Alaska. Part II

July 2...8, 2015

Alaska used to be adorned with „land of Russian dominion“ signs.

North Pole

In the mid-twentieth century, a local entrepreneur decided to rename a local village, calling it North Pole (Nort-Pol on Russian maps). Why not, eh? It’s resonant and appealing. The actual North Pole is about 3000 kilometres away, but on the upside, this one you can get to by car.

The whole town is dedicated to Santa Claus and Christmas themes. The streetlights are reminiscent of candy canes.

So are the bus stops.

And the bollards protecting the fire hydrant too.

There’s also a Santa Claus effigy.

His residence is here to. Inside is an all year round Christmas shop. It’s basically the exact equivalent of Finland’s Rovaniemi or Russia’s Veliky Ustyug, where Russian Father Frost’s residence is located.

Deer graze here too.

People come here to buy a Christmas card, take a photo next to the deer and to have a right laugh at the signs.

Like this one and others like it.

Denali

This is a huge national park, home to the US’ highest mountain peak. It’s all about the nature here. You can’t just drive past minding your own business without nature taking an interest.

You can’t eat in peace without nature taking an interest either.

In the park itself things are organised in a most bumbling fashion: all that’s available is a day-long group bus tour. Those who’d intended to spend just a few hours here will have their party ruthlessly pooped on. However, there is another option: hire a helicopter for an hour. That way you can skip the queues and crowds and get to the very heart of the scenery.

And feast your eyes on this ice highway.

Beauty and quiet.

Anchorage

There’s a canal for seaplanes to the right of the runway for regular planes.

The town is developing at a leisurely pace.

But sometimes you totally get the impression that you’re in Belgorod or something.

View of the town centre from a nice hotel.

Homer

A place for halibut fishing enthusiasts.

There is nothing to do in this town, except to eat and spend the night.

If you drive a little further along the road, you’ll hit a place called „The edge of the world“ (there are lots of these all over the world in fact). There are hundreds of motor homes parked here. I have a lot of sympathy for those who are forced to drive around in a motor home — they had hoped it would be romantic, but they end up stuck in campgrounds, because they’re banned from driving into the cities. The only lucky ones are those who can detach their camper from their jeep.

Nikolaevsk

This is that Old Believers village that I read about in a 1970 edition of Alaska magazine. A local resident with an archaic accent is posing with said magazine. He’s also building a new church here.

Building plan.

The new dome is finished already, but hasn’t been installed yet.

School sign.

On the one hand, everything is very American here. But sometimes, familiar Russian themes peek through.

A typical American house, but there’s an Orthodox cross above the door.

Post office branch and „Fefelov Merchandise“.

The liveliest and most exciting spot in town is the „Samovar“ café, run by Nina Fefelova.

Nina has no ties to the Old Believers, she came here from Khabarovsk 15 years ago. She is an unsurpassed master of pulling a fast one on you with her smooth talk, scamming you out of your money, and force- feeding you Russian dishes. It’s nigh on impossible to leave this place without eating some pelemeni, drinking some kisel, buying a traditional Russian shirt, and taking a 20 dollar photograph. „Oh stop, money has nothing to do with it“ — Nina tells everyone who wasn’t intending to spend a penny, yet ended up blowing 100 dollars here.

The most authentic, most Russian thing here is the cemetery.

Kodiak

Another town founded by Russian colonists.

A quiet, chilly grave in ground a friend’s remains here did enshroud.

Baranof’s house is very well preserved. He was the first main ruler over Russian settlements in North America.

Inside there’s an exhibition that’s rather lovely.

A 1964 newspaper with the headline „Russian looters taking crab“ is dedicated to a Soviet crab boat approaching the shores of Kodiak Island in piratical fashion. The boat had one-third greater processing capacity than all of the American crab processing plants ashore taken together.

Next door there was an exhibition of contemporary art done by locals.

Unalaska

The main town on the Aleutian Islands.

You can hire a car (door on the left) and ride around the surrounding area.

There are ten kilometres of paved roads here.

Bridge across the harbour.

Local life.

Waste containers.

The Russians left behind a beautiful old church.

And a cemetery.

The Americans left behind World War II-era concrete bunkers.

Mother nature left these phenomenally beautiful wildflowers.