First stop in Maine: Portland

After a couple of days in Boston, I was very excited to go to Portland and finally see Maine. And I wasn’t disappointed. I took a Greyhound bus from Boston and now I know why people avoid them. They tend to be late. Even though I was tired when I arrived in Portland, I ended up going out anyway.

My first real day in Portland started with delicious blueberry pancakes. I spent the day walking around with friends and discovering Portland. The weather was beautiful and I really enjoyed myself. Portland has many small and very unique restaurants and shops which I liked a lot. In the afternoon I had an amazing cake milkshake and I tried fried pickles. They weren’t too bad but they are simply not the kind of food that I enjoy. For me, as an Austrian, you just don’t fry pickles. But I don’t mind trying new things. Well, as long as they are vegetarian anyway.

Cake milkshake and fried pickles

Part two of my tour through Portland started in the evening. At first I shared a delicious pizza (I fear that I am going to use “delicious” until it becomes obsolete in this blog post) and a bottle of really nice red wine with Andrew. Thanks Travis for that pizza! Then we headed to a bar overlooking the city where we had Martinis. It was beautiful. Next we went to a couple of bars/pubs and I had a beer that tasted like pumpkin. Interesting.

The next morning I was pretty tired from going out the two previous nights. However, my tour of Portland wasn’t over yet. Andrew took me to get some grilled breakfast sandwich (one more thing I have never had before in my life) and then we went to Portland’s most photographed lighthouse. Unfortunately it was pouring and we got soaking wet but it was still gorgeous. I was supposed to take the bus to Bangor at around noon but by the time I got to the bus station it was full so I got a free ride on the next one four hours later. So we went back home and watched the movie State 51 (at least I think that’s what it was called) which was the perfect movie for a lazy afternoon.

At 4 pm I was finally on my bus to Bangor and UMaine. This time I took a Concord bus. They are on time, so much nicer, you can watch a movie, and you get free water and snacks. More on my first week at UMaine will follow soon.

PS: I am really tired at the moment so excuse this slightly uncohesive blog post.