Portland, Oregon, USA.

Are you bored of these posts yet? Only one more after this so bear with me ;)

Portland was… interesting. We arrived, stepped outside of the train station and were instantly met by people dealing drugs and hassling police at the tram stop. We then were bothered by a ‘missionary’ at a bus stop because we did not give him any money. By the time we arrived in Woodstock we were weary. It was much, much, much further than we anticipated and it all seemed a little bit inconvenient. Our host, her husband and beautiful children lifted our spirits a little. The above-garage apartment we would call home for five days lifted our spirits further. It was gorgeous, complete with a hob, fridge, bathroom and the comfiest bed. We explored Woodstock a little bit (which didn’t take long as it’s basically a single street), used the wifi in Starbucks, got some snacks and had dinner. We finished the day with Breaking Bad in bed, because that’s what holidays are for right?

A poorly positioned fan meant that I woke up the following morning with the worst crick in my neck. I couldn’t move at all and after a minor panic, hot shower, lots of deep heat and painkillers we left to explore the city. Or, well, not explore. We felt lost and like there was nothing to do or nowhere good to go and wandered aimlessly for, what felt like, hours. Thankfully we had arranged to meet David (of the Free Portrait Project) in Alberta that evening…if it wasn’t for this meeting—which happened to coincide with a big street festival call Last Thursday— we would have ended our first day in Portland pretty sad. In fact I may or may not have cried a little bit on our way to meet David, such was the exhaustion, pain and frustration I was feeling.

Last Thursday was basically a huge street party and the further down Alberta we walked the crazier things seemed to get. There were every kind of musician, rappers, dancers, brass bands, string quartets, buskers, artists, tshirt sellers, designers, producers, makers and bakers of all kinds and even a couple of cool kids selling delicious lemonade for a 50¢. I bought some beautiful hand made ceramic cups for drinking wine out of and Richard bought a sticker. There wasn’t much we wanted to purchase but the atmosphere and energy was infectious. We stayed out much later than we expected and quickly our crappy day didn’t feel so crappy anymore. 

We walked back towards our bus stop along a street paralell to Alberta…I find the differences between homes of other countries and homes in Ireland fascinating. It was a nice to stroll along quiet streets after the hustle and bustle of the festival. 

The next day we set off a little bit more prepared, with names and locations of places we wanted to visit. We learned quickly that Portland is a sprawling city and it was a must to get public transport from one place to another, ordinarily this would have been aggravating but an all day pass for the bus and tram is only $5 (which is the same as just two single tickets) and there are no zones or different tariffs. 

When planning our itinerary we made sure to be in Portland for Brewfest, as recommended by our friends in Canada. We were not disappointed and spend a beautiful, hot evening tasting lots of different beers (my personal fave was called Hell or High Watermelon), eating amazing garlic fries and listening to live music. We bussed home in the dark tipsy and happy. In fact I think we went to bed full and happy and a little bit tipsy for the majority of nights this holiday, definite markers of a good time had.

On our second to last day in Portland we spent the day scouring the city for vintage and antiques and…beer. It was a mashup of personal interests maybe? We spent a while in a local vintage shop in Woodstock which surpassed all of our expectations tremendously before heading into the city for beer at a local brewery and plenty more of the right kind of ‘junk’. After a while we took a bus out to the leafy suburb of Sellwood and found plenty of pokey little shops, nice cafes and cool cars. 

We ended the day by splurging on dinner and drinks at the Clyde Common restaurant at the Ace Hotel. I had read so much about the Ace and wanted so badly to try it out that we decided to just go for it, despite our dwindling bank balances. After days of drinking —ie, getting used to the taste of— beer my crisp rosé was exactly what I needed. Dinner was amazing and the company wasn’t half bad either ;)

On our last day we rented a car and drove to Cannon Beach. While our whole time in Portland had been hot when we arrived at the beach it was cold, damp and windy… much to our disappointment. We made the most of it though, walking up and down and around the beach, finding a tree swing, getting stranded beyond a river and having to hike away from the town in order to get back into town and some seriously dodgy pizza slices overall it was a great day. I was most proud that we actually managed to make our way there and back and survive the freeway!

(Portland, you were nice…just not as nice as Beautiful British Columbia!)

Whistler, British Columbia.

On Saturday Jack and Gill, (our amazing hosts, lovely friends and all around deadly people) drove us to Whistler. They certainly don’t call it Beautiful British Columbia for nothing, the drive was breathtaking. Mountains covered in snow appeared, literally, out of nowhere and the sea opened up before our eyes.

We checked into our room, dumped our stuff and headed out. Our destination was Loggers Lake for a float party. We lounged around in blown up boats and lilos and drank beer (or cider in my case) and laughed and chatted. There were around 200 people there from Canada and the rest of the world, with many accents and slang being bandied about. It was surreal. People kept saying things like ‘oh yeah, this is such a typical BC weekend’ and ‘we do this all the time’. It may not be the whole truth but it certainly has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

(Richard took all of the above photos because I left my camera at the hotel)

The following day we got up, feeling a little worse for wear, ate a tonnn of breakfast and headed to Lost Lake. It was beautiful. It is all beautiful. Snow capped mountains, rolling forests, glassy lakes and vast blue skies.

Jack and Richard in accidental matching stripes.

We had to have one of these…even if we do look a little rough (car naps make for sleepy faces!).

Next stop: Seattle, Washington, USA.

Vancouver, Canada (via London, England).

Three weeks ago we started out early, rising with the sun to load up the car...airport bound.
We flew to London and spent an exceptionally long lay-over in Hyde Park in the scorching heat.

 We then flew, a horribly long and bumpy flight, to Vancouver. Bags on backs and bags on fronts we took the Sky train, disembarking in a city so very different to our own, we trudged up up up hill towards familiar faces. We ate and slept and talked and arose very very early the following day. Jet lag will do that.

  We saw the pacific for the first time. Following it's edge we walked thousands and thousands of steps all the way to Main Street. In and out of shops we familiarised ourselves with prices and currency and notes and taxes. We sought shade in a playground before taking the train home to sleep. Jet lag is frustrating and zombifying and, most of all, exhausting. We ate dinner by the beach, watching a beautiful sun set. We think we could get used to this kind of thing. We slept soundly, undisturbed by the seagulls and sirens of city life outside the window.

The following day we cycled. Back-pedal braking is not for the faint of heart. We watched a racoon having lunch and visited the Aquarium. Jellyfish, dolphins, seals, otters and beluga whales. And also a sloth (which is in the photo above!). We cycled along the Sea Wall revelling at the mountain views. We immersed our bodies into the cold pacific and shared a veggie burger as the evening sun begin to cast its golden light. We fell asleep early, happy and full.

On Thursday I wandered downtown alone and mooched between familiar and unfamiliar shops. The block system in North America is foreign and oddly confusing to a girl raised on the higgledy piggledy streets of Dublin city. I managed to walk two blocks further than necessary only to have to double back on myself to to get to where I wanted to go.
In the afternoon we walked across Granville Bridge—attempted to soak up the breathtaking, overwhelming, holycrapisthisreal views on each side—to Kitsilano. There we bought and devoured a garlicky pizza, read our books on the beach and sunned ourselves. We thought we could really get used to this and grinned like fools. Jet lag kicked our bums into bed early again but we were too sleepy to fight it.

Coming up: Whistler, lakes, beers and beautiful mountains.