Knocking on heaven's door at the final frontier - Alaska

Mt Mckinley. Denali NP

Alaska is a land of magnificent beauty and surreal experiences. You feel small and insignificant in the presence of the majestic vastness of mountains, glaciers and ocean. Alaska is a place where the urban mundane ends and magnificent wilderness begins. Our eyes soaked in only a fraction of what Alaska has to offer, much lesser was captured by the lens and fewer words exist to describe what we experienced. Still, I'll try.

We kicked off our adventure with a Denali flight-seeing tour, followed by a kayak trip to Columbia glacier through the freezing iceberg laden waters of Heather bay.

Next up was Sutton. We set off to explore nearby Matanuska glacier under glorious blue skies; the ice crunching under our feet, looking up at the towering cliffs of blue ice, and peering into the  deep crevasses. We spent a few gratifying hours on the ice only to realize what a tiny fraction of the glacier we had explored.

Ice cliffs of Matanuska Glacier

We then drove to Seward, the gateway to Kenai Fjords national park. Harding icefield is it's crowning feature, a massive gigantic icefield measuring around 1100 square miles and an impressive forty glaciers spawn from it. One of them is Exit glacier from which there is a tough hike gaining 3000ft in 4.1mi to a viewpoint of the icefield.

We ended our trip with a day cruise in the Fjords. Tufted and horned puffins showing off their beautiful colors, harbor seals and stellar sea lions lazing on island rocks, shy sea otters quickly escaping under-water, a pod of porpoises playing around, and a grazing black bear were some of the awe-inspiring wild-life we encountered. The highlight though was watching a humpback whale and its calf gracefully breach the water in sync and hearing their blow while silence fell over the ship.

All this led up to our grand finale which was the Northwestern glacier - a river of blue ice stunningly beautiful flowing in ice-berg laden waters. Watching the glacier calve (gigantic chunks of ice break off the glacier into the water) was breathtaking. A moment imprinted in our minds, we bore witness to history in the making and realization dawned upon us, the impact of mankind in this world.

Alaska is a place of serene beauty and utmost wilderness, yet to watch the effects of mankind is unnerving.  Glaciers retreating is the biggest impact of global warming. I felt like we were knocking on heaven's door at the final frontier - we got to view a slice of paradise while the sins of the world unfolded in front of our eyes.

Love and other disasters in Venice Part 1

 

The grand canal from Piazza San Marco

Sometimes it is easy to look back and laugh at our own misfortunes especially after everything has been said and done. In 2015 I spent 11 weeks in France studying art in a small village called Argenton-Chateau(AC). My course had a 1 week break during which I was to meet RJ in the romantic city of Venice. Little did I know I would befall on a string of disasters even before my vacation begins.

THURSDAY

I'm reading my emails. Here is one from google. How nice of them to remind me to checkin to my flight tomorrow. Wait. They mean Saturday right?... It does say tomorrow. (panic rising) It should say Saturday. Why does it say tomorrow? OMG! Does it really say tomorrow?. I check again and again and again but the words don't change. OMG! I am soooo stupid. I have booked tickets for the wrong day. Two hours and two hundred euros later I am all set for my journey on the right date. My artist brain seems incapable of handling dates and numbers and I repeat this mistake again during our trip which left us racing across Rome, hearts pounding, gasping for air as we barely made it to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican only to be left breathless again thanks to Michelangelo's genius artistry. But I digress... 

"A long journey"

SATURDAY

7:00 AM
I take a bus to Angers and the bullet train from Angers to Paris airport. If anyone tells you that European trains are awesome they have most certainly not travelled by French bullet train. I pay 60 euros  for a window seat ticket and am stuck in a stuffy packed compartment knee to knee with a cranky old man and elbow to elbow with another and a window that is way above my head making it impossible to look out and enjoy the beautiful French countryside. I unwillingly bury myself in my phone and count every expensive minute of my journey. 

5:00 PM 

I reach Paris airport. I am not looking forward to another last-row windowless journey in a cheap European flight but I endure once again. 

9:30 PM

I take the water taxi from Venice airport. I am excited to be here and I try to open the window to take in a breath of fresh Venice air. Bam! The entire window falls down on my thumb. Ouch! I cringe in pain and quickly hold back tears. It takes me 6 months to lose the scar from this disaster. 

10:00 PM

Venice is a complex maze of small alleys. I have directions from the taxi stop to the hotel but I feel so lost without having google to direct my every move. I am really lost and I feel dejected. I am just about ready to give up when a kind Italian waiter comes to my rescue.

11:00 PM

I make it. So does RJ and we finally meet. As we are talking nonstop while still somehow managing to stuff our faces with yummy gelato, I forget all about the journey. I am reminded time and again while vacationing in Italy that a gelato is a perfect cure for all ailments. As we walk along the grand canal listening to the quiet lapping of waves and watching the moon glistening in the reflections below, I am overcome with happiness. After all we are in Venice :). 

PS: Have you read my 7-part Homelandia series from my trip to India in 2016? Check it out here.