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 third installment of this series. If you didn’t read part 1, click here for the link.  Also, here is the link to part 2 as well.

Day 3 of my trip was a lot more of a slow paced day. I always tend to have a manic explosion of excitement and exploring of a city on the first day. Mainly during day one, I walked the entirety of the city to see what I liked and disliked. I do this in order so that I can emphasize and focus on what I like doing on the next day. But, I had not explored Northwest Portland yet, which was a neighborhood full of singles, bars, and fun shops.

Full disclosure, Portland is not a popping party city. It is a cultural experience, full of counterculture, nature, breweries (150 of them), strip clubs, homeless people, hipsters and homeless hipsters. Even for the Trailblazers playoff games, none of the bars were packed. While walking the streets at night alone meant that I was alone. It was so quiet and empty that it was quite spooky. Whenever I saw someone on the streets, I had to put my guard up right away because if anything went down there would be no witnesses. Overall, despite subtle paranoias, I didn’t have to worry much about my safety.

Getting back on track, I was not really impressed with the scene in Northwest, Portland because there was simply not enough people to celebrate the beautiful day that they had. Maybe it is the Minneapolis in me that urns for packed rooftop bars, boat parties, and packed parks. I was really unimpressed with this neighborhood. Maybe it was bad timing. Afterall, I was there at one in the afternoon, so do not listen to my judgment on this too heavily.

Next, I proceeded to walk down to Tom Mcall Park, which is a huge park that hugs the riverside. Boy, there is something about being along the water that gives you a primitive comfort that is wired into our DNA as humans.

After this relaxing, spiritual, splendid experience along the riverside, I decided to go brewery hopping. This plan lasted for about an hour as the only brewery that I went to was the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was a really nice brewery with a big space, but it wasn’t packed with people hanging from the rafters. Food was excellent, beer was delicious, and service was terrible. As a former bartender, I’d get you menued, greeted, water, and your drink almost immediately. One brewery had 8 bartenders behind the bar and it took me 20 minutes to get a drink while I was seated at the bar. Every brewery that I went to in Portland was clueless in terms of service. Seriously, how does it take 10 minutes on average per bar to get a drink when the place isn’t even packed?

Anway, I got a phone call from this guy named Isaak of whom I met the day before when I was getting some writing done at Starbucks. This guy is a barista and a musician who is native to Portland. Isaak took me around nature filled parts of Portland, introduced me to some other natives, and he also took me to his house on the Northwest outskirts of Portland.

As we overlooked the river looking into the city, there were boats traveling off the river into the sunset, and we broke out musical instruments and we started to jam along with his roommates. One of them asked me if I wanted to audition as a drummer for his band. Having played drums 3-5 times before in my past, I said yes. Why not? Say “yes” to new experiences, right?

Now I can say that I jammed in Portland with local musicians and auditioned for a local band. How cool is that?

Life is about energy, being Epicurious, and becoming so epistemic. I thirst for knowledge, life experiences, and the subtle interactions towards the intangibles that we fail to see every day. This is why we are all encouraged to travel. I have found my style of adventuring, and you may have yours, but it is important to remember as we manifest our way through the world that we need to have an open mind when we are on the road. The only thing that you really need to pack in your bag is a good attitude and a sense of humor, which is a great recipe for a good time.

Life is too long to live on one song, so let’s burn like a beacon, and then we will be gone.

Stay tuned for the last part 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 

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