Hi, its Shil - this is my first blog entry, so bare with me! We've just had our first day in Fairbanks so I thought I would write about it. Billie was very helpful and told us where the main roads are, and where the 'downtown' area is, and gave us maps of the bus routes. We wandered outside and thought that it didn't feel that cold, but after a few minutes we both realised (at the same time) that it was in fact very very cold! Hehe! Its soooo pretty with all the snow everywhere, and it doesn't go icy or mushy. We started walking along the road and then turned down University Avenue where the university museum is (on the Northern Lights and other things about Alaska) and the botanical gardens - we didn't visit these today as we just wanted to get our bearings first. We stopped off at a cafe to get breakfast and warm up, and then we carried on walking towards the main downtown area. We didn't see any buses going past us for a while so we just walked all the way there! It turned out to be quite a trek, but it was nice to get some exercise and fresh air after the long journey yesterday. There were literally no other people walking around like us - we were the only idiots wandering around outside ;o) I think everyone else must drive everywhere........ We dived into the first cafe we saw in downtown Fairbanks to warm up again!! We then looked around a few shops but there aren't that many, just gift shops and outdoor clothes shops - they were nice though. We had realised by now that there's only one bus per hour on Saturdays - so we planned which one to get, to get back to the hostel - and we successfully navigated that back :o). So we now know our way around Fairbanks, and we're going plan some activites to book - like dog sledding and maybe a trip to some hot springs - and of course hoping to see the Northern Lights!!

Shil