HOLY CRAP NEW YORK NEW YORK

Sorry for shouting but....HOLY CRAP!!!

I've only walked a short way around Broadway and Times Square but hot damn is New York busy and jam packed with stuff. I already enjoy being able to walk fast and dart through the traffic. Anchorage has no traffic to speak of and it's not a wise move to run across the road between the cars because a) you'll slip on the ice and b) they all drive 4x4s up there so chances are they won't stop and they'll run you over.
Times Square is nuts. Completely nuts. I think I'm culture shocked. Alaska was so sleepy and comfy, here it's like...nothing else I've ever seen before.

Leaving Anchorage wasn't as heart-wrenching as I thought it would be. Mercifully I was kept distracted right up until I got out at the airport so I didn't have time to sit and stew about it. I am so grateful I met the people I did there, they made my time in Alaska worthwhile. I wish I could say more but...you never know who reads these things! Last thing I need is to get somebody in trouble or start off more gossip or anything like that. Anyway, I do hope I get to go back to work there...it would be very fun I think. I got to take photos with the friends I made there though which was good, but the bad part is the computer I'm on won't take my canon so I only have one pic of me and a friend (Aaron). We had a 'normal' photo before this but he thought he had a gut in it so we mucked around in this one.



Times Square! Seriously like, 50m from the hostel.


Hersheys Building




Oh oh red eye! I'm in front of the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza. It was freezing.


I don't know what building this is but it's damn tall. The Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree is right in the bottom of the pic (NYC equivalent to the Martin Place tree in Sydney, I guess).


Tomorrow I've got a tour, and then need to go to the consulate/embassy to work out my passport and VISA. There are flights to Dublin for $230 if I can only get an EU VISA. Also want to try and get some cheap theatre tickets (there is a way) because there are so many shows around here...Spamalot, Avenue Q, Chicago, Phantom, one with Bob Saget, Mary Poppins, etc etc. Tomorrow night I will walk around again with my canon (and try not to get rolled for it) and get some good quality pics of Times Square, Broadway and Rockefeller Plaza.

Right now I'm in the common room with 2 other Aussies and a kiwi. Ergh. I didn't go halfway around the world to hear strine and kiwi talk. Maybe it's just the impression I get but all the Aus/NZ travellers I meet are pretentious wankers. I'm the exception, of course! haha

I think that's about all I had to talk about for now...New York is so overwhelming. It really is a city for couples I think.

Oops 50seconds left!
Gotta goooooooo

hmmmm

I found out why people always know when I am sleeping hahahahaha

Leaving Anchorage today. So long, farewell, good bye, sayonara.
I want to come back here definately. But I want to come back here for the right reasons. The reason I loved it here so much was not because there was alot to do here, or anything like that (I mean come on, it's winter!) but because of the people I met. Of course *some* more than the others-but you know what-that is NOT the way to travel. People lie and they aren't always the people you think they are.
So coming back here to work will be the right thing to do I think. Focus on making money and seeing the land. Because the land is always beautiful and it doesn't keep secrets (but if it does they are ones you are glad to find out!) and generally it won't muck you around.
Sorry this is sounding a bit misanthropic but I've just been a bit cynical in the last few days.

Excited to go to New York now. It's not breaking my heart to leave here anymore. I'm ready to move on (run away?) and see what else there is to see. Bring my focus back on track-which is seeing America. Going to go to Montauk and try and get a weekend to Washington, DC. Seeing Allison and her family will be the highlight, as will be going to Niagara Falls. It's all looking up again. I have to be optimistic.
Another good thing about going to NYC will be the myriad of photo opportunities there will be. I've been so lazy lately just because there hasn't really been anything new to take photos of! But that will all change.

How was my NYE, you ask?
Well, in a nutshell it was boring. But I suppose it was better than last years?
Went out for drinks with some people from the hostel and we nicked an Alaska Aces pint glass, then I went with one of the guys to the Bush Company (a strip club) and saw a very lame 'Grease' theme show (like the movie Grease) and then went back to the hostel. Lame. I hope everyone else had a better time than I did. I got to see the youtube of the Sydney fireworks though which looked spectacular!!! (As always)

Wish me luck in getting a replacement passport and getting a VISA when I get to New York. Have a feeling I will need to go to Canada to get my VISA though. I've been told I can get a job in Dublin if I go there (connections from one of the staff at the hostel), which if he is being serious, would be pretty awesome. 2008 is here and the world is my oyster. What I will do with the opportunities in front of me and where I will take myself is a mystery right now. Isn't it exciting having the whole world in front of you and endless choices about where you can go and what you can do?

Everything happens for a reason, and I hope in 2008 I accept the things that happen and understand the reasons behind them. I think I'm off to a good start so far!

Next entry will be from New York City. Hopefully I will have lots of new pics, too :-)
Take care my Australian friends-enjoy the nice beach weather you guys are having.
xxx leash

Pics!!!

Got some more pics-yayayaya and a cheeky video clip or two, as well.

Heading out of Anchorage in a few days. Seriously it's going to break my heart to leave here. I really hope I can get a visa in New York so I can come back...I just know that if I go back to Australia I will fall back into a life of mediocrity and get a (crappy) job and probably go back to uni and get stuck back there. Plus it costs a bomb to get over here from Aus (and takes ages) so if I can just stay here then I would much rather do that. The Fur Rondy is on in February, there are ice sculpture contests/displays in March-plus the start of the Iditarod...then it goes to spring and all the snow melt and the flowers come back out. Jobs galore, too. Ones that pay fairly well, too.
It's making my upset just thinking about leaving all this.

Anyway enough of the emo-check out these:

First off the bat is a video from the hockey game I went to the other night. I was a bit too slow to catch the start of the brawl but I did the best I could.




Yay dogmushing! This was so much fun-the dogs love to run and it's pretty awesome being in the sled (and driving the sled, too, which I got to do!).


Look at his eyes!






Frozen car! Just down the road from my hostel in Anchorage.


Downtown Anchorage at 'night' (more like 5pm?)


View of Fairbanks


It was a warm day this day:




Arctic Circle:


Under the trans-alaska pipeline


Tundra (I guess). I love how vast areas in the country have no people in them...


Except for me!


Nothing but whiteness...


My camera battery just died so that will have to do for now...

Happy New Year, my antipodean friends!!!

It's a long-running 'in' joke that you come to Alaska if you are running away from something. Perhaps I am running away from my life back home...afterall, why even think about coming to Alaska? Subconsciously I bet it was because I knew it's far away and people go there to get lost. If you want to be really mushy about it I suppose you could say they also go to find themselves...

I love Anchorage (in case you didn't already know) for no particular reason.

Well, the world is still turning and like the last time I was overseas a major political event has taken place. When I was in India in 02/03, Saddam Hussein was captured. Now it is the assassination of Benazir Bhutto that is the main focus. Americans are taking it very seriously as Pakistan is an emerging/established nuclear country and the US gives them about $10 billion in aid each year (I think that's right...) and is considering dropping $50mil from that if Pakistan doesn't do anything about the terrorists (if they are behind the attack, which the papers today say they are). It's kind of insular though-all the Americans care about is what this means for them...if they are at risk or what it means to their economy.

And back home, David Hicks has finally been released. What will the crazies harp on about now? I hope the hundreds of 'Free Hicks' banners and placards will be appropriately recycled. Maybe they could add a 'C' to Hicks and go protest battery hens?

And of course the NYE I won't be in Stralya to see is tipped to be 'the one that people talk about for years to come' or something like that. (SMH.com.au) Even with hundreds of cable TV channels, there is still no window to the outside world here so all that is on TV is American material. It's pretty funny, (I might have already mentioned this) on one of the news reports they crossed to 'World' news and all it consisted of was news from different parts of the country. I never knew that Michigan was international to Anchorage? It's far enough away but not technically international news...not even intercontinental. I miss SBS world news and the World section of the papers back in Australia. It's not hard to see why Americans may not be that knowledgable about the outside world-unless something big happens they simply don't get exposed to it! The amount of times I have been asked if Australia uses 'dollars' and what season it is down there now and one guy even thought to get from Australia to New Zealand was a 3hr ferry ride!

Anyway. I went to another hockey game last night-don't get me wrong the last one I went to was cool but this one was AWESOME. There were fights galore, and the mascot game skating out with fireworks strapped to his skates and lit a big A (for Alaska Aces) in burning stuff on the ice...there was even a part in the game where two of the players (one from each team) shortly after the start of a new period threw off their gloves and started facing off. It must be something in the rules because all the other players backed off and let them punch on...it was so bizarre but engrossing at the same time. Maybe these were the mysterious 'enforcers' that I had heard about before? I really need to look up the rules of hockey. Anyway, it was a great game there was blood (which had to be scraped, frozen, off the ice) and stacks and stacks ons and one guy even fell so hard he snapped his stick in half! It came down to a penalty shootout because with TWO SECONDS to go, the Utah Grizzlies scored and made it a tie game. Talk about exciting!!!
Tonight I'm going to see 'Into the Wild' because the reviews in the papers have actually been pretty good for it and after reading the book and seeing an independent documentary about it, I'd like to see how Sean Penn handles directing a big screen adaptation of it. I'm not going alone, don't worry. One thing I haven't done yet and don't plan on doing is going to the movies alone. Everybody has their limits, hey.

In other news, I am all but guaranteed a job here if I get a visa-which is bittersweet in a way because I am fairly sure the US won't give me a visa. I can try to apply from Canada but I don't have the time to get to a consulate when I am there. I can always go back later, don't get me wrong, it's just funds that are constricting me. Anyway, fingers crossed that the US actually doesn't mind me working here and 'stealing a job' from one of their workers. It's not like in Alaska the foreigners are taking anything that the locals don't have access to-it's just that the locals are too lazy or don't want the jobs. The locals get $1600/1700 a year just for living here, and if they are natives with land that has been used or affected by oil drilling companies then they get stacks of money and shares for that too. It's possible (and is happening) to be a native here living in a remote village and earn over $50k a year. Without lifting a finger.

I'm in Kaladi Bros Cafe again BUT it's not the downtown one, I took the bus down to Northern Lights Blvd to Barnes & Noble to get some more books (Sorry, Shane, I got another Bill Bryson one. Your favourite.) and then took a trudge (through the brown snow) down the street and it's awesome down here I haven't been this way before. Went into REI sports, and now am at the Kaladi Bros here. It's packed and full of people-totally different to the downtown one! Next stop will be Play It Again Sports (checking the price of ski gear still) and then maybe a hairdresser if they have cheap cuts. I seriously need to get this damaged crap cut off the bottom of my hair. Just because I'm a backpacker doesn't mean I have to look like a hobo!!!! I painted my nails the other day too, bright festive red ('Big Apple Red') :-)

Hey just because I write big novels in here doesn't mean you should stop posting comments!! I love getting comments so show me some love and hit up my comments page ;-)
Have a happy New Year and if anybody knows how I can see videos of the fireworks from over here please let me know.
I'm off for a walk in the snow.

xxx leash

Yay Anchorage!!!

I am back in Anchorage and I am so happy to be back here let me tell you!!!

It's 9.20am and I'm in Kaladi Bros Cafe (where else?) drinking a watermelon latte-I told you I would get one before I left here!-and they've put on classical music this morning. There are cops or something in here talking to someone...I wonder what all that is about. Probably just collecting a drunk...they have this thing called CPS here, I can't remember exactly what it stands for but basically it's a booze bus that goes around collecting drunk people off the streets and out of public places and taking them somewhere to sleep it off. Wow there are 4 cops here now...hmmm



Soooo from the last time I wrote here nothing much had happened and my mood was deteriorating so I decided to cut my Fairbanks jaunt short and get the van back down to Anchorage on Boxing Day (Wednesday), instead of Friday. They don't really celebrate Boxing Day here at all...

Speaking of Boxing Day-I missed the cricket and I miss leftover mince pies and ham and cherries (although there are rarely any leftovers of those at my house).

But Christmas Day warrants a mention, before I go getting ahead of myself. My Christmas Day was pretty low key. I slept in, and went for a walk to 'downtown' (3.6 miles!! That's like, 5km?) and it was lightly snowing. White Christmas!!! On the way to downtown I stopped by at the Arctic Cam site (the physical site...not the website, duh) and called home to tell them to check out the website and they could actually see me! So that was kind of cool. >1200km (7500 miles) away and they could see me-albeit over webcam. You can tell I also stopped by at the Golden Heart Plaza where there is a signpost marking the various distances to worldwide cities :-P
Got back to the hostel via a cab because by this stage it was cold and dark and I didn't really feel like walking all that way back. The cabbie was cool, he was 81 years old and had all these stories about being in the war and all the places he had travelled to on tours of duty. He never made it to Australia though, which he really regrets. That's probably the most common thing I hear from people over here. "I've always wanted to go to Australia". Almost every single person who I talk to about Australia tells me that. If they have been in the military (which a surprisingly large amount of people I meet have) they will then tell me that they were supposed to go there or could have gone there but something came up and stopped them. I suppose it's nice that Australia has an international reputation as a desirable place to go. Anyway-back to the hostel! I got there and some of the others were hanging around and a local guy who had made friends with one of the guys staying there came in and asked if we wanted to go to his sauna. He had built this sauna himself and all the other guys from the hostel were going so I went along too. It was dark inside (save for a torch), about 210F inside and cramped but it was fun! I was dying though it was so hot...I came to Alaska to be cold, not to be hot!! But when the heat got too much for me I could just go outside and roll about in the snow then come back in and be glad for the heat.
One of the other guys staying there is a pretty experienced/accomplished hiker and camper out in the wilderness so he said he'd take me and another guy, Jaycee, up to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. It was getting all planned out and we were getting really excited to be going on this trip-but at the last minute he changes his mind and can't/won't take us. Lame!!! Man up and say you don't want to go if you don't want to go...just don't go making lame excuses to try and weasel your way out of it. So that was disappointing for me, because I really really wanted to go to Prudhoe but I take this as a sign that I am not meant to go there just now. Everything happens for a reason!

I got the van back to Anchorage (via Tok) the next morning, and it was a nice drive down even though I was in vans from 9am til 10.30pm. I did get to see a moose walking by the side of the road though, which is the closest I've seen one so far. As usual, I was the only passenger, sharing the van with cargo until Tok. After Tok I changed vans and got a new driver-a friendly talkative guy called Don. But I was still the only passenger until about 6pm! He was a great driver-always talking and telling me about the landscape and telling me awesome stories about his life in Alaska. Very entertaining! I didn't sleep the night before and I was glad for his stories and conversation otherwise I would have slept and when I'm the only passenger I feel rude for sleeping. Plus I would have missed out on some great scenery. We saw some more moose (at a distance) and caribou. At one stage a whole herd of caribou ran out onto the road in front of the van and Don had to stop to avoid hitting them! We passed by so close to them he could have touched them on their little white bums if he had stuck his hand out the window.
BUT ths ride wasn't all caribou and pretty mountains. Long story short, I lost my wallet for a portion of the ride and didn't realise until about 15 miles up the road. We had to double back and check all the places we had stopped and it was nowhere. On the way back (going in our original direction) I was getting pretty upset that it wasn't anywhere...and we were just going through the last place we stopped for me to get out for a photo and then Don goes "What's that?" and no shit sitting on the side of the road (in pitch black) was MY WALLET! FUCKKKKKKKKKK words can't express how relieved I was! Seriously. Without my wallet I would have had no photo ID and thus I wouldn't have existed as I had no way to prove who I am, basically. Nevermind all my cards and money in there. I made sure to give Don a fat tip when he dropped me off-I might still send him a 6 pack of beer as thanks. Don was a really awesome guy though I don't think I would have gotten my wallet back had it not been for him backtracking. Plus he bought everyone in the van tacos on one of our rest stops and if that doesn't make him a legend I don't know what else would. So that crisis averted I was very very very happy to be back in Anchorage at the Backpackers Inn. Very happy. Chatted with Manuel (he works there) and told him all about Coldfoot and my adventures and he seemed very interested in it. Also put my pics up to show him, and seeing them up on the screen made me realise how blurry and crap alot of my shots were! Damn! The good ones were worth all the bad ones though, if that makes sense.

Oh crap the cops have just led this guy out in handcuffs! I wonder what he did?

So yeah that's about all that's happened to me lately. I think I've done something bad to my elbow though...don't know if I said anything on here at the time but in Homer (Dec 7-9) I hit my left elbow in an awkward way and it got this grape-sized lump on it and since then it's been tender and I've managed to knock it a few times since...but anyway now it looks like I have screws under my skin it's that bumpy and weird. I'm a little worried-it doesn't look normal! It doesn't hurt to use it though so until that happens I'm keeping cool about it. My wrist has been giving me trouble but I think I must be sleeping on it or something like that because every so often I'll be able to crack it and it will temporarily feel better again.
But other than that I'm doing fine, physically. I think I'm wasting away a little but I've got more than enough to spare so I don't mind in the least! I'm eating mainly fruit, veges (mmmmm broccoli), some pasta and 2min noodles. Tonight though I'm making lamingtons to share with the others in the hostel-couldn't find sponge so I had to make do with an 'angel food cake'...I hope it works out! My hair is so gross at the ends it's like straw. I bought leave in conditioner, I bought regular conditioner for dry/damaged hair, but nothing is working. Will definately need to give it the chop to get rid of the damage. For the first time since I can remember I am getting KNOTS in my hair. That never used to happen!!! The cold weather has cleared my skin up too which is always welcome.

Ok I have definately written enough for now. The sun is just starting to come up (it's 10.15am now) and today I think I will go to the Dept Public Lands (or whatever it's called) because they supposedly have good displays there. My snowlady outside the hostel died too so I could make another one...

But yes. Glad to be back in Anchorage. I love Alaska, I will be very sorry to leave here I know it.

Hope everyone is taking care back home and had a great Christmas/Boxing Day. Eat lots of meat pies and mangoes for me (but not mixed together-that's just gross) because I am sorely missing them!

xxx lisha

How can it be?

That it's only 5.45pm and I am so tired? It feels like it's 10pm more like.
Also I have been so frugal lately and already I'm broke? It's this stupid hostel. Totally overpriced and they couldn't make me feel more unwelcome if they tried. There I said it!
There is another place in town that is $25 a night (not $30 like this place) so I might call them up and see if they have space...I'm just worried it will be a dump or something.
The northern lights aren't coming back on while I'm up here so it really feels like I'm here for nothing now. Tomorrow I might try and call the people I'm heading back down to Fairbanks with on the 28th and see if they can move my ride forward. At least in Anchorage it's only like, $19 a night!
Christmas for the Aussies tomorrow. For me tomorrow is dog-sledding day. One of the guys went ice fishing today but it was like, $140 so too expensive for me. I went to the UAF Museum instead and it was great! Even got a (distant) view of Denali/Mt McKinley from the observation point out the front of the museum.
It's not been too cold, only around 0-4F (around -17C) so walking around hasn't been too bad.
I guess I'm just in a kind of funk or something at the moment. Angry at this place and my money situation, that's all.

Happy Christmas!

Season's Greetings!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just goes to show you are never too big to sit on Santa's knee! Although it does kind of look like I was squashing him.

More Pics (from Coldfoot/Fairbanks)

See I told you I would post them!

I'm a bit upset that they aren't as vibrant/bright as they seem on my camera's LCD but it could just be the computer settings. Anyway I'll cut the crap-enjoy!
Fairbanks
This is me in front of Billie's Backpackers where I'm staying. Notice my red nose from the cold.


Coldfoot
The plane I went up to Coldfoot in. Needless to say I was quite nervous.


View from my accommodation at Coldfoot




Wintry fun...it was only around -30F but we got a cup of hot water and threw it into the air. It turned into steam before it could hit the ground :-P


Me about to go snowshoeing


Me whilst snowshoeing. Notice the ice all over my face and hair and everything.


Me on the top of Finger Mountain. I seriously almost lost my fingers up here (I think) it was ridiculously cold (-40F) and windy. Coldest I have ever been in my whole life.

This was my tundra moment, even though the tundra was below me.




Yes this is what I came up here for:




Funny story, the second night I was there I went outside around 11pm and looked up and saw what looked like a white rainbow going from behind one mountain right across the sky in a big arc to behind another mountain on the opposite side. I thought it was one of those 'moon rainbows' that Dr Karl spoke about once. Anyway I went into the cafe and asked if my guide was around anywhere, because I wanted to ask him what was up with the sky. The waitress (a really nice girl, who coincidentally was called Elisha too!) kind of got this look on her face and smiled and said "It's the northern lights!!!" And took me out through the kitchen and showed me the best places to see them from. Sure enough, in a few moments more came up and they drifted across the sky like clouds. Some rippled like ribbons-it was quite pretty. I only saw them that one time up there but hopefully the clouds will stay away in Fairbanks and I will see them some more.

PICS!

Finally, hey!!

So these start from Homer (around the 8th of Dec) and go up through Anchorage and then to Fairbanks (16th Dec). Holy crap, it's only been just over a week! It feels like much longer to me.

The silly computer won't recognise my pentax so these are just ones from my canon.


Bald Eagles on Homer Spit. Wild ones, this time!


Lands End at Homer Spit. Beautiful.






I don't know why I have an adam's apple in this one...
I was (and am) very proud of my snowlady!

Will put more on later when I find a computer that will work with my pentax.

Tropical icy icy

A hoi hoi!

Fairbanks is cold.

Like...really cold. I'll put some pics up soon proving it. It's -20F today, which is like, -27C. That's officially the coldest place I've ever been. Colder than the -20C freezer at work. It's freaking cold. I like it, it just will take a bit of getting used to.

There is lots of snow around here, unlike in Anchorage-which gets snow and then when it gets trampled or cars go over it, turning it to mush and slush-the snow here stays frozen. It's like permanent powder snow everywhere. Ice crystals fall like snow but they are so small you can't see them land on anything and it just looks like you're walking through a glitterstorm. It's very pretty but I kind of worry about breathing them in.
The inside of my nose froze...my eyelashes froze together...when I took off my scarf that I had wrapped around my chin I discovered it had ice crystals and frost all over it from the condensation in my breath!

Fairbanks is a difficult city to get around if you don't have a car. And even if you do have a car the ice and snow on the roads makes it a challenging place to drive in. There are no buses on a sunday so today I just took a walk down the road to the cafe/bookshop. They are looking for a permanent staff member but I don't want to work in Fairbanks.

The hostel I'm in is nice, but there is only about 4 people here at any one time. So I'll call it cosy (cozy?). I'm going to Coldfoot tomorrow, which is above the Arctic Circle. Will hang around there for a few days then check out the Yukon River and the Arctic Circle proper on the way back down. The Yukon will be frozen though-everything up here is frozen. It's cool though because around town there are these ice sculptures that are just sitting around. The Uni down the road has one out the front of a polar bear.

I will put some photos up very soon-if you have any suggestions for what I can take pictures of please let me know. I'm at the stage where alot of the stuff I'm seeing isn't too unusual to me anymore but I take pics wherever I can. My poor little camera battery isn't liking the cold too much though. I think the memory card is screwing up the camera too. Often I will turn it on and it will just be frozen-won't even let me turn it back off, I have to take the memory card out to make it shut down. It only happens with that card, too. But because the other one is full I have to deal with it. My phone has also somehow semi-broken. The other day in Anchorage I found that a few of the keys on one side weren't working-which was quite frustrating in itself-but now only one key is not responding...unfortunately it's the one I need to lock the phone (and turn the alarm off) so that's pretty annoying but I'm not too fussed about it. As long as it doesn't get bumped and call some random number without me knowing!

Did I mention it's cold here?
Take care, and enjoy the heat (haha)
-Lisha

oh and p.s. I saw a MOOSE yesterday!!! 3 of them, in fact!