Travelling Hopefully - A Book Store Surrounded by a City

Although due in at 3.30 pm I didn't get to Portland until after sundown.  Night had fallen and was sprawled inelegantly across the city like a drunk in a gutter by the time I arrived by which time my hosts could have been forgiven for thinking I wasn't going to turn up at all.  I got into a cab and gave the driver the address,
"Where's that?" He asked.
"Portland," I replied in a fit of helpfulness.
Eventually he found the place and my hosts arrived just in time to stop me tearing the lockbox containing the house keys off the wall.  Dog noises emanated from inside the house and were revealed to belong to a pair of pug like animals who were disposed to be friendly.  There was also a cat whose attitude was a lot more ambiguous.

Squirrels!  I saw squirrels!  I was so excited I started taking photos of them.  Hopefully the neighbours whose lawn the squirrels were frolicking on realised it was just the squirrels I was interested in.  My hosts informed me that squirrels are quite common in these parts and they were a little bemused by my fascination with all things squirrel.

With the squirrel generated excitement temporarily over (it would recur throughout my stay) I took stock of my plans for the day.  Powell's Books!  Wow, that didn't take long.  Yes the truth is I only really came to Portland to check out this bookstore which was said to cover an entire block (spoiler alert, it does).  In keeping with my newfound sense of direction I didn't get lost on the way there.

Portland is a city I could get used to very quickly.  It's reasonably small with an unreasonably large amount of public transport.  Plus they also grow roses (and did I mention the squirrels?) although I didn't see any until I was actually leaving.  The Amtrak station has a rose garden out the front but of course I didn't see that when I arrived due to it being pitch black.

There were at least two street fair/market things happening when I entered the city both of which I ignored as I headed towards Powells.  Powells is as big and impressive as expected with colour coded rooms to help guide you around.  It also has a cafe so you can gloat over your new purchases with the assistance of caffeine.  The one criticism I would make is that while its broad it isn't necessarily deep.  It's sections on the Habsburgs and Byzantium were easily outmatched by what I have on my shelves at home.  Still I was able to pick up a few items (plus a birthday present for my brother), all in all I was lucky to get away with only spending a hundred dollars.

I hate Apple stores, large square glass boxes filled with people and tables and no apparent customer service centre.  I find them intimidating to enter and infuriating to experience once there.  Part of it is probably because I only go there when I want something specific, a discrete purchase that should be a five minute in and out job.  I'm not interested in getting my tablet to boil eggs or synching up my toilet so it can download my favourite songs from Netflix or whatever the fuck it is they do in these stores.  In this case, at the behest of a work colleague, I wanted an iTunes card (see what I go through for you Liza?).  Failing to find one (my fault, they were there) I walked to a table and waited to be served.  When that didn't work I did something clever.  Rather than look for a staff member I just looked at the nearest customers.  When they had finished talking to someone I grabbed him on the (accurate) assumption that he must work there.  Cornered, he gave me directions to the iTunes cards.  He couldn't serve me himself, apparently he wasn't that kind of shop assistant.

Of course once it looked like I might finger the merchandise a helpful young man detached himself from the throng so I could pay him.  He was a little thrown when I attempted to pay with green slips of paper signed by the US Treasury Secretary instead with a device that went "beep" but he rallied magnificently (having the correct change helped) and even provided me with a paper receipt although I do get the impression he had to pop out and cut down a tree in order to do so.

I emerged from Apple's Temple of Obscurity purchase triumphantly in hand and discovered something amazing about the Portland Apple Store.  It was less than a minute from the light rail that would take me back to my accommodation.  I'm really starting to like Portland.