Alaska Part 2 - Onwards and Upwards. Prince Rupert

Oh, lordy me. oh my.

Somebody have a look at this, this is funny

Maddox Game

Dang! Hunting wolverines.. something else nerdy.. Gosh.

This is part two of my Alaska Trip. Or my trip up to Alaska. Take your pick, but choose WISELY!!

(I'll take the box!! The box!!)

Blahaha.

Right.

Day 2 - B.C Ferry, Come take me away from this... "place"

I awoke early that morning to the sounds of gunshots. I had a fitfull nights sleep and had recently decided that it would be in my best interest that I leave this god-forsaken town. The gunshots just reinforced my belief that Port Hardy had become a haven for the types of "people" that i loathed. Crack-whores, dealers, junkies. All the lowest sort of people. The people that you just want to spit at when you walk past them on the street as they beg for money.

I dressed in silence and packed my things, stowing my "documents" in my side bag, My documents were the only way out, if I left them behind I could kiss every chance I had of getting out of here alive goodbye. I glanced out the window. It was still dark. Good, less chance of discovery.

I had to play it cool, play it safe. Port Hardy was not a place for tourists, in fact the only people that ever came here were those like me. Wanderers, hell I was even starting to look like a vagrant. I probably didn't even look much better than those I was leaving behind. Those Bastards. I was desperate to find out what they had done with fluffy.

I walked out into the cool near-dawn air and looked around. My ride had not yet shown up. Typical of this place, such a sleepy, shitty place. There were two others like me who were already waiting. I nodded to them and muttered something under my breath. I'm not even sure what it was but I guess they took it to mean something reassuring because they both gave me a brief smile before continuing on with whatever conversation they were having before I showed up. I stood for a few moments more, waiting, impatiently when finally my "ride" appeared. It was a school-bus. Typical. An old school bus for a town full of people educated to a 4th grade level.

I stepped on to the bus and sat towards the front, so I could watch the driver and make sure he didn't make any wrong turns. He seemed to know where he was going so I didn't need to pull him up. Lucky for him.

Ohhh, lucky lucky lucky! (Franz Ferdinand's new album. Rocks! Shocking yet true!)

I'm sick of writing like that, thats mostly all true, except the gunshots was my alarm, and the parts about the crack-whores and what not, that was all made up. But I really did get a school bus to the ferry terminal. Funny stuff, getting up at night and being picked up by a yellow school bus.

My legs hardly even fit in the seat. I had to kick out the seat in front of me. The bus driver started to have a go at me for wrecking his bus but I showed him my fist and the calloused knuckles and he didnt utter another word.

LUCKY HIM!!

Anyway, at about 7 or so the ferry set out for Prince Rupert. Which is located at the most north-western point of Canada's coastline before it turns into Alaska (and hence the U.S of A).

This part of the journey was something that I had been looking forward to for a while, but it was a little dissapointing. 2 reasons

1) The weather wasn't so nice
2) The boat was full of older people

I've got nothing against older people, but sometimes its nice to have a young-person party atmosphere, and this boat would have been spot on if it was full of youngen's (or relatively young anyway) people like me. Then the boat could have been renamed the party boat and we could have all smoked weed and had orgies. (That might be something I just saw in a movie.. I can't be sure if these are my own desires or not.. television has ruined my once impeccible mind)

This journey is known as the "Inside Passage" and it takes you through the mainland of Canada and the islands. Its basically an archipeligo (I'm sure I mispelled that) of Islands and offers some pretty beautiful scenery. It also takes 14 hours and can get a bit boring when the clouds are blocking most of the beautiful scenery.

It was fun anyway and I enjoy the rain so I found it pretty refreshing. I took a couple of pictures from the boat.. here they are (I have more if anyone is interested I can send them)


Some nice waterfalls off the side of the boat


The back of the boat. Canada pride

The boat itself was pretty nice, it had TV areas, a bar, a resturant, cafeteria, cabins and some recliner lounges and some stocko lounges.

My time was spent talking to a couple of Swiss guys I met at the hostel, sleeping outside on a deck chair, sleeping inside on a recliner lounge, eating food and sleeping on the lounges.

I slept alot. I also took some photos.

The boat pulled into Prince Rupert at around 10:30 at night, and I was picked up by the Pioneer Hostel owner and her shuttle van (Pioneer Hostel was great.. I recommend it to anyone staying at Prince Rupert). I had a chat to an Aussie girl in my dorm who had done Alaska (and a hell of alot more of it than I got to see!!) and then went to sleep.

The rest of my time in Prince Rupert was spent walking around the town. It was pretty small and didn't have a great deal to do. I walked up and down the streets and did a couple of the walks around the area, took some photos and played some golf


The Prince Rupert Golf Course, very nice place. Very muddy. Made my shoes and socks stink


The highway in Prince Rupert


This place was called the "Sunken Gardens" A very pretty area about 1 minute from my hostel

Another funny side story about Prince Rupert was being approached as I was walking into a diner to buy a cheeseburger by a native guy who said to me

"What's the story, white man?"

At this point I was getting ready for a fight of some description.. (having watched Young Gun's I was ready to get stabbed in the arm with a knife.. anything is possible, or as the kiwis like to say pissible.)

"The story?? I don't really have a story.."

He then laughed and slapped my on my back.

I was shocked, I didnt know what to do.

The guy looked a little like Charles Manson (pictured below) but without the beard, that type of hair and he was a native, so his skin colour was different. I'm pretty sure his face was in colour too.



After a few days in Prince Rupert I bumped into another Swiss guy that was staying at the hostel and he was going on the next ferry like me, so we hung out a bit and played pool and got drunk a couple of times. I also met some Aussie dudes who got a free car off a guy and were going to drive it to Jasper. Hope you made it dudes! (I'm sure they will read this too.. oh well, its the thought that counts right??)

I also managed to find a Macca's in Prince Rupert and I ate a Triple Big Mac. This was seriously overkill. I felt like vomitting afterwards. Do not eat this burger! A normal Big Mac is enough! If you must then order the large fries!! I beg you!

Other than this stuff, Prince Rupert was kinda boring, but I had a really relaxing time so that was nice.

I hit 113 in golf. I need some practice.

Quote of the day - "I wan't a car. I wanna car" Franz Ferdinand.

Don't we all Franz.

Don't we all.

More to come tomorrow..