• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Published Articles
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Anchor-rage

January 7, 2019 2 Comments Filed Under: Travel, Uncategorized

pic: Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

“It’s not America, it’s Russia.”
Guy who works at a bed and breakfast in Anchorage
.

I arrived at Anchorage airport, early morning, 2 am. I got in my hired car, a compact car, which cost £300 for five days, I drove blearily until I hit the grid, familiar to most American cities. 

Eventually I found the Alaskan Backpackers Inn in the area called Downtown. It looked very run down, the kind of place Charles Bukowski would have written about. I went into the front office, my boots sticking to the floor as I walked. A young man with a baseball cap and pale round blue eyes was working.

‘Hi!’ I said. ‘I’m Kerstin Rodgers and I’ve reserved a single room’

‘Can you sit over there in reception until I’m ready’ he whined. Already there was hostility. 

‘Sure’ I waited. 

‘What did you say your name was? How do you spell it? There isn’t a reservation for you.’

I goggled at him. The tiredness was kicking in, I just wanted to lay down.

‘I have the reservation printed out. I emailed you guys a couple of days ago’.

‘I’ve found your email.’

He then read it out, every bit of it, including all the signatures, the get out clauses, the legal gumpf you find at the bottom of an email. This took an age. 
My ire is starting to rise. This is not going to be easy. His attitude is not- oh my god, you’ve come on your own from a very far away place, and there is no reservation, what a disaster, how can I help? Nope. 

‘Why don’t you book at the Sheraton?’ He said meanly.

Another guy is standing next to the desk, he looks at me sympathetically.

‘If I had the money to stay at the Sheraton, you know what, I don’t even need to finish this sentence” I said wearily.

The other guy tries to be helpful:

‘Why don’t you take a shared room tonight? And decide what to do in the morning?’

Desk guy hisses: ‘I don’t need your help. I can do this job, I don’t appreciate you butting in’. 

Under his baseball peak, his pale eyes skidded around. He looked deranged, about to fly off the handle. He is yelling at me and the other guest. 

Finally I snap: ‘Look I don’t appreciate your attitude. I booked, I confirmed by email. I’ve done this in good faith. So there has been a mistake. But rather than trying to help, you are shouting at everyone.’

He pushed his chair back and fixed me with a stare.

‘I’m not going to rent you a room at ALL. You can leave.’

‘Whaat?’ both me and the other guy say.

I struggle to think of something to say. I’ve overplayed my hand here. 

‘Have you no Christian compassion?’ I squeak.

God knows where that phrase came from. Must have been the Christians I saw at the airport: women in plain full-length cotton dresses, no make up, white napkins covering their hair and, incongruously for their Amish-style look, white trainers. (Are you a nun? I asked one. No I’m a Mennonite).

But it seemed to do the trick. Desk guy relented. He tapped into his big computer, handed me a plastic room key and said I could be in a room of four sharing.

I parked in the lot and went inside the building that housed the dorms. In the hallway there was dark red greasy vein of carpet. This place hadn’t been cleaned for centuries. The shared bathrooms had water on the floor and bins overflowing with toilet paper. The shower curtain was grimy.  It looked and felt like a homeless shelter.

I sat down, weirdly buzzed and not ready to sleep, on a sofa in the corridor. A good-looking man sat opposite. He was a fisherman and he lived, when he was not on a boat, in this hostel.

Eventually I crept into my room where I could see the sleeping form of my room mates. I felt like I was in an episode of Orange is the New Black.
I laid down. Worn out ‘fitted’ nylon sheets, the sort with elasticated corner, kept springing off the bed. The pillow was not worthy of the name. It was maybe an inch thick, made of something synthetic and repulsive. Most of the night I was sleeping on bare mattress and vigilant for bed bugs.
In the morning I woke up and two women were looking at me.

‘When you came in the middle of the night, I thought you were a native woman, an inuit, because of your build and your hair’, one of them said. 

The girl on the bunk above me stirred. 
I looked up and jumped. There was something black and strangely shaped hanging down from a bar over my lower bunk.

The lady opposite laughs and says sadly: ‘Oh I think that’s just gum’.

My cellmate opposite turns out to be a rather strange woman.  Underneath her metal bunk bed, she keeps a bowl of pasta covered in a plastic bag. While chatting to me, she repeatedly dips a tissue paper containing a spoonful of coffee, into a cup of hot water.

‘I have to do this a lot of times so that it becomes coffee’ she explains. 

She is 52 and just broken up with a 25 year old guy. She later tells me he had done jail time for a relationship with an 11 year old. He was obviously a fan of generational gaps.

She tells me that during the winter this place is full of raging alcoholics. There is a doss-house next door and the welfare office on the other side. In winter, when they all come off the streets, they come here.

‘Thing is the hostel takes $150 for the weeks’ rent but say you can’t smoke or drink here. Of course, as they are alcoholics, they all smoke and drink. So they get kicked out after a day, and the place keeps the money.’

‘It’s an awful scam,’ she sighs.

This lady doesn’t have a job and lives on welfare because of mental health issues. 
It emerged she literally had not a penny to live on. She seemed to have no friends and no family.

Many people move to Alaska because they get a yearly bursary, called a PFD, a Permanent Fund Dividend, paid in September, normally around 2000 dollars.

‘When you have a big family, that can add up to a good amount.’

This money, from oil revenues and land-leasing, is paid out to people who have lived in Alaska for a full calendar year.  It’s also recognition that living in Alaska is expensive. The population of the entire state is around 750,000. Not even a million people. Alaska is the biggest state in America by far, twice the size of Texas. 

‘But most people move to Alaska because of the Alaskan Fantasy’ she elaborates.

‘What is that?’ I ask.

It turns out it is similar to what I call The South of France Fantasy; most people have one of these lodged somewhere in the back of their mind, along with The Tropical Island Fantasy. South of France and Tropical Island fantasies have obvious appeal; good weather, good food, sea, sand, palm trees.

The Alaskan Fantasy is somewhat different but has features in common with the aforesaid fantasies; it’s about freedom, isolation, escaping society, being independent, survival and proving to oneself that one can survive. The Alaskan Fantasy isn’t a holiday, it’s hard, with a tough life guaranteed.

Americans escape from the Lower 48, as Alaskans call the rest of the States. They escape bad families, taxes, stultifying work routines. The call of the wild.
On Alaskan cars, the number plates say ‘The last frontier’. To a people that had to colonise the Wild West, Alaska is very appealing, it harks back to that kind of grit. 

The lady tells me she wants to go back to Baltimore to look after her dying dad. But she had recently ‘retrieved’ the memory that her dying dad had sexually abused her. She went to see him and confronted him in a car park with this information. Needless to say step-mom doesn’t want her to have contact anymore. So this lady is now contacting lawyers to get access to her dad so she can look after him.

I suggested: ‘This may be difficult seeing that you have also brought up these abuse issues?’ getting drawn into the conversation despite my caution.

She starts laughing hysterically.

‘He is being held hostage by his wife, my step-mom. He is a vulnerable adult. She’s controlling him.’

Then she said coyly: ‘I just want to look after daddy’.

Minutes later she says: ‘ I’m going to read some of my thoughts about him.’ I’d known this woman for approximately 2 hours. 

She opened a large notebook filled with scribblings. ‘He did this’, she circled it with a pen, ‘and this’ another circle, ‘and this.’ 

We go out to breakfast, to a diner she recommends as cheap. ‘A piece of fruit costs $2 minimum in Anchorage.’

Alaska has a very short intense growing season lasting three months. Fresh vegetables are at a premium. Food in general is expensive. You pay between $30 and $45 dollars for a main course. Even fish, plentiful and local, is expensive to buy.

The lady tells me: ‘People don’t buy it here. They go fishing and catch a big one. Then they chop it all up and store it in the freezer. They will have a freezer full to last all winter.’

This was confirmed by a guy that worked at the next hotel I stayed at.

‘I don’t go out to eat. I have fish at home, fish I caught’

After breakfast, I decide to move hotel even though they cost a fortune in Anchorage. Also the woman really scared me. 

Pic:Kerstin Rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
Anchorage

Recent posts

Adventures in Kent on International Women’s Day

March 27, 2023

Spring budget recipes for Willesden Library

March 23, 2023

Smoked haddock chowder recipe in Suffolk

March 17, 2023

Previous Post: « British Weekends: Winchester and recipe for wasabi/cream cheese gyoza
Next Post: River cruise: Rouen »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John

    January 7, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    Fascinating stuff happens when you put comfort, if not your life, on the line. But delightful for your readers.

    Reply
  2. Margo

    January 7, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    Better a credit card bill than a knife in the back . Awful. Like new blog format

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to Sophie of @tobia.teff she uses the iron-rich, gluten free teff grain from her homeland Ethiopia. She showed me how to make injera, the Ethiopian flatbread which is fermented. She also talked about the coffee ceremony, 3 cups, which they pair with toasted barley or, currently, popcorn! I’d love to visit Ethiopia and find out more about their ancient food culture, history, 3.5k year old monarchy and religions.
Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @bre Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @brentcouncil Willesden library. I’ve been doing this a few times a year for the last few years. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a kitchen set up permanently. Libraries are community centres and could be used to teach how to cook from scratch.
Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is ex Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is experiencing her own first Mother’s Day with Ophelia. I’m still living in chaos & work was slow yesterday due to rain. Only another month…
Last week I did a wild foraging walk with @luciath Last week I did a wild foraging walk with @luciathewildkitchen in Kent @kent_downs_aonb just outside Canterbury. I’m going to help out during her May wild asparagus workshop. This chef lived in France, is a brilliant forager and cook. Her campfire meal of lentils, wild garlic raitha and a dukkah of alexanders, Parmesan was genuinely delicious not worthy like so much foraged food.
I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbu I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbushcraft Hannah Nicholls in Kent. An all female group, this felt very empowering and I must get myself one of these fire sticks. @kent_downs_aonb
Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRI Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRILLIANT block printing workshop with @mollymahonblockprinting it was a belated birthday present from @siennamarla The hotel is gorgeously designed, look at the fabric wallpaper behind me. Every corner is a feast for the eyes. Lunch was included and unlike many hotel restaurants the food was so tasty (and vegetarian), perfectly judged in quantity. Congrats to the chef. I got so excited on Friday I bombarded my timeline with stories which may have been a tad overwhelming. I’ve had a great week, going to Kent @kent_downs_aonb to meet foraging chef @luciathewildkitchen and bushcraft teacher hannah @naturalpathwaysbushcraft so it’s been one of extremes, from urban high glamour to roughing it outside in frosty countryside. I’m loving life as a journalist and photographer, I get to meet so many inspiring people. At home things are a bit grim because I’m having building work done and for almost 3 months I’ve lived in rubble, without heating, and sometimes without cooking or hot water. So these days out are fab for my mental and physical health. I will be posting more on Kent, Molly Mahon, Ham Yard hotel and the building works. #springiscoming🌸 dress by @designerfriday
Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bec Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bechamel, Parmesan, mozzarella and artichokes. I prepped the artichokes from fresh but you could use jarred. I had this @nonna_betta in Rome. It was so good I had to figure out how to make it myself. #artichokes #carciofi #romanjewishfood
Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On the demonisation of middle-aged women. We are all karens now. We’ve passed our last fuckable day. This book, an easy read, not an academic one, is brilliantly written, with an ice cold anger at the way women over 40 are erased, told to shut up. Yes we call the manager. We are sticking up for ourselves. We don’t take shit anymore. We aren’t beholden to being liked by men, being girl-friend material anymore. Embrace your hagdom. You can buy your own flowers. #books #feminism #hags
Carciofi alle giudia, artichokes, Roman Jewish sty Carciofi alle giudia, artichokes, Roman Jewish style. I learnt how to prepare these from @silvia_nacamulli a local Jewish Italian cook and teacher, who recently wrote a book ‘Jewish flavours of Italy’ available from @green_bean_books you need the right type of artichokes: mammole are currently available @natoora via @ocadouk have some lemon quarters to rub on the newly exposed parts of the artichoke and put them in water with lemon juice to stop them going black. #you take off many of the outer leaves until they are half pale green. Then cutting in a circular upward stroke, you take off the hard green purple tops of leaves. It ends up looking like a peony. Cut off the fibrous parts of the stalk. Smear salt and pepper inside the flower. Fry at 150c for 15 minutes. Remove and drain, open up to look like a sunflower. Then fry again at 180c until the outer leaves are golden and crispy. Serve immediately. Divine! #jewishitalianfood #carciofi #artichokes #mammole #artichokeseason
@silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic @silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic book ‘Jewish flavours of Italy’ . She lives local to me so I went round to see how she prepares artichokes for the famous carciofi alle guidea and artichoke stew. You need mamole artichokes that are in season now from @natoora I’ll be publishing a longer video on YouTube and a piece on her cooking in the @hamandhigh
Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a couple of spoons of yoghurt, some lemon juice, whizzed up. Add black pepper or herbs. #5minuterecipes
This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. Want to replace window overlooking garden with a wider, lower one but struggling to find something nice. All new sash windows look kinda fake. #vintagewindows #building #exposedrafters
Baking for the builder: cranberry pie with cream. Baking for the builder: cranberry pie with cream. Just because you are a builder it doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate pretty pink china and home baking. #builders
My piece is The Great Read: My piece is The Great Read:
Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuv Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuvio,the Christmas 🍅, which lasts up to a year fresh. It’s given boxed as gifts around Christmas being the only local fresh tomato available. It dresses all the Christmas pizzas and pastas. It’s grown on volcanic Vesuvius soil and sparsely watered. As a result it has thick skins, and a sweet intense flavour. #tomatoes #italy #naples
Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick laye Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick layer of dust over my kitchen. This will be my dining room/photography studio. Done on a whim.#unplanneddemolition
Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a n Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a nest of apricot tulle (found at portobello market). Isn’t she lovely? #granfluencer
Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is defin Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is definitely a week for soups. My friend @jimfrommanc is staying & needs his hot lunch.
Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Ven Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Venice the fresh food market sells bouquets of colourful chillies. I’ve still got mine, drying in an enamel jug. #travelandfood
The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read all about it: https://msmarmitelover.com/2022/12/christmas-in-naples.html  Got a couple of bunches hanging in my kitchen. #naples #campania #tomatoes🍅 #travelphotography
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2023 msmarmitelover