Why Portland?

I always want to visit Portland in the first place. Why is that? Portland is quite meaningful for me, it connects me in many ways, simply it has a lot of story for me :)

This sounds silly but my first non-Indonesian boyfriend was American and he's from Portland. Then when I was studying in Spain in 2010, I met some friends who are from Portland. When I was studying in Yogyakarta, I met a nice guy and he was from Portland as well. So Portland was very familiar for me. In fact, I heard a lot about Portland from them and gave me an idea to visit Portland when I'm in the states.

Leaving from Seattle, I headed to Portland, Oregon. It took 2,5 hours to get to Portland from Seattle by bus, it wasn't that bad, it was such a short trip. It was Sunday when I arrived in Portland, it was pretty empty. Many shops and restaurants were closed. But hey this is Portland, the place that you want to visit in the first place, I cheered up myself and try to enjoy the city.

Portland is smaller comparing to San Francisco, Sunday was kind of dead even in downtown Portland. Public transport is pretty good as they have train and bus. I rode both and found it pretty easy to get around the city.

First we explore downtown Portland and ended up trying street food. If you come to Portland on Sunday it is hard to find restaurants, but street food are everywhere so no need to worry to walk in empty stomach. The good thing was it tasted good! I tried Gyro, a mediteranian food, it was delicious and only costed me $6.

Street food in downtown Portland

Downtown Portland

Portland Public Transport

Things that you should try when you are in Portland is Voodo Doughnut, if you like sweets this is probably for you. I heard about Voodo Doughnut from the receptionist in our hotel, he said that it's sold exclusively in Portland so I wanted to try it. Don't be surprised if there is a long long line in front of the Voodo Doughnut outlet, it made me even more excited to be in line hahahhaha suppose it tasted good as there were a lot of people queuing outside. I queued for almost an hour just to get into the store. While I was waiting I had a chat with a girl and she said that the bacon and maple doughnut is very good and try the Voodo man doughnut as well. I bought one dozen of doughnut which consisted of maple and bacon, voodoo man, oreo and peanut oreo. Voodo Doughnut is located in old town Portland, I don't know where are the other store locations but I found one here.

Voodo Doughnut

After filling up my stomach with sweet Voodo Doughnut, I continued to explore old town, there are sunday market and it was pretty interesting to check out. Portland is a beautiful city, I sat down in a park next to the river, pink leaves were falling down from trees, the view of the city and the old bridge were wonderful, the weather was rather cold so put some jackets and bring scarf and we would be just fine while enjoying autumn in Portland.

Old Town Sunday Market

Old Town

Old Town

Autumn in Portland

The bridge

Beautiful autumn in Portland

As jompo traveler, relaxing in the park with autumn color trees was is favorite part of this trip. Just sit down, relax and contemplate. Well things may be different when I'm younger, night scene in Portland is probably my favorite hehehheheh :)

Sadly I had to leave Portland and went back to San Francisco, I hope I will visit Portland another time. It always feels good and right to come back.