Schmez's blog

New York City Part 2

Giant Piano!

It has been Owen's lifelong dream to play the piano from Big, and when we finally got there, he nearly didn't do it! It took the noisy coercion of a guy named Chris wearing a headset microphone (whose job it is, apparently, to convince people to play the piano) to get him on it. I've got it! Tom Hanks! The guy from Big!

FAO Schwartz is also awesome because they have this guy, dressed as a toy soldier who salutes you when you walk through the door. I can just hear his inner monologue as he smiles, salutes and holds that door open: "Die you motherfucker, die!"

FAO Schwartz

 

Later that day, post-giant piano, we were walking along 59th Street and we saw this little guy by the side of the road. It was sweet to see someone's efforts survive more than a second by the side of a busy street.

Street-side Snowman

On one of our last days in the city, we lined up like good tourists to take the Staten Island Ferry.

Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry

As well as being a nice, scenic (not to mention cheap) way to spend a morning, it also allowed me to put myself in the path of yet another (can you believe it?) American feline:

 

Seafaring Cat

Needless to say, this surprisingly well-behaved kitty was not having a whole lot of fun. I think she was trying to convey, with the constant meowing, that, hello, there's freaking WATER OUT THERE, you crazy bastards!! Still, I was allowed a tiny pat as her owner snapped some pictures of her with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

In the same spirit:

 

Rodney and Liberty Island

We decided to wander the Financial District since it's pretty close to the wharf. As it turns out, Wall Street is pretty quiet on a Saturday morning:

 

Wall Street

We also took a look at the World Trade Centre site, which was kind of weird. There were people who were in tears, and then guys selling "official" information pamphlets. It was all a little odd.

 

WTC

As is the custom in New York City, we spent a lot of time out on the street late at night. We didn't do a whole lot in the way of barhopping, but there are still plenty of pretty sites to be seen when the sun goes down.

 

Times Square by night

Times Square was kind of gross, what with all the tshirt vendors and tour bus drivers trying to prey on shy little foreigners, but there's no doubt that all the marquees look cool against the night sky.

 

Radio City Music Hall

 

One of our favourite spots would definitely have to be Park Slope in Brooklyn. Due to time constraints, we didn't venture much further out of Manhattan, but one day combing the antique stores, cafes and novelty shops on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn was more than enough for my bank account (not to mention the airline's luggage weight limit). Jonathan Lethem had made me terrified of Brooklyn, but of course, now its all expensive and gentrified and safe. I don't know a whole lot about it, but there seems to be a bit of controversy about proposed plans to build new apartments and things like that. Fortunately, for now at least, most of the old brownstones and shopfronts are still standing.

For fans of Jonathan Lethem, Dean Street in Park Slope

And, because I have been saving my favourite photo for last, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce New York City's Finest:

 

NYPD - what the hell?

In between selling hotdogs, they fight crime. Who'da thunk it?

New York City Part 1

Well, it is now more than a fortnight after the fact and I am safely back in the cushiony familiarity of my hometown, but I am going to do my best to recreate the awesome fun that we had in New York. I think the reason the blog faltered at this juncture was in part due to technological complications (crap computers not recognising my camera, etc) and in part, large part, due to the fact that we did an overwhelming number of things, not to mention the experiences that were not "things" but more some kind of ultra-metropolis epiphanies, that I could not possibly blog it all to the same degree of detail that I had previously.

Let me begin by saying that I have never experienced such a feeling of urgency, we must do something at every minute of the day because if we don't we will never be able to see everything, as I did when we first got to New York. Before arriving, I had a few ideas about things I wanted to see and do, and many of those went out the window when I was confronting with the sheer possibilities for cool shit that NYC actually provides. We got to eat great pizza, see a taping of Letterman, pat cats in East Village shops, play the giant piano at FAO Schwartz and wander whimsically in snowy Central Park, and all that was merely the tip of the iceberg. I don't think there are enough words to talk about all the things we got to see and do, so instead, I am going to let my photos do the talking.

 

Fifth Ave

As much as the Upper East Side is all rich and stuck up, I am in love with the buildings and the neatly-uniformed doormen. We didn't spend much time up there, but I managed to get enough pictures to make me wish for a lottery win and a Park Avenue penthouse.

Central Park was way cool. I love the culture of the park, the way it's every Manhattanite's backyard (when it costs a million dollars a month to live in two rooms, you need to get outside sometimes). Unfortunately, there was some construction going on around the area where Home Alone II was filmed so we weren't able to feed the birds and recreate a truly heartwarming Hollywood moment.

Central Park

 

Strawberry Fields, Central Park

(Just before taking this photo, we walked up Central Park West to have a look at the Dakota Building. I wanted to get a picture, just so I could be like, "I went there!", but I wanted to be subtle, since it must drive the people who live there absolutely nuts that their home has become some kind of freaky macabre shrine. The doorman (who must be practiced in such things) didn't even look at me as I took a quick snap, and as I turned around, congratulating myself on my subtlety, I realised that a double-decker tour bus had pulled up right behind me and about 50 people were pointing and snapping photos from the roof. So much for that!) 

 

Central Park

We spent a lot of time wandering around the East Village area, visiting stores like Toy Tokyo (SO CHEAP THE JAPANESE TOYS OMG) and waiting around while I got my sweet new ink:

Tattoo in the making

 

The finished product

Our favourite breakfast hangout (where we also ran into Alison and Johnno, omg HOW is that possible that we run into two people from Sydney, whom we didn't even know were overseas, in freaking New York??), Murray's Bagels on 8th Avenue in Chelsea:

Murray's Bagels

Ah, Letterman! The taping was actually kind of weird because there were all these people whose job was solely to get the crowd pumped up. Think a young guy in an oversized jacket yelling, "How're y'all doing tonight??" and about 200 middle aged women from Florida going, "Whooooo!" for about an hour. Still, it enabled me to be in the same room (ok, theatre) as Jake Gyllenhaal, which I am taking as a GOOD THING.

Letterman!

I also got to make some new special friends in New York. As it turns out, there are HEAPS of stores with resident cats just begging to be patted. This one lives in Bleecker Street records (they actually have two, and the other one is fat and cranky):

 

Bleeker St Records Cat

This one lives in another store just across the road from record store cat which sells teas and overpriced handcream. The cat was friendly, the lady behind the counter was a rude cow:

 

Another Bleecker Street Cat

Boston MA

Next stop was Boston, and what a stressful morning we had trying to get there! Because of the weather and general public transport crappyness, instead of taking 45 minutes to get to the airport, it tooks us nearly TWO hours, two fretful, anxious hours which of course meant that we missed our flight. I have never missed a plane before and I assumed it would be a huge deal where you'd have to pay them money and sleep on the ground and get cavity searched, but the check-in lady was like, oh never mind, we'll put you on the next flight. So, after all, not that big a deal. After the minor hiccup of the morning, and a bus that tried to steal Owen's suitcase, we made it to our Boston abode, the land where everybody sounds like a gangster! The hostel was great, pretty quiet (we were in a dorm but had it to ourselves), and the owner drove us to the train station in the mornings (the mornings that we were up in time, of which there weren't many!). It also had a big tv room which was almost constantly populated by a couple of guys who live there - they were pretty funny, and seemed NEVER to leave their grooves in the couch (we'd go to bed at 1 and then get up at 11 or so, and they'd be in the same spot!). TNT was doing a Law & Order marathon, and for those of you not down with our extreme, soulful love of L & O, oh man, we like it. Many hours were spent in that tv room! It was also funny to hear the local Bostonians give a running commentary of each episode (Oh, he's gawing to kill her, that beeaarstard!). Maybe best of all, or at least on par with the L & O, one of the hostel residents happened to be a cat. A cat... with thumbs! I have always said that it is an act of mercy on the part of evolution that cats have not developed thumbs - the moment they do, we are ALL in trouble.

The cat was not really inclined to be photographed, but I managed to get a couple - try to make out his extra digits of doom in this one:

thumbcat

Our first day in Boston was a bit of a write off - we went into the city intending to walk the Freedom Trail, which is a route that runs through the CBD marking historic buildings and monuments related to the American Revolution (which began in Boston) and other American-history-type-stuff. We walked around the Common and Public Gardens for a couple of hours but I wasn't feeling too great, so we ended up going home and sleeping (and watching Law & Order) for most of the afternoon. Before the ill-health set in though, there were squirrels! Boston Common is FULL of tame, cute squirrels, and, being a Saturday, the park was full of people walking, ice-skating and feeding the wildlife. By the end of our brief walk my camera was packed full of squirrels in various poses - being fed, standing up, climbing up trees, climbing down trees, digging, and generally being squirrely. As I said in my last post, you have to understand: in Australia, there are no such thing as squirrels. Illustrated fairy tales show romantic forest scenes, populated by unicorns, centaurs, nymphs and squirrels. My first few squirrel experiences may as well have been unicorn sightings, I was that freaking excited. Squirrels! They're just so darn squirrely!

Behold, more squirrels (I think I took about 50 squirrel-related photographs - for your mental health, I will not post them all):

 

lonesquirrel

 

squirrelsagain

After our aborted attempt to soak up the local history, we tried again the next day to walk the Freedom Trail. Again, we were distracted by the squirrels, the ice-skaters, and the original Cheers bar, home to the Least Funny Show Ever Made, Including All the Shows That Were Made Before Television Was Even Invented (TM). For the record, we did not  go inside, but Owen needed a photo to prove that he has bad taste in tv! Ho, SNAP!

cheersblurg

Post-Cheers, we crossed the park to really, for reals, seriously, walk the Freedom Trail. Of course, we did not do it, but we did go to the Fanueil Markets and eat a baked potato. The markets were very cool - lots of great food, although most of the stalls were just selling Harvard/Boston t-shirts and mugs and things like that. Its also quite near the harbour, or one of the harbours, so we wandered around until the icy sea breezes overcame us!

 

markets

 

harbour

That night, we caught the New Amsterdams again. When we saw them in Chicago, the singer tipped us off about the Boston show, and they were worth a second look. The support bands were mostly boring, the show was in a weird church hall, and the band saved the day! As well as their regular stuff, they played a couple of songs by the singer's kids band, the Terrible Twos. I think the songs were called Math Stomp and We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs. Very cool!

Our last day in Boston was meant to be spent at the MIT museum and taking a tour of Harvard (Hah-vahd, as the Bostonians say), but because of the Presidents Day public holiday, the museum was closed and the tours weren't running. We gave MIT a miss, much to my disappointment, but went out to Harvard anyway. It was quite cold and we were a bit lost, but the bits of the campus we did get to see were awesome - its quite beautiful, all classical architecture (well, the area we saw anyway), and the bare trees and snow made it a very picturesque sight.

 

harvard1

 

harvard2

 

harvardbooks

When the cold became too much, we decided to check out Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Like Chicago, it pretty much blew me away (I am expecting to die when we go to the Met!) - I made a list of all the things I liked that we saw which I will reproduce at some point. Its just great to see such a range - Australian art galleries have NOTHING compared to galleries over here. The Art Gallery of NSW has ONE crappy, unheard-of Picasso, and even in Boston, there are more Picassos than you can count. (Well, on one hand at least.).

That was all there was time for on our whirlwind tour - the cold, coupled with the pull of take away and sweet, sweet Law & Order meant we spent most nights safely tucked away indoors. I really loved the bits of Boston we did see - downtown and the park is really pretty, and the city is full of great old houses and buildings. It seemed quite relaxed too (despite the fact that everyone talks like a mobster in a hurry). I'd like to go back and spend some more time there, maybe in summer when the waterfront is a little more inviting!

I did learn one thing though - Bostonians LOVE steeples. If it's got walls, why not give it a steeple? Why not indeed, hey?

 

publicgardensithink

everett

bostoncommon1

 

Chicago IL Part 3

I'm going to have to strain my brain here, as Chicago was more than a week ago - we've been so busy it feels more like a whole lifetime!

Our last couple of days in Chicago were fairly low-key - we didn't make the gangster tour on account of the howling wind (and I think more snowfall). Instead, we decided to check out Reckless Records just to see if Owen could pick up some relatively rare stuff that's hard to get elsewhere - most of his favourite bands are from Chicago and they are the kind of bands that have ten fans in the whole world, eight of which live in the US and two of which are Owen and Adam in Sydney. This means that their records are pretty hard to find, but I think O had some minor successes. On our way to find the Reckless store in Belmont, we came across a store called the Metal Haven which turned out to be a record store specialising in all kinds of metal music - it took us a moment to work it out because their window display was entirely composed of suits of amour, scissors, helmets and other stuff made out of... metal. Because it's a metal shop! Ha!

On the same trip we also got to eat more diner food (mmm) and I found two cashmere sweaters in a thrift store for $32! Wee!

Later that afternoon we headed home to explore our own 'hood, Lincoln Park, a little more. We had our first encounter with a music store that sells entirely vinyl (I've never seen one in Australia, that I can think of), and we bought snow boots. My feet have never been so grateful! After days of damp and frozen tootsies, huge, heavy, freaky-looking moon-boot things were so welcome, and we've worn them for days since!

 On our last day in Chicago, we decided that, since the Shedd Aquarium had failed to furnish us with penguins we'd check out the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's quite small, but its great that in a neighbourhood park there is a free mini-zoo that people can just wander into. Beats taking the ferry and paying $30 to get into Taronga Zoo in Sydney! Because it was so cold it was pretty much deserted of both people and animals. We got to see some camels, standing around in the snow chewing and looking cranky, two vultures eating a dead rat (well, at least now I can say I've seen two vultures eating a dead rat, right?), a sleepy (and HUGE) polar bear, an itchy sun bear, some really cool monkeys, lazy tigers, lions and leopards, seals, curious little puffins and some very stinky penguins! Penguins everyone! They were pretty much just standing around being penguiny - I would've thought the icy-ness would be ideal for them, but they were actually living in an indoor enclosure in really weird low lighting. Kind of strange, but I guess the zoo knows best! There were chinstrap penguins, rockhopper penguins and king penguins, all in the same pen standing around in their various family groups. They weren't very active, but come on, penguins!

 

ping

In the spirit of his entrapped fellows, Rodney played in the snow:

rodneysnow

However, the penguins were upstaged by one particular creature - you have to understand that as a Southern Hemispherian, seeing an actual, real life, completely animated, walking, sniffing, digging, pawing, freaking SQUIRREL is a big deal! A SQUIRREL! There are like, actual living squirrels here! I know that to people who live here, a squirrel in the park is akin to a pigeon - a dirty, city-dwelling scavenger who tries to steal your picnic, but to me - oh, it is a cute, fuzzy cuddly little thing that picks food up with its hands! Its a real-live squirrel! There were a few hanging out around the vulture enclosure, but I'm pretty sure they were smart enough not to cross the fence. The zoo is a pretty sweet place for a squirrel to live - plenty of animal food lying around, and when that fails, you can always climb into a trash can and dig around and then come leaping out, frantically, into the path of the unsuspecting Australian tourist as she walks past!

SQUIRREL OH my god:

 

squirrel

 

That afternoon we headed back into town for the tour of the Newberry Library, America's largest private non-circulating research library. I am a sucker for libraries in general, but this one particularly sparked my interest because of its staring role in one of my favourite books, The Time Traveler's Wife (the author used to work there, as does one of her characters, and certain parts of the library feature in the story). It was pretty interesting to hear all about the library's history and see some of the reading rooms and the area where they conserve and restore old books and manuscripts. We also got to hear about the stack which is all temperature controlled, where the rarest books are kept in fire-retardant gas, just in case. I believe, for fans of the book, this is also where the cage is located but we didn't actually get to go in and look!

Here is me outside the library (freezing my damn ass off, might I add - check out the sweet ear muffs though!)

 

outsidenewberry

We capped off the afternoon with more Reckless Records (they have two stores) and a nice, hot noodle soup in Damen. On the whole, I really enjoyed Chicago, although it seems like the kind of place where you need to really search out the cool stuff. We could have easily spent another week there hunting around for more records and squirrels and enjoying the snow. 

Chicago was pretty:

 

arlingtonplace

 

loop

 

 

Chicago IL Part 2

Yesterday we headed out to the Shedd Aquarium on Lake Michigan, mostly to check out the 60,000 gallon penguin habitat we read about in a guide book. I am still trying to imagine what 60,000 gallons of penguins looks like because they were "off-exhibit", and so we couldn't see them! I really should've stomped my foot and yelled and pulled Rodney out and demanded he be taken to his people, but instead we shuffled off quietly to take in some of the critters available as part of the free Monday deal.

Mostly it was just fish, blah, although there were some cool ones. I could only get good pictures of the ones that were relatively still, but this turned out well because the kind of fish that just sit around all day staring at the walls are the kind of fish that look WEIRD in photos. Thus:

fish

and this freaky eel thing:

angryeel

I stood at the glass and stared at him for a few minutes and he started opening and closing his mouth at me, baring his freaky eel teeth. We also got to see pregnant sea horses, giant crabs, some turtles, lots of tropical fish that looked like Nemo and a river otter, who was totally, totally awesome, but alas much too fast to take a good picture of.

It snowed lightly yesterday, and more heavily overnight and today, so the city is looking very pretty. I have never experienced actual falling snow before, and the novetly hasn't yet worn off. It's amazing to watch everyone trudging through the snow on busy city streets - I don't know whether the local council does much clearing of the sidewalks, but it seemed like some shops cleared their stoops, and most didn't bother.

For example:

missingfootpath

Chicago, being a city renown for its architecture (something I know nothing about), is full of cool buildings that look especially picturesque in the snow. (not that you can see them too clearly in the fog)

foggyskyline

nearaquarium

(these were taken before the heavier snow falls, yesterday, from the park surrounding the aquarium).

Today we braved the elements (a more amusing exercise than expected) to go to the Art Institute. We got there with no major dramas, and spent much of our commute cackling like maniacs at the fact that snow comes out of the sky and literally covers everything, and it's really slippery when you try to walk in it! What's that all about, anyway??!!

The Art Institute was amazing - we were in there for nearly four hours and only after we left did I realise we missed the Modernist room. I'm assuming it was loaded with Picassos and Duchamps that I MISSED OUT ON, so I am hoping I'll be able to quickly go back before we leave. Still, we did get to see a Jackson Pollock (whatever you think of his work, they are pretty cool to see in real life) and one of the Institute's most famous holdings, American Gothic. Georgia O'Keefe was also very active in establishing the collection there, and so there are a lot of her works (which I had never really appreciated until now), and a lot of stuff by the guys in her circle - Dove, her husband (the photographer whose name I forget), etc. It was sweet.

Afterwards, we walked what seemed like a billion, hilarious, slippery blocks to Buddy Guy's Legends to get a tshirt for Owen's dad. Mission accomplished, and we really did hike over the icy tundra to get it! After that, we went to the Gene Siskel Film Center to see a documentary called Fired! (which advertised David Cross and Sarah Silverman as stars - they had about 20 words between them!), about an actress who was fired from a play by Woody Allen and then went on to explore the whole idea and experience of getting the sack, interviewing some great comedians, actors and ordinary joes along the way.

And that brings us up to now, freshly showered, inside, and excited about tomorrow's gangster history tour. Woohoo!

Chicago IL Part 1

The first couple of days we were in Chicago were fraught with trouble - the hostel we were staying at was far, far away from anything and everything (and was freakishly dodgy), there were some (thankfully now-resolved) money dramas, and it seemed like everytime we tried to get somewhere, we'd wind up in the wrong place, stuck out in the open in the -15 degree winds, wishing we could pack it all in and go home. I guess it was the point in the trip, week two, in which the novelty and excitement of a long awaited trip wears off, and the reality of "I'm not going to see my own bed for another five weeks" sets in. Still, we overcame, and I am really loving Chicago so far. I've taken heaps of photos, so I might let them do most of the talking.

It is this cold right now:

cold1

cold2

(since that photo was taken on Saturday that river has nearly completely frozen over - yesterday we saw ducks walking on the ice!)

cold3

cold4

We didn't do much on the first couple of days here, but we have had some of our more uniquely American dining experiences here:

Pizza by the slice and root beer for lunch from a downtown deli:

lunch

My first greasy spoon diner breakfast (soo good - although the waitress seemed a little bemused that I only wanted pancakes and not eggs and sausages and hash browns and bacon and grits (what the hell are they, by the way?) as well):

diner2

diner3

As you can see, Owen wasn't that impressed by it all (he stuck to the toast):

diner1

And the pissweak American coffee wasn't even that bad:

diner4

We also saw the New Amsterdams (no photos, alas), and Owen got to meet Matt Pryor (of Get Up Kids fame) and peed his pants a little. Matt was really nice - he picked up that we were Australians right away and was like, "what the hell are you thinking, coming here at this time of the year??!!". We'll be seeing them again in Boston this coming Sunday.

Seattle WA

Writing from Chicago (and after several days of unimaginable coldness and stupid credit card dramas and absolutely shithouse hostels), last week in Seattle seems like a lifetime ago.

Ahh, Seattle.

gunexchange

We were staying at a pretty nice hostel (I now more fully comprehend what constituents a "nice" hostel) downtown, near the Pike Place Market which was a great spot since we were only around for a couple of days. The weather was surprisingly good (all that talk of the rainy Northwest proved to be incorrect, at least for our time there), and everyday was dry(ish) and not too cold. We spent our first day there exploring two of Seattle's best-stocked pop-culture museums - first the Science Fiction Museum and then the Experience Music Project.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside and I can only remember a few of the awesome things we saw. The Sci-Fi Museum had a huge variety of stuff - from books to posters, videos, film memorabilia and sci-fi art (especially a lot of cool cover art from 1960s - 1980s pulp novels - it seemed pertinent, since I had just finished reading Jonathan Letham's Fortress of Solitude, in which the main character's father is forced to lower his high ideals as an artist to illustrate sci fi covers and wins a Hugo for his troubles). I was excited to see some of the props and costumes from the Alien movies, probably my favourite of the genre, as well as - DEEP DEEP BREATHS - handwritten manuscripts of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle novels along with his empty inkwells and pens. OMG! There was heaps of other stuff from Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and a blur of other popular series, books and films.

The Experience Music Project started up, I think, as a museum tribute to Seattle local Jimi Hendrix, and it has grown in size to include a tour of Northwestern music since the early 20th Century, a hip hop history room and a temporary collection of Disney music stuff. The entrance to the museum showcases an amazing sculpture - an automatonish structure built entirely out of musical instruments that plays several compositions by the scultor, Trimpin. Although I don't feel particularly strongly about Jimi Hendrix (sure, he is important to modern rock music and guitar technique and all that, but I don't ever really crave to sit down and listen to his music!), it was interesting to read about his life pre-solo career, with all the bands he played in and his career as a parajumper in the military. The EMP has a piece of the guitar he smashed at the Monterey Pop festival, which was cool to see. I'd imagine the rest of it has gone for a bit on eBay. In the Northwest room, they have guitars played (and smashed) by Nirvana - my 14 year old self would have DIED! It was also cool to see that they'd acknowledged all the riot grrl stuff that came out of Olympia - Sleater-Kinney, L7 and Bikini Kill.

The Seattle Centre, where the museums are located, is also home to the Space Needle, which is, I gather, another piece of utterly frivolous architecture that exists merely to prove that buildings are, like, tall. It does look pretty cool, kind of like a flying saucer, but we only observed it from the ground (it is that spaceshipy thing wayyy off in the background).

spaceneedle

After a few hours soaking up all of that, we headed back to Pike Place for the famous Seattle clam chowder - I had the most phenomenal bowl of creamy, creamy white clam chowder looking out onto foggy Lake Washington (I think?). It was pretty sweet! I also made a scary kind of friend at the fish market:

monkfisheww

The next day we walked up to Capitol Hill to look around at Seattle's famous art/music/weirdo district. It was a little like Hawthorne in Portland, in that there was a few thrift stores broken up by millions of different variations on the same fast food restaurant. We didn't veer off Broadway though, and I think there was more stuff to be seen elsewhere off the main road. Once again, thanks to our "Lets just walk around and hope we find it" approach, I think we missed out on some of the more closely hidden treasures.

After a lunch of burritos and a locally brewed beer (brewed with raspberries - strange and sweet, yet good), we headed back downtown to walk down 1st Avenue to some of the more boutique-y areas down near the waterfront. It wound up being more of a walking rather than shopping trip (thankfully, says the budget), but the area is really pretty - lots of old buildings and little alleys and things. I did visit a couple of nice bookstores - one very serious-looking second hand/antiquarian dealer that was full of old, expensive hardcovers, and then the Elliot Bay Book Company, which I think is kind of an old, reputable company that does a lot of author signings and that kind of thing. I did pick up a copy of A Disorder Perculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus (which I have since finished - highly recommended, very dark and funny) and then, an unanticipated and somewhat guilty purchase - a signed first edition hardcover of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist - oops!

Here are some pictures taken along 1st Avenue, down near the water:

downtown

downtown

Another Sydney-ish Thai dinner was our last outing for Seattle, apart from a stressful bus trip to the airport the following morning. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get more time there, it seems as though there were many, many more cool things that we didn't get around to. I guess that's the way with any city though, right?

Portland, Part II

On our last full day, we realised (as happens to us disorganised travelers) that we had only really taken in our immediate area and a little bit of downtown - the whole Waterfront district and Hawthorne (the "alternative" district) had been neglected, and we were running out of time.

In the morning, we took the free tram (all transport within the interstate, downtown area is free - how sweet is that??) down to the water and had a wander along the shoreline. In spite of, or maybe because of proximity to the river, this area of Portland is not particularly picturesque. The water is brown and bounded on all sides by industrial-looking areas. It was nice to take a walk away from the traffic and the shops, but there wasn't a whole lot to see.

After wandering aimlessly for a while, we decided to head over one of the many bridges towards the Hawthorne district, just to see if its reputation as the "freaky" suburb was correct. We walked a little way, then realised that in order to fit all the areas of interest in, our map had condensed the walk from 30 blocks to 3 - much, much further than we first thought! Still, we managed to navigate the bus (not without aggravating the driver and other commuters), and made it down into Hawthorne.

There more than anywhere else I noticed the difference between Sydney and all two of the cities we've visited so far - there's not so much shopping "strips", like King or Oxford Streets, as there is suburbs so there's lots of shops but they're broken up by a lot of houses and other stuff so they're a little harder to find. Compared to somewhere like Newtown, I didn't really think there was a whole lot of "alternative" stuff going on (and lets face it, how un-freaky is Newtown these days?). Still, there was good payoff - the first stop in Hawthorne was a store called the Cat's Meow, which stocked exclusively cat-related paraphenalia. Therein, I made a special, special friend, the best kind of friend:

portlandcat

What a cutie! My first cat-patting in the Northern Hemisphere, woohoo!

After more thrift shops, a record store and an excellent Indian lunch, we found this amazing place - an absolutely massive secondhand/antiques dealership absolutely FULL of cool stuff.

thrift1

thrift2

thrift3

Also amusing, and somehow vaguely sinister, the place was chockers full of owls:

orly

I could've furnished our entire flat over and over out of that place. If only art deco lamps were not too cumbersome to take on the plane!

On the way home, after one only slightly disasterous public transport experience, we got to have a little look around the Waterfront district. I think it was mostly upmarket shopping so we just walked around but even so, the streets were pretty to look at.

waterfrontdistrict1

waterfront2

This morning we had to head out early, after my final free bagel, to the station for our train to Seattle. And here we are now - of course, first stop after dumping our bags, the internet! So that's that for Portland. It would be a cool city to live in - aside from the abundance of good book and owl shopping, it was very clean. Even though bins were scarce, there was almost no rubbish in the streets. It has a beautiful public library, marble columns and palatial stairways all over, and drivers give way to pedestrians! Very cool indeed!

Portland, Part I

Firstly, from the new occupant of a disgracefully messy dorm in rainy Seattle (who plugs in a hair straightener and then leaves it IN THE SINK?? Not to mention, I don't know you, why would I want to look at your underwear all over the floor??), can I just say that our time in Portland was sweet sweet sweet! We didn't do a whole lot more than wander around exploring the shops and enjoying the "vibes", but that seems to be pretty much the local pasttime of choice. The weather the whole time we were there was clear (apart from a little drizzle on our first day), even warm at times.

The first day we were there, we couldn't NOT immediately head to Powell's City of Books for the ultimate in literary orgies:

powellsmmmm

Their collection is pretty amazing, and we spent a couple of hours wandering through the literature section bemoaning the fact that we had to go to all these other stupid cities when we could just spend all our money right here. They carry heaps of different editions, new and secondhand and lots of good sale stock. In spite of overwhelming temptation, I managed to walk away with only four books (and one of them isn't even for me!). I think I can suitably convey the magnitude of my restraint when I say that I found a first US edition first printing of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I LEFT IT THERE. I was almost a stranger to myself! I think to truly appreciate the coolness of Powell's, you'd need to be a Portland resident - I could die happy if I could go back there every weekend and absorb all the amazing things in a more gradual way, but trying to take it all in in one go, especially on a fairly tight budget, was just CRUEL!
After my forty days in the desert, we visited a few thrift shops and I promptly spent my saved book money on some jumpers (perhaps a more justifiable expense? They're certainly lighter to carry!) We also checked out a music store (in which it was Owen's turn to be tempted by sweet, sweet goodies), and had some hot chocolates and lazy winter day things like that.

Our hostel (which was really nice and clean and full of free bagels) was in the Northwest part of the city, the Alphabet District (named for the alphabetically ordered streets - truly my kind of city!). The Northwest area is full of nice restaurants and pretty, very American clapboard (is that what you call it?) houses - the kind you see happy, nuclear, middle class families living in in the movies. Also a cool feature (throughout most of the city, I think) were the fairy lights in all the bare trees - they definitely gave walks on crisp winter nights a romantic feel! It's sad, but I don't think something like that would last five minutes in Sydney. Surely they'd be torn down or moulded into grotesque luminous penises by our more selfish and cynical residents.
 

nw23rd

portlandhouses

There were also a number of other cool, random and amusing things, like a guy drumming in the park near our hostel (its pretty blurry, I wasn't close enough):

parkdrumming

And finally, a facility that caters to the more high-minded pooches amongst us:

virginiawoof

Ah Portland, my kind of place!

The Amtrak - Northern CA & Oregon

On Thursday morning we headed up to Union Station in LA to catch the train to Portland. I really wish I'd had more time to take some pictures inside the station but we were too paranoid about missing the train to stop and look around. It was great - art deco light fittings and tiling, marble floors and these amazing 1920's style leather seats in the waiting area.

The train trip was interesting - not too painful, considering it took a monumental 32 hours to get to Portland. We got to meet some interesting people - a cool lady who used to drive trucks and wants to build a brick barbeque, and a native Portlander who was able to give us some good tips for things to do. It did get a little weird when she started to say things like, "It blows my mind, people don't question that you can take pictures on your cellphone but they don't believe in psychic phenomena!" though. In spite of the almost constant flow of chatter, I was able to get quite a bit of sleep and even some reading done. Owen didn't fare so well though!

The highlight of the trip was definitely the scenery - even though it was an arduous day-and-a-half at times I'm really glad we took the train. It was incredible to see beaches and sunny coastlines on the first day and then snow and mountains on the second.

It is surprisingly difficult to take photos out of the window of a moving train, and the whole train + populated areas thing = POWERLINES EVERYWHERE! Still, I think these came out ok.

Coastline, about three hours out of LA:

northerncaltrain

Rodney, taking in the sights outside of Santa Barbara:

rodneysantabarbara

And then the mountains (the Cascades, I think), and Owen's first real-life look at snow:

snowomg

 

snowomg2

 

Which brings us to now - Portland, the land of awesome! I will update about it properly in the next couple of days, but so far we are having a great time. Powell's was so good I basically cried. I will never be satisfied with another bookstore again.