Diary 7

May 18, 2014, 8.29pm Alaskan time

So the last part of our trip started after we made just a very short stop, about 30 minutes(for the ship, which means 15 minutes for passengers to go out) in Petersburg. The town seemed to be very nice and cosy, but we didn't have a chance to get to know it well, the downtown was somewhere else, not near the ferry terminal again. 

In Petersburg some more people got on the boat and now our Solarium is pretty crowded. It wouldn't bother us too much, but just near us there is a group of teenagers based now. They are obviously loud and not very respectful. But it's only one night left, even less, we arrive to Juneau at 3am.

We also saw a big group of whales just now, I even made some photos and videos of them.

I don't think I'm going to write more, it is the specific type of this ferry trip that allows you to see lots of things, experience a lot while having enough time to write about it. 

Diary 6

May 18, 2014, 4.14pm Alaskan time

We just took off from the port of Wrangell, just another small town on our way to Juneau. This one doesn't have a cruise ship terminal, so it looked much more simple than the Ketchikan. We only had 1 hour there (for the vessel and 30 minutes for passengers to go out). 

After about 15 minutes passed from taking off suddenly a very strong wind started. We anyway were informed already by the locals, that we are exceptionally lucky to have that good weather throughout our trip. Somebody told us how he was going the same way when it was raining cats and dogs, so that everybody at the deck had to move to the further most wall of the Solarium and still got wet. Now I observe safely from our "bedroom" how the tents are being moved quite violently by the wind. Some of them are attached to the floor with the tape, but there is one right before us, which is not and it really looks like it's going to fly away. IT's inhabitants sit inside and look a little bit nervous.

Diary 5

May 18, 2014, 1.23pm Alaskan time

We were just observing some whales. It was not the first time we saw them. First time we made a whale watching tour in Hawai. It was very impressive for us, none of us have done this before. Second time we went to see them in Monterei together with my husband's visit in April 2014. And this time we are not even doing a whale-watching tour, whales are just in the same waters where we are:) That is the charm of the ferry trip - you are using the public transportation and at the same time having a wonderful opportunity to see the most beautiful places from the best observation point. Parents have left their binoculares to us and it is was an amazing idea. We spend many time standing on the deck and watching the area we are passing by in the binoculares. We were hoping to see some wildlife at the land, bears and so on, but failed so far. Hope to see them later. 

Also I wanted to tell more about our ship. We have pretty a choice of places to spend time here. There is an observation deck, that looks like a movie theater located at the front part of the vessel, so you can sit there and look straight forward as the ship goes. There is also a lounge with chairs and some tables for those who, like us don't have a cabin, but unlike us don't want to sleep outside. We even have a real movie theater, a small one, maybe for 20 places, where they demonstrate something from time to time. Mostly some educating movies about Alaska.

As for the facilities, there are public showers and quite in a good condition. I was surprised, but even though there are only 3 of them (for women and the same number for men) they are never occupied fully, so there is never a line. They are not luxury, but nice and clean. 

Diary 4

May 18th, 2014, 9.14am Alaskan time

We just took off from our first stop, the port of Ketchikan. We had 1.45 hours there and of courses couldn't refuse ourselves in the pleasure of going outside and step on the ground of Alaska for our first time. WE didn't plan the time very smartly though and were almost late for boarding back. Firstly we didn't count that the downtown would be so far away from Ferry Terminal and it turned out that it was about 30 minutes by foot one way, and on the way there we didn't hurry, we were looking around, making pictures and so on. So when we came there we realized very soon that we have to start our walk back. At some point it was obvious that we were not able to make it in time, so we just came up to the closest car staying at the intersection and asked if the guy could have take us to the Ferry Terminal. Luckily he didn't mind to do it and we were right in time. 

That's why we actually didn't see a lot of Ketchikan. What we saw was one big street along the oceanside, a little bit further mountains and between the ocean and the mountains a system of the wooden bridge-like streets, partly ladders, that connect houses with each other. Downtown is located near by the Cruise ships Terminal (or more likely vise versa) and there were 3 huge cruise ships right at the time. But it wasn't that crowded as we were expecting to see. Maybe it is too early for the tourist season yet, or maybe only the very small part of the passengers stepped off to the shore.

There was even some cell phone reception, but no T-mobile. IT's funny how we found the worst network to have here in USA:) 

Also we noticed today that actually most of the people we met here on the ferry are americans. Actually we haven't meet a single tourist from elsewhere so far. That's why we are so interesting for them:) 

Lots of these people are on vacation, like we are, but some are going there for work or even moving to live there.  For them it's the better way to move - you don't have to pay for the transportation of your households, you just load your car with them and take the car to the vessel with you.

We have some new fellow-passengers boarded in Ketchikan, so now it's more crowded in the Solarium, but still very nice.

We're going to have two more stops today, not so long, less than an hour each. Most likely we're going to go to the shore then as well, but maybe not trying to make such a challenging walk:) Let's see.

Diary 3

May 17th, 2014, 4.44pm Alaskan time

It works very interesting here. At one place of the deck there are people wearing winter clothes, I am sitting at our "bedroom" in a light pullover and couple of meters from me in the middle of the deck between the tents there are two guys even not wearing T-shirts. IT's because they were lucky to find a spot where they are fully protected from the wind, but getting all the sun. I wonder if they're going to turn red tomorrow, the sun is quite strong here. 

Some time ago we passed a town on our way. It's name was Belle-belle. It was a bog attraction, many people gathered on the deck to see it, take pictures. It becomes something interesting to see a small town in the middle of nowhere, if you haven't seen any living area the whole day before. We are now more than a day on the ship.

Diary 2

May 17th, 2014, 8.57am Alaskan time

We woke up pretty early today, around half past 4 in the morning. Sleeping was decent though. The only thing that bothered a little bit was the sound made by the engine. Apart from that all the conditions were satisfactory. Our sleeping bags turned out to be a very good idea - one of our fellow-travelers, who established his place in the deepest corner of the Solarium told that he was freezing during the night, and we were warm at our border place. Although I saw some people taking their things and going somewhere in the night or in the early morning. Later we saw them sleeping n one of the covered halls.

The cafeteria here works 24 hours. We haven't eaten there yet, we have enough of our own fodd with us. We only go there to take some hot water for the tea or ofr an instant oatmeal. We were even lucky to find one without any additional artificial ingridients in the local Bellingham shop. Also we bought cofee a couple of times in the cafeteria. It seems to me pretty expensive though, 4.75 for a medium-size latte or Cappucino. I might be mixing things up, but I think you can buy a large one in Starbucks for the same price. 

Right now we are laying on the upper deck on the lying chairs, reading and looking around. The Marine Highway, which we are driving through goes between the small islands and strips of land. So we always see land on both sides. Mostly it is mountains and forests. From time to time some small boats pass by. Very early in the morning it was very foggy. We war literally driving into the milk. At that point our vessel started to produce the loud sound of fog-alarm every couple of minutes or even more often. Obviously to inform other possible traffic members of our existence. There was also a person sent to the very front point of the ship. The guy was looking forward all the time, with no tools, just with his own eyes. 

Eventually the fog went away and now the air is clear around us. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, but there are some clouds. Now it is no very cold, in the sun it is even nice and warm. 

About 30 minutes ago there was an announcement, that the car deck is open to visit. We also went to have a look, even though we don't have a car there. What we saw was really pleasant for our eyes:) It turned out that that was also the time for pet owners to walk them on the car deck. There were many different dogs and the owners were walking with them in the small open area and also between cars. As soon as the pet did it's things, the owners had paper and sanitizer and poo-bags to clean up. WE understood, that mid-sized and big dogs are not allowed to be anywhere except from this car deck and some other designated place, that we haven't seen yet. So, they mostly stay in the cars and the owners have 3 times a day a chance to walk them. We have 2 small dogs in our Solarium, obviously it is allowed to bring the dogs of that size with you everywhere. 

Diary 1

May 16, 2014, 19.57 Alaskan time.

I am sitting in a "Solarium" deck of a Ferry boat traveling from Bellingham, WASHINGTON to Juneau, ALASKA. For me it is the second time traveling by sea. First time was 12 years ago and it was a trip on the river Volga. From then I remember what an amazing feeling it is to be on a ship for several days without being able to go out and actually without any option to change anything. For several days you are not planning anything, not taking any decisions, you are even without connection to the land. It was like this back then and it is surprisingly now again. There is no internet on the vessel, we were recommended to switch our cell phones to the airplane mode, because there is anyway almost no connection and if there is some, there is a big chance that it's going to be a canadian network and consequently might come out very expensive. That is fine and even exciting. We are not allowed to drink alcohol anywhere except the bar (and there also not ours, but the one we buy there). But since we didn't know about that when preparing we bought 2 bottles of wine and are secretly drinking it now from the plastic cups hoping that nobody will check what exactly we have in our cups:) There are not too many people aboard. We came to the very beginning of the boarding. As I said we don't have a cabin, we are staying at the "Solarium" deck. That is basically just the upper deck of the vessel and a part of it is a covered from 3 sides space slightly heated. IT's still not as hot as in a solarium, but there is no wind coming inside, so you can feel quite comfortable wearing normal clothes. My husband is right now chatting with one of our new acquiantances. We've been here only for 3 hours, but already met several people. It happens somehow very easily here, people just start to talk to each other and after some time you don't happen to make any short distance across the ship not meeting somebody you know already. We are explaining our russian-austrian business again and again, because what do you really talk about with the strangers if not about where is everybody from?

To get here we got up at 5.30am today. Took our rental car that we picked up exactly one week ago in the San Jose airport after selling our own car. Drove to San Jose airport, gave the car back and took the plane to Seattle. San Jose is very close to our current "home", just about 15 minutes and mostly no traffic. It's call "The Silicon Valley Airport". It is small and nice. So, it took us almost 2 hours to get to Seattle by plane where we have already booked an airport Shuttle to the Bellingham, where the Ferry trip was to start from. We were trying to find any other options to get there, but ended up with that shuttle as the most safe, affordable and relevant option. Others were to find a ride (it failed, it doesn't work so good here as the Mitfahrgelegenheit.de in Europe) and some other options using different public transportation types, with step-overs and so on. So, this shuttle was really the best option. The bus was comfortable and even had Restrooms in it! It was only half-full and the driver was an extremely funny person. He had a voice like some Hollywood star, we couldn't recall which exactly, and the way he spoke was also like of some comic. He recommended us one cafe in Bellingham, when we told that we had to wait for the departure for several hours. We were not going to go there, it seemed weird to us to follow the recommendation of somebody working in the travel industry. You tend to think that they are all bound together and just advertising each other businises. But eventually we got exactly to that cafe and it turned out to be indeed a very nice place with the cozy outside area. Bellingham, or, better to say, the old town of it, which is located near to the cruise and  ferry terminal is a small beautiful european-style part of town, where you enjoy just wandering around and sitting in a cafe. Funny thing - I don't know why, but just within 5 minutes walking distance we saw about 10 hair-dressing saloons there. Practically at least each 3rd building had one. 

So, after having a good lunch in the "Starluck's" and shopping in the nearest and probably only one supermarket to obtain some food for our trip (including wine) we arrived to the Ferry Terminal. We boarded pretty quickly and took the very good location on the deck. We claimed two lying chairs and placed them just on the border between the covered zone and the open space. During the day, when we just arrived, it was pretty warm here. Now it got colder and we just moved them deeper into the covered area still being able to enjoy good view. 

There are not too many people on the deck, just enough not too feel alone, but there is plenty of space to have some kind of privacy. There are also severals tents on the open part of the deck. I wonder how is it inside - from outside they are being moved all the time by the wind. Lots of people are hanging out in the bar on in the cafeteria or in one of the covered sitting areas with comfortable chairs and plugs for devices/computers. Some have put on lots of layers and are walking around the ship, making pictures, chatting with each other. Along with me there are several people in the "Solarium" reading or taking a nap, or just sitting and enjoying. Right now there is some big city on our right side, lots of lights, that is most likely Canada.

The atmosphere on the vessel is calm, friendly and joyful. 

 

Travel diary

Next several posts are going to be my travel notes made on the ferry from Bellingham to Juneau. They are made with an iPhone and a portable keyboard and may contain much more mistakes and typos than normal... Sorry for that!

One new sad founding about job opportuinities for me in Austria

In Austria we will live in Altach, which is very close to the Swiss border. My husband and any other Austrian can work in Switzerland and the job market is even more promising there and the salaries are higher. So, he was sure, that I will also have that option. But now, when we actually started to explore the topic, I found out, that I won't be allowed to work there. Only in Austria. Which cuts a huge part of space for my search. That's life.

Food and restaurants

We don't go out very often to eat, but if we do than it's most likely an Asian place. First place definitely goes to Thai, then Japanese/Chinese, then all others. There are just tons of them, everywhere and they are often very affordable. One of the first places we found was very close to our first accommodation - Merit. It is a nice place and the food is really good. The service seemed to us too pushy back then. Later we learned that it's just the way it is here. In Russia as well as in Europe the waiter tries to be (or he just is?) invisible. He doesn't come too often, sometimes even when you need him. When you have finished and want to leave the place already they make you wait. Here they come up to your table couple of times, ask you if everything is alright (sometimes not really caring that you are chewing right at that moment and cannot answer), bring the bill even before you finished your eating. We will have to adjust when we go back to Europe. One very nice thing here - always, just as soon as you sit they bring you water and keep your glass full throughout your meal. That is really a very good tradition. The water is normally with ice though, but you can always ask to bring it without ice.
As for the non-Asian places most of all we like Black Angus. We have one in Sunnyvale just 10 minutes from our place (by car, everything is here by car...) and almost never go there by ourselves. First our new Russian friends (the husband is my husband's colleague) brought us there to show us a good steak place. And now we bring there every our guest for the same reason. We have actually only been to one other steakhouse and didn't like that one. So, maybe there are better places but we stuck to Black Angus and are totally fine with it:) This week we have visitors from Russia again and are going to bring them there too:)
We have only watched "Big Bang Theory" once and it was in the plane on our way to US. But we learned from there that there is the Cheesecake Factory and got an idea to try it. Once we got there we were quite surprised to find out that this is not at all a bakery, but a big restaurant with all sorts of food. And even more, that the cheesecakes there are not at all the best part, they look very attractive, but they are actually not at all so good. They are huge and extremely sweet. Each time we went there we were reducing our consumption of cheesecakes, last time we only ordered one cheesecake for two of us and didn't even eat it out. Our favorite is the Teriyaki Chicken!
There are also lots of fast-foods here obviously. We visited them very rarely, but when we did the choice was almost each time for the Asian again.
From the first day we came I was my husband to go to McDonald's. Not that I am a very big fan, but I was just extremely curious if there any difference. Couple of weeks ago I got lucky. We were driving from South California home, were already very tired and hungry, couldn't find anything on our way for a very long time and eventually reached the food stop where there was a McDonald's:) Well.... absolutely the same tastes of a Big Mac, fries and chicken McNuggets that I recall from my youth:)

Regarding the food choices here generally. The variety here is enormous. You can keep any style of eating you prefer. You can eat extremely healthy as well as extremely unhealthy. The choice of fruits and vegetables is big here throughout the year. In Summer it is just amazing. We found several products that matched our expectation and bought the again and again pretty much the whole time. For example the only 3 types of cereals without sugar, cottage cheese from Russian shop (still not that good as in Russia), vegetables and fruits from the Sunnyvale Farmers' market, C.J. Olsen Cherries, Felipe's Market or some of the supermarkets.
My husband is missing a good bread and cheese here. We found some places to buy some bread and cheese but the variety and quality are still far from what he is used to have in Austria.
There is nothing that I miss here comparing to Austria. I miss cottage cheese from Russia and that's pretty much it. All the rest Russian specialities you may buy in one of the Russian shops or eat in a Russian restaurant (we haven't tried any of them by the way, but I've heard from some friends that there are at least one decent in our area).

When we're going to move to Austria, we'll have to get used again that we don't have that much of eating places at all and much less variety. There is one sushi "network" around - Manga. One restaurant in Bregenz (20km) and another in Feldkirch(15km). My husband says there are a couple of Chinese but I haven't seen them during my living there:) Let's see:)
Anyhow, it's much easier to travel quickly to Moscow from Austria to enjoy Taras Bulba or Tanuki than from US:)) 

Restaurant screwed up... the food was very good though

Yesterday we dined with our friends in an interesting restaurant in Palo Alto. It is a Jewish one, I have never been to Jewish restaurants before and was curious. This is the place: http://orenshummus.com/. The restaurant was full, we had to wait around half an hour. Finally we were seated and had a great dinner including obviously hummus. When we finished we had to wait for the bill, which is actually very uncommon here. Normally the bill is being brought right away, sometimes even when you didn't finish eating. We were stunned by it at the beginning and haven't yet got used to it even after almost a year here. So, this place was an exception, we had to catch the waiter and ask for the bill. Finally he brought the folder, we opened it and.... found the other person's credit card there!!!! They brought us someone else's bill with someone else's credit card in it!!!!

But the food was really good, so we might go there again if we find time in our tight schedule:)))) 

Speedy visa

It took them.... 3 working days to issue my Austrian Visa! We applied last Friday in Los Angeles and this morning it was already delivered to us. I don't even know whom to appreciate for this - austrians or americans, but it is really amazing:)