First Week Back in Denali

While driving the Park Road yesterday we came across a group of seven or eight moose. This bull is just beginning to grow his antlers for the season.

I've never been in Denali this early in the season before. A small hint at how peaceful and beautiful the winters must be here.

My cabin for the summer, and hopefully a few more to come. We just finished construction on the outside. Now three more to go before season starts.

A panorama of a frozen Otto Lake at sunset. We kneeled on a sled while being towed around by a snow machine, then went sledding on some snow drifts.

The Northern Lights, though more like the Northern Glow in this picture. This is as dark as it gets this time of year, meaning we won't see the Northern Lights again til probably September.

Homecoming.

(So since my last post... I spent the afternoon in Milan, explored around Marseilles for a few days, spent a weekend in Madrid, then a few days in San Sebastian, then went to the bus station and bought a ticket for Pamplona where I was to begin the Camino de Santiago, which I never used because I walked back to my hostel and bought a plane ticket home for December 23rd, arranged an airport shuttle and arrived on the doorstep at 9:15 pm, obviously too late for my parents who wouldn't answer the door until I called them to tell them it was me. I had seen a lot in the six weeks I was in Europe, and had seen most of the people I had hoped or planned to see while I was there, and I was tired. Home for the holidays and a few months with friends before venturing again up to Alaska sounded much better than trekking alone through winter in a land where I could speak but not understand the language.)

So home for almost 4 months. It's been a few years since I've been home for more than a few weeks at a time, which hasn't been entirely incidental. But I feel good about being here now. With time to explore, and a willingness to see what this place has to offer if I give it a chance. There's a list of things in my head I've been looking forward to being able to do that a transient lifestyle makes difficult. From joining a soccer league to attempting art to exercising to honing my culinary skills(or simply creating some) to spending consistent time around quality people to spending as much time as possible outside to... ... ... I am looking forward to this time to rest, and enjoy and be grateful to be able to spend time around family and old friends. I have positioned myself in locations lately where it hasn't taken a whole lot of effort to feel fulfilled, but here it will take being intentional, and I will enjoy that as well. And so far so good, I've been physically tired at the end of most days, I have more bumps, scrapes, and bruises from three weeks here than I've gotten in the past few years I think, and I'm enjoying the people, because I'm finally at the point where being anywhere alone just doesn't compare to being somewhere with familiars. We'll see if it lasts.

Callenques, limestone cliffs east of Marseilles along the Mediterranean Coast.

The Prison from Count of Monte Cristo, off the coast from Marseilles. We bi-passed this island for a more accessible one, where we explored around limestone ruins and perused unattended baguette shops.

San Sebastian, the cutest and quaintest little coastal town of them all. Unfortunately the weather was crap the entire time. My stay there culminated in some crazy festival where all the locals wear their traditional dress and drink from noon til dawn, literally.

Amigos in the canyon. I haven't seen clouds since coming home, and I don't think a high for any day has been below 70. The hills are green and always beckoning.

Today a bigger hill beckoned. Mt. Baldy. We ended up taking the long way down... the really long way. A 6,000 foot descent and 4.5 miles from where we parked the car, we waited in the rustic lodge with a few whisky drinks for the owner to finish his dinner and give us a ride back to the car.

The Dog Hotel in Arogno, Switzerland

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, being surrounded by mostly friendly dogs or the remote setting in the hills of the small Swiss town. All the leaves had previously fallen from the trees, so I would take the dogs along the leaf covered trails up the mountain multiple times a day. Besides cleaning up after them and making sure they all got fed, the rest of my time was spent sitting outside keeping them company, and allowing them to do the same for me. The property overlooked the peaceful town of Arogno, and beyond rows of ever growing foothills the white capped alps lay above everything else on the horizon, their size and stature reminding me of other ranges I've been fortunate to sit and stare at earlier in the year. Arogno is in the Italian part of Switzerland, only a few minute walk from the border. The other volunteers and I drove across the border to pick up and bring back pizzas one night, while the rest of the meals were home cooked and delicious. A few times when family or friends shared in the meals the fast Italian spoken at the table made the meal feel fully authentic.

Vienna

Arriving from Prague in the afternoon, I was only going to spend a night wandering around Vienna, then move on to Salzburg the next day. That didn't happen. Walking around Vienna at night is remarkable. The lit up buildings really do look some sort of majestic. Half the buildings in the city center were left in shadows, only adding an even more ominous feel to the old city. I really didn't do much in the few days I was there besides walk around and gawk at the buildings. I strolled lazily through a spacious park outside of the city one afternoon, which is always a good way to spend an afternoon while traveling.

And now I am in Switzerland, passing through Interlaken tonight and down to Lugano tomorrow to volunteer at a dog hotel for the upcoming week. Not too sure what to expect except plenty of canine company!

Praha

I ended up having an extra week between Berlin and when I was to arrive in Switzerland, so, grateful for my bus pass at this point, I headed for Prague.

The city has the oldest buildings I've seen so far, and the warmest colored buildings as well, some stretching back to the 1400's! Newer buildings have sprung up around the older ones, so the city feels a bit crowded in places. My favorite part of my time there was walking up to the Prague Castle, atop the hill across the river from the city center. The castle was nice but nothing too impressive, but the few of the city as the sun was setting in the afternoon was brilliant. The colors and shadows across the domes, steeples, and towers reminded me of vintage European photos I'd seen growing up. Then the walk back across Charles Bridge as night overtook the city completed the day, and my time in Prague.

The Rest of Berlin

I hadn't had plans of visiting anywhere specific in Germany prior to my trip, and still wasn't too excited once I realized my route would take me through Berlin. Then I started talking to people, it started in London and continued in every conversation along the way, people who had been to the city raved about Berlin like no other place in Europe.
The first day we wandered around town, through the old buildings and the open squares, not too sure what we were looking at. We stumbled across and explored around an independent artist co-op, Tacheles, supposedly one of the last in Europe but looking to be shut down and demolished any day.
The next day we took a free city tour around East Berlin. That's when the buildings came to life. The sequence of events in the last century alone has molded the alternative city into what it is today. Hearing the stories of the hundreds of thousands standing up in peaceful protest when others had been killed for doing the same thing just days before was quite moving. The amount of energy that filled the city with those protests is still apparent walking the streets today, only now it is freely redistributed towards causes like creativity and enjoying life.

The Berlin Zoo!

Had a day to myself when I arrived in Berlin before meeting up with friends the next morning. From the bus station I began walking across town, then began following signs towards the zoo, then spent the afternoon walking around the zoo with my big back pack and all. I know there's probably some animal rights reasons against zoos, but I really enjoy being able to sit and watch all these animals from extremely distant parts of the globe, and the ecosystems created in each exhibit and the balance of things necessary to recreate their natural habitat.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is small and beautiful. The old artistic buildings and the classic canals compliment each other perfectly. I went to the Van Gogh museum my first day in town, and the Anne Frank house my second day. The best part of the city is that if you ever run out of things to do (some would quicker than others in a place like this), relaxing on a bench by a canal is always a nice way to spend a few hours. That's what I did the majority of my last day, and drew a little boat that was sitting across the water from me.

Nijmegen

I took the train into Nijmegen, Holland Thursday afternoon to visit friends from the volunteer program in Nepal. Three of them met me at the rail station and the rest joined us a little later for a classic Nepali Dal Bhat Thanksgiving dinner. The next day my friend lent me her bike so I could explore a little bit outside the city and meander around some pleasant farmland. It was so great being around this group of people for a few days, nothing but positive memories and reminiscing from our time in Nepal, plus a new aspect in being able to hang out and have a blast in the place that is their norm.

Brussels

(tried to post this a few days ago, have been in been in the Netherlands for a few days and got into Berlin this morning)

Waffles.... Check
Chocolate..... Check
Beer.... Double Check

So I walked around Brussels for a few days. Went to a few lack luster museums, hung out at a skate part for part of an afternoon, then visited the outside of the European Union Parliament building, that was nice. Mainly enjoyed the sunshine and sitting in parks and coming across old cathedrals that kept popping up out of nowhere. The sun was out the whole time, which is more than I could say for London. The city was nice, unfortunately it has a lot to compete with being surrounded by Paris, London, and Amsterdam, so it tends to get a bad rap.

Greenwich

My last full day was spent wandering, quite aimlessly at times, around Greenwich. The sky was mostly clear, which compared to its normal gray did an exceedingly good job at lighting up the old buildings of the city. There is much more open space here, between the University and the Maritime Museum and the park surrounding the observatory. It was my favorite place I'd visited all week. The sun never gets too high even in the middle of the day at this time of year, so even noon offers pleasant shadows. The prime meridian passes through here, so opting out of the five pound charge to stand over their crafted line, we had a fun time figuring out where it passed on our side of the fence.

London

It's been a week so far here in London. The days filled with walking around town seeing the different sights, most by now more than once. Have met up with a few friends from home or from past travels, and have met a few new ones here and there. It seems the longer you're in one place the more people you meet and then the more reason you have to stay even longer. That said, a ticket is bought for Brussels leaving Friday morning. A few museums and a lazy afternoon in Hyde park, and hopefully a last beer with a few friends is all that's planned before then. Have had a few sunny days but mostly cloudy, the weather turned a bit worse today as a cold wind came through. I'll be heading further north before I settle anywhere south so I'll be in for more of the same.