Home(r) and back again
well, hi again...
so, lets see, what have i done since last time... actually, not much. though i guess that the post will still be quite long...
i went hitchhiking all the way to "the end of the road" - the most beautiful town of Homer.
i couldn't manage it within the same day, but i made it to Homer.
so beautiful...
picture yourself the end of the earth, where the sea begins, and than you have a 3-miles long strip going into it. now, behind you there are green nice hills, and a nice town, and when you look out to the sea - it's actually a bay. and you can see the other side, just a few miles away.
mountains. glaciers. snow. summits. ice field.
just amazing.
not much to do, but so much beauty!
but let's give a little account of my personal doing anyway...
Kim took me to the Hwy, and from there i had a ride (I) to northern exit of eagle river, about 20 miles south, with a local man who likes to travel; then another ride (II) a few miles further with a local guy to the southern exit of eagle river; from there yet another local guy (III) took me to the Hwy exit near the airport (inside anchorage); the next ride (IV) was still a local guy that took me out of anchorage (though he didn't need to go that way - in fact, he apologised he has to work, so he can't take me all the way to Homer); and here's a change - 3 local guys (V) took me to the junc. near Girdwood, some 30 miles down the road...; then i was picked up (VI) by a German-Alaskan guy and his old mom, going to pick up his nephew from Whittier he dropped me at the Whittier turn off*; next (VII) came two polish guys who worked 2.5 months in an Alaskan cannery and now they're traveling for a week in Alaska and 3 weeks down in Seattle. they went to Seward and dropped me off at the Homer turn off; after them a local fishing guide (VIII) took me to sterling; and a young guy that moved to Alaska recently after spending 6 summers here took me (IX) just over soldotna; an ex-Alaskan (now from Utah) took me a little further (X), and since it was already ~19 and i had no luck for about 30 minutes, i camped for the night. next morning a dog sledger took me (XI) to ninilchik and said that if I'll come back, i might be able to crush at his place (he's building a new home just below the Russian church in ninilchik village); and a fisher, probably a Russian guy, took me all the way to homer.
so beautiful...
i went to Homer hostel, but there was nobody there, so i waited a little bit, tried to follow their "if we're not here" instructions, but couldn't find anyone. so i left my backpack there, and went to hang around a little, taking advantage on the sunny day.
i got to the information center right away, and they said i came on the right weekend (it was Friday) - on Saturday there's some kind of Indian gathering, they come with their canoes in the morning, after a while there's some traditional meal, and in the evening they have a drum performance of some sort. plus, the art galleries have a special opening or something, so you can stroll along the main street, and enter each one of the galleries, eat and drink a little, and by the time I'll get to the main event in the museum i will probably be full and drunk. hurray!
plus, since i don't have a car, she advised me to just go down to the beach, and take advantage of the low tide which is building now (the summit is about 90 minutes ahead) to stroll along the beach.
so i did as she advised me. i went to the beach, and strolled north. nice. but when you look back - beautiful. i keep going north, on the annoying stones. nice. look back - beautiful! i kept thinking well, maybe just around the corner... but nope. so after about an hour i gave up and went back. at least on the way back i kept seeing the beautiful scenery...
still no one at the hostel. so i tried my luck with Internet. but the library was closed for 2 weeks starting on that same very day, and the place they sent me to denied having Internet access though there was a sign "Internet".
still no one at the hostel, so i decided to go to "seaside farm" the other hostel, which is 5 miles out of town. i didn't remember seeing it on the way there, but...
Vaars, the local guy who took me didn't know the place, but he checked in the phonebook and we discovered it's 5 miles out of town but to the east and not to the north...
well, the hostel was weird, with a very little and underequipped kitchen, 2 guys living there instead of renting a place and stuff like that. but it was clean and in general it was OK.
next morning discovered that this galleries' opening was the day before, and i found out the gathering consisted of 4 canoes, very few Indians, and on the whole - very disappointing... so i tried to cross the bay in order to hike among the glaciers, mountains, lakes on the other side, but it was just to expensive - crossing meant taking a water taxi that cost like a half day whale-searching-glaciers-seeing-wildlife-watching cruise in Seward. guess what i preferred...
so i just spent some time on the beach, looking at sea-gulls and the "forbidden land" across the bay, and then i went back to the hostel. and the rest of the day being rainy i just stayed there. napping, reading, eating, talking.
next day i found some small-but-lovely hiking paths near town, and afterwards i started going north to ninilchik. after ~2hours and 3 rides, i got to the hostel, took a bicycle and explored the area. i tried to find the dog sledger that gave me a ride and asked me to come over, but i couldn't.
so next day i hit the road back to Palmer, and i had a ride with the hostelers' son to soldotna and than a guy that was going all the way from Homer to Palmer - his wife has a stand at the Alaska State Fair... so he even got me in for free... and it was very interesting to talk to him. he's very interested in the Israeli-Arab problem, and he read quite a lot. he even read Churchill's' 6 volumes of WWII history, and he just finished a book about Ben Laden... and i got to see the whales again**
the fair itself was almost OK... but it was kind of interesting, to see what is it like, a state fair...
anyway, afterwards i came home (Kim's place), and today i helped to clean a little, had a nice nap, and the whole family gathered (fishing season ended and they came back home) and we had a nice dinner (yami lasagna!) and we played cards, and it was really nice!
*with them i got to see my first whales!!! at the time i thought they were orchas (that what they told me), and i didn't really get to see them, only the white spray when ever their backs touched the water, but...
**it turned out this are Belugas. quite a small whale (~4m) and they hunt salmons when tide is changing and there are strong currents. and this time i really got to see them. it turned out that they are black while they're young, but they turn white when they grow, and then, you can hardly see them from afar. but i saw the black fins! and i took a lot of pictures, and zooming in i got to see the grownups too!
well, until next time...
so, lets see, what have i done since last time... actually, not much. though i guess that the post will still be quite long...
i went hitchhiking all the way to "the end of the road" - the most beautiful town of Homer.
i couldn't manage it within the same day, but i made it to Homer.
so beautiful...
picture yourself the end of the earth, where the sea begins, and than you have a 3-miles long strip going into it. now, behind you there are green nice hills, and a nice town, and when you look out to the sea - it's actually a bay. and you can see the other side, just a few miles away.
mountains. glaciers. snow. summits. ice field.
just amazing.
not much to do, but so much beauty!
but let's give a little account of my personal doing anyway...
Kim took me to the Hwy, and from there i had a ride (I) to northern exit of eagle river, about 20 miles south, with a local man who likes to travel; then another ride (II) a few miles further with a local guy to the southern exit of eagle river; from there yet another local guy (III) took me to the Hwy exit near the airport (inside anchorage); the next ride (IV) was still a local guy that took me out of anchorage (though he didn't need to go that way - in fact, he apologised he has to work, so he can't take me all the way to Homer); and here's a change - 3 local guys (V) took me to the junc. near Girdwood, some 30 miles down the road...; then i was picked up (VI) by a German-Alaskan guy and his old mom, going to pick up his nephew from Whittier he dropped me at the Whittier turn off*; next (VII) came two polish guys who worked 2.5 months in an Alaskan cannery and now they're traveling for a week in Alaska and 3 weeks down in Seattle. they went to Seward and dropped me off at the Homer turn off; after them a local fishing guide (VIII) took me to sterling; and a young guy that moved to Alaska recently after spending 6 summers here took me (IX) just over soldotna; an ex-Alaskan (now from Utah) took me a little further (X), and since it was already ~19 and i had no luck for about 30 minutes, i camped for the night. next morning a dog sledger took me (XI) to ninilchik and said that if I'll come back, i might be able to crush at his place (he's building a new home just below the Russian church in ninilchik village); and a fisher, probably a Russian guy, took me all the way to homer.
so beautiful...
i went to Homer hostel, but there was nobody there, so i waited a little bit, tried to follow their "if we're not here" instructions, but couldn't find anyone. so i left my backpack there, and went to hang around a little, taking advantage on the sunny day.
i got to the information center right away, and they said i came on the right weekend (it was Friday) - on Saturday there's some kind of Indian gathering, they come with their canoes in the morning, after a while there's some traditional meal, and in the evening they have a drum performance of some sort. plus, the art galleries have a special opening or something, so you can stroll along the main street, and enter each one of the galleries, eat and drink a little, and by the time I'll get to the main event in the museum i will probably be full and drunk. hurray!
plus, since i don't have a car, she advised me to just go down to the beach, and take advantage of the low tide which is building now (the summit is about 90 minutes ahead) to stroll along the beach.
so i did as she advised me. i went to the beach, and strolled north. nice. but when you look back - beautiful. i keep going north, on the annoying stones. nice. look back - beautiful! i kept thinking well, maybe just around the corner... but nope. so after about an hour i gave up and went back. at least on the way back i kept seeing the beautiful scenery...
still no one at the hostel. so i tried my luck with Internet. but the library was closed for 2 weeks starting on that same very day, and the place they sent me to denied having Internet access though there was a sign "Internet".
still no one at the hostel, so i decided to go to "seaside farm" the other hostel, which is 5 miles out of town. i didn't remember seeing it on the way there, but...
Vaars, the local guy who took me didn't know the place, but he checked in the phonebook and we discovered it's 5 miles out of town but to the east and not to the north...
well, the hostel was weird, with a very little and underequipped kitchen, 2 guys living there instead of renting a place and stuff like that. but it was clean and in general it was OK.
next morning discovered that this galleries' opening was the day before, and i found out the gathering consisted of 4 canoes, very few Indians, and on the whole - very disappointing... so i tried to cross the bay in order to hike among the glaciers, mountains, lakes on the other side, but it was just to expensive - crossing meant taking a water taxi that cost like a half day whale-searching-glaciers-seeing-wildlife-watching cruise in Seward. guess what i preferred...
so i just spent some time on the beach, looking at sea-gulls and the "forbidden land" across the bay, and then i went back to the hostel. and the rest of the day being rainy i just stayed there. napping, reading, eating, talking.
next day i found some small-but-lovely hiking paths near town, and afterwards i started going north to ninilchik. after ~2hours and 3 rides, i got to the hostel, took a bicycle and explored the area. i tried to find the dog sledger that gave me a ride and asked me to come over, but i couldn't.
so next day i hit the road back to Palmer, and i had a ride with the hostelers' son to soldotna and than a guy that was going all the way from Homer to Palmer - his wife has a stand at the Alaska State Fair... so he even got me in for free... and it was very interesting to talk to him. he's very interested in the Israeli-Arab problem, and he read quite a lot. he even read Churchill's' 6 volumes of WWII history, and he just finished a book about Ben Laden... and i got to see the whales again**
the fair itself was almost OK... but it was kind of interesting, to see what is it like, a state fair...
anyway, afterwards i came home (Kim's place), and today i helped to clean a little, had a nice nap, and the whole family gathered (fishing season ended and they came back home) and we had a nice dinner (yami lasagna!) and we played cards, and it was really nice!
*with them i got to see my first whales!!! at the time i thought they were orchas (that what they told me), and i didn't really get to see them, only the white spray when ever their backs touched the water, but...
**it turned out this are Belugas. quite a small whale (~4m) and they hunt salmons when tide is changing and there are strong currents. and this time i really got to see them. it turned out that they are black while they're young, but they turn white when they grow, and then, you can hardly see them from afar. but i saw the black fins! and i took a lot of pictures, and zooming in i got to see the grownups too!
well, until next time...
posted by הזידנרים at 2:33 AM
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