Anchorage, AK

Anchorage, Alaska
December 9-12, 2006

December 9th

We set out on a 8am plane for Anchorage, with a short layover in Las Vegas. We had amazing luck with all our flights are got on to all of them, which was anxiety-fulled because we were flying non-res (or standby). We arrived in Anchorage as the sun was beginning to set, which is roughly 4pm in the winter. During the winter months average daylight is about four to six hours. During our few days there the sun normally rose around 9:30am and set around 4:00pm. However, the sun never rises above that far into the sky because of the tilt of the earth. During the summer months the sun is up for about 20 hours on average. On the summer soltice the sun stays up for 24 hours, which our CS hosts told us prompts bars to stay open 24 hours. Basically, it's treated like a huge party. After some slight trouble with getting our rental car we were off onto the snow-covered roads. Surprisingly, the weather is not as bad as many think. On average it was between 15 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit during our stay but there's virtually no windchill. The roads were fairly clear but most were covered in packed snow. We headed off to visit our Couch surfing host, Gracie. Her sister came over shortly after we arrived and they took us to a Mexican restaurant down the main road. The food was decent, even though we ended up getting burgers, and after dinner Gracie and Brittany took us on a tour of downtown Anchorage. They showed many of the main tourist attractions as well as provided us with Alaskan information and answered all of our questions. We learned quite a few things from them:
- Eskimo is a derogatory term - Native is a better choice
- 1 in 5 people that visit Alaska never leave
- West View is not a good area of town
- Most cars in Alaska have studded tires
After a tour of downtown, Gracie headed towards South Anchorage to give us a good view of the mountains. Gracie attempts to change lanes and a car in her blind spot honks it's horn. Gracie pulls back into her lane but the van starts to fish-tail and eventually we end up doing a 180 into a ditch. Scary experience but everyone and the car was okay. Her brother came and helped us out and we were back on the road in 20-30 minutes. The car that we almost hit actually stopped and helped us get out as well. Yet another example of friendly Alaskans! We headed back to Gracie's and met her room-mate Hellen and some of their friends. They decided to take us out and try to see some moose, however we failed miserably.

December 10th

We woke up early and headed down towards Seward. The 2-hour drive consisted of beautiful mountain along Turnagain Arm. We stopped dall sheep high along the mountain cliffs and the mud flats that are visible at low tides. Girdwood, a small town made of retired hippies and winter sport enthusiasts, was along the way to Seward. We made a short stop there but the town was still asleep so we drove by the crazy post-modern houses and continued our journey. After some scary road conditions on one of the mountain passes we decided to continue and not turn around and were rewarded with clear roads shortly. We arrived in Seward, which is a main port of cruise ships and whale/glacier tours, and explored the deserted docks for a bit. We then headed downtown towards the Mount Marathon. In the summer a drunken race is performed up and down Mt. Marathon. Racers run full speed both ways, eventually ending bruised and bloody at the base. Here's a YouTube video of some kids that hiked up the the top: here - just in case you want an idea of how steep and high the climb is. We decided to go into the Sealife Center, since the town was pretty much dead considering it's far into the off-season. There we saw many of the native animals and discovered that puffins don't look like the puffins you see on television, they look like small black ducks. We stopped for lunch at a Chinese buffet called Peking on 4th Ave. I highly recommend it to anyone that visits Seward in the future. On the drive out of town we spotted a kestrel and bald eagle, just hanging out in trees along the highway. The drive to Anchorage was uneventful but the view makes it an amazing drive. Back at Gracie's, she and Hellen made us moose tacos. Tasted very similar to beef! After dinner, Chris and I decided to head towards Earthquake Park and try and spot the Northern Lights. Not even 3 minutes after arriving, a cop came up and made us leave the park - since we had planned to leave for Sterling the next morning early to take a dog-sled ride we opted to just head back to Gracie's.

December 11th

We woke up early and headed down towards Sterling. About 30 minutes into the drive I remembered that the receptionist for the sled-dog kennel had said she'd call if the snow wasn't deep enough. Sure enough, a voicemail was on there saying that because of the warm weather and small snowfall they couldn't take us on a ride. We decided to head to Girdwood and explore there again. The same highway takes you to Sterling and Seward, also eventually Homer if you follow it long enough. We checked to see if the Mt. Alyeska Tram was open but it wasn't so we headed back to Anchorage. We started to head north towards the "Valley" to get a better view of Mt. McKinley. However we decided the drive was too much and turned back around to explore downtown Anchorage some more. Gracie and Hellen recommended a few restaurants to us and we decided to go to Snow City Cafe, which is popular among the 20-something crowd apparently. After eating we took at drive back to Earthquake Park for a distant view of McKinley and the Cook Inlet. We drove a bit farther and stopped at "The Bluffs" and took a walk around the infamous Alaskan mud flats. Brittany has told us that once a woman was stuck in the mud and they tried to pull her our and ended up ripping her in half. Awesome. In our case the mud was frozen over and safe to walk on. We enjoyed the sunset and take the chilly, windy walk back up top. We headed back the Gracie's and played a finally game of Trivia Pursuit. We tried to see the Northern Lights again but we aren't sure if we saw them or if it was just a haze in the distance - what we saw was similar to this picture but a great deal lighter. We said our goodbyes to Hellen, Gracie and Sweet-Sweet (their cat) and headed back to the airport. After nine hours in the air and an hour layover in Pheonix we were back on the smoggy East Coast.

Along Turnagain Arm

Still along Turnagain

Sunset on the mud flats

Bonnaroo 2005

Wednesday, June 8th
I left Delaware around 3pm and drove straight to Manchester, TN. Took about 18-20 hours total including rest stops and food breaks. While passing through southwest Virginia I ran headlong into a thunderstorm, which caused zero visibility while driving on two lanes next to tractor trailers. Somehow I survived and enjoyed views of lightening over the Applician Mountains once I got out of the path. Simply beautiful. I stopped for two hours at a rest stop about ten miles south of the farm to catch up on some sleep.

Thursday, June 9th
After waking up already drowning in the hippie Bonnaroo crowd. At least 30 cars or Rvs where parked around, most occupants either sitting on the grass talking or passed out in their cars. I drove down to the next exit and filled up on gas. (I'd heard many horror stories about the wait to get into the farm) Twenty minutes later I'm on the tail end of a 4-hour wait to get into the farm, and I already have to go to the bathroom. Along the access roads (the main line is on the highway shoulder and then takes an exit and follows some country (access) roads for about a mile or two. Many people looking for tickets, selling necklaces, giving out water bottles, and the like. Once I reached the security checkpoint it was hell. I got through fine, other people no so lucky. The girls in the van next to me had a ton of beer in glass bottles (glass is a huge no-no, barefoot people are the reason). One old beat-up van broke down 10 feet after the toll, the occupants pushed it to the campgrounds I believe. From there the line moved smoothly, even though I ended up a good mile walk from Centeroo (the actual venue). After parking, setting up my tent, getting to know a few neighbors and checking out the map, I set out. After reaching Centeroo I try to get used to the layout and names of the different stages (Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, What Stage, The Other Tent, etc.). I knew I'd get lost at some point during the festival, which I did, for about an hour. It started raining later in the day and this is where all the mud came from. I spent the rest of the day walking around sitting in on some breakdancing groups, belly dancers and a few bands.

Friday, June 10th
I woke up around 9am to people listening to radios, talking and extreme heat. Even though I had the shade of the trees on my side my tent was baking. I would swip off the sweat on my forehead and not even 10 seconds later new sweat would take its place, no joking. I spent all day in Centeroo listening to Joss Stone, Allman Brothers Band, Dave Matthews Band, Brazilian Girls and Mars Volta. Of course I walked through and listened to others but I have no clue who they were, I was having enough trouble going from point A to point B.

Saturday, June 11th
Saturday I saw Kings of Leon, Gov't Mule, Xavier Rudd, Yonder Mountain String Band, OAR, Jack Johnson, Keller Williams, Widespread Panic, Trey Anastaio, Secret Machines and many more. Half way though Widespread I got bored with the corwd. I had ended up up front and the crowd was a little to jumpy for me. So I headed over to the smallers stages and ended up watching people play at Sonic Village (light poles that have motion sensors that make the pole blink or chirp. Apparently a group of drummers had gathered in the middle of the forest and had a large crowd around them dancing. Compeletely amazing are the only words I have to describe that.

Sunday, June 12th
The last day of Bonnaroo started just as the other days, sticky and hot. By now the mud from Thursday was ankle deep or more in most places. Flipflops were death traps, a booth selling new slip proof clog things had a pile of at least 1,000 rubber flipflops. People were handing the money over the pile of shoes to buy new pairs. Today was Amos Lee, Umphrey's McGee, Citizen Cope, My Morning Jacket, Modest Mouse, Donna the Buffalo and another Widespread show. While walking back to the campgrounds I joined a group of kids from Kansas, one obviously tripping on something crazy. He points out to everyone the beautiful 'Bonnaroo Sunset' that is setting over Centeroo. The moment will be with me forever: Covered in mud up to my butt, not bathed in 5 days yet enjoying a beautiful pink and blue sky.

Monday, June 13th
I wake up at 7am with almost all my neighbors gone except the ones directly surounding me, meaning I can't leave until they do. After two hours there's a hole and I follow an SUV to the entrance, weaving in and out of people still camping, garbage and mud holes. Two cars are already stuck in mud at the exit so the line leaving my campground has to go around them...over garbage and the like. Once I make it to the access roads it's smooth sailing until I hit traffic for an hour south of Manchester. Half the cars around were Bonnaroo cars, some with windows broken out (whethere from locking keys or people being retarded). Fianlly the parking lot formerly known at Rt 24 lets up and I don't hit traffic until I reach Washington DC. I stop in a Perkins in some little north Tennesse town and eat by myself, covered in mud and smelling (although I can't smell anything but I'm sure I do). I reach home and discover two sores from my flipflops (one which is now a scar). The shower I took upon arriving home was the best shower in my life.

Spain

This trip was with People to People Student Ambassadors.

Friday, June 27th - Philadelphia to Madrid
Left Philadelphia International Airport around 4 pm on a six hour flight to Paris, France. Once there we had a 3 hour wait until our connecting flight to Madrid.

Saturday, June 28th - Madrid, Spain
I only slept for an hour on the plane so when we arrived in Spain around 10am I knew I would be dead my nightfall. We stopped at our hotel and dropped off our luggage and proceeded to a nice little restuarant. Here I was introduced to the three course meal, and well I have to say I loved it! After lunch we went on a bus tour of Madrid, which I barely remember because I was nodding off around this time. Back at the hotel we figured out how to work our phone cards and got ready for a night in Plaza Mayor. We had free time to wander around the area and try to talk to the locals, which was pretty easy. It's a wonder how far basic language skills will go. This is where I learned to never make fun of people struggling with English in the US. Once you see the other side you completely understand. So after some shopping we went to dinner at a flamenco restaurant. By the end of the show almost all of us were starting to fall asleep on the table. Finally the day ended back at the hotel with me passing out cold.

Sunday, June 29th - Madrid, Spain
After a breakfast in the hotel we went to the Prado Museum and went on a savanger hunt. It was basically a race to see who could locate certain painting the fastest, our team won and we were later rewarded with small swords from our visit to a sword factory in Toledo. After our hunt and a quick lunch we stopped by the Palace and gardens. We had a small amount of free time and a number of us went to a cafe and meet a wonderful lady. She worked at a translator and moved from country to country with her two dogs. She remains one of my heroes. After this we had dinner and returned to the hotel for the night.

Monday, June 30th - Granada, Spain
We woke up and packed to leave Madrid but not before stopping at the Moncloa House for a lecture on Spanish government. We then left for Toledo, which is my favorite place in the world. We visited the cathedral and wandered around the city for a little bit. We also visited a sword factory and had a lecture about that followed by lunch overlooking the olive fields. We then began a long bus ride to Granada.

France

This trip was with People to People Student Ambassadors.

Saturday, July 5th - Montpellier
We left Barcelona just before dawn and crossed the border into France without any problems. After half the day on the bus we stopped at a beach for some swimming. Also our first taste of topless beaches! The guys on the trip were more than eager to see...well you get the idea...however they didn't think the French reputation for not shaving would be so right. Score one for American chicks! After some frisbee and sunbathing we headed to our hotel near the Place de la Comédie in Montpellier. After check in me and three other students headed out to wander around town. This also provided the first glimpse of European sex shops. After about an hour of wandering side streets we noticed a group of 3 locals following us. All were a few years older than us but looked very 'street savvy', for lack of a better term. We headed back to the main square where most of the other students had stayed, watching various street performers. When we thought we lost them we stopped at a fountain about a block from the main square to take a breath. Not five minutes later the three locals were surrounding us. Asking if we were Americans, how old we were and where we were staying. Of course this was all through extremely broken English. At first it seemed okay, they were simply curious, we'd had lots of moments when locals started asking us about America - nothing new there. Then it turned ugly. One of the guys (who had somehow gotten a bike since they followed us) started touching one of our backpacks that was laying on the bench between us. The other guy walked behind us (automatically we put our hands over our bags and tried to stand up) and started touching our hair and contunied the questioning. The third, a female, stayed in front attempting to distract us from the two others. As soon as we realized what was happening we got up and said we were missing curfew. They attempted to follow us but stopped once we hit the square. That was the only moment during the whole trip that I was scared for my life. After that we headed to the hotel and spent the rest of the night watching South Park in German with French subtitles.

Sunday-Monday, July 6-7th - Annecy
Since Montpellier was only an overnight visit we headed towards Annecy early the next morning. We stopped in Orange for a quick tour of Arausio, a 2,000 year old Roman theater. Although it was a tad pricey to just enter (even more for a tour or audio tape) it was totally worth it. Climbing up to the top of a 7,000-seat theater is not an easy task after spending all day on a bus. We had a bit of free time to wander around the town but spent most of the time looking in the tiny shops they had. Back on the bus we followed the Rhone valley to Annecy.

July 8th-13th in Germany and Switzerland

Monday-Wednesday, July 14-16th - Paris

Thursday, July 17th - Paris to Philadelphia
We left the hotel just before dawn and headed to C