Here I present to you a four-part series where I share with you my journal from my travels. I travel a lot, so I thought I would start seriously blogging about it. Here we go! This is the second installment of this series. If you didn’t read part 1, click here for the link. 

Changing lanes, my homecoming to the west coast was over. It was on to Day Two.

Being in Portland, I walked along the Pearl Neighborhood along this famous strip called Alberta where I was staying. Here is what I saw to sum this up, if you have seen Portlandia, that is an unrealistic depiction of what Portland is. My first real glances of Portland was in a major tourist area. Shops, dives, bars, coffee shops, dispensaries, and food trucks. This is the food truck capital of the world. There are so many food truck areas all over this city, as well as homeless people, strip clubs, and of course, there were plenty of hipsters.

The hipster scene is so very different than the one in Minneapolis. But, that is a whole other set of articles that I can write. In a nutshell, Austin, Minneapolis, Brooklyn, and Portland are the hipster meccas of the US, and all of them are different in distinct ways. In Brooklyn, there are a lot of hardcore hipsters that devote their time to making a living in an alternative lifestyle through their artistic/entrepreneurial medium. There is a major split there between trust fund hipsters and grungy surviving artist hipsters that congregate for a great scene. Minneapolis is much very like this, but on way smaller scale because we are the Minnie Apple. Hipsters in Minneapolis wear nicer designer hipster clothing, glasses, have the nicest Apple computers, cameras, and have cool trust fund kid jobs like sitting in coffee shops doing graphic design and going to shows at night. This is not a generalization because this is just what I see in the world. Although I have not been to Austin yet in my 20’s, I saw that Portland was a gathering of misfit hipsters who possibly failed at being a hipster. The culture in Portland is very alternative, grungy, dirt baggie, and it is awesome. This is quite inspirational because very many people walk the line in society, wanting or needing certain material items. It was awesome to the point of enlightenment because it brought a lot of perspectives that I had never had before. Moreover, the biggest difference between cultures is that Portland had a lot of homeless people, and a lot of them were hipsters who were avoiding many societal norms.

Moving on,

then I walked all the way to the Moda Center and explored that area, which wasn’t anything to write about. Therefore, I will not write about it. Next, I hopped on a train for free, cause I didn’t pay. I had 280 dollars left in cash for my trip. This train took me to Chinatown because I wanted to go to a brewery, but when I saw it was Chinatown, it was in my DNA that I had to explore. As I wandered more in this neighborhood, I ran into Voodoo Doughnuts, on the way to some pho at a place called Pho TNT. The pho, well it was dynamite. Comfort food is the way to go in a different city on your first day. Then I met some 420 festival goers, and a beautiful girl and her dope boyfriend that gave me two extra tickets that they had to this Tipper concert. I had no idea what it was, so I just said yes to this situation.

Keeping an open mind and saying yes to new situations always makes a great adventure.

The show was an amazingly artistic spiritual, uplifting experience. Probably one of the best in my life. But, more on this later.

 

 

Then after getting the tickets, I went to Deschutes
Brewery and I talked to an 80-year-old man for about an hour at the bar. When eventually two random girls separately sat at the bar to the left of me. Then once the three of us all engaged conversation with each other, I ditched the old man, and it was like he was never there.

Sorry, but people my age doing travel and work stuff sounds way more fascinating than talking about WWII. Just kidding, he was a cool dude. But yeah, that is what he talked about most of the time. But, I got a lot of good intel about the city of Portland while I spoke with him. That is why it is key to talk with every local that you meet in order to get the lay of the landscape.

So back to the girls.

One of the girls was from Minneapolis, so that ignited the aura for all three of us to become best friends for the next two hours.

Turns out Brianna is a local Minneapolite musician and lives in my neighborhood. She just released a new album, and I got to go to her release party at Ice House after my trip was over. The show was fantastic and you should definitely check out her new album, which is here under this link.

Changing lanes,

the girl from Vancouver that I met was hungry so we scavenged the city for a food truck tent. On the way there I bought a funky shirt.

There could have been 35 food trucks in this parking lot? It was really cool because of the sedative sensory overload that it gave me. They had food from all over the world, yet I couldn’t find any ice cream.

All I wanted was some ice cream.

She later drove me back to my friend’s house. How nice was that and how awesome that her name is Spencer? I know a girl named Spencer, and you probably don’t so be jealous.

When times are tough, I always remind myself that my life is awesome because I have a diverse set of friends and most importantly a friend named Spencer who is an online auctioneer from Vancouver. If you can match that then you are probably cooler than me.

When I got home I told my friend Shepard that I had two free tickets to a show at the famous Arlene Schnitzer Hall. Then we went later that night, and it was one of the most influential artistic and spiritual experiences that I had ever had. Tipper was amazing, and at the craziest part of his show, while everyone was sitting down and chatting, I stood up. Then everyone cheered and others joined me. The whole theatre stood up. It is crazy what a small inkling like that can do. A small chain reaction happened and I got to control a few thousand people for two minutes by getting them to stand up during an amazing show.

Later that night Shepard and I got on a bus and went for a ride. It was beautiful, we got to see the whole city on a bus by ourselves. The best part was that this bus took us directly to Shepard’s house.

In your travels, it is better to remember the positive experiences rather than the dwelling on the hassles. For instance, I lost my charging cord twice during my trip. It was very frustrating and untimely but, I still had to move on. If I would have dwelled on this, which is something that I am known for, then my trip would have been a bad experience. Charging cords are not cheap.

Moreover, when everyone stood up with me during the show, it always makes me forget that I spent 60 extra dollars on charging cords. Now, who cares! I now have extra cords, and positive thinking trumps everything.

Getting back on track, Shepard and I embarked on a nightly journey riding the bus back from Arlene Schnitzer Hall all the way back to the Alberta strip. The ride was a straight shot, and most importantly it was a beautiful 45-minute tour of the city. The bus driver was amazing, giving us intel about the sites and scenes of the city. He let us ride the bus for free because we were good company and seemed like lost puppies to the city. After we got off, he gave us two free bus passes for the next day.

Isn’t an adventure amazing when you mix in meeting great people like that? Having an open mind is a very hard thing to master, but once you do, then the possibilities of life are sort of endless.

Stay tuned for the other two parts of my journal from my trip, for I have a formula for finding adventure, that you all should really learn about.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

Venmo or Patreon