Hot Dogs

Icelandic people claim that their hot dogs are the best in the world. I not so respectfully disagree. A random reindeer hot dog off a street stand in Anchorage is way better. It does not make you wish for some other food to get the taste out of your mouth and you don't feel hungry anymore after eating one, rather than eating two or three and still feeling hungry and slightly sick. Plus they put pickles on them.
To anyone wondering by now if I had any adventures in Alaska or if I just let myself be driven around and ate hot dogs, be consoled, if I have time after the shower and the computer is free I will tell you how I got viciously attacked over and over by animals while hiking in the backcountry in the Denali National Park.

people

In my last post I said people here are incredible friendly. Let me say that again: People here are INCREDIBLE friendly. What I had said about the non-existent public transport system is true as well, even Iceland has more overland buses. So I ended up walking / hitchhiking a lot. A big thank you to everyone who picked me up! Out in the countryside there is almost no wait, I met a family who squished together to let me in, a guy from the bush (his place is only accessible by boat) with a very friendly dog, who took me halfway up Hatchers Pass because he had nothing else to do and kindly stopped on all the gold claims and beaver dams I wanted to take pictures of. I also got a ride with a cab driver in Wassila, who saw me walking with my backpack and felt sorry for me.
Hatchers Pass is an old gold mining road, winding through the Talkeenta mountains. It is a beautiful area and as the top part of the road was still closed due to snow, I had to hike over it and enjoy quiet snow covered mountains and lots of ground squirrels. Next to the beaver dams and gold claims along the river, I also saw entrances to hard rock mines high in the mountains. At the end of the pass is the historical Independence Mine, now a museum. I went there the morning after crossing the pass, after spending a night in some skiing-huts and a bed after a week of camping.
Arriving in the mine the ladies in the information centre, where I wanted to leave my bag, were so impressed about me being on foot, that they made me a bowl of homemade soup and gave me a boiled egg and potato as well as a banana as a picnic.
Which I needed later as my hitchhiking luck ran out when arriving in the town of Palmer, so I had to walk the 5 miles from town to the state-park where I was going to put up my tent for two nights. Walking back to Palmer the next day, originally to buy supplies and go to visit a reindeer farm, I stopped at a house with a sign "photo gallery" on it. The gallery belonged to Myron Rosenberg, who was not only kind enough to show me his beautiful pictures, but also share his travel stories (and a tip where to go hiking near Whittier towards the glacier), stories and keepsakes of his father in the war in Germany with me, gave me a ride and back to a supermarket and a photograph of Wonderlake in Denali National Park, better than I could have ever taken.
As I said, people here a incredible nice.

Anchorage

I made it to Ancorage and decided to stay here, rather than wait three fours and than spend one more on the plane to get to Fairbanks. I already walked around downtown yesterday and now am looking for a way to get to a national park and have some adventures. I shared a cab from the airport with two germans yesterday (as the public transport system seems to be non existent so trying to get to the national parks by bus will be exiting). I have to wait for them to get up as they have all the information we got from the information centre yesterday, but I went to bed at 5 and missed them coming back from town and at 5:30 they are not awake yet. I think I like Ancorage (though I was in a bit of a haze walking through it yesterday), people here incredible friendly, I was flustered the first few times when I was asked "how are you" by cashiers or other service people as I am not used to small talk anymore. But I like that people thank the bus driver and are friendly to each other. I|m in a hostel run by a Chinese lady which is a bit of a surprise egg. It looks like a normal family home, but inside there is a swimming pool, a kickers, lots of space...

Countdown...

I'm on my way to bed and at 5 in the morning tomorrow I will drive to the airport.
If anyone wants a postcard on their birthday, send me an email with address and date. But no promises, the postcard will only be more likely....

transport

I think I made a decision about how to get around in the USA. Buying a car seems like a lot of paperwork (and expensive) and renting a car is pretty much unaffordable, even for someone as rich as me. So I decided to buy a moped. Especially for the road along the Oregon and California coast it makes sense to have a form of transport which helps me to enjoy the scenery rather than sitting in a car and having to find places to stop. I found three scooter dealers in Seattle, which also sell used mopeds, although I'm not opposed to buying a new one. Registration usually goes through the dealer, insurance can be made online (required by law in some of the states I will be traveling through) and to ride a 50cc engine my driver license is enough. And mopeds are cool!

14.8 kg

that's what my backpack weighs, with food that might go up to 20 kg. Still, considering how much stuff I have and how extensive my trip is that is quite efficient I think. And I did not even forget my camera...

skills

I went into the woods with my nephew the other day to try and use a compass. We both made it out alive, but learned the valuable lesson that sliding down a wet slide is a bad idea if you like your trousers to be dry. So now I know how to use a map and a compass and how to navigate using landmarks and a compass. And I will beware of slides.
Another very important skill I wanted to master before I leave was playing (and more challenging: tuning) my ukulele. As carrying my guitar back from Iceland in the heat while also having a big backpack was a: way to heavy and hot and b: I managed to strain my hand doing it, fortunately my advanced physio magic saved it, I decided taking the ukulele is a better choice. If you wonder why I'm taking an instrument at all you a: have no soul and b: it goes with my hammock, so come October, imagine me lying in my hammock which is attached to two palm trees on the white Caribbean beach playing my ukulele. And to think that other people take an iPod instead, phew.

ukulele tuning website

Jasmin!

Jasmin is hopefully taking over my blog for one or two entries, as she has a lot of Ecuador and Colombia advice, as she spend half a year living in Ecuador.

Stuff

The last week consisted of shopping sprees and a family weekend. Now I have nearly all the stuff I will need and a good reason to flee the country before I have to attend another family weekend. Only kidding, my family is great.
Buying all this stuff (I did not own much of it) was really expensive, though fun. I tried to buy cheaply (going to decathlon and only to the globetrotter outlet) but it still comes up to almost 700€

So, here is a list of stuff I will take with me

tent
7° sleeping bag
silk inlet
fleece inlet/blanket
mattress
hammock
stove and cooking utensils
first aid kid, containing next to plasters and stuff water purifier tablets, aspirin, paracetamol (for dengue fever), malaria prophylactic, fenistil, a whistle (for the bears) and a rescue sheet, which my brother said he used all the time (for shelter etc, not to actually rescue people)
toiletries include sunscreen, anti-mosquito spray for skin and clothes and the usual
clothes are difficult, as I have to prepare for everything between under 0° to +40°. So next to underwear, socks and tops I have two light hiking trousers, one pair of long underwear, a light woolen top, a very pretty hooded fleece pullover, my hiking boots, sandals, leg warmers, sun hat, a woolen hat, my scarf which can also be a skirt a bikini and gaiters.
Documents I have not collected yet, but I will need: my passport (and a copy), USA ESTA, printed ticket to USA and Mexico (for USA immigration) vaccination documents (yellowfever) driver license, credit cards, emergency phone numbers for credit cards, health insurance documents, some dollars.
Other stuff: my camera and film (yes, I'm that old-fashioned, sun glasses, a fan, Alaska guide book (I will exchange them in the hostels), Spanish guide book, water pouch, day-pack and (the coolest) pepper-spray.

I would have never thought to buy pepper-spray myself. It was part of the survival pack my family gave me as a goodbye/late birthday present. Most of the stuff in there was things I had thought of myself (sunscreen, first aid kid etc, but there was also the rescue sheet and pepper spray. I'm supposed to use the pepper spray on animals (such as bears) but I guess if people are too annoying... :) I can imagine that pepper spray might piss of a bear even more, so maybe my family was not looking out for me after all...