Portland, Oregon

My cold was in full swing by this time, again - it wasn’t going away, so I walked the local neighbourhood and pampered myself by having my hair done. I didn’t feel any better, but my hair looked good.

Washington Park is on the west side of town, same side as my hostel, so I set off on a  foggy morning to the park and apparently a good place to see the city from - though not with the fog. There were even some roses growing in the International Rose Test Garden, though not as many as there would be in the summer, of course. It was a great place to take photos, especially if I wanted spooky, tree photos.

Portland, Maine

I’m still in a quandary about Portland, it’s nice enough but from what I’ve seen nothing special, so I’m rather at a loss as to why it is in so many must visit lists (apparently even in Fodor’s Top Ten cities to visit, but I can’t find any evidence for that, except what the chap told me). People are very proud of the place and maybe in summer it’s charming, but to me it felt rather desolate. There were a lot of unemployed and homeless people about the town and the social worker I met did say there is a big problem in Portland. The public transport is appalling, buses are late and people spend half their time waiting for them. As I said, it could be that I was there at the wrong time of year and the economy has affected the place, so it’s not at its best and having a car could have made a difference, but it just didn’t seem to have much going for it, except the seafood!