ANCHORAGE AND ITS PEOPLE

Anchorage is located about as far North as Saint Petersburg. But it looks very much the same as Moscow's countryside: it's all about bright red and yellow forests, and it's showered by rain

ANCHORAGE AND ITS PEOPLE

The three hundred thousand people living in Anchorage make half the population of the state. But this does not make it the capital, which is Juneau, a small town more to the South. Juneau itself has nothing else to offer but the state government and a tiny airport. That's vintage American: they have a capital for the finances and the economy, and a separate one for the administration. The great city of New York overshadows completely the boring and useless Washington; the same goes for Anchorage and the universally unknown Juneau.

The first thing that hit us when we were getting of the plane in Anchorage was the smell of trees. This town in the middle of the fall season looks great! And it's big, real big, like you need an aircraft to fly from one end to the other. It is mostly low, with small houses and lakes spread wide around a few skyscrapers in the downtown area.

On the lakes, instead of boats, they have hydrofoils moored close to the houses. These flying bikes are very inexpensive, and people use them to go out fishing or barbecuing. If, instead of water, you plan to land on firm ground, all you have to do is switch from foils to small fatty wheels: you are ready to go anywhere you want! There are even places in this town where cars and aircrafts mix in traffic; that's where small planes are taxiing from homes to landing strips, and cars have to give priority to these noisy things.

An occasional moose can be seen walking in a municipal park. Arrows of ducks in formation cross the skies here and there. Wherever there is water, salmon is aplenty. This fish, cooked in all possible ways, seems to be the main staple of the locals. But they don't eat salmon's eggs, as we do. I've only seen them once on sale, and that was in a souvenirs shop.

Adjoining the city hall is a huge windowless wall. Not to waste this valuable space, they painted on it an impressive array of pictures and figures recounting the history of Alaska. I have been a good boy and spent some time studying the thing. Here is what I can report.

The history of Alaska started in the year 1000. According to the picture, moose, bear and Eskimos — who have a vague resemblance with a pithecanthropus — inhabited the place. In 1250, Eskimos learnt to build dwellings with animal skins. In 1778, there must have been some major event; maybe they discovered Alaska in that year? Because next to this date, there is a picture of a captain of the high seas, and judging by the rather stupid look on his face, the big nose and the misplaced eyes, he must have been one of those Russian discoverers of the world. There was an ugly creature!

Next year was 1867. Alaska must have been up for sale. Some people gathered around a globe in the White House debated the pros and cons of the deal, thinking of a real good reason for buying the place. They must have thought of one, because they did buy it. And that's when the history of Alaska began in earnest, with lots of good things happening: after 1867, there is an abundance of dates. At the top of the wall, one can follow the evolution of the American aviation through numerous pictures of all sorts of aircrafts. Below, there are towering pylons of high voltage transmitters, oil pumping derricks, and ships bravely cutting through beautifully painted waves. It all brings back memories of the good old Soviet propaganda... The future of Alaska is presumed to start in 2010. The artist was obviously in great doubt as to what will be happening then, so he opted for a polar bear, assuming that this big guy will definitely manage to somehow survive.

City buses in Anchorage have special hooks for bikes in the front, on top of the headlights. So if you chose to leave home on your bike, you can still take the bus. Comes in handy: if your wife really wants to know where you've been, you tell her in all honesty that you were getting some fresh air biking.

People of Anchorage live well. There are no homeless wrecks in sight. Poor fellows tend to stay in warmer states in the South. Well, I did see one old guy carrying a written sign saying: «Will work for food», but, if he was indeed hungry, he could have had a free meal in a charity or in a church. So my guess is, the old man was out for a few bucks to buy himself a drink.

Americans are crazy about everything powered. They even have electrical can openers and chicken cutters. The day when they start using a tool with an engine to open their bottles of beer, the powering of the nation will be complete.

As we were walking, I saw a dog running up and down the street in front of a house, his leash attached by a loop to a cord on top of a fence. I said to my colleague: «Look, that's an electrical dog, it's powered as a trolleybus, through the wires.» As I was talking, the owner of the dog showed up, unhooked the leash and set the dog free. «Yeah, and now it must be running on batteries.»

The roads in the suburbs are excellent. On the sides, they have these curbs, and if the driver falls asleep and the wheels of the car hit them, there is an awful noise and a good shake up, to make sure that everybody is wide awake. Good thinking!

This is a country of cars. I thought I would go for a walk and do some shopping. So off I went. Then I thought I would ask my way from the saleswoman in a small shop, something like: «Very-very big supermarket, please?». This big black girl used words and signs to tell me: «Keep on going till your first left turn, and then it is another hundred meters down the road.» I did as I was told but there was no supermarket in sight there. I looked around and started to think, and then I got it. Because people here can't imagine anyone moving around otherwise than by car, she gave me directions assuming that I would be driving there. Well, the first left I took was a one way street going in the opposite direction. So I walked back and kept on going until the first left turn for cars, not pedestrians. And sure enough, there was my «very-very big supermarket».

Prices in the supermarket did not look sky high to me, given average incomes of the Alaskans. And then, if you really have to think budget but the urge to buy nice clothes, hi-fi equipment and jewellery is too great, you can always shop in second hand stores. You can even buy second hand arms there. In one of these stores, I saw a real Russian made Nagan manufactured in 1916. I was overwhelmed!

Alexander NIKONOV