![]() Powell’s even has a Danish and a Dutch section, where we can buy books in our own ugly languages. “You walk in thinking you’ll buy a Paolo Coelho paperback and you come out with a truckload of books by Dostoevsky. “It’s a fantastic but dangerous place,” says Peter. Peter is lyrical about Powell’s bookstore, which covers an entire city block in downtown Portland. What more can you ask for if you’re into weird and rebellious?” “George Bush the Elder called it ‘Little Beirut’ – you can’t get a much bigger compliment than that. Peter’s favourite part of town: the Belmont district of Portlandīut it’s also a city of rebels, left-wingers and organic farmers, says Peter. Here, people are generous in traffic, they smile at you to the point of insanity, so this is a great place to take advantage of strangers.” PDX is a far cry from New York and Chicago where folks are more than happy to maim you. “It’s the kind of city where people will apologize if you kick them in the groin. The city organizes a naked bike tour every year, but what Peter finds weirdest about Portland is how polite everybody is. Portland even has something as un-American as bike paths.” It’s edgy the same way an age-challenged hippie is edgy. Within a few months, I found out it was true. “On one of my first days in town, I saw a sticker: Keep Portland Weird. Fogtdal, who has lived and worked in the city for several years, and regularly shares his observations on his hilarious blog. But Portland, Oregon, is weirder still, says Danish novelist Peter H. In short, Denmark can be rather bizarre, even for someone from Amsterdam. I discovered the latter by accident when I tried to scoop one up out of the shallows, thinking it was a plastic bag. It was hot, but no one was swimming and we soon discovered why: the water was freezing and infested with jellyfish. Expecting merry umbrellas flapping in the soft sand, I found instead a rock-hard strip of land occupied by a long row of cars parked side by side, with Danish families sheltering between them on folding chairs, apparently unaware that they looked like extras in some surrealistic outdoor play. ![]() Just have to leave something to do the next time we visit Portland.Save Saved Save for later Saved for later Wifey got a crueller and I got a McMinville Cream (similar to a Boston Cream). Mine got the squashed treatment in the bag. We ate them later that night back at the hotel. Oh, and what did I eat from Voodoo Doughnut? We took our doughnuts to go because we weren’t very hungry. Or maybe he asked his elementary school children to work on the front while he was doing the rest of the building. Keeping with weirdness in Portland, this apartment building on Hawthorne Boulevard looks like the mason didn’t care anymore and just threw the bricks together in a mic-mash. Historic Paul Bunyan statue in north Portland (photo by Cacophony on Wikipedia) It was a very pleasant surprise to see giant Paul just standing there with axe in hand just staring over cars in the intersection and the MAX light rail pass in front of him from time to time. We came across a giant statue of Paul Bunyan at the intersection of Denver Avenue and Interstate Avenue. We made a wrong turn coming from our hotel and instead of going onto the freeway, we ended up on Interstate Avenue in north Portland. Next time.Īnother fun, and possibly weird in some people’s eyes, is a giant statue of Paul Bunyan. I really should have tried the Bacon Doughnut at least. I just wasn’t in the mood for some reason. It was so overwhelming for me that I actually ended up ordering something safe. There’s a lot on the menu and a lot on display. There was a small line of about a dozen people inside the place. ![]() Luckily for us, it was a Tuesday afternoon. My coworker had been here and she said that line up was really long on a Saturday. When you arrive, you will notice that there are some areas set up around the shop for people to line up. Voodoo Doughnut is actually along 3rd Avenue though. Old Town just butts up against Chinatown here along Burnside. We followed Burnside all the way to 3rd Avenue. We had to venture for ourselves to see what it was about.
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