some more portland, and seattle, wa

Portland

It's been a while since I left Portland, so this is gonna be just a short summary.

I explored mostly by myself, sometimes by bike and sometimes by bus and MAX.

On Wednesday I got my new awesome piercing! And I went to a CouchSurfing Meeting to meet some people and get some information about the city, since my hosts didn't have much time. It was pretty cool, there was a whole lot of people there, and we had a huge bucket of donuts and beer. After that I met up with some of my friends at a bar, and I ended up staying up really late with some guy named Josh. And so it happened that I was really hungover the next day, so I didn't do much. Just went to a park with a great view and watched the sunset :)

On Friday night I just went to a friend's house and a a couple beer, nothing too exciting.

On Saturday we went Halloween Costume Shopping - they some pretty awesome stores in Portland! Too bad my backpack's already more than full :(

At night we wanted to go to a show, but they checked ID at the door so we had to go to another bar. That was fun too though, and it was also kind of a girl's night (until Antonio and his co-worker came :)).

On Sunday me and 2 of Antonio's roommates went to his work to get breakfast. Since there were tons of people, we had to wait and so we walked around and went to a cool store which was selling all kinds of stuffed animals, bones and butterflies. The breakfast was delicious, and Antonio was really sweet, helping me out and paying for it!

Ater it took me forever to decide if I wanted to go to Seattle Sunday night or Monday morning, I ended up staying and we had a horror movie night with lots of popcorn and candy.

Seattle

So first of all, Seattle is awesome!

It's not too big, not too small and has a lot of artsy stuff and cool and openminded people :)

I got there Monday afternoon, so I didn't do much that day.

On Tuesday I went to Capitol Hill, a very nice district and also to a park. There I met some pretty interesting people and I ended up hanging out with them for a while. We also went to the community college and one of them played piano and we just hung out there. After that I met up with a friend's friend and we just walked around a little bit and played with his dog in the park. He also gave me a ride back to the house, which was very nice :)

Back at the house were two new couchsurfers and we had a pumpkin carving party. I haven't done that in forever and they turned out really nice.

On Wednesday I did a lot of sightseeing (that was the first time I really did that on my whole trip) with one of the other couchsurfers. We walked around a lot and we saw a lot from the city and it's a really cool city :) It was exhausting too, so I decided to take the opportunity to go to a small mediation circle and it was just the perfect thing to do :) I had a lot of energy after that and I felt really good. At night we went to play poker at a friend's of my host's house.

On Thursday I spend a lot of time at the waterfront, just drawing. After that I met up with my new friends and had a very interesting experience at a small art shop at the market. At midnight we went to a movie (Cloud Atlas) which was long, but surprisingly pretty good.

And because of the movie I had only 6 hours of sleep, because I had to get up early the next day. I met my friend at a cafe and then I wanted to take the bus to Olympia. But since i found a really cool place to hang out on the way to the bus staion, I decided to take the later bus and stay there for a couple hours, which was totally worth it :)

So all in all I really liked Seattle, and I would love to live there for a couple months!

portland, or

I arrived in Portland on Monday night. Fortunately it was easy to find to the house, since Portland has a nice public transit system and it didn't take very long.

I'm staying with friends of Lauren's and Andrea's again and they seem pretty cool - I just haven't seen them much yet, because all of them are working most of the time. So that means I'm a lot by myself which is kinda hard right now, especially because it's a huge contrast to Eugene. I think that's the first time on my trip where a travel partner or just someone close to talk to would be very nice - right now everytime I get comfortable around someone it's time to move on, which is definitely a reason why I wish I had more time.
But I have a bike that I can use, so I can explore on my own :) Portland is a quite big city and it's crazy about biking, almost too crazy, especially when you have no idea where to go. Yesterday i biked 14 miles, and wanted to go to a park and then it was just steep trails, and so exhausting! But I'm slowly getting used to it and today I found some really cool spots along the river and a nice bikepath, far away from cars.

I also feel like Portland is a city of contrasts - it has the ugliest industrial districts and then some very nice and calm ones. And it changes all the time. But overall I think it's a cool place, and I'm gonna give it another chance, eventhough the first day here wasn't the best one. And today was already better! :)

eugene, or

After quite a while at the ranch, I'm finally moving again! Well, I moved to Eugene and now I'm here for a couple days. I'm staying with a friend of my host in Denver (Lauren) and her awesome roommates. It's like a big family, and they are all really cool and welcoming. It's also beautiful fall here, with red and yellow trees and quite some rain :) We do a lot of bikeriding and also a lot of hanging around at the house, on the porch, watching little kids play soccer in the park.

We also went to the Saturday Market, a clay fest and to Picadilly, a huge flea market. At the house we play games (the settlers of catan!) and eat a lot of food and chill on the porch.

Tonight is hair dying night :) I now have blonde, teal and a racoon tail dreads.

On my last day in Eugene I went to an awesome bookstore and I found the exact same book as I saw at the Picadilly market, which is awesome.

Eventhough I didn't see a whole lot of Eugene, I had a great time there. I felt really comfortable at the house and it was hard to leave and I definetely hope to see all of my hosts again!

still at the ranch

learned how to make vegan cheesecake and cheese

helped out and worked on the farm - fed cows, harvested the garden, stored the produce, loaded horses

lots of good fresh food

a lot of time to think...maybe too much

now watching breaking bad and making dried apples - very good :)

still don't have a place to stay in eugene, but it's gonna work out somehow, probably going there tomorrow

mon. oct. 8

after having a terrible time deciding if i wanted to stay here for 2 more days or leave today, i decided to stay. i'm gonna work a little bit (and get paid for it yay) and try to not be stressed out about not having enough time. which is hard, because i feel like i don't have enough time -.- but i guess 2 days are not that much of a difference.

wilderness gateway ranch, etna, ca

Getting there

I spent another night in Arcata, at the guys house that offered me a ride to Weaverville (about halfway to Etna). Sometime in the afternoon we finally took off - we stopped in Willow Creek, where I met the Czech guys again, but just for a little.

When we finally made it to Weaverville it was already getting dark and I knew i had to spend the night there. Fortunately Rod was very nice and showed me some good spots to camp - I found a nice place in a park behind a museum. It was actually pretty comfortable, and not too cold, I just had to get up early because I didn't wanna get in trouble with the police or any park rangers or whatever. When I got up, I noticed that 5 deers accompained me in the park :)

In the morning I found a nice little local restaurant where I had some hot tea and asked around about the possibilities of hitchhiking up hwy3. People told me very different things. an old couple gave me some money, I guess they felt bad for me.

I found a pretty good spot right at the "hwy entrance" (it's not even really a hwy), but all the people that stopped were only following the road for like 10 to 20 miles - what i needed was at least 35 (to Trinity Center) or 75 (to Etna) and I didn't really wanna get stuck in the middle of nowhere.
After a while someone stopped (an experienced hitchhiker) and told me that there's a gas station a little further up the road and that my chances there are better, since I can directly talk to people. He gave me a joint and said i should smile, because people here don't like backpackers.

When I finally found someone that was going up to Trinity Center, it seemed like they didn't have any room in their truck. So I just kept talking to them (a nice cuple, going camping) until they made some room and gave me a ride. They even offered me to go camping with them, but by that time I already told Becky, my host, that I was on the way to Trinity Center, where she would pick me up and I didn't have phone service (I still don't).

So everything worked out, and it was actually a lot of fun and a little adventure :)

At the ranch

So the ranch is awesome! The landlady is Becky, Raquel's mom (my host in Truckee) and she manages it all pretty much by herself. It's a big house, a smaller one with a renter, and a lot of property with lamas, horses, and different kinds of organic beef cows. There's also two big Great Pyrenees dogs and a little puppy and some cats.

The ranch is located in a valley, and around it are mountains :) It's very beautiful and I'm really enjoying it here. I'm helping with a little bit of farm work, and also with creating a flyer and a website for the ranch. Becky's trying to sell some of her beef, but she also wants to do some projects or workshops here and maybe host people more often - I'm trying to support her here, because I feel that this place has a lot of potential.

Other than that I eat a lot of good, fresh food, and try to organize all the things that are on my mind (which are a lot!). We went for a walk, cleaned out the barn for a new load of hay, fed the cows....and today we're gonna make vegan cheese :D

It really makes me feel good being out here. I might even extend my stay for a couple more days, i feel like I need more time to think :) Also I don't have a host for my next stop yet.

ashland, or

On Thursday, Becky and some friends had a Yoga class in Ashland, OR and they invited me to come with them. I didn't do yoga, but I walked around the town, which is a very cute and progressive college town. I met some other travellers, and I guess that's pretty much it.

After the Yoga class we went shopping - people from Etna always come up here to do their grocery shopping. The Ashland Coop is a really cool organic food store, and I aslo tried to find a new adapter for my eletronics, but unfortunately I can't really afford it right now. But it was nice seeing another town,  and I had a good time.

Oh, and someone asked me if I was an actress, cause apperently I have the right charisma and personality haha. I didn't know that, but things like that are always good to hear :)

arcata, ca

A day later than planned, i finally left San Francisco on Thursday. It's not that I didn't have fun, but 7 days of non-stop party and big city is more than enough. So I headed to Arcata, a small town in Northern California. I found a last-minute place to stay for the first two nights. It was a really cool big house, that used to be a hospital.
During the days I hung out at the plaza, a little park where a lot of traveling folk and hobos are, or in the Redwood Park. The park/forest is beautiful, and eventhough the redwoods here aren't that big, it was definitely worth seeing it and spend some time out in nature. I also got to go to the beach, where a little private drum circle and some fire shows were going on :) very good feeling. After that the Mexican guy who was also staying at the house showed me some of his handcrafting, which was pretty amazing.
I also met up with two guys from the Czech Republic here, which was fun and one night we camped out in the redwoods, trying to hide from parkrangers. We met some other people there, and had a fun night with a campfire, some food and fun conversations. I really enjoyed that, there's so much traveling spirit - people that have been traveling for 4, 5 years. You can definitely learn a lot from them and it's fun to listen to their stories.
And eventhough the night was cold, waking up in the forest was amazing :)
I was kinda planning on hitchhiking out of Arcata on Sunday, but it didn't really work out so I'm here for another day. I found a new place to stay from someone who picked me up on the street and this is also gonna be my ride to Weaverville, a little town a little closer to Etna, where I have to go. I'm hoping to make it up there soon, but we'll see.Right now I don't know. And I forgot my adapter in San Fran, so no way to charge my phone, camera or computer. Thank God lots of people have the same charger as I do.