Traveling together with my Boyfriend

"Alaska?!? Brrrh! Why do you want to go there? In the summer!" This was the response I got from most of the people back home when I told them I would travel to Alaska. But I would not come here in the winter and I can assure you that my first days here were as warm and sunny as the best summer days in Finland. Look at this photo, for example:

But later, the weather turned into this:

I started this trip alone, but Asser, my boyfriend, arrived on 30 July, and I must say it is much nicer to travel together than alone - even though I have previously done many trips on my own. We will explore this state, 'the last frontier' or 'the land of the brave and the free', together for a period of three weeks, after which I will stay here alone for another month. After doing some shopping in Anchorage, we first went back to Talkeetna, to camp and fish with Axel and his friend, a real gold miner, at the mouth of the Clear Creek, where I had been with Axel and some other CouchSurfers just a few days earlier.

Then we headed south from Anchorage, to the Kenai Peninsula. We went to Seward to see the celebrations of the 4th of July. For some, the Independence Day seemed to be a very nationalistic event, and for others, just another reason to get drunk. On a university course last winter, I had learned about the American exceptionalism and now I was experiencing it first hand. "Our God loves America; He blessed us like no other nation" declared a leaflet of a Baptist church. What the f***?! Anyhow, the following was probably the funniest and the most peculiar sight during the Independence Day parade.

Here's to you sportspeople: How long would it take you to run to the top of the mountain in the following photo and back? The mountain is called Mt Marathon, and the length of the trail, unlike the name suggests, is only 5km. The Mt Marathon Race is a celebrated Fourth of July event and Alaska's most famous footrace. This year, a new record was set to 42:55.

In Seward, we also went to see the Exit Glacier and did a boat trip as well as camped in a forest with my friend Yarrow and some other people working in the Denali National Park. They came to Seward for the long weekend, but we will also meet them later when we head for the interiors of Alaska.

From Seward, we continued further south and met again Axel, our CouchSurfing friend. He was fishing in Kasilof where Asser got to try his luck with the fishing rod after Running with the Bear had blessed us. The following morning, we saw our first brown bear!! (Safely from the other side of the river.)

After camping for five nights in a row, without a shower, waking up to a rain every morning - and still mostly enjoying it - we decided to stay at a hostel when we continued our trip to Homer. We stayed at the Seaside Farm where I might be spending much more time after Asser has returned to Finland. I loved the rural setting and might volunteer at the farm/hostel later on.