Dodging hipsters in Portland and being Beat in Big Sur

Earlier this summer, I spent a few weeks in the US visiting family in Portland, Oregon and Santa Cruz, CA. I've been to California a number of times but it was my first time visiting Oregon.

Portland is rainy (even in June) and full of hipsters but has great coffee, tonnes of food carts serving cheap and tasty food, lots of beautiful scenery and a book shop that occupies an entire city block- what more could one want?! Portland is known for its craft beers but despite my best efforts, I didn't get to sample as many as I would have liked! I did try some Oregon wine though, which was really good. The Oregon coast is also beautiful and I loved the countryside driving north towards Washington.

I took the train from Portland to San Jose- 22 hours on the Amtrak Coast Starlight. It was a gorgeous way to travel, slow but comfortable with amazing scenery along the way. Going by train always feels like a more romantic way of travelling. I've loved long train journeys since I was 17 and flew into Warsaw then boarded a train across the Belorussian border to Brest. The Coast Starlight has a viewing carriage with floor to ceiling windows and the economy carriages were extremely comfortable. It was cheaper than flying and a much more enjoyable way of travelling. 

I stayed with my aunt in her beautiful home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although we did a lot for the three weeks or so I was there- hiking in the Redwoods, visiting San Francisco, walking along the coast in Santa Cruz, driving down to Big Sur- most days I was quite content to just lie out on the deck. .

. . . I know, it's hard to imagine why!

Santa Cruz is one of my favourite places on earth and San Francisco is a great city but the highlight of the trip for me was driving down the coast to Big Sur. It was simply amazing. Bizarrely, the countryside reminded me of the West of Ireland at times, with the yellow and red flowers in the rolling hills- and of course the grey skies!

We also visited Berkeley; there's some amazing views from the top of the campus right across the Bay. 

We spent 4th of July in San Francisco and I visited the Beat Museum for a second time. I first went when I was 16 and obsessed with Jack Kerouac. Now, I prefer the overlooked female Beat writers who lacked the freedom and recognition of their male counterparts. The Beat Museum is small but well worth a visit, with a great gift/book shop. They also pay due recognition to the many women Beat writers. I love this quote from Gregory Corso.

I had an amazing time and managed to do it all on an extremely small budget, staying with family and flying standby (my father works for an airline). Overall, I spent less for a month in America than I did for two weeks in Northern Spain two years ago!