You can\u2019t visit Portland, Oregon, the same way you visit other cities. You won\u2019t appreciate the essence of Portland if you just book a nice hotel, eat at some interesting restaurants and then maybe go to a festival. Portland\u2019s singular allure, rather, exists in its culture\u2019s somewhat contradictory emphasis on both community and individuality. Everything wonderful about its restaurants, parks, businesses, transportation and so on originates in this wonderfully quirky peculiarity.<\/p>\n
The aesthetics of Portland let you know right away: this place is different. The smallest park in the world, Mill Ends Park, covers a little more than 3 square feet of ground on the west bank of the Willamette River, while the 5,100 acres of Forest Park qualify it as one of the largest urban parks in the country. The world\u2019s largest naked bike ride puts thousands of bare Portland butts on bicycle seats every summer (this year on June 7) and sends them careening through downtown. Telephone poles display pictures of lost chickens, hula hoops are bike-locked in front of restaurants, and Benson Bubblers are not to be called \u201cwater fountains.\u201d Examples of Portland\u2019s iconoclasm are everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\t\t