What can I say about Portland? Perhaps rather what needs to be said about Portland? Out of all the cities I've visited throughout the US and Europe, I'd have to say Portland reminds me the most of Philadelphia. While I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, it definitely had a familiar presence to it. Saying that it's more like a cleaner cooler Philadelphia might be more accurate however. Between bridges over the interwoven rivers, the downtown city architecture, the bike friendly layout, the way areas of the city are referred to as north, east, south and west, and the easy of which you can reach most places around the inner city in about 15 minutes.

I'd have to say Portland does have Philadelphia beat in 2 fairly notable areas that I find somewhat important; vegan food options and goth/industrial clubs. There seems to be a place you can go clubbing almost every night in Portland. It should also be noted that for some reason, per capita Portland has the highest number of strip clubs of any city in the country.

However, to coin a phrase the hippie hitchhiker I picked up along the way frequently used; the vegan food is "off the hook"! The sheer number of restaurants, with not simply good but amazing vegan options, was impressive. From biscuits and gravy to mock muffin sandwiches to all night vegan donut shops and vegan pirate bars Portland is, dare I say, a vegan utopia???

Now, you might ask what is Portland lacking…and I'd say good question. I could say a vegan barbershop, a vegan bar, a vegan tattoo shop, a vegan upscale restaurant, even a goth/industrial strip club. However, I'd be WRONG!!! Each of the things I mentioned either already exists in Portland or will be the end of the year. As unimaginable as that sounds, it's true. Probably the only things preventing me from choosing Portland as a final destination would be the rainy winters and strangely enough, the Philly vibe. Having lived in and around center city Philadelphia for over a decade now, I'm not sure I'm looking for a change to something that's so familiar…call me crazy.