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, Bears vs Babies and any number of sided dice in varying styles you'll need for whatever D&D or board game you set your heart on. If you like Indie/TCGS you will find more cards and board games than you'll ever know what to do with. Honorable mentions include Vanguard, and various Pokemon peel off promotional cards. In reality, this is one of the best hobbyist stores I have ever seen, and we would not have come across it if we were not walking. A fun mention other than tournaments a plenty, they have a 21+ section where you can buy beer and go play your favorite games with your buddies in the store.

Eating Stuff From Trees

After Guardian Games, we got lost in the sketchy part of town, walking to a dead end on a side street under the bridge. Homeless camps seemingly everywhere, not many people walking on the street, and were curious if any Lyft drivers would even pick us up from here.

Earlier when we were walking past some bushes I had jokingly asked Jake if he has ever eaten leaves as a kid. Y'know, pick a leaf off of a bush, and think hmmmm this looks tasty, and eat it. He looked at me like I was crazy. So here we are, completely lost and Jake starts to get sketched out, I ask him what's up. He clearly explains that two sketchy guys are eating stuff off of a tree right next to us. To my surprise, they looked like trendy city teens just chilling. I walked up and asked what they were doing. They were picking Blackberries and eating them off of the tree, in the middle of nowhere, no joke. Now you know, you can literally eat things randomly growing out here.

For the record, they were pretty good.
7.jpg

If you want to see more of my adventures please upvote, follow, and resteem! A lot of things got interesting on this trip and if this post receives enough interest, I'll be posting part two- covering districts, and darker topics such as law, weapons, stripclubs, clubbing in general, substances, and medical/recreational marijuana and a bonus on restaurants and food trucks!

Mahalo!
Shello

Sort:  

Enlightenment highly anticipated by steem users, thanks @shello for the post, may be useful for all users of steemit in the world.

Steemit advanced and became number one in the World

I am Steemit novice from Indonesia. I am still confused how to set some text on the post. I hope there are people who can help and guide me. thanks.
# Greetings from the son of aceh @taministy

Hey there @taministy I was suprised to see a video comment! Welcome to Steemit lmao this is a suuuuuper weird video xD fun music and scenes. Thanks for your comment, I want to make a difference on Steemit and share about the strange and different things others haven't seen or may not know.

I also like the positivity you brought with you. It's important not to lose that. I started recently too, but if you need help- feel free to ask. If you have facebook, feel free to add me and I'll help where I can! Anyone is welcome to, it sometimes gets lonely working and homework :3

Nice overview of the Portland area!

Thank you! It was really something else

great overview @shello thankx for sharing . upvoted and resteemed

Thank you so much! I love exploring the world around me, most of the time- nothing is what it seems c:

Thanks for an insight of the area. I have always heard good things about the Portland area and hear they are much more progressive than other areas of the country. Every time I visit the west coast, its always in California. I would definitely like to visit the Portland area sometime though, there looks to be a lot of interesting things to do and see!

No problem! And same for me, a bunch of my friends have already moved there and more want to eventually live there. I've been to Seattle, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusettes, Connecticut, and Florida but I have yet to go to Cali! I've heard that it's really fun c:

Let's get you an upvote from the @OriginalWorks bot

@OriginalWorks Mention Bot activated by @unprovoked. The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @shello to be original material and upvoted it!

To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @OriginalWorks in your message!

For more information, Click Here!

Wow that's a pretty cool bot. This is one of the many reasons I like Steemit, originality is key!

Interesting post, thank you for sharing all this information. It's like I've already been there now)

I'm trying my best to write about things that interest me, ironically- that's sometimes difficult to do. Thank you for reading!

I love Powells, I try to go there every time I am in Portland. Great post - following you

You know what's good c; gonna be writing up that follow up post hopefully this week. There's so many amazing things about Portland, no way I could fit it into one post!

sir ur post is good... nice for portland area

please dont Forget me.. i will follow and vote u
and dont forget resteem :)

Thanks for the resteem and welcome to the platform! Hope you meet a bunch of cool people and I look forward to your posts too :3

Great post! I love it :D

Thanks fam, glad to know you enjoyed. Look out for my part two coming up in a few days :3

Very nice i wish i be there in a room full of books and have nothing else to worry about in life. And have unlimited time to read what ever i want.

Right? If we had more time, I would have definitely stayed in Powell's longer. I was excited to see an entire shelf of Freud and Jung. Philosophy is one of my favorite subjects to read about!

We all have same dreams but they dosent always come true

C'mon Muhammad! Positive thinking c: blessings come to those who take action!