It is almost full year, time to finish it. But there is not need to be scared. This finale is great!
DAY 50 – WIN!
woke up into the mayhem. I totally forgot about it. We are celebrating something today so we have special dinner. Most of us got day off and are acting like idiots. There is longe queue and so many people is skipping. That’s why I made myself a tea, big icecream and took “I don’t give a fuck” position on the end of line. My steak (which everybody anound me eat with hands.) was burned and crab (which I ate for first time in my life) was almost tasteless. At least schrimps saved it and after so long time without anything was even coke good. Later we had Bingo night which changed this boredom into “smashing head against the wall” mood. BUT! I won a T-Shirt. It’s my first win ever in something where you need pure luck. I even like it. On the dinnerbreakfast foreman asked me if I want some work. FUCK YEAH!
I’ve been putting stickers on boxes for 5 hours. Reason? Surimi we had stored had best quality but nobody wanted to buy so expensive stuff right now so I just changed the sticker that it’s lower quality and company sold it cheaper just to not have stuck in freezer. “Just tear down theese stickers and put there this one. Mandatory no rush!” are instructions from caseup boss. “I will have trouble with that rush.” is my answer. We bouth laugh, he turn the radio on for me and leaves. He comes back right before 15 minutes break and says ” Come back in 45 minutes. Go whenever you want just don’t let the Big Eye see you. You also work too fast.” (I’ve been doing one palette over 40 minutes.) We laugh again. He’s really funny. After “work” I’m finishing another book. Saboteur after bingo was also interesting but I really want to go snowboarding now. Even boss said that it’s like in jail here. Good night
DAY 51 – #LUKYLUCK TO THE MAX
Crab is here. Last glimps of getting some hours done, overtimes and even tho we know that it’s gonna be for like 10 days only, it’s our hope we’re focusing on right now and one of the points why we didn’t leave yet. Who will be processing crab? Of course Pollock factory workers who already made the most money here. They’re tired and their minds are already home so they’re really not into the work anymore. That’s why they’ll get more work and Europeans can continue playing Saboteur because they didn’t come to make money. I went totally pissed of to foreman like WTF that I really want to work no matter what position like on the boat where nobody wants to work. “I can’t promise you anything but we have 1 ship tonight so bring one more guy and I’ll give you some work. Martin is already sleeping and even tho I got bad feeling waking him up he is glad. Problem is that nobody knows. “We can take only one guy.” They choose Martin because he already was on the boat. #LUKYLUCK is working again and you Lukas can be still looking for job. Finally I found foreman with my WTF face. He gave me at least 5 hours of origami folding paper boxes for crab. The worst thing is that tomorrow there will be no work again. And even worse thing is how is everybody lying to us. I’m really sick of it all. It means that I threw one month of my life away for nothing. Rumours are saying that in one week they’ll send all European workers back to Europe. I would be glad for that but I don’t belive it. On my way back to the bed I at least met foxes which came to me and later’ve been jumping on rocks like chamois. My best therapy here so far. I want go snowboarding.
DAY 52 – NOTHINGC
I didn’t work, I didn’t live, it’s not worth to write anything here.
DAY 53 – I’VE SEEN
I managed to get on the boat!!!! And it seems to me that I’ve been working 12 hours after month or so. It was great and fun. Everyone was at least once nipped by crab and we’ll be in ” Deadliest Catch Alaska“ show. But mainly, MAINLY! It was SNOWING today!!!! I wasn‘t cold at all but it was really freezing as I‘ve seen frozen puddles on the way to sleep. But it was SNOWING. ♥ I‘m so happy and I want go snowboarding so hard. I‘ve seen seal hunting, seagulls‘ve been eating his food straight from his mouth. I‘ve seen seagull flight high just so he can shit and to go sleep again. I‘ve seen foxes again ♥ but mailny I‘ve seen snow!
DAY 54 – DAYUM
My COD boss‘ve been crying so hard that he needs me so I can‘t be on crab today. Instead I must do my job, his job and learn new guy who should be our supervisor but he was so horrible. I had all of this whole 16 hours. Yummy.
DAY 55 – SAILOR
Last 14 workdays. Awesome. Now it must pass fast. I spent whole day on crab with Martin. I like that you can chat with sailors and it‘s most of the time interesting because they‘ve got so many experiences, stories and freedom in their hearts. I‘ve seen it already in London but I have confirmed it here. It‘s snowing so hard and vulcano would deserve few lines. Where is my board? Jiri is buying new board for this season so we have a lot of to talk about. I gave my raingear for washing after the shift as usually but then they told us that we have overime So I had to get somehow new one. Shift continued by 5 hours of pushing frozen Surimi into the boxes. Another 16 hours in work. Good night for 4 hours.
DAY 56 – I WILL BE FAMOUS
Storm strikes again. All those mountains around which‘ve been all white are getting green thanks to the rain and water is slowly making it’s way back to the ocean. All of this seems to be so far because we must focuse on crab and shooting of another documentary. Yeeey, we‘ll be famous.
DAY 57 – DISLIKE
Thanks to the storm we have last few ships to offload. It was great 12 hours and now we can just wait and guess what ship will come here first when the weather gonna be calm again. It was strange day. Jiri and Rada had overtime and they managed to be on the same boat as me so we could chat and it was fine and chill. After that we‘ve been hiding because everything in factory had to be changed from crab processing to COD processing. That meas boring time, sleepy mood which continued with disgusting filet sorting where my boss made up so many conditions and nobody knew about it and I had to tell everyone 10 000 times over and over again. Urgh. Fuck it, I‘m going to sleep. Are we there yet?
DAY 58 – ABOUT SHIT
Who says that orgasm is the best feeling in your lifetime had never have had a good dump. Because today it felt like 10 orgasms. :p I though that I‘ll not manage it on my favourite toilet after work but I made it and it was really worth it. Well I don‘t know if it was „work“ today. We started with 1,5h of waiting for boat, 1h of actual work and break time. 5 minutes of work continued with 25 minutes of waiting for factory to catch us up, lunch time, offloading so small tank that half of crew was working and other half was just watching. Last 2 boats‘ve been pretty small so we finished shift hidden in our sleeping corner. Our boss took a picture of us sleeping and made us „sleeping on crab“ in photoshop. Really funny.
DAY 59 – SHUTDOWN
What can I say? Another storm, another no boat time. It seemed to be so well. Work, overtimes and making money but now we‘re just killing time which is going so slow now. Another Bingo. I can‘t stand it anymore. #LUKYLUCK strikes again when I‘m many time loosing by 1 number only. I don‘t care anyway and went to the kill time by reading.
DAY 60 – IT‘S WINDY THEY SAY
Visa extension is here! It took only 25 days to have that paper in our hands. It‘s crazy. Our nationality is „Czechoslovakia“. After so many years? Really? Welcome to America. We‘re killing whole day by watching Halloween horror maraton on TV. Can‘t wait what they‘ll make in next 3 days. I went to check movie night in Church but it was closed because of the wind. I could at least see seal and otter how they‘re chilling in the waves. There was few Africans brought back from their way home thanks to the weather. How are Serbians at Dutch Harbor doing right now? I don‘t care about weather, because of work, anymore I just want to have good weather on our way back to Czechia.
DAY 61 – MOISTY SHIFT
I‘m throwing crab for nice 12 hours and nothing interesting happened. Just maybe that one UK gurl was taking so many pictures with crab and when famous ship from TV came with camera guys she was so happy and into selfies that her feet had to be so slippery. It was raining for first time while working outside but it was good anyway.
DAY 62 – FINISH IS COMING
Am I leaving yet? Homesickness and snbsickness is here. We‘re getting information that we have last 4 ships with crab and then we‘re done. I‘m curious what we‘ll be doing here over week. They want to get us out from work 2 hours earlier but our boss got us into our corner like „Go on break and than you‘ll sleep for 2 hours in….Well you know where.“ So we did but my butt will be soon pretty fucked up from all that sitting in the corner, by TV, while playing Saboteur, reeding etc. In the evening (morning) I went into my room which was empty. Everyone except me went back to Afri…ehm New York. So that room is just mine. Yeeey I can have lights on, make noice, look from window and even those other things, like singing, how much I want to. ♥ Awesome, let‘s celebrate it by good sleep. Lel
DAY 63 – SNITCH
ran so fast because we made nice crab 12h shift. Where we‘ve been listening Glen speaking for 6 hours straight. He was just speaking, speaking, speaking and not working. So we pushed him into the work and his excuses have been like „My heart hurts.“. In the end he was pissed off so he managed to get position on board where he was just changing nets from ship crane to harbour crane. Problem was that it was pretty windy and raining. In a minute he was super cold and started to snitching his way back down to the tank. So he showed me that we could switch our positions, I just told him that my heart hurts and have been throwing crab till end of shift.
DAY 64 – CHOICE
Day off. Get some rest. (after so so so many days in work) I‘m downloading another book and I‘m reading wole day. At Dinnerbreakfast we‘re planning if we want go 5.11. or 6.11. because they say that we can choose. Our decision is to go fifth and I‘m going straight to bed.
DAY 65 – NEVER ENDING STORY
What? Everybody on Pollock? That part of factory should be closed and nobody is fishing Pollock anyway. Exactly that‘s why came 6 boats with Pollock at the same time and because ¾ workers are already gone from this god, phone, internet and brain less island, they had to gather really everyone. And that‘s how started the longest shift of my life. As much as I love it on the boat that much I hate it on Pollock. I got the same position I‘ve been doing here for first time and by now I really hate it. (Martin is doing mistakes on purpose and keep telling that he don‘t know how to do it so he can just move baskets from left to right.) After 6 hours I‘m so fucked up that it‘s like I‘ve been already working for 16 hours. After endless 12 hours we‘re getting information that we have overtime BUT on crab. SAVE. Martin is happy that he‘ll be doing something different and he gets the same position just baskets are 5kg heavier. Lel I‘m just flipping surimi forms and I‘m also happy of different position.
DAY 666 – HELL
Nothing interesting because of day off. We‘re not even playing Saboteur anymore but tomorrow the main action starts so better be prepared.
DAY 67 – FINALE
Crab is here. Yess. Glen is gone. Yess. Instead of him we got new guy „Moja“ who is really funny. He‘s kissing crab and really love that TV series about ship we‘re just offloadig. (Saga) That‘s why he use his first opportunity and he‘s making selfies with totally everyone. After that he left. Wow. Another guys are coming instead of him so we‘re good. On break, one guy is calling us „Hey, check it. You‘re going home. Your names are on TV.“ „Yeah I know we‘re going 5.11. we booked that date.“ „No, you‘re going fourth.“ Really? Well at least we had the choice. Fun part is that 4.11. is today. WE ARE LEAVING TODAY! Another fun part is that my shift is ending at 6:30 and our departure is scheduled at 8:00. I‘m not ready at all so I want to see how I can in 1,5h eat, take a shover, pack everything, clean room, bring everything to cafeteria, sign out, give back rain gear and wait tilll 15:00 for helicopter. Wait, what? Helicopter? Helicopter! Yess! I‘m not going on the boat! I knew that I‘ll not go on the boat anymore.
My last shift is done and even tho many of us are nervous that everything has changed again I‘m glad. I‘m saying goodbye to my 5 year new and favourite hoodies. All pants are also done. RIP Tally Weijl. My travel outfit looks like this. T-Shirt, thin hoodie, (The only one which survived.) shorts, thermo pants and running shoes. What a combo. We‘re waiting those xxxx endless hours till last goodbye, food and paperwork. In the moment we‘re going to heliport it‘s 3am for me so I‘m quite tired. First flight took Bara, Jiri and Martin. Wind is blowing pretty hard so I‘m thinking if I‘ll be seasick or not. On the other hand it‘s better to puke 10 minutes in heli than 10 hours on boat, right? Also I‘ve never been puking in helicopter and you should try everything. We‘re checked next to the container and that lady is telling us that me and Radek are next. Heli is here and she catched me that I‘ll have to wait for next flight. Why me? Okey it‘s here I‘m getting in. Wind is strong and my heart is pounding so hard. We‘re flying round above factory. It‘s like slowmo shot from some action movie and that gives me my lovely adrenaline. Clouds are pretty low so we‘re copying rocks of surrounding islands untill we‘re on airport. Small plane is already waiting for me and everyone is inside. I‘m entering plane and see that all seats are full. Don‘t tell me that I‘ll have to be waiting again. „Continue forward. You‘ll be sitting with me today.“ Pilot. I can‘t belive it. Martin is saying that he‘ll switch seat with me. „If you‘ll be sick it‘s not gonna be good in cockpit.“ „Even in bus is better to sit in front row“. I‘m watching gazillion buttons indicators which are all around me. Pilot is pressing so many buttons so fast that even pro PC gamer would be slower. I can‘t see anything trough windshield because of nose of plane. So I check right window and see that wing is black from fire. So I check left side and see that in biggest turn pilot has both hands in his lap. This flight will be interesting. 10 minutes later we nicely landed at Dutch Harbor. Sick.
First ride in heli, first ride in cockpit and straight for ride in the trunk of car because our next flight will be tomorrow because of the weather so we‘re going to our today‘s dormitory. By this time I didn‘t sleep over 24h. I‘m walking trough hallway, checking rooms and empty beds and also looking for Martin who got lost out of my sight. I didn‘t fint him anywhere so I found first empty bed and felt asleep. (Hallway was all around and Martin was also looking for me but we missed each other. lel)
it‘s 7:30 and we‘re making our way to the airport again just to see on our ticket that we‘re flying at 18:45. Pfffff. This trip has no end. Flight to Anchorage was ok I just need to pee so hard. On our way from plane to airport there is 10cm of snow on the ground. ♥ I have my stylish outfit and Martin who‘s following me got just hoodie and shorts. Africans behind us are just shaking their heads and saying that it‘s too much snow here. My answer is that it‘s still nothing especially at Alaska. Let it snow! We‘re sleeping on airport tonight. We‘re squatting in nice corner where we‘ll not be bothering anybody. Clean teeth, bathroom time and let‘s go sleep. „Sorry, I must close it here, now.“ So we‘re moving to VIP airporthotel. Pretty nice place with view, carpet, heating, plug, wifi and music. What else do you need?
DAY 68 – FREEDOM
FREEDOM! Right now it‘s everything on us and we enoy it so much. Hotel, swimming, finally good food, shopping, new tattoo, getting all money from bank account, exploring city, another night on airport and flight to Czechoslovakia. That all happened as fast as snap. And exactly that fast is this story ending. *snap*
PS: Thanks and bye? Nooo, story from Alaska is done for now but you can look forward for next story of hitch hiking on Iceland and especially another portion of #LUKYLUCK. STAY AWESOME & live YOUR life.