Alaska - the land of beauty. The land of danger. The land of unmet expectations.

I want to dispel a few myths before we continue. Firstly, in a 'near death experience your life does not flash before your eyes, nor does everything go in slow-motion. Secondly, it's always a good idea to have insurance.


Well, I don't know if what I experienced was a quote 'near death experience'. Possibly more like a 'potentially dangerous situation'.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I got into a car accident. OK, that probably wasn't the best set up in history (probably the worst) I admit. But we managed to get to the point, didn't we?

We decided to hire a car in Anchorage and drive up to Fairbanks (about 350 miles/ 500 and something km away) because Anchorage was pretty boring. We also wanted to go up and see if we could see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) (more on that later) (parenthesis!) and hopefully some wildlife on the way (more on that later too). Anyways, we hit an icy patch on the road just outside Cantwell (just over halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks), did a 360 and hit a snow bank. Luckily there weren't any other cars around at the time but if we had spun out less than a minute later than we did, we probably would have hit a truck coming the opposite way. See what I mean about potentially dangerous!? This was what I was trying to get at from the start!
So anyways, the car was working fine still and thanks to a helpful Alaskan (I assume) couple we were able to secure what was left of the front bumper so that it didn't drag. We made it to Cantwell with me feeling a little happy, to be honest. I wasn't too worried about the cost. "Can't be more than $600, right?" I laugh at myself in retrospect. It actually ended up costing 10x that amount. USD. Apparently parts are hard to come across in Alaska and have to be shipped in which is such shit.

Long story short. I'm now officially broke. Good thing I'm going home really soon huh?


We made it to Cantwell hoping that there was a mechanic there but apparently the only one in the area was old and probably wouldn't be able to make it out to have a look at the car. In any case he would probably tell us to go to Fairbanks. The truck driver that was behind us was at the petrol station too and he said that if that snow bank were any lower we would have most likely flipped. POTENTIAL DANGER! Oh, neither of us are hurt by the way. Just my wallet.

The rest of this story isn't that interesting. We made it to Fairbanks without the use of a car, we spent the rest of our time there trying to sort out this car thing and then we flew to Anchorage and then on to Seattle.

Seeing as we're out of Alaska now, I feel safe to do a little summary thing of the entire trip. Overall it was pretty disappointing. I had so many expectations which weren't met. I guess that was the problem. No research + high expectations = disappointment. I didn't do any of the things that were on my list. I didn't see any wildlife besides two Bald Eagles and a squirelly thing (possibly a squirrel). I didn't go snowshoeing, or snowmobiling OR dog sledding. I didn't see the Norther Lights. Alaska IS a beautiful place though, one of the few places in North America that warrants a second visit. During Summer of course. That's pretty much all I have to say about it, to be honest.