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MY WORLD - 12

SIMO JELACA, Ph.D.

VANCOUVER – BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

Vancouver is a port city on the Pacific coast of Canada, with about 630 thousand inhabitants, the eighth largest in the country. It belongs to the cities with the most ethnic affiliations. 40% of Vancouver residents were not born in Canada. The first European to settle in Vancouver was a certain George Vancouver in 1792. Vancouver has the most temperate climate of any Canadian city, with only 11 snow days per year, but with a rainfall of 1,600 mm

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Vancouver lies in a seismic zone, with the possibility of frequent earthquakes. One of the biggest attractions in Vancouver is the 137.5 m saltwater swimming pool, almost three times larger than the Olympic swimming pools. In Vancouver, the "Cruise" terminal is the fourth largest in the world. In terms of film production, Vancouver comes right after Los Angeles and New York. Vancouver has the most expensive homes in Canada, with an average price of $1.2 million. Vancouver was named the third city in the world for quality of life. In terms of population income, it is behind Toronto and Montreal.

In Vancouver, Stanley Park, an extraordinary place for recreation, is 10% larger than Central Park in New York. The Vancouver Aquarium is among the five largest in the world. Not far from Vancouver are the famous ski fields, Whistler, where the 2010 Winter Olympics were held. Vancouver is visited annually by about 15 million tourists from all over the world. In Vancouver, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace was formed, but Vancouver is also the city with the most crime in Canada.

The author and his wife visited Vancouver on the way out and back from a cruise to Alaska in May 2011.

ALASKA - DREAM JOURNEY

On May 11th, the WestJet flight from Windsor to Calgary was comfortable and on time. Flying on to Vancouver, above the picturesque snow-capped Rocky Mountains, clear air and cloudless blue skies allowed views for tens of kilometers on either side.

At the Vancouver airport, the Holland America Cruise staff was waiting for the arriving passengers, but an unpleasant surprise awaited us already at the Canada Place terminal building, a two-and-a-half-hour wait in the "snaking lines" for the security check. Out of 14 counters, a maximum of five worked, sometimes even only two, the control was quite usual, only checking documents.

Our ship Volendam raised anchor 50 minutes late and slowly sailed past Stanley Park, under the rainbow bridge, taking a course to the north. Only then did the passengers calm down, some in their cabins, others on the decks. The fresh breeze from the nearby mountain peaks was soothing. With a cold drink, in the deck chairs, we watched the orange sunset, not noticing how quickly it got dark and the first stars appeared. The sounds of light music came from inside the ship. The impression was that the ship was moving slowly, while time stood still.

The next morning we were in the open ocean, when the usual activities on the ship began. Restaurants were opening for breakfast, shops were arranging items for sale, casinos and theaters were preparing for the following evening, and the auction sale of paintings began. The waves in the open sea were much bigger, reminding us to sail.

On the third day, the sun was brighter than the previous day, the water was bluer, birds were flying around the ship and the first dolphins were spotted, jumping in pairs, performing their shows to the curious passengers. Soon after, the first floating icebergs were noticed. Travelers have photographed them countless times. Volendam was sailing into the strait that leads to the Juneau Glaciers. The rocky slopes of the fjords with fast streams flowing down them in the form of countless waterfalls were reflected in the clear sea water, while the given strait became narrower and crowded with icebergs, picturesque and unforgettable. The ship was moving very slowly while the passengers were enjoying themselves. A wild goat could be seen on top of a rock, so high that it gave the impression, seen from the ship, almost vertically up, that it was moving on the clouds.

The captain of the ship, Weiger van der Zee, turned the ship slightly, taking a course to the north and passed between several islands in the direction of Juno. The ship Volendam is 63,000 tons, 254 m long and 33 m wide, built in Italy in 1999 for 1440 passengers and has 647 employees. It is powered by two engines, each with 2580 hp, and develops a speed of 23 knots. The ship has everything you need for life, more or less, like a mobile city at sea.

We sailed into the port of Juneau in the afternoon. In front of us is the Gastineau Canal, crossed by a bridge, which connects the continental part with the island part. The town of Juno is all in brilliant green, of all kinds. Alaskan vegetation is in full spring bloom. Jimmy the driver of bus 234 is already waiting for the group for the Grand Tour of Juneau City and Glacier Gardens. He informs us that Alaska's capital, Juneau, has 35,000 residents and 25,000 cars, and only 42 miles of highway. The city is connected with the rest of the world by sea and air. It is named after prospector Joe Juneau, who found gold in the stream that flows into the Gatineau Canal, with the permission of Chief Kowee, of the Tlingit tribe, just before the Alaska gold rush. There is still an Orthodox church in the city, from the time before the Russians sold Alaska to America in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars. What price, about 50 cents per square mile, what might this pearl be worth today? The mountains that protect the city from its northern side and the open ocean, from the west, ensure that the temperatures in June in winter do not fall below -10°C.

Glacier Gardens Park is located on the northern slope of Thunder Mountain, from the top of which there is a magnificent view across the Gastineau Channel to the mountains of Southeast Alaska in its background. The uniqueness of the Glacier Gardens park is the trees planted upside down with hanging flowers in their branches, like nests, under which local wedding ceremonies are performed. This unique ambiance exists only here in Alaska and nowhere else. The impression is that there is no better place to observe the surrounding natural beauty and rest the soul than from these peaks. The mountains in the distance look as if they are painted with white caps on their tops, touching the clouds in the blue sky, illuminated by the rays of the setting sun.

Before viewing Mendenhall Glacier, visitors are taken to the observatory, where a film about the formation of the glacier is shown. Mendenhall Glacier is the second largest in Alaska, and possibly the world, at 13 miles long and 1 mile wide, with an annual precipitation of about 100 feet (30 m) of snow in their region. The first view from the terrace of the observatory on the glacier is fantastic, which takes your breath away, suddenly everyone is silent for a moment, and then there is a shout of joy. When you approach the glacier, you can hear the cracking of the ice, and your gaze lingers on its blue color, created due to enormous pressure during the past hundreds of millennia. Streams of melted glaciers flowed from the sharp cliffs, in the form of waterfalls, which fell from hundreds of meters in height and splashed in the form of pearly drops, and in their further course towards the Gastineau channel, they carried the detached ice blocks of the Mendenhall glacier. Here, on this pearl of nature, the effect of global warming of the earth is clearly observed, the glacier shortens by about 60 feet (18 m) annually. Thanks to human activity, this pearl is slowly dying, and the time will come when it will completely disappear. What a waste? It is high time to call humanity to wake up.

The sun was already touching the upper surface of the glacier, showing us all its beauty, when the driver Jimmy invited us to the bus, to return to the ship. I walked back some distance, wanting to take one last look at the given perfection of nature. And for a long time, during the night, that blue color of the glacier lingered in my mind, bringing my thoughts back millions of years to the time of its formation.

Late in the evening, the ship Volendam set sail from the port of Juneau, through the Gastineau Channel, heading towards the town of Skagway. We sailed into Skagway somewhere at dawn, while its inhabitants were still asleep, except for the tourist guides, who were already waiting for us at the pier on the corner of Broadway Street. The sun was still behind the high mountains that surrounded Skagway, and only the church bells announced a new day for its 800 inhabitants. This picturesque town, which can be seen in its entirety from the deck of the ship, is symbolized by the number five: it has five churches and five priests, five policemen, five doctors and five firefighters. It is located at the mouth of the river of the same name, Skagway River, which is formed from melted snow and is therefore very cold. Directly next to its coast is the runway of a small airport, without a control tower, where only small planes land for emergencies. The first inhabitant of the place was a certain Ben Moore, who settled there about forty years before the famous gold rush, and experienced its rapid development from 1898, when researchers of various professions suddenly began to arrive. The opening of shops, banks, restaurants, hotels, dance halls and salons has begun. Then Skagway became the largest city in Alaska, while the entire current population of Skagway could be accommodated in half the cabins of the ship Volendam.

Upstream along the Skagway River, a new road leads to White Pass, where the border of the United States and British Columbia is and from where a fantastic view over the Klondike Walley stretches. Just at the top of the pass, a stream divides into two streams, one flows into the Skagway River basin, American, and the other into the MacKenzie River basin, Canadian. On the tops of these mountains, very cold weather prevails in winter, as a result of which the conifer trees, which are 150 years old, do not exceed a height of one meter. The first Canadian town of Fraser has only three houses and five inhabitants: a customs and police officer, and perhaps one of the railway officials on the Yukon Route. There is still a receiving shack there in Fraser where gold rush prospectors had to show possession of 2,000 pounds of food to be allowed to continue north. About 400,000 people went through this barracks, who went in search of gold, of which about 4000 found gold, and only about 400 in quantities that enabled them to get rich. Countless are all those who died or were robbed.

Our bus, with driver Emily Thompson, continued into the Yukon Territory, passing Lake Tushay and Lake Tagish, both sterile and half-frozen. Next to Tushay Lake, a large sign indicates that we have entered the Yukon. The bus stopped there for a short time, so that almost all of us could take a photo with Emily. About ten kilometers further is the small town of Carcross, named after the Caribou crossing, which also dates back to the time of the great portage for gold. Its appearance is exactly the same as it was at the time of its creation, and only a hundred meters away is the smallest desert in the world, on whose sandy ground small planes land, for emergency cases, also without a control tower. In the meantime, and this is almost always, the local Eskimos are playing baseball on the runway. We had a delicious lunch and coffee in a nearby cafe, after which we toured the local museum and took photos in front of the City Hall and the postal carriages of that time.

The farthest place of our journey was Emerald Lake, a pearl of natural creation, probably unique in the world for its beauty. This lake, like all the surrounding ones, is sterile, there is no life in it, but it is full of colors that change from its shores to the middle or from one end to the other, depending on the time of day and sunlight. For millions of years, fossils have been deposited at the bottom of the lake, which is the cause of all shades of color, depending on its depth. And indeed the name of this lake Emerald (which means emerald) rightfully belongs to it. This natural gem of Canada is a gift to all of us who are lucky enough to visit it once in a lifetime. Lake Emerald must be preserved the way nature gave it to us, and if we had no other reason, it would be enough to travel to the Yukon to admire Emerald, in whose clear water the peaks of the surrounding mountains are reflected, with a white snow cover during early spring. Lake Emerald has been unchanged for millions of years, and those explorers who passed through here in search of gold did not look back at these beauties, they chased after gold and left the emerald unseen.

Back in Fraser, we said goodbye to Emily and boarded the Yukon Route train from White Pass to Skagway. This narrow-gauge railway was built between 1897 and 1900 during the Klondike Gold Rush, when Jack London stayed here and wrote about those times. The railway has the highest gradient in the world, 3.9%, and passes through steep cliffs above chasms over a kilometer deep. The line is 22 miles long and the journey takes one hour and 20 minutes. The new carriages built in the style of the time tilted and creaked on curves, causing the fear of passengers, like an airplane crash, holding their breath for moments. During the construction of the railway, there were no heavy machines, only horse and human power. The working conditions were enormously difficult and about 6,000 horses fell into the ravines, which made the valley stink for two years, and after that it got the name Dead Horse Valley. The cliffs of this rugged mountain are heavily overgrown with conifer Sitka spruce, which grows as upright as if each were planted with a plumb bob. We left the top of the mountain with snow deep to the roof of our wagons, and down in the valley, along the Skagway River basin, sables and flowers of all colors, including iris and forget-me-not, were blooming. Yes, not forgetting, which reminds us to never forget this valley. And we can't, even if we wanted to, the impressions are so strong.

Leaving Skagway, we boarded our ship at the Broadway dock, from where we sailed south, where we came from, and then headed in the direction of Sitka Bay. The night fell gently, while the lapping of the water behind the ship seemed like a lullaby after an exciting day.

The next day the ship sailed slowly between the islands. On the eastern side, the green slopes sloped gently towards the sea, illuminated by the sun, and reflected in the turquoise water. The other side, towards the glaciers, was covered with numerous icebergs, which reflected the sun's rays as if from a piece of a broken mirror. The boat stopped right in front of the glacier, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the natural spectacle. Cracking could be heard in the sand, which ran vertically and often fell down with a crash, accompanied by the sigh of the passengers. And in this environment, time seemed to stand still. No one was heard on the ship, everyone was enjoying themselves. From there, the ship headed for Ketchikan, arriving there the next day around 10 o'clock. Along the way, we were again greeted by whales, among them Orsa, about 5 m long.

The city of Ketchikan sprawls around the bays surrounding Deer Mountain, Tongass Narrows and Revillagigedo Island. It has about 15,000 inhabitants and is known as the world center of salmon. In these years, tourism is on the rise and brings a lot of income to the city. At the port, we boarded a fast motor boat, for a hundred passengers, on which we headed to the destination of Misty Fjords. On the way, we stopped for a short time near the Bald Eagle nest, and stopped at Short Pass, where several whales performed their show. Of course, whales and dolphins are an integral part of cruises

Misty Fjords really look mystical, in a constant mist, from numerous streams that tumble almost vertically down the cliffs more than hundreds of meters high, and are reflected in clear water over 200 m deep. From the waterfall, water splashes all around, and the deck seems to be constantly raining. Local seaplanes land every few minutes, bringing passengers from all over the world. We experience the whole environment as a journey through paradise, we don't want it to end the same way. On the way back, the waves became high enough that the small boat literally bounced us from one to the other. Water droplets splashed high above the ship. And it was a real event, especially as ordered for us who adored the restless sea, which reminded me of the first sailing of the ship Partizanka from Dubrovnik to Rijeka, back in 1957. We set sail from Ketchikan in the afternoon, and after 36 hours we arrived in Vancouver, where our wonderful journey, the "journey of dreams", ended.

And finally, it is possible to say: Those who fantasize about Paradise do not need to think about heaven, it is enough to visit Alaska and Banff. Alaska, Emerald Lake, Lake Lewis, Lake Moraine and Banff, all together, represent a true Heaven on Earth.

Glacier Gardens at Juneau Glacier on Sitka Bay

YELLOWKNIFE – THE CHARM OF THE NORTH

Yellowknife is the capital and largest city of the North Western Territory (NWT) of Canada, with about 20,000 inhabitants, known as the "Diamond of the North", with many contrasts. It is located on the northern side of Great Slave Lake, the tenth largest in the world (28,438 km²) and the deepest on the North American continent. There are hundreds of small rocky islands in the lake, where eagles nest. In the lake, there are also about twenty sojenica houses, which the inhabitants reach by boat, and they do not pay Property Tax in the lake.

The central part of the city of Yellowknife is multi-storey, modern and predominantly business, while the other parts of the city are residential, with schools and supporting institutions. In the city, there are still old houses of the mining settlement, the gold miners, who enriched this city as the "Gold of the North". The Giant gold mine was famous, with gold deposits in a diameter of about 13 km, and about 20 g of gold per ton of ore, but after its depletion it was closed and is no longer in operation. In recent times, diamond deposits have been discovered in the north of Canada, so mines in the vicinity of Yellowknife (Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake) are now being exploited. Ever since these diamond deposits were discovered, the city of Yellowknife is often referred to as the Diamond of North America. There are diamond processing companies (cutting and grinding) in the city itself. There is a saying that Jelounaif was built on gold, and the present happiness smiled on him on another kind of stone - Diamond.

In Yellowknife, a national holiday is celebrated on June 21, Aboriginal Dei (Aboriginal Day).

Yellowknifeis surrounded by numerous lakes and forests. In the city itself there are lakes: Frame, Range, Jackfish, Niven, Tibbitt and Cam, and in the wooded areas, where beautiful picnic areas are arranged: Cameron with Cameron River and Cameron Falls, Prelude, Long Lake and others. On all these lakes, pedestrian paths with protective fences, parking lots and equipment for the safe use of barbecue grills have been created. The lakes have excellent conditions for fishing, which are abundant. There are plenty of berries in the forests, and where berries grow there are also bears, and in the Northern Territory there certainly are. And as the summer progresses, the surrounding forests simply explode with ripe cranberries.

The town of Yellowknife has a wonderful "Prince of Wales" museum, which displays exhibits from the life and art of local Indians, and the museum has a restaurant with buffalo meat specialties. In the city, the Provincial Parliament was built in the shape of a snowflake, which looks beautiful and truly embodies the local nature. Over 45,000 tourists visit Yellowstone annually, of which about 6,000 mostly come in winter.

During the sub-arctic summer, Yellowknife sunbathes at midnight. On the twenty-first of June, daylight in Yellowknife lasts 20 hours, the northern hemisphere of the country is tilted more towards the sun, so dawn and dusk last much longer. And settlements north of the Arctic Circle experience extreme contrasts between summer and winter. There, during the summer, the sun does not set at all for 57 days, from May 24 to July 24, and for 30 days during the winter, it never rises, from December 5 to January 5. Hence it is said that the population of the far Canadian north "enjoys the midnight sun". Many residents sunbathe here at midnight. Many residents of Yellowknife and the surrounding area start swimming in the lakes before the ice on them has completely melted. Summers here are warm, up to +35 degrees, while winters are very cold, up to -45°S and even lower. Daycare in Yellowknife on December 21 is only six and a half hours. Rain falls here only during the summer months, and only up to 25 cm. While the northern hemisphere of the earth is frozen, 80% of the solar energy is reflected back into space, and during the summer day, it receives as much solar energy in 24 hours as on the equator during 12 hours of daily sunlight.

When you stay in the vicinity of Yellowknife, you get the impression that nowhere on earth there are more lakes than here, and they are all arranged so that you can have picnics at each lake. All tourist sites in the Northern Territory are officially open from May 15 to September 15.

About 110 km from Yellowknife is the small town of Rae Ezo, where only the Den (Dane) Indians live, there are about 1,500 of them, who live exclusively from hunting and fur trading. Their houses are log cabins, but now they all have television antennas. About 220 km north of Yellowknife is the town of Inuvik (population 3,700) where the midnight sun does not set for 57 days, as stated above. In Tuktoyaktuk there are icebergs that never melt. And not far from Inuvik, the McKenzie River, which flows through the Northwest Territories for 2,896 km, flows into the Arctic Ocean.

In the old part of the city of Yellowknife, where gold miners once lived, today there are Indian souvenir shops, which testify to the culture of the local population. The largest of the shops is the Gallery of Midnight Sun, which sells the most famous furs. Their winter jackets cost around $1200 in the summer of 2011. In Yellowknife, most of the officers, during their midday lunch break during the summer, go out and have lunch in the parks, where there are tables with benches. And that ambience is unique and pleasing to the eye.

The terrain on which Jelounaif is located is completely rocky, so the construction of modern houses is very difficult and expensive. Each terrain is first mined, and only then is construction started. Yellowknife is served by Air Canada planes, and it is possible to get there by your own car, in which case you will pass by Twin Falls Gorge, Alexandra & Louise Falls, Slave River, Great Slave Lake, Lady Evelyn Falls and others. The road from the other cities to Yellowknife is long, but the nature is also particularly beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

The author and his wife stayed with friends in Yellowknife from May 18 to 26, 2012, visited many lakes and surrounding forests, met two bears, and enjoyed the natural beauty that is unique in this part of the continent. We brought unforgettable memories.

OTTAWA - CANADA

Ottawa, the capital of Canada, with about 920,000 inhabitants, Metropolitan 1,236,500, located on the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau rivers. In 1855, Ottawa was called Bytown after Colonel John By, the engineer who oversaw the construction of the Rideau Canal. In 1857, Queen Victoria named the city Ottawa and designated it to be the main, administrative city of Canada. And the name Ottawa is derived from the Algonquian word "adawe", meaning trade. Ottawa is a multinational city, 50% of the population speaks English, 32% French, and the rest speak Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian and other languages. Bigger cities than Ottawa in Canada are Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. Parliament in Ottawa was built from 1860 to 1866, and Confederation was created just one year later, in 1867. Ottawa also had two big fires: the first broke out in 1900, when hundreds of buildings were destroyed, and the second in 1916, when a fire broke out in Parliament, in its central block. Only part of the Parliament library remained undamaged.

Ottawa is the seventh coldest city in the world. Colder than Ottawa are: Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, Astana in Kazakhstan, Moscow, Helsinki, Reykjavik in Iceland and Tallinn in Estonia. Average temperatures in Ottawa are 25°S in summer and -10°C in winter, while the coldest recorded in February 1943 was -36.1°C, and the warmest was 37.8°C. The record snowfall was in the winter of 1970-71. 444.1 cm. Ottawa is the fourth cleanest city in the world, among 300 cities. Ottawa belongs to the cities with a younger population, the average age is 35 years. On average, Ottawa has the most scientists, engineers and PhDs of any city in Canada. Ottawa has five universities and two colleges. The largest employer in Ottawa is the federal government, with approximately 1,800 registered technology companies employing 76,000 people. That is why Ottawa belongs to the most educated city. Around Ottawa, there is the most arable agricultural land of all the major cities in Canada.

During the winter the Rideau Canal in central Ottawa becomes the longest snowmobile trail, 7.8 km. Ottawa has many parks, with 65 km of walking trails and 150 km of street trails, it has 7 ski fields with car access, and many picnic spots where massive barbecues are made in the summer.

There are 14 museums in Ottawa: The Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canadian Children's Museum, Canadian Postal Museum, The National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature, Canadian Science and Technology Museum, Canadian Aviation and Space Museum and others. The city hosts 35 different festivals every year, the most visited of which is the Canadian Tulip Festival in May. Ottawa has enough hotels, the city is visited annually by about 7.5 million tourists. The Rideau Canal is under the protection of UNESCO, which has been in operation since the 19th century. The Chateau Laurier Hotel, which is located directly next to the Parliament building and above the Rideau Canal, was built by Charles Melville Hayes, the president of the company that built the hotels, and he died on the Titanic, 12 days before the hotel was officially opened. Some hotels in Ottawa have been converted from former prisons from the 19th century.

Ottawa is a very clean and safe city, comfortable to live in and visit.

The author moved with his family to Ottawa in July 2011. Before that he visited it as a tourist. The city is very neat and pleasant.

BIG ROCK, ALBERTA, CANADA

Big Rock is located about 8 km from the town of Okotoks, on the prairie, about 18 km from Calgary. It originates from the early Cambrian period, and it arrived here during the last glacial period, some 450 thousand years ago. It is the largest glacial object, measuring 41 x 18 m and weighing around 16,500 tons. It is as tall as a two-story house. He came here from the Athabasca Valley, from a distance of about 260 km.

The author stayed in Calgary from February 22 to March 1, 2017 and visited this historic place on that occasion.

On the same day, February 25, he visited the small town of Black Diamond, a tourist spot with only a few streets, the main one being Government Street, and an avenue with only about five houses. The town gives the impression of a cowboy town, with a nice pastry shop.

DRUMHELLER, ALBERTA, CANADA

Drumheller is a town with about 8,000 inhabitants, located in the Red Deer River valley, about 135 km from Calgary, where the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum is located, the world's largest museum of dinosaur skeletons whose excavations are not far from that place. The town is in a valley around the river, only about 2 km wide, buried in the prairie and not visible until you get close to the town. It occupies an area of about 108 km². The Rocky Mountains can be seen from near Drumheller. The museum houses the skeletons of all dinosaurs that have been found on Canadian soil, and the largest among them is Tyrannosaurus rex, 26.2 m long. The museum is visited annually by about 375,000 visitors. It was opened in 1985.

The author visited the museum on February 26, 2017, during which he took many photos of his grandchildren.

It will be continued ...

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