Alaska Precious Moments

Alaska Precious Moments | Solo in Fairbanks Dumping some unposted moments 🧩 Along with a few random thoughts... 🌟 I was incredibly lucky—clear skies from the day before I arrived until the day after I left. So, during my stay in Fairbanks, it was unusually cold ❄️, but I saw the Northern Lights almost every night. 🏠 The hostel I stayed in dates back to the 1970s. Flipping through the first guest notebook on the table, all the entries were from before I was born. 🛋️ Unlike other hostels I’ve stayed in, where different floors felt distant, here at Billie’s home, everyone was close. The living room on the first floor was the main entrance, where I’d say hello and share meals with different people every day. I even managed to catch rides or find travel buddies for outings—met so many solo travelers! 👤 The first person I became familiar with was a PhD graduate just two years older than me. His first passport had already been filled with stamps, and he was on his second or third one. He started solo traveling at 16, and I felt my current solo trip phase mirrored his “younger” days. 🇮🇳 I chatted with an Indian sister who had almost no Indian accent. We shared insights about solo travel photography. On my last night, she gave me a small bag with a gift from India. 🚌 Fairbanks is small—I ran into this Indian sister twice on the bus, along with a doctor from Denmark/the U.S. (currently choosing her nationality), an older auntie. When a girl in the hostel got frostbite, the doctor gave strict medical advice and shared stories about camping in the Himalayas during extreme cold (not for fun!). 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Mark from Scotland was super enthusiastic. On New Year’s Eve, we stood outside counting down “three, two, one!” He popped open champagne 🍾, hugged everyone, and kissed them on the cheek. 🍣 One morning, a from Colombia told me in broken English that he’d accidentally knocked over my leftover sushi in the fridge and handed me a new box. 🍲 Coincidentally, on my last night, everyone planned to have dinner together. The Danish auntie suggested we each prepare a dish from our home country as a potluck. The Indian sister requested Mapo Tofu, but since there were many vegetarians, I skipped the pork. I specially went to a Chinese supermarket to buy a bottle of chili bean sauce. Stir-frying the sauce was so pungent that everyone coughed and fled the room 😂—one even struggled to crawl in and turn on the bathroom fan. The power of Chinese cuisine, huh? 🎅 I made my way to Santa Claus House only to find it closed. Just as I felt disappointed, I ran into Santa Claus at the bus stop on my way back! For me, the charm of traveling lies in its uncertainty. I don’t like having a fixed itinerary every day like on a tour. I prefer meeting different people, experiencing unexpected things, and trying local transportation. #AlaskaTravel#RandomThoughts#SoloTravel