Thursday 8 July 2010

Two Months In North America

6th July


MP3 Track of the day: Archery – The Young Victoria

Weather - Cloudy with spots of rain












Due to lock out at the hostel at 9am I got up, got ready, and headed out to the ferry terminal. Funnily enough the same lady I met at the bus stop two days ago was also leaving, and so we went to the bus stop together. She got off at the airport (she's a flight attendant and so gets all of her flights free … damn, wish I could) and I stayed on the bus until the bus driver told me that he was at the closest stop to the ferry terminal.

The bus driver gave me directions and I headed off, with my pack, for the 1 ½ to 2 mile walk to the terminal (I still can't believe that there is no public transport). The walk was actually not as bad as I thought, and after 30 minutes I arrived at the terminal hot and a little tired (I awarded myself with a cold can of Pepsi and a Twix for 2 dollars, making it 3 dollars and 50 cents to get here). I picked up my ticket and just waited.

The ferry terminal waiting room was pretty cold but the seating area was okay; there was internet access but you had to pay for it. Speaking of paying for stuff; I checked my average spending amount and it has jumped by £10 … to £62.00 per day! I couldn't believe it but I know where the money had gone; the Trekk America trip had cost me over £300.00 more than I expected and I had taken a flight (£150.00) and about to take a ferry journey (£100.00) all within a week … I need to get this back down if possible, or else I might need to find some work at home or maybe cut my second trip down a little … I needed to get out of Alaska as it's killing my budget. On the plus side though my cost calculations are based on the pound being worth 1.4 dollars and since my trip has started the pound has strengthened to 1.5 (god bless David Cameron)… hopefully my costs are a little high but I doubt it will make that much difference.

In the waiting room there was this American lady who must have been on her mobile for hours (I reckon she opened her phone book at 'a' and just called everyone she knew) and she sounded like she actually didn't want to be in Alaska … the amount of time on her phone reminded me of my mum.

I got on the ferry and found a locker to store my bag (50 cents each time I wanted re-lock the locker … must make sure I only go in when needed) and headed out onto the back of the ship. There is a area on the top deck (called the solarium) with all bar one end being covered; there are heaters and this is where I think I'll be spending the night with my deck chair and my sleeping bag (so I can watch the sun set and see the stars come out … lovely). I sat down and just stared out into the water passage ways; this is a 30 hour trip and at this point I felt like it would have been nice for some company … still can't have everything and I have been chatting to other passengers on the ship.. This place is really beautiful with mountains and islands covered with trees on each side of the water. The water is so calm here that the boat is hardly rocking allowing me to go inside. After a few hours of staring into the abyss the captain announced that there was a whale on the left hand side of the ship, another hump-back, which was lovely to see. After this I headed down to the dining area to have fish and chips plus a chocolate cake all for $12.50 … bargain.

I'm going to go back to the locker and change gear to night stuff (sleeping bag etc) and then head to the top deck with my book and just watch the sun go down … its not a bad life this.


Toodle Pip!

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