Portland claims to be a green city and it is proud of it, so don't be surprised to see a very clean city with a lot of nature (understand trees) and ecological tools.
Portland presents the great advantage to have a tramway, the MAX tramway, that covers all downtown Portland and Portland on its whole, plus the suburbs. It is 2.30$ a 2 hour pass and 4.75$ a day pass. During my day in Portland, I visited every part of the downtown, from the University State of Portland to Chinatown. The main stop downtown is Pioneer Square. I went to see the Portland Building, which claims to be a post modern architectural building where you can find Portlandia. Portlandia is the 2nd biggest copper statue of the USA after the Statue of Liberty, and it represents the soul of Portland, its goddess. I went also to Powell Store, which is the largest Library (or store) of used books in Oregon. I had the opportunity to buy the Lonely Planet guide of the California Coast. I was amazed to see a lot of "food-trucks", that you can consider like mini fast-food where you can find international food (thai, chinese, vietnamese, mexican...) for very cheap.
Next to Downtown Portland, there is the big Washington Park, a fantastic park perfect for an afternoon hiking. There is a tramway stop so it is easy to access the park. I took the Wildwood trail walk, which covers the most part of the Park. It took me around 1h15 to walk it. It was really beautiful and in late afternoon, you will find yourself lost in the middle of the forest without anything around but trees.
The Amtrak station is close to the downtown area and then close to the tramway. I didn't look for the youth hostel, but I know there are two affordable youth hostel in Portland, one in the NW side and one in the SE side. I think it is around 20$ a night.
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