The Golden Heart City, HitchHikin', Explorin'

Fairbanks, Alaska is known in the US as the Golden Heart City. The "gold" incorporated due to the history when the Gold rush was a hype back in 1902.

I woke up a little bit dizzy the day I flew to Alaska. That was 27th of March, 2013 - Wednesday.

I didn't know what to expect.....except for snow and cold.

If you were to ask me what I think.... it's really hard to say what it "trully" looks like because for me it all looks white...with snow. But I find it pretty when the sun shimmers through the birch trees and a small cusp of snow hang loose on the branches. I can imagine that this will look prettier when summer comes into full bloom and everything is back into shape and hues lingers around with the midnight sun.

Maybe it's me but I find remoteness and the wilderness so stunning....I'd rather feel small in such vast space rather than to feel small in a huge city. Call it weird, but that's just me. When surrounded with nature and its greatness, I've never felt alone at all. And I've noticed that I've been changing in such a way that, I'd rather listen to the trees and birds or even to the silence itself rather than to put on music into my ears.Call it aging. I don't know. If it wasn't winter, I might have given to the desire of freedom camping in the wilderness. But after reading a few stories here, the thought of it scared me.... getting eaten by a grizzly bear.

The people are really nice and friendly, easy to talk to even. On my second day, I braved it and went hitch hiking. Not because I was curious about it but because I realized it ain't easy here if you dont have a car. There are buses but.... limited areas only. And so, I hitched 2 rides that day until I got my bearing. When I got to town, I went straight to the visitors center and got me the bus schedule. At my first bus stop, I got a free token from this guy who was looking for the Arctic Bar. It was a great day indeed.

There seems to be 5 days of backlog already for me, but i'll take it slow now. The past few days had me puffing my inhaler everyday.... morning, lunch and evening. My lungs are getting weak because of the dry cold, plus, I walk, walk, walk and bus. But it's good exercise I'd say. My knees are not complaining yet, neither is my feet. But maybe it's all numb because of the cold hahaha.

I'd need to get some sleep now... Off to the Arctic Circle tomorrow.