I just saw this poignantly movie and it makes me think. About life. It makes me think about what we do in our lives. What we do with our lives. I didn´t have an answer for so long but finally I got it. Finally the thought came to my mind and after my short travel abroad it only gets confirmation. We simply are. That´s it. We don´t know why or how. Of course we ask these questions. But nobody has an answer. Not an ultimate or indisputable answer. There is religion, there is art. But how do they know? Correct, they can´t. Believe systems grown out of fear of the unknown give support to our insecure. We want to be somebody? Pretend to be until you get this person. In our self-made confidence about still breathing tomorrow lies the key for making plans for the rest of our life. Great plans! Romantic ones, regarding our jobs, family ones…endless opportunities. But tomorrow? What will there be? I heard now many stories about lives that didn´t went as expected. Didn´t went as planned. But you know what? It doesn´t matter. The people are still fighting and try to make the best out of the situation. There is only one sad part about it: The moment where the realization hits you like a hard rock in your face is painful and shows you that life goes its own way and your are not always, maybe never in full control about the way your heart wanders around. But in the end there is always hope. Hope that one day all our shattered dreams come true. Or at least that no worst case arrives. If I know one thing for sure then it is the fact that we can be very tough. Despite all their stories humans will always find a way to laugh. Even if it just about themselves. What does this mean for me? Well, I try not to make any big plans but I start to understand what motivates and drives me. And I need to say that this bothers me because if I look back I already knew it. But sometimes it just takes time, right? Sometimes we need to leave our used path to find ourselve in the weirdes places on earth. But first I need to internalize that life is simply now. It had been and will be always now. And I don´t want to say that having dreams is a bad thing or something you should avoid. But maybe we should slightly change our attitude towards our expectations for life.

Klondike Highway

Yep, I finally made it. I am in Dawson City right now and I really enjoy it. This not only because of my feeling that I found a way to go up further north but mainly because I found a bunch of awesome people over here. From the very first day they integrated me into their group and it feels a little bit like visiting friends. After quite a while I got a rideshare from Whitehorse owing to Amanda. She found someone reliable enough so that Cynthia and I actually left Whitehorse on Friday around 2:30 PM. It took us around eight hours with some smaller breaks. The landscape was really beautiful but because we left pretty late it went dark soon so that nearly half of the drive was covered in darkness. For some time we had a hitch hiker with us who talked about his life in Pelly, a small town next to the Klondike Highway. He lived in Dawson before and decided to move away because people were too interested in his life and he thinks that´s none of their business. Cynthia loves Dawson City and explained to me a lot what is waiting for me. She was way more positive about the old gold rush town. It was really interesting for me to see these two totally different opinions upfront. The closer we came the more excited I got. It was still cold with -34 degree and I was glad that the car seemed to be very reliable. At 10:30 PM we reached Dawson. Now my third town that I entered in darkness. I have the feeling this is going to be a new habit…anyway, we looked for Amandas place and after quite a while we found it.

Dawson City

Amanda had friends over at her place and I got a warmly welcome and a short tour through the house consisting of two stories. We sat together and got to know each other while we were eating some apple pie that Benny made. It was a very good and funny beginning in the new town and everybody was excited to show me around. My first night was a little bit rough because I slept on a waterbed. Not my first time but I had the feeling that there was not enough water in it. Every single time I turned around I felt like on a ship with a good swell. Is this the way how drunk people feel while they lie in a bed? Everything was moving in my head and the day after Amanda and Benny were laughing because they didn´t know that the bed contains water. I decided to move on to another room and now I have a way better bed. Or just a regular one. Andrea invited us to come over to her place for a marvelous breakfast. Just the mention of bacon was music to my ears. We got winter ready with all our gear (Amanda gave me a really good winter jacket) for just a five minute walk. But the cold can be brutal and we had around -36 degree. Both said that everything below -40 degree is just cold, even if you have good gear. The breakfast (it was already 1 PM) was awesome! We had bacon, sausages, roast potatos, waffles with strawberries and egg omelette with cheese in it. We had a great time and while Amanda was cutting the hair from July Andrea showed me pictures from her journey in Bolivia and Peru. Despite the fact of creatures that could kill you like crocodiles I started to get interested to go their by myself. Later that day I had a walk with Amanda on the dike that protects Dawson from the melting snow and ice in spring/summer. We went to the superstore and had dinner that evening with July, Andrea and Benny. A lot of fun brought us the game Hedbanz for kids where you need to ask questions to find out who you are (Wer bin ich?). Together we went to the oldest casino (Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall) in Canada and had a couple of drinks (we didn´t gamble). This casino belongs to the town and the revenues are going directly into the town again, for example to repair streets. Evey other casino in Canada belongs to a bigger chain and is driven by the government. The old flair of this town was almost touchable and showed me that Dawson is truely a historic town. With some mild northern lights we went to Benny´s cabin to put more wood into his stove. Western Dawson is off-grid without electricity (or you have a generator) and running water. The cabin is cozy and has two stories. To get to the western part of Dawson we needed to go across the Yukon River on an ice bridge. The river cannot be crossed if the ice gets instable during the warmer month. That leads to the fact that the people need to decide whether they want to stay at heir cabins or live in downtown because it is almost impossible to get supplies. There are helicopters but they are quite expensive so that it is necessary to have a huge amount of food and water for a few weeks. On the last day of the week we prepared food for the big feast that the group is having every sunday. Mainly we had Turkducken, it is chicken in a duck and this duck in a turkey. So much meat…I helped with the Pierogies and after we finished our plates we all felt super full. We had a great time and I really enjoy to be part of the group. On our way back home Amanda, Benny and I stopped at another bar (the Pit). We were the only guests for a couple of minutes. The bar is called the Pit because in the gold rush time somebody built the house (where the bar is in) and started to dig underneath the house to find gold. Of course it was hard to hide this action while a bar was running right above it. I met a guy in the bar who told me about his story and how he ran away from home and we both had similar views on why we needed to break out. Already before I heard that Dawson is full of people like „us“ who ran away. Sounds like the perfect place for me!?

The toe

After breakfast we went up a small hill to see more from the surroundings from above. We had a clear and awesome day so we could see the Yukon River and the Klondike River (both meet at Dawson). I walked through town and took some pictures of the buildings. Every so often I even could go on the wooden sidewalks if the snow was moved away. The streets are not asphalted and if you want to build a new house in Dawson it needs to fit into the look of the town. Before I came to Dawson I heard a few stories about the toe. What is the toe about? Well, in short it is about a real toe in a whiskey glas (with whiskey I guess) and you drink the whiskey and the toe needs to touch your lips. If this is happening you will be part of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and you get a certifaction about your success. On Monday we went to the bar and Amanda and Benny did the toe. Again. For the tenth time or so. I watched the cer-emony (and of course the black toe, it looks like a burned french fries) and decided I do it too. Luckily it is even possible without alcohol. In the it was a funny thing to do and not as disgusting I thought it might be. I guess if you don´t think about it too long 😀 We enjoyed the live music and while Amanda and Benny went on to another bar I went home. Tuesday was another walking day through the town. On Wednesday I met Andrea at the Eldorado Bar and we had lunch together. In the evening I went to her place and we watched a movie (Tucker and Dale, recommendation!!!) and had a very good conversation about life, motivation, travel, decisions and many more. Around 3 AM in the morning I went home.

Great time!

Since I am here in Dawson I have a great time! Not only because of the city itself but because of the group I am with. The people are awesome and I really feel like this is something special. I am happy to be shown arround and be integrated that fast and easy. With a little bit of luck I will see much more of the town and do cool stuff (be on a dog sled, ride with a ski-doo) around town. Next week the Yukon Quest will be part of the city and Benny already asked me if I want to come with him while he is volunteering. I saw the big Dredge Nr. 4 who ran up a small creek besides Dawson for looking for gold. It is a huge ship and could be operated with just four persons at a time. Today we will go to a Karaoke night and embarrass ourselves. That sounds like fun and a good way to celebrate my now six month stay here in Canada.

Your Christian

PS: More pictures in the gallery
PPS: At Toastmaster I won the trophy for the best Table Topic speech (max. 2 min). Topic was „spice“. I built up a metaphor how I spiced my life by going on an adventure and travel around. They let me win! 😀