Portland, Or

If you’ve never heard of Portland, Oregon – you should have. A 4-hour journey from Seattle takes you across the state line and into one of the most charming, most happening cities I’ve ever known. Ever flicked through a Lonely Planet guide and read about a “neighbourhood to which hipsters flock” and been a little confused? Turns out that these ‘hipsters’ are cool young men and women with a penchant for idiosyncratic fashion, art, culture, music, leftish politics (every party political sticker or banner we saw were for, without exception, Barack Obama – John McCain simply doesn’t exist in these parts). Also on the hipster agenda is eco-friendliness and (certainly in Portland’s case, at least) tasty, locally-brewed beer. The neighbourhoods in which they congregate may only number one or two in any city you might visit but in Portland the vibrancy and hospitality of them give you all the city-break fuel you could need.

Our hostel - the HI Northwest - was perfectly located between the leafy, laid-back suburb of Nob Hill and the slightly more built-up, converted warehouse zone of the Pearl District. The key strips of the former are NW 21st and 23rd Streets, both of which are filled to the brim with a quite incredible array of restaurants, bars and coffee houses. The latter has the pick of the city’s galleries: everything from tiny, one-room independent spaces to much larger and more commercial affairs. It was the Pearl District’s art scene which drew us out one evening for ‘First Thursday’, a monthly event of after-hours gallery viewings and street entertainment. Among the range of things offer were a market of arts and crafts (not meant in the tacky sea-side sense, but instead things you’d actually like to hang on your walls or put on your coffee table), live music and even some capoeira.

The city’s green spaces are also a major attraction, and will stand up to any found in its bigger, better-known cousins. It’s not so much the ‘green’ aspects, however – it’s the quirky nature they all share. Seattle has odd little nuggets of art and creativity peppering its streets and sidewalks – Portland has these and more in the shape of pieces of art and sculpture found lurking its in parks and other pockets of greenery.

Or even just at a normal road junction.

On the theme of greenery, a relaxing afternoon can be spent at Portland’s Japanese Gardens (once described by a visiting dignitary as the finest he’d seen outside of Japan) - a journey through five different ornamental styles. In what can be a bustling, noisy city, the gardens are an oasis of calm, a tranquil hideaway from the world – even if the most stressful thing you’ve encountered so far that day has been the walk up the hill to find them, as it was in our case.

One of the most striking and moving parts of Portland is the Holocaust Memorial. It isn’t the only one in the world, by any means, and there are larger and more high-profile edifices dedicated to the same cause. However, Portland’s is certainly noteworthy for the comprehensive and thought-provoking narrative describing the events leading up and during the Holocaust, and moreover for how the city’s creative sensibilities are on show once again in small bronze pieces littering the grounds of the memorial. To my mind the rendering of everyday objects recalled the visitor exhibits at Auschwitz, where the most mundane personal possessions became something much more poignant.

One of the biggest draws to the Portland, and the Pacific Northwest as a whole, is the beer. Portland has 30 breweries within its city limits, the most of any city in the world I’m reliably informed, and the array of brews from the lightest white concoctions to the darkest of stouts and porters made my lips smack from start to finish. If ever in town try a brew or two from the tiny Tugboat Brewery (I’d be more specific as the location, but I’m afraid it wasn’t our first stop of the evening), the Amnesia Brewing Company on Mississippi Avenue in the Northeast (a lovely, dare I say ‘hippy-esque” neighbourhood) and for dog-lovers and beer-lovers alike the Lucky Labrador brewpub on Hawthorne Avenue to the southeast of the city centre. This is by no means a comprehensive run-down – go nuts, try them all, you’ll be in for a treat no matter what happens. And if you ever see O.T.M. Stout on tap anywhere, buy a pint and reconsider ever eating chocolate again because this rich but very drinkable brew is hard to beat.

If it hadn't been for a random conversation in Whistler with a visiting local, Portland wouldn't have even been on our travelling itinerary. If you’re looking for a visually-striking place, full of well-know tourist attractions then visit Seattle, New York, San Francisco, to name but a few. But for a welcoming, laid-back feel, a young, fresh and unpretentious sort of a place, then Portland is for you.