Never thought I'd be sad to head to the Bay

Let me just start by saying it: I <3 Portland!  Hopefully, by the end of this sure-to-be long post, you'll know why :)

First, let's start with the hostel and all the great people I've met!  There's just been so many cool people to hang out with over the past few days, I can't wait for Europe!  I promised a few short bios (which I probably won't be able to do in Europe), so here we go:

Nick (New Jersey) - This guy has just hit 10,000 miles on his trip across the country.  He's zig-zagged all the way accross the US, visiting family, couch-surfing, and avoiding all interstates, choosing to take the ultimate "scenic route".  He's planning on working down in the LA area as an IT guy.

Benny (Oregon/California) - A very interesting guy, he used to be homeless before escaping down to Cali for stealing DXM stuff (cough drugs).  Now he's apparently found religion (in a big way, believe me) and has returned to face a judge for his wrongs.

Ian (Rhode Island) - Out on a vacation from his gf I guess, he's just in to see the city.

Mark (Minnesota) - From Minneapolis, he's been biking around the city, checking out everything to see.  He's in town for a while during some sort of conference.  He and I chatted a ton about the midwest.

Brad (Alberta, Canada) - Love ya man!  Brad's been my bud around a lotta Hawthorne.  He's current in college getting a degree in film, and man, his knowledge shows!  Everyday since I've been here, he's gone to at least 1 or 2 small films here in Portland.  He's chilling in Portland to see a few concerts.  Hope all goes well man!

Greg (New York) - After teaching English in Korea, Greg spent 9 months backpacking India, Thailand, Morocco, Europe, and a bunch of other places I can't remember.  Thanks for all the euro-advice, it's been super helpful!  He's taking a break from NY to check out Portland, and (like me) seeing if he could maybe live out here someday.  He'll be heading back out this way on a roadtrip (man, you should've talked to Nick), including a trip up the PCH (hopefully to visit with all of us in SF!)

Carrie (California) - Haha, I guess I should Pennsylvania Carrie, but you seem to be such a Santa Cruz girl now, I find a hard time say that's where you're from.  She's out here volunteering full time in SC, following here passion.  Glad to hear you had a safe flight back and we should hang out soon!

Sarah (Connecticut) - I know you're reading this Sarah, so I'll do my best to describe you :-P  Sarah decided to pick up from her job on the East Coast to work at the hostel, which she says has been an awesome experience.  She's gonna be heading out soon to travel up north, hopefully to Vancouver (which I HIGHLY recommend, along with Seattle) before she hopefully will meet up with us in the Bay.  You better come :)

I think that's a pretty short, quick recap of all my Portland peeps.  For everybody else, I'm sorry, there's just so many stories to tell!

So, what about today?  Well, I woke up later (of course) still feeling tired from the day before.  It was going to rain later, so I thought I could pull off the bike ride, but in the end, the guy at the desk convinced me that the 3-5 hour trip to just reach the start of the Columbia Gorge probably wasn't worth it today, especially in my shape from yesterday haha.  It's alright, I'm going to be doing a road trip up here to see the Gorge and a bunch more of the neighborhoods ASAP, I guarentee it!

I decided to "wing it", very un-Matt-like I must say, but it was great.  Sarah, Greg, and I headed up to Mt. Tabor Park, a park that's the site of an extinct volcano which has great views of the city and Mt. Hood on clear days.  We talked about all the places we'd like to live; I commented on my stressing about trying to move to SF.  

After words, we got some vegan for lunch (Greg and I said we'd try it, and it was really good!) and then split up.  Carrie headed back to CA :( , Sarah headed back to the hostel, and Greg and I ventured up to the NE neighboorhoods to explore based on Sarah's suggestions.  Besides Belmont/Hawthorne, we also checked out the neighboorhoods around Alberta St. and Mississippi St. areas.  We had a great bus driver from England, who gave us a lot of insider info on the neighborhoods, which was great to hear.  He pointed out houses that were around $350/400k, which looked more than nice enough to me.  Man, I forget how big a rip CA is sometimes...

Out of all the places we saw, I still liked the funky, bohemian feel of Belmont best.  Mississippi was already pretty built up, and Alberta was definitely up-and-coming (with quite a mix of houses/businesses), but I liked the little Belmont area best.  I'm always saying how much I've wanted to live in a big city and try it out once, but now I want to live in a neighborhood in a decently sized city that has some character.  I like the mixed usage feel of neighborhoods here, with a few shops or little restaurants interspersed with houses.  It reminded me a lot of Bucktown and Chicago.  San Jose to me just feels a lot more sterile; I feel like there's not as much character.

Greg and I talked a lot about what we thought about living here.  Well folks, let's just say, after this trip, my list of cities to live in has been totally changed from: