Spring Break
My friends and I decided to go to Portland for spring break, or reading week as the Canadians call it. Our trip started bright and early at 6 am when we had to catch the 3 and a half bus for Seattle and then on to the 3 and a half train ride to Portland. We didn't experience any problems at the border, it was probably the smoothest immigration and customs that I have been through. But, then when we made it back to the bus a very beefy looking border patrol guard informs us that he needs to walk through with a metal detector of some sort. The little black box was silent until it arrived to a Vietnamese family of 3, then it when crazy, and beeping non-stop. The guard took the family out, which was rather difficult because they didn't speak English and he didn't speak Vietnamese, so there was a huge communication gap between them. We waited on the bus and 20 min. later they were back. That entire incident was quite bazaar, I wonder what he was looking for.
Then, we arrived in beautiful and sunny Seattle where we had a 3 hour lay-over. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and time, and walked around and enjoyed the 20 degree warmer weather. I was really excited to be back in the states, even if it wasn't home. The food was already much better and cheaper. We did the tourist thing for a bit and visited Pike market and the original Starbucks because they were close by.
Then, we were off to Portland. I had been there before with my parents on a college tour almost 5 years ago, but I never really cared much for the city. We arrived in Portland at night so we didn't get to see much of downtown. We got lost trying to find our motel and got lost for 2 hours. Turns out our motel was 45 min. by bus to the city center. We had booked whatever was available and cheapest, that turned out to be a motel located in the heart of the ghetto in East Portland for 13 dollars a night per person. I guess you get what you pay for because that place was a ridiculous shit hole. There were cigarette burns all over my pillow and blanket, we found what looked like blood stains on the curtains, the bath tub looked and smelled like someone took a dump in it, there was only 2 lights that functioned in the room, and the towels appeared as if they had not been washed in weeks. That first morning my friend and I woke up to some crack whore at 7 am yelling,
"I am gonna fucking break his neck, he's going to fucking jail, I am going to fucking kill him" and then proceeded to yell obscenities for another half hour after that. Needless to say, I was quite scared for my life for about 3 days.
My impression of Portland didn't change much despite our experience in the ghetto. I think that some parts of the city are quite nice, like Washington Park and the Pearl district, but I don't think I would ever want to live there. The city is littered with derelicts and wackos. There were a number of times where I was scared for my life, and never before have I felt that way. I have been to several major cities in my life, but I have never felt so uncomfortable as I felt in that city, and to be honest I have always been more impressed with Seattle than with Portland. All in all I think it was a good trip, it definitely put us all out of our comfort zone, but also it made us appreciate where we are from.