Jun 26, 2012

Last days in the Last Frontier

Where was I? Oh yes, Kennicott. In the old mine which is gonna be my summer cabin when I retire. Well, it was anyways time to leave that paradise behind and go to see some more wildlife, this time in the ocean!

We drove to Valdez, amazing scenery (again, I know, I'm repeating myself...), we literarily drove into a glacier on the way. The town itself doesn't need any extra mentions, a boring place. The reason to go to Valdez is anyways the Prince William Sound. We booked a glacier cruise with the small Lu-Lu Belle ship and I finally saw a whale! And not only one. We followed a mom & baby humpbacks for quite a while. A group of Dall's Porpoises followed the ship for maybe on an hour, we found floating sea otters and loads of sea lions on the coast. This would have been reason enough to come to Alaska.



After 2 nights in Valdez we drove back to Anchorage. The scenery was amazing. Who would have guessed?

In Anchorage we hiked up to flattop mountain on a really hot day and had a midsummer party at Sanna's yard. I might have to admit that grilled Alaskan salmon is ridiculously delicious!!! Especially when u wash it down with too much beer & red wine. The might have been some "champagne" too.

On the hang over Sunday we went to town center where we found Dominic "the Dominator" Cruz!!! YEA! It's a shame I didn't get a picture of Jered's jealous face.

On Sunday Melanie & I drove to the Kenai peninsula for one night. Bad weather, didn't see much and did even less. Mt. Marathon, I'll do you some other year! Now it's time to say goodbye, hug my baby (the pick-up) one last time and put on the flip flops. As I'll land in Jamaica on Wednesday afternoon :) :) :)

Jun 21, 2012

In the pick-up in Alaska

After a few days in the trailor I decided to end my career as a white trash biatch and headed towards Denali together with Melanie. We got to borrow a pick-up from Larry and Richelle, Sanna's neighbors and originally we thought of sleeping in the back as there for sure would be enough space. But as girls are, they freeze and rather pay big bucks for fancy motel rooms and cottages in shady camping areas.

We drove through to Denali and took a look at quite a few places (too expensive, Pia got bad vibes, too expensive, no availability, too expensive etc...) until we ended up in a small cottage in a funny place quite near the national park entrance. Good beds, not too expensive and we had cold beers so life was sweet!

On the first in the national park day I hiked up the Mt. Healy overlook trail. It should have taken 2 hours one way but why waste time when you can do it in 2 hours return. And to be honest I really needed some exercise, didn't really move myself at all in Anchorage.

Afterwards we drove around and made a small hike along the Savage river. And saw a marmot.

Next day we took the shuttle bus to Eielson. The return trip took 8 hours during which we finally saw some decent wild life! Here's the proof:



From Denali the trip continued to Fairbanks where we headed directly to the tourist info as we didn't want to knock on every door to find 2 empty beds again. They sent us to a really nice & cosy B&B near the center which was quite expensive (100 dollar for a double with shared bathroom! Yea I'm for sure not in Asia anymore...) But I had blueberries for breakfast, that was almost worth the 100 dollar... We didn't really do much in Fairbanks, drove around, went to pioneer park and slept during the day. And ate loads of BBQ meat. I'm still full.

Also jogging in the forest is rewarding, dunno who was more surprised, me or the moose... The pic was taken after he run away but continued checking out if I was following or not. This was near black rapids lodge on Richardson Highway.

Our road trip continued after a stop at Chena hot springs towards Kennecott, the ghost town in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which is also the largest in the States. We booked a night in McCarthy, a town with 40 inhabitants a few miles down the road. Both places were just amazing, McCarthy looked like a place I thought all Alaskan towns would look like. We had some beers with the cook of the saloon after he surprised me drinking own beers in the hotel backyard. He turned out to be a metal head from Anchorage. Always nice to meet some locals!

Well Kennecott... I've always had a soft spot for abandoned houses in spooky places. I was like a kid in a candy store. I want to live in that place! Just the summer months though, I for sure don't want to test the winters in the middle of the mountains.

The history of the place is really interesting, but too long to be repeated here so if interested, follow this link. There's a lodge right next to the old copper mine but well, it was way too expensive for us. C'mon lottery win, why is it taking so long???

So it was time to move on, again. I steared the pick-up towards south, Valdez to be exact. Hell yea that was a scenic ride!!! Amazing scenery, left & right, just surreal landscape! We shot “a few” pics from the car, smiling like retards.

And I finally managed to book my next flight, not to Seattle or Sacramento as planned but to Jamaica. Why not! It takes me only 20 hours to get there so it's for sure worth the 6 days... One love! The routing Alaska-Jamaica-Boston-Iceland makes sense!

Jun 11, 2012

From LA to Alaska

The contrast couldn't be much bigger, considering we are speaking of one country here. I spent a few days in the warm, plastic & quite superficial but also appealing Los Angeles before I flew to rural, cold & amazingly beautiful Alaska. Nobody has to wonder which one I like better...

I was really skeptical towards LA, I really thought I'm gonna more or less hate the place and just want to move on. But yea, once again, I was proofed wrong. I can't say I loved LA and want to go back asap, but I for sure also didn't dislike it, quite the opposite. I had really good time, met some nice people (already in the airport shuttle van) and spent a nice day & evening with Noora, a friend from Finland. The days in LA were also quite healthy ones for me, I went to Runyon Canyon everyday, twice for jogging and once for yoga. I also tried to hunt down Lemmy in Rainbow but no luck, he must have heard that I'm in town and hid somewhere :/ Maybe next time as I for sure wouldn't mind having a stop over in LA again.





Surfers in Malibu.

Griffith observatory.

After 3 days in LA I got to Alaska, where I'll be spending around 3 weeks. Sanna, Jered & Oskari picked me up from the Airport and after loading some beer into the pick up we headed to see my new home = the trailor! Okay, it's in Sanna's yard, not in a park and it's quite posh so I'm not quite getting the authentic feeling of being white trash but I'll do my best! I can borrow Sanna's dog (who still doesn't let me into the inner circle...), kid and cats and then I might feel it! Might also have to skip a shower or two. Though Melanie might not like that when she arrives here on Tuesday.

I can also borrow Sanna's neighbors pick-up during my stay here which is quite a cool one, it's huge and we can sleep in the back so no need to put up tents when we leave to the national parks & mountains. Which will be on Wed or Thu this week!!! Can't wait!

Welcome to Alaska!!!

Who are you and what are you doing in MY yard??? I'm not  in Fate's inner circle. Yet...

Jun 7, 2012

Oishii Nippon!

So I learned only one new word in japanese, oishii! Better than nothing!

My reason to go to Japan was simple: FOOD. I love japanese food. All of it. Even all the weird & suspicious stuff end up being delicious. I could never live in this country as I'd never stop eating.


I had sushi every day, at least once. I had it for breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Onigiris between meal times and rice crackers for snacks. I also really like Asahi, the local beer, but during the 5 days I only had a few pints. Really expensive in bars and c'mon, if I can get a portion of sushi for the price of one can of beer, it's hardly a competition. I also think that I've had enough beer in the last months and need a break now... Until Alaska...

Maho likes oysters!
Luckily I had the chance to stay at Maho's place, a japanese girl who was recently studying in Finland for 7 months. She had a really nice place in a scandinavian look-a-like house in Kaminoge and she also once cooked chicken teriyaki for me. Delicous!!! Thanx again for everything Maho!!!


I did one trip outside of Tokyo, to Hakone. Beautiful serene place where you can do a round trip using trains, mountain railway, rope way, boat and bus. On clear days the view is amazing, as you can capture Mt. Fuji's reflection on the lake Ashi-no-ko. Well, of course it wasn't clear on the day I went there but I still got to see the holy volcano from the train on the way to Hakone before the clouds closed in. In Hakone I had udon noodles and tempura. Oishii!

I also visited the open air museum in Hakone. If all museums would be like this I'd be hanging around in them all the time.

Otherwise I just strolled around Tokyo, sometimes with Maho, sometimes alone. My feet hurt. I also went to one metal bar, Godz, but it was too loud, air-con was turned on too cold and beer too expensive. I so much rather sit on my (okay, and Kate's...) window table at Tom&Jerry in KTM. Or go to see sumo training!

Jun 2, 2012

China, it was nice to know you

I won't be back. Now I've seen the pandas, tasted some local foods (suffered for 2 days afterwards) and that's all I need from this country. I do have to admit that the people were more friendly than I expected and they did not try to walk over me but this country just never has been appealing to me. My opinion also didn't change during this short visit. I also can't deal with all this shouting and spitting. This country must be full of deaf people.

And no, this has nothing to do with the fact that I terribly miss Nepal and would so much rather be there.

But yea, Pandas were cute.



So were the red pandas.





Chengdu not so.
We went to the chinese opera. Laughed a lot (no it was not a comedy).

We did some speed dating in a park.

And the highlight of the trip was Toby, MY small kitten. Kate unpacked him from my backpack the morning we left.

And now I'm in Tokyo for 5 days, that means a few kilos of SUSHI!!!

Jun 1, 2012

Nepal, u did it again...

This time we spent altogether 6 weeks in Nepal. China cancelled Tibet but really, I honestly can't say that I was really unhappy about it as I always enjoy the time in my favorite country. And to Tibet we'll go next year.

In the last week after we came back from Langtang we went with Tashi to Bimal Nagar, a place between Pokhara and Kathmandu for some more climbing. It was finally time for me to climb my first multi-pitches!!!

On the first day we climbed a 80 meter high wall. I lead climbed 2 parts, Tashi one. This was also the first time for me belaying from the top but I got good advises in before hand and yea, belaying with a gri gri is always a pleasure, compared to atc f.ex. The route was maybe 5c-6a, with the difficult parts in the 1st and 2nd pitch. At the top we enjoyed the view with cold beers :)

The next day we did a 6 c multi-pitch, so much harder and I was quite desperate at times. But after the difficult part (2-4 bolts) all was fine & a few fingers bleeding but it was so much fun!!! Can't wait to do some more climbing, hopefully in California or latest in Alaska.

In the last evening in Kathmandu we met up with our Nepali boys for some dal bhat and beers. Got some snacks too, small pieces of cow head... Yummy???
Kate got a tattoo!
And beer!!!
Thanx for everything, for the good time, all the help and a great last evening Tapan, Tashi, Chitra, MacGyver & Kuman! We'll miss u! See you soon! Let's see if I can wait until next year before I book flights to KTM again...