The Road to Nowhere

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Good afternoon there fellow humans!
I was supposed to get around to doing another update yesterday but as it turns out, I didn't. Simple. I guess where I left off on my updates so far was the ending of my first night in Iqaluit. You know, eating wings, poutine, and being accosted by an intoxicated local. It's been super neat since then. The day after my last entry was a lot more tame, though. I believe it was because of the fact of how horridly cold it was outside. I'm pretty sure it was -30 something. If not, well then it was damn cold. Ryan had been borrowing a friends truck for the first day or two of me being here so it's been quite helpful. During that day we were able to do somemore sightseeing and exploring. One of the main places I wanted to go was the museum and visitors center. I don't know how much I wrote about it in my past entries from Vancouver Island, but I love going to museums. I find them fun and interesting! Perhaps that makes me a dork, but whatevs. So yeah, we went on a mini adventure to the museum around 3o'clock before it got dark. Don't know if I mentioned but it gets dark crazy early here. By the time 6pm rolls around you're mega wiped out because it feels like you've been up all night. Back to the museum. It was pretty awesome, it was full of paintings and sketches that the locals had created along with some mega old tools used by the Inuit many moons ago. Harpoon types dealios, knives, clothes (seal skins, fox, whatever I guess) and all types of other fun things! I believe there were a couple walrus skulls in there too. Those suckers are huuuuuuge. Holy crap, at the visitors center they had a walrus skull that was all nice and polished up and the giant tusks were carved in crazy designs. I will have a picture of that up shortly. The museum 'gift shop' area was pretty awesome too. Normally things up here are alot more expensive, but the soap stone carvings are muuuuch cheaper than down south. I was seeing carvings that you would normally buy for $400-$600 going for like $200-$250. Still quite expensive, but the prices difference is nuts. They had alot of the items that were being shown to us by the locals in the restaurant the other day on sale too. Good prices also 😉 Might have to pick up a souvenir! Anyhoo, the visitor center was kinda like the museum. Instead of local artworks and old tools, the visitor center had all types of info on the local wildlife ranging from musk ox to polar bears. (Haven't seen one of those suckers yet, and if I do then I probably won't be updating anytime soon. Ack!) It also had a couple write ups about the old traditions of the Inuit in the area. Very interesting in my opinion. Once we were done with the museum and visitors center the sun started to go down and it started to get colder. Snapped a few photos of a crazy arctic sunset and then headed home. Not much happened after that, Karolina and I sat around drinking beer and watching the tube while Ryan had to go and pick up the owner of the truck to return it to her. Once Ryan and Sarah (the ownder of the truck and also their buddy!) returned, it was time. Karaoke suckas! I love embarrassing myself. It's great. So the night went as follows, had a few beers, took a cab down to the Legion (where karaoke happens) grabbed some beers, mingled with some people, sang a few songs, went home, passed out. Ryan is the type who gets embarrassed for the people who are up there singing, so I felt it was my duty (haha doodie) as his younger brother to make him proud, or feel sorry for how uncool I am. I think I jumped up there for 4 songs. My favorite (just to kick the evening into overdrive) I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness, The Middle by Jimmy Eat World, Iris by Goo Goo Dolls (I'm glad I did that one up here where I don't know anyone because I destroyed that song, and I mean destroyed in a bad way.) and I was blessed with the honor of singing the last song at karaoke for the evening and thought it was would appropriate to sing Last Kiss by Pearl Jam. Booyah! Even Karolina made it up there for a couple songs with me. Good times yo! Haha. So after many beers and songs and all that stuff it was finally ready to head home. I kinda remember the cab ride. I'm pretty sure I was very drunkenly explaining to Ryan how to make the worlds best caeser (Worchestershire Sauce, Tabasco to taste, GIN!, lime juice, olive juice, clamato, something pickled, in a montreal steak spice rimmed glass. Noms!) I think we got home and I passed out watching It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia, yeah that sounds about right. And that concludes day 2 of my adventures.
Now yesterday, day 3 that is, was fantastic. Not saying the others days weren't, I'm just saying that it was nice to be able to get outside for more than 5 minutes without freezing! I think it was only -25 to -30 during the day so it wasn't too bad. Yesterday Ryan, Karolina, Sarah and I went out for a drive to see some of the places surrounding Iqaluit. It was great, I bundled up in some super cozy warms clothes and got to run around in the snow while taking photos! Huzzah! As I previously said, I will be uploading photos soon, probably when I get back actually just because I don't have the technology currently. We went up to this area that was situated on the top of a hill that over looked everything! I'm sure I've already said this previously, but I've never seen so much nothingness! So much snow! So much ice! Aaaaahhhh! Haha, it's friggin' crazy. Most of my photos probably look the same though, just snow. While I was walking around onto of the icy snow it was really weird. It sounded like it was totally hollow underneath the snow because every step sounded like an echo. I tried to video tape the sound so we'll see how well that goes. After that we went to another area, it looked like it was a park with picnic tables and bbqs. I'm sorry, but who the hell bbq's and picnics in this weather and climate! Once again got photos. (Damn, i wish I could upload them right now... Oh well!) I think Karolina's toes were about to snap off so we decided that it would be a good idea to head out. I tried to stay warm by doing some sort of stupid table dance onto of one of the picnic tables. And you know what? It worked. I was nice and toasty! Haha. So yeah, after that we went for another driving tour of the area. Some of the houses are crazy. There are bright red and bright yellow painted houses up here. They're actually pretty gross but I guess having a little bit of color up here really helps you not want to kill yourself so bad. Hahaha. It's true. After a little bit of driving and a few failed picture attempts we got onto a road called "The Road to Nowhere". It sounds like it should be a bit of a joke, but it's not. We went driving down it for awhile and it literally leads to nowhere. The road just keeps going out into the tundra where it's just nothing. Well, I'm gonna have to go back on that statement a little bit. After driving into the middle of nowhere for awhile we came across an Inuit grave yard. It's mostly just a bunch of rocks as headstones and whatnot. It was still pretty damn cool though! Snapped some pictures, probably got some more frostbite and then jumped back into the car. I kinda wanted to keep going down the road but I think everyone was starting to get a bit too chilly. Well, that and I suppose it really just is the same scenery for miles. I'm happy with the drive though! It was pretty awesome. The feeling of being this isolated is a very neat feeling. Nothing that I would like to have all the time, but it's definitely interesting. The rest of the day wasn't too crazy. We figured that since we've been binge drinking since I got there, we should take it easy, save some cash, and just hang out at home for the eve. We went to the store, bought a couple rations and headed back. The night was spent making homemade indian curry and playing drinking games while watching It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia. I know I know, I just mentioned that we were going to take a day off from the booze, but I may have lied 😉 Long story short, the food was delicious, I drank way too much wine way too quickly, and everyone passed out and I was left alone! Haha. That's ok. I finished up with the tv and went to bed. And now I am brought to you now. Just type type typing away. I think I should probably go now. I think we might end up going out before it gets dark. Although it is -50 out right now so I doubt we will be out for long. I have been told that we are going to a dance club tonight. Yes, that's right, a DANCE CLUB. I'm awesome. Haha. Hopefully the night will bring more stories forth and I will be able to spin you a tale again tomorrow. Anyhoo, sorry I have no photos so far, but they will be online soon enough.
Good day to you all!
Don't forget to tip your waitress

-Andy

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