Yay gods. Time is slipping from underneath me at ridiculous speed. Portland literally went by in a Flash. First experience: “Bro-Dog”, with complementary American flag.
The rest of Portland:
- It’s the most tattooed and pierced place in the US and by extension possibly the planet. And all I can think of is: what is that going to look like when you’re 60? (Is “Lord of the Rings” still going to be cool?) According to a local article, “deviant” behavior starts kicking in (statistically, significantly) after the 4th tattoo. Just so you know.
- Powell’s bookstore. This monster takes up 1 entire city block. I finally picked up “The Life of Pi” and stumbled upon “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett.
- Bought a supercool 50ies style small brim fedora hat to hide my unwieldy hair.
- We saw two magnificent shows at “The Woods”: a folky band named “Run On Sentence” and top-of-the-line improvisation theater (long) by “The Liberators”. The Woods itself is a reconverted funeral home, retaining much of its original majesty.
- Hosted by the wonderful Emerson and Jamie who made us delicious pancakes and raced with us through the rain on our bikes.
- Wandering for an hour through the woods, which turned out to be the “small park”. Insane.
After all of this wonder, we hopped onto a “Superliner”, which is essentially an American dubbeldecker train-on-steriods.
The worst things about trains in the US?
- Ridiculous amounts of paperwork and checkpoints to go through.
- Slow, slow, slow.
- Barely cheaper than taking a plane. Worst of all was the fact that the prices changed (for the worse) while we were booking it. Bleuh!
Best parts about trains in the US?
- Old, so therefor incredibly charming stations and cars.
- Onboard: a parlour car, a restaurant (serving fresh food!), a bar, an arcade room (with games from the 60ies, yay!), a magnificent reading room with high windows and even a movie theatre.
- Room, room, room.
- A wine tasting!
- Watching the sun go down and back up without once having to get off.
Conclusion: these trains shouldn’t be looked at as transportation, but as an experience. (It was kind of what I imagine a cruise ship to be like.)