detail from: KRK Art dizajn

ALASKA AS IN DREAMS

On May 11th, the West jet flight from Windsor to Calgary was comfortable and on time. Onward to Vancouver, we flew over the picturesque, snow-capped Rocky Mountains. The clear air and blue sky without a single cloud allowed us to see for tens of kilometers. At the Vancouver airport, Holland America Cruise staff awaited arriving passengers. At the Canada Place terminal building, we were unpleasantly surprised by the long lines for passenger security screening. Two-hour waits in "snaking lines" in front of 14 counters, of which five were working at most, and almost all the time - only two. And the control consisted only of a simple document check, without even checking us and our luggage.

The Volendam weighed anchor with a 50-minute delay and slowly sailed past Stanley Park under the Rainbow Bridge, taking a course to the north. Passengers settled into their cabins or on the decks and relaxed with drinks, looking out at the mountain peaks of the Northern Cordillera on the starboard side and the Pacific Ocean on the port side. Soon darkness fell and the stars appeared, and the sounds of soft music could be heard from the ship. As the ship moved slowly, it seemed as if time had stopped.

The next morning we sailed across the open Pacific, as preparations for the day’s activities began on the ship. The restaurants were preparing breakfast, the shops were arranging items for sale, the casino and theater were getting ready for the next evening, and the auction of paintings began. The waves on the open sea were much larger, giving us a sign where we were. And the next day, the blue of the Pacific was far more pronounced, the first icebergs were shining in the morning sun, and dolphins also appeared. The Volendam was entering the Tracy Arm Strait, which is the route to Juneau. The rocky slopes of the fjords with rapid streams, in the form of waterfalls, flowed into the sea from enormous heights. The strait became narrower and more and more filled with icebergs. Judging that the passage was dangerous, Captain Wieger van der Zee slowly turned the ship back and headed between several islands towards Juneau. On the top of one rock, a wild goat could be seen so high that it seemed to be walking on clouds. The Volendam ship with 63,000 tons, 254 m long and 33 m wide, built in 1999 in Italy, for 1440 passengers and 647 crew members. It is powered by two engines, each with 2580 horsepower (HP) and develops a speed of 23 knots. The ship has everything you need for life, it looks like a small moving city.

We sailed into Juneau Harbor in the afternoon, with the Gastineau Canal stretched out in front of us, spanned by a bridge that connects the mainland and island parts of the city. The town of Juneau was awash in brilliant greenery of trees and flowers. The vegetation was in full spring bloom. Jimmy, the driver of bus 234, was waiting for a group of passengers for the Grand Tour of Juneau City and Glacier Gardens. He informed us that the city had a population of 35,000, with 25,000 cars and only 42 miles of highway. The city was connected to the rest of the world by sea and air. It was named after explorer Joe Juneau, who found gold in a stream that flows into the Gastineau Canal, with the permission of Chief Kowee, a Tlingit tribe, just before the Alaskan gold rush. The city still has an Orthodox church from before the Russians sold Alaska to the Americans for $7.2 million in 1867. What a price, only about 50 cents per square mile. What would it cost today? The surrounding mountains to the north and the open ocean to the west protect the city from the bitter cold, so temperatures in Juneau do not fall below -10°C in the winter.

Glacier Gardens Park is located on the northern slope of Thunder Mountain, from the top of which there is a magnificent view across the Gastineau Canal to the mountains of southeastern Alaska in its background, whose snow-capped peaks merge with the clouds, illuminated by the setting sun. The uniqueness of Glacier Gardens is the upside-down trees, with hanging flowers planted in their veins, like nests. Under these trees, local weddings are held, which is a unique example in the world, in Juneau and nowhere else.

As part of the Mendelhall Glacier tour, visitors first watch a film about the creation of glaciers in the observatory, and then from the observatory terrace they have a beautiful view of the glaciers themselves with all their surroundings. Waterfalls up to 200m high flow from the surrounding mountain peaks, and the glacier itself is located between two neighboring mountain ranges. It is 13 miles long and one mile wide. The annual snowfall in the area of these glaciers is about 100 feet (nearly 30 m). Every ten minutes or so, huge icebergs break off and fall into the Gastineau Canal, from where they slowly float towards the vastness of the Pacific. The glacier's mass of ice is in constant motion, with cracking sounds, with cracks between the huge icebergs, from which a bright blue color bursts out, as a result of the enormous pressure in the ice. When a huge iceberg breaks off and crashes into the channel, accompanied by the sound of splashing, a sigh of relief is heard among the visitors. Here on the Mendelhall Glacier, on this pearl of nature, the effect of "global warming" of the earth is clearly noticeable, the glacier is shortening by about 60 feet (18 m) per year. Thanks to human activity or rather "inactivity", this natural pearl is slowly dying and the time will come when it will disappear forever. It is high time for humanity to wake up. The sun was already touching the upper peaks of the glacier, showing us all its beauty, when the driver Jimmy invited us to the bus to return to the ship. I walked back a certain distance, keeping my gaze on the glaciers, on that perfection of nature, for as long as possible. And when I went to bed in the evening, I still kept in my imagination that beauty of the icebergs with the blue color in their cracks. In the evening, quite late, in the pitch darkness, our ship sailed from the Juneau harbor, heading towards the town of Skagway. We sailed into Skagway at dawn, while most of its inhabitants were still sleeping, except for the tour guides who waited for us at the pier, on the corner of Broadway Street. The sun was still behind the high surrounding mountains, and only the church bells announced a new day for Skagway's 800 inhabitants. This picturesque town can be seen in its entirety from the deck of our ship. Skagway is characterized by the number five: it has five churches and five priests; five policemen; five doctors and five firefighters. It is located at the mouth of the Skagway River, which is formed from melted snow and is therefore very cold. Right next to its mouth is a runway for small planes, without a control tower, which land here only in emergencies.

The first inhabitant of the town of Skagway was a certain Ben Moor, who settled there about forty years before the famous "Gold Rush". The town experienced its rapid development in 1898, when explorers of all possible professions began to arrive. Shops, banks, restaurants, hotels, "dancing halloween" with "saloons" and more were opened. The town of Skagway became the largest city in Alaska.

Upstream with the Skagway River, the new road leads to the White Pass translation, where the line between the United States and British Colombia, which places a beautiful view of Klondike Valley. And here on a pass, one stream is divided into two watercourses, one goes to Skagway River, American, and the other to Mackenzie River, Canadian. At these mountain peaks, winters are very cold and coniferous trees, more than 150 years old, do not grow more than one meter. The first Canadian place there is Freiszer (Fraser), with only three houses in which five inhabitants live, customs and police officers and a possible official of the Yukon Route railway. In Freyser there is still a reception station, barracks, in which researchers during the golden fever had to show possession of a minimum of £ 2,000, to be allowed the path to the north. Over 400,000 people went through that bar, who went in search of gold, of which about 4,000 found gold, and only about 400, who riched, while countless those who were robbed or pied.

Our bus, with the driver Emily Thompson, continued the way to Yukon Territory, next to Lake Tushay and Tagish, both otherwise frozen and completely "sterile". A dozen kilometers further was the town of Caribou Crossing, which also dates back to the time of gold, and he got the name "Caribbean" deer through that valley. Across from the town is the smallest desert in the world, sandpapered terrain where some Eskimos played painlessly and who also landed ambulance planes. We had lunch in the nearby cafe, and then visited the local museum and took pictures in front of the City Hall with postal carriages.

The end point of our trip was Lake Emerald Lake, an unusual natural pearl, created during millions of fossils on his bottom. Of these color fossils, the lake is spilled in various shades of one coast towards another and the coast, and the shadows of mountain peaks are still reflected in the lake, with white snow caps on their tops. And this lake, as well as all in this area, is completely sterile due to excessive winter coldness, without life in them. And there, hundreds of thousands of researchers passed this way in search of gold without paying any attention to Emerald.

Returning to Fraser we fell out of Emily and boarded the train on the Yukon Route line, from White Pass for Skagway. This stripe of the narrow track is the stern stripe in the world - 3.9%, built between 1897. and 1900. year, during the golden fever of Klondike Gold Rush. At that time, the writer Jack London was here and wrote about the events. This stripe passes above and between steep cliffs and abyss deep over one kilometer, and is 22 miles long and travel in one direction lasts an hour and twenty minutes. During the construction of the railway, there was no mechanization, only human hands and use of horses. During the construction, about 6,000 horses survived into profound chasms, for which the valley called the "Dead Horse" (Death Horse Valley). As we drove, the wagons rocked, with the squeak of wheels, the view in the valley was horrible. We left the mountain with snow deep to the roof of the wagons, and down to the river valley (Skagway River) the trees and flowers of all colors, including iris and an unforgettable. Yes, an unforgettable event reminds us that we will never forget this unique "dream trip".

Leaving Skagway, we boarded our ship at the Broadway Street dock and sailed south toward Sitka Bay. Night was falling slowly, the murmur of the water behind the ship's propellers sounding like a lullaby. The past day had been truly exciting and unforgettable. And when we woke up early in the morning in front of the Sitka Bay Glacier, the ship was gently caressing between the fallen icebergs, which had scattered across the calm surface of the Pacific, and the sun's rays were reflecting off them like broken pieces of a broken mirror. We spent about half an hour in front of the glaciers, enjoying ourselves, and then the ship headed toward the city of Ketchikan. Several whales appeared in front of the ship, performing their "show", among them an Orca over 5 meters long.

Ketchikan is located in a bay surrounded by Deer Mountain, Tongass Pass, and Revillagigedo Island. It has a population of about 15,000 and is known as the world center of salmon. At the time our ship arrived, there were four other ships in the harbor, with a total of about 7,000 tourists at a time. This city lives mainly from tourism, and their income is certainly impressive. We set off from the harbor on a small boat for about a hundred passengers, visited the nests of "bald eagles" (Bold Eagle) along the way, and continued towards (Misty Fjords). On this route, several whales and dolphins appeared, and they are an integral part of the tourist offer on these routes. Misty Fjords are truly mystical, with countless waterfalls from the surrounding rocky hills, over 200 m high and in the mist. Seaplanes land there every ten minutes, bringing tourists from all over the world. Drops of water from the waterfall soaked us all on the deck, but we enjoyed the natural ambiance that can only be experienced here. We wished this trip would never end.

From Ketchiken we returned to Vancouver, and from there to Calgary, to our relatives. The next day they took us to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, two pearls of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Both lakes are abundant in beautiful blue water, and the surrounding mountain peaks make them jewels like water in your hands. Both the flora and fauna of the area are an integral part of the Canadian pearl of this region.

The next day of our stay we visited Banff, a small town located in a mountain gorge, with a magnificent hotel built for the needs of the queen, who never visited it. The surrounding mountain peaks frame the city's setting with a small river flowing through the very center, complementing its beauty. The Bow River has flowed for centuries along the bed of sleeping beauty and joins the Elbow River in Calgary, where they whisper to each other during their shared flow about the beauties of this incredibly beautiful land they have passed through. And let me add in the end: All those who dream of paradise need not think of heaven, it is enough to visit Alaska, Emerald Lake, Louise, Moraine and the city of Banff, because all these places make up a true Paradise, but a paradise on earth, which should be enjoyed during life.

SIMO JELAČA

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