How to track your Air Greenland flight

If you are flying domestically in Greenland you are guaranteed to fly with Air Greenland – it is the only airline in the country, after all. And even if you are flying internationally, you still are highly like to fly with Air Greenland, for example on the Kangerlussuaq-Copenhagen route (76-79% of travellers do).

One of the realities about travel in Greenland is that air traffic does not exactly run like clockwork. Everything from low visibility, crosswinds, icing conditions and technical problems – at the start destination, end destination or alternative landing destination – can cause delays or cancellations. Let’s just say that having wiggle room and flexibility in your travel schedule is highly suggested; not to mention travel insurance. If a delay or cancellation happens before the check-in time (1 hour before departure), the airline aims to give notifications via SMS and email, but it is not always fool-proof. I have experienced on several occasions to have never received a notification.

Therefore, here is a very useful tool to have in your pocket so you can keep track of your own destiny – the Air Greenland Schedule.

On Air Greenland’s website (mobile version, too), they publish the real-time statuses of every airplane and helicopter flight for the day, as well as the schedule for the following day. This means that as early as the day before, you can check the status of your flight. In some cases (such as imminent weather) a flight can be cancelled the day before, but usually it will be on the same day.

1. Go to http://www.airgreenland.com/schedule.
2. Select your departure town from the drop-down menu. 
3. Scroll down to departures and find your flight number in the list. For example, back in March I was booked on GL 401 from Nuuk to Narsarsuaq. Check-in is one hour before the flight time, which meant 0720 for my flight. If it was delayed, I certainly didn’t want to sit in the airport unnecessarily so early in the morning! 
4. Click on the blue flight number for additional information about the Status, in particular whether the flight is on time (no notation), delayed or cancelled. In my case in March, the flight was on time! But today, for example, the flight GL 415 from Nuuk to Narsarsuaq was cancelled, so it looked like the second photo. And sometimes the status will say “Next Info” meaning the Air Greenland and/or Mittarfeqarfiit (Airport Authority) staff are waiting a bit before taking a decision  whether to delay or cancel.

 

A Snapshot of Internationals in Greenland (2019)

I get asked a lot about how easy or difficult it is to assimilate to the Greenlandic way of life as a foreigner / as an American, and my own personal answer is always that I have had the best possible experience with it. It was so effortless, in fact, that I do not even use the words “adjust” or “adapt” or “get used to” to describe the experience.

But when I look at statistics about how few foreigners there actually are in the country (10% are born outside Greenland / 2% are non-Danish citizens), I start to get perspective on the fact that maybe it is not always the easiest process – or else there would be many more foreigners in the country, right?  Of course, there are many factors at play.

Here are some interesting facts about Greenland’s population according to birthplace and citizenship.

NATIONAL POPULATION

The population of Greenland is 55.992 (as of 1 January 2019), which represents an increase of less than 1% over last year. This very slight growth has been characteristic year-over-year for the last five years. (Source: BEEST4 / “Population in Localities January 1st” via Statistics Greenland).

BIRTHPLACE OF RESIDENTS

One of the ways residents’ status is tracked is via their place of birth, either in Greenland or outside of Greenland. This can be one decent indicator of who is an international in Greenland, though you should be aware that it is an over-representation, as it is not uncommon for Greenlanders to be born outside the country, in Denmark for example, for whatever reason. (Source: BEEST4 / “Population in Localities January 1st” via Statistics Greenland)

In the whole country, 90% of residents were born in Greenland while 10% were born outside of Greenland. Therefore, as a starting point, it can be said that 10% of Greenland’s population is international.

In a city like Nuuk, where there is a much higher proportion of internationals, only 80% of residents were born in Greenland while 20% were born outside of Greenland. (Nuuk population: 17.984 as of 1 January 2019).

And to compare/contrast, Qaqortoq follows the national trend with 91% of residents born in Greenland and 9% born outside of Greenland. (Qaqortoq population: 3.012 as of 1 January 2019).

And in small settlements along the coast like Aappilattoq in the South or Saattut in the North, they have much lower proportions of residents born outside Greenland (2% in Aappilattoq, population 103; 0,8% in Saattut, population 240, both as of 1 January 2019).

CITIZENSHIP OF RESIDENTS

Another way residents’ status is tracked is via their citizenship, and here individual countries can be isolated. However, as Greenland is politically part of Denmark, all Greenlanders are technically Danish citizens, so the figures for Danish Citizenship are sky high with no way to distinguish between Greenlanders and Danes. (Yes, Danes are considered internationals in Greenland). So with this variable we are also still left with a less-than-precise picture of internationals in Greenland, though we can know with certainty the extent of non-Danish internationals in Greenland. (Source: BEEST6 / “Population by Citizenship” and BEEST6NUK / “Population in Nuuk by Citizenship” via Statistics Greenland).

2% of the country’s population is a non-Danish international. TWO PERCENT! That equals 1112 individuals. 1112 persons that had to assimilate in one of the most fundamental yet difficult ways – language – which is one big difference between Danish internationals and non-Danish internationals.

As Danish is an official language in Greenland (the colonial language), and as many Greenlanders have Danish as their mother-tongue, Danish internationals actually have a very easy transition communication-wise when arriving in Greenland. In any case, it is one huge advantage that Danish internationals have over non-Danish internationals.  (That being said, if there was no ‘security blanket’ of being able to speak Danish in Greenland, the Danish internationals would be in exactly the same boat as non-Danish internationals).

There are currently 44 nationalities represented in Greenland – Greenlandic, Danish, Philippino, Thai, Icelandic, Swedish, Chinese, Norwegian, American, German, Polish, Other American (ex: Mexico), Other Asian, French, Canadian, British, Spanish, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Other African, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Lithuanian, Oceanian, Irish, Portuguese, Slovakian, Croatian, Hungarian, Austrian, Swiss, Turkish, Other European, Moroccan, Iranian, Japanese, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Latvian, Belgian and Indian – in that order. 

The largest non-Danish nationality represented in Greenland is The Philippines with 0,5% of the country’s population. Afterwards comes Thailand with 0,3% and Iceland with 0,2%. All other nations represent 0,1% or less. USA contributes with 0,08% of the country’s population, thanks to a whopping 46 individuals. Me included!

So now you are a little bit wiser about the population in Greenland!

*

This is the third in a series of “Snapshot of Internationals in Greenland” after posts in both 2015 and 2016.

All figures based off of data published by Statistics Greenland on their Statistics Bank.

 

 

Town walk in Qaqortoq: to the top of the hill

Qaqortoq has so many surprising stone sculptures, little nooks and aesthetic touches – it really is one of the most charming towns in Greenland to walk around in.

There are several recommendable walking tour loops, but a definite must-do is to the top of the hill to get the eagle-eye view over the whole town, the lake and out to the open ocean. Consider this one a heart-healthy workout; it is a good 15-20 minutes up, and from personal experience, you won’t want to be overdressed. But just take a look at what awaits you up there! This view never, ever gets old.

 Photo by: Mads Pihl / Visit Greenland

Here’s a visual guide for how to get up to the top of the hill using shortcuts instead of following the road with several switchbacks. Note: I don’t use street names because, to be honest, locals never use street names – only landmarks 🙂

There are two main accommodations in town, Hotel Qaqortoq and Siniffik Inn (plus a handful of private AirBnB properties), so I’ll give you a head start from both. They’re very close to each other anyway.

From Siniffik Inn, you will walk down the hill of your road and come to the main intersection with the red municipality building, white church and blue grocery store (Brugseni) directly ahead of you. Turn left. (Then, you will soon pass the hotel on your right.)

 

From Hotel Qaqortoq, you will go out the front door and turn right at the red Tele Post post office building. Now everyone is on the same track anyway.

 

After passing the Tele Post post office on the right, continue toward the intersection. The big red complex (RockHouse bar) will be on the right. Cross the road veering right, and then turn left. The green Police Station and the blue Pisiffik Elia grocery store will soon come up on the left, and after that, the Ajarsivasik retirement home on the left.

 

The Ajarsivasik retirement home will be the final commercial landmark on this route. From here on up, it’s completely residential.

The first shortcut you will take will come on the left, at just about the middle of the curve. Look for this yellow house, and turn left up the hill.

 

When you reach the road, veer right to find the beautiful stone stairway that continues upward. There is a bus stop sign at its foot.

 

At the top of the stone stairway, cross a small little side street and then immediately after that cross the main road, turning into a little cluster of houses. If you feel like you’re encroaching on someone’s property, don’t worry; this is the normal route all the locals take! Not to mention, there is no private land property in Greenland. People own the houses themselves, but not the ground they stand on.

 

After entering the cluster of houses, again, veer right and find a wooden stairway to the left. Up, up, up. Don’t forget to stop and look behind you to check how the view improves along the way!

 

At the top of the wooden stairway, walk up the small driveway toward the main road and find the final wooden stairway (green) of this endless hike to heaven!

 

At the top of the stairs, you will see a white house with a mural of a polar bear. Here, turn left if you want to reach the very end of the road in Qaqortoq, or weave between the houses a bit to climb the last little portion on terrain to get to the very tip top of the hill.

The view is worth the workout, trust me.

 

And if you go a bit before sunset, you just might capture something like this. Enjoy!

6 Times the Greenlandic Language was Easier Than Others

<< This is a post that I started some time ago and it suits perfectly for today, 21 February, International Mother Language Day. 

Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) is not my mother tongue, but I am learning it because it is the mother tongue of the country I call home and because it is the primary language of many friends and ‘in-law’ family members. As part of the International Mother Language Day celebratory events, Oqaasileriffik – The Language Secretariat of Greenland interviewed foreigners learning Kalaallisut and created posters out of their replies. See mine here 🙂 >>

Truth: Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language, is said to be one of the hardest, most complex languages in existence due to its polysynthetic nature. It adds derivative after derivative after derivative – up to 12! – to a root (like a verb or noun) to modify meaning, and the letters change based on the last letter of the derivative preceding it, if they are not dropped, or ‘eaten’, altogether. Words look very long and repetitive with several double letters, but they are, in fact, whole sentences. Transitive verbs (with both a subject and an object, such as “I saw him”) have a different derivative ending for each possible relationship (I-you / I-him,her,it / we-you all), and they also change based on tense (present, past, conditional). And yes, their letters, too, change based on the last letter of the derivative preceding it. All in all, there are upwards of 200 different possibilities just to express the transitive relationship between subject and object!

Basically, you rarely see the exact same combination twice. Linguists say that is one of the reasons it is difficult to learn Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) by ear, because you only hear the same combinations 4% of the time whereas in languages like English or the Romance languages, you hear the same combinations something like 20-25% of the time.

And the pronunciation, well, despite all the letters look like the standard English alphabet (which is more than can be said for Danish with its ø, æ and å), they combine in ways that make four sounds very different from other languages (the -q- sound, the -ll- or -rl- sound, the -gg- sound and the -rr- sound). The Q is nearly a glottal stop, similar to that found in Hawaiian, for example, while the others are made with a special placement of the tongue. Many people say you have to spit a little to make the sounds properly 🙂

BUT

Also truth: Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) can sometimes be very exact and to the point, without need for fluff and filler. And once you know the rules, you can do a lot! There are also a lot of abbreviations/shortening of words and exclamations, and it is these which get especially engrained in the brain.

For example, “Torrak!” is a way to express a high level of agreement, excitement, happiness, support or satisfaction with something – it’s basically the universal word of positivity. When I travel to other countries, I still have this word in front of all others in my brain, so if I don’t accidentally blurt out “Torrak”, I sort of stumble looking for the right word that expresses the same meaning. Should I just say, “Super!” or “Great!”? That just sounds funny to me now.

I present 6 times the Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) way of saying something (usually as slang) is easier than other languages (i.e. English or Danish, in this country’s case).

ALUUGOOQ –“Say hello for me” or “Send my greetings”

SULI – “Same status” / “nothing has changed”

SALL’ – “You’re joking right” / “you’re lying” / “you’ve got to be kidding me”

TUSAS – “Talk to you later”

USORN – “I’m so jealous!”

QAA – Three totally different meanings: “Great suggestion, let’s do that!” OR “Come on, quit playing” / “Give me a break” OR “Come!” like a command to a child

For more information regarding Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) language-learning resources, see the “Language” section on my Tips for Tourists page.

International Mother Language Day, 21 February

Oqaasileriffik – The Language Secretariat in Greenland did a number of things to celebrate International Mother Language Day, including a public event in Katuaq Culture House in Nuuk, where the Prime Minister spoke, and a series of portraits of foreigners who have learned, or are in the process of learning the mother language of Greenland – Kalaallisut (Greenlandic).

I was recommended to participate in this portrait series, and so I gave an interview, from which this poster was created. We were 6 in total, and our posters hung in Nuuk Center as well as in Katuaq. What an honour!

Read my full interview below (in English).

 

What were your first thoughts about Kalaallisut language?

It is amazing. In the start, of course I could not understand the words, but it was nice, like a song. Actually, that’s exactly how it was. Many times, a song’s lyrics can be felt in your soul, and that’s how it was for me with Greenlandic. As if it was somehow already in my heart. It was not until the learning phase that I realised how hard it is, but it did not matter. It must learn it no matter what.

 

What was your motivation to learn Kalaallisut?

I wanted to learn Greenlandic even before coming here. In all honesty, I did not know there were other options. My director at that time did say that a good deal of people could speak English, but my thought process was: I took it upon myself to come live in Greenland, so of course I should learn to speak the local language. I think I started going after it seriously the year after I arrived.  I have to say though, I will probably be in a learning phase forever. I hope at some point in the future I will be fluent.

 

What was the hardest in learning Kalaallisut?

It really requires a good memory, as there are so many suffixes and derivations. There must be at least 200 endings!

 

What was beneficial learning Kalaallisut?

Facebook really is one of the best resources. My friends are usually writing in both Greenlandic and Danish or English, so I can easily translate. In that way, I am able to learn new grammar and words. Thankfully my network supports me. They are patient, and they understand that I still talk slowly.

 

What is the most important thing in learning Kalaallisut language?

Remember that willpower is a gift. Learning any language is difficult, and from time to time the road may seem completely impassible. But it will come. Every single day there is something to be learned – by shopping, reading, listening to music and talking with people. Imagine that so few people in the world speak Greenlandic, and yet we do. We should be proud.

The pink text is that which Oqaasileriffik – The Language Secretariat of Greenland selected as a quote to my poster.

Learn more about International Mother Language Day.

Find resources for learning Greenlandic in the “Language” section of my Tips for Tourists page.

Concepts I Forgot About, After Living in Greenland

In some ways, life in Greenland is just like every other place in the world, but in other ways it is this totally unique place! Every so often I come across something on the Internet or something comes up in conversation that makes me suddenly think, “Whoa, I haven’t thought about that in FOREVER!” And why? Because that concept simply doesn’t exist in Greenland. Or, at the very least, it is a concept that is so far reserved from my own everyday experience. Funny to think that some of these things used to be so everyday and normal to me in another time, another life.

Here’s my list of Concepts I Forgot About, After Living in Greenland.

Okra. Such a random thing to think of, I know, but nope we definitely don’t get that vegetable up here. On the other hand, we do get a ton of variety otherwise! Lots of kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, passion fruit, mango, fresh herbs, lettuce, apples, oranges, pears, grapes, berries, avocados, bell peppers, hot peppers, lemons and limes, eggplant, tumeric, etc. And once I saw two things I had actually never even heard of – pitahaya and kaki. I guess there was a sale on exotic fruits the day the grocery made their order!

 

 

Jewelry stores. This one came to me when watching a documentary on television about, of all things, Doris Payne, the infamous jewelry-thief grandmother. A picture of a Black, Starr & Frost jewelry store popped up, and suddenly I remembered that my family and I would always go into these stores in the mall – just to look – on Saturdays.

I have seen one dedicated jewelry store in Nuuk, but usually little shops around the coast just have a jewelry counter, if any, amongst all the other merchandise like clothing, makeup, outdoor gear, etc.

Hotel carts. 

Cutting grass. This one hit me hard when I looked out the kitchen window at our old house in Nuuk one day and realised, we literally just have rocks as our driveway and front yard. (Don’t mind the woman walking with a tree in her arms! Ha.)

Aside from South Greenland and the island Qeqertarsuaq in North Greenland (which myth says actually came from the south originally), there is not much green in Greenland. Sure, there’s some small patches of grasses and flowers here and there, and in the fjords where it is warmer in summer there can be nice bushes and small trees, but generally speaking, there are no full lawns of lush grass requiring a trip with the John Deere every weekend.

Edited to add: now that we live in South Greenland, greenery and trees is something I will have to adjust to, but nonetheless, in my every day life, there’s still no grass around the house, for example, that requires cutting 🙂

Seasonal clothing in stores. Yep, winter jackets can be found year round here. And summer things like bathing suits are basically nowhere to be found. Things like that you just have to order on the Internet.

Commercials for new movie releases. Ok, this could just be me and my lack of cable television, but the few air channels we do have (KNR, DR1, DR2) do not show commercials like I used to know them. Nothing promoting movies or products. In fact, KNR’s version of a commercial is more like a powerpoint with still pictures changing every so often. Or just a blue screen for like, 13 minutes straight when they have nothing to air.

McDonald’s & Happy Meal collectibles / Monopoly sticker things. Calling anything at McDonald’s a Mc-Something. A Facebook friend posted a photo of their McFlurry and I literally laughed out loud!! I’m so glad there are no McDonald’s here. I know one singular person who talks about wanting to get one here, and I fight back saying, No, no no, every time it comes up.

Express lanes & HOV lanes on highways (and paying to drive in them). I watched my friend’s Instagram story about sitting in traffic in the Washington, D.C. area waiting to get onto an express lane that cost 30-something dollars (200 dkk / 27 eur), and I was in awe for a minute remembering that I, too, used to be victim to the outrageous thing called bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the fact that people will sell their souls to get out of it.

In Greenland, well, first there would have to be any sort of highway at all, in order for a special express lane to exist, let’s just establish that right off the bat. For anyone that does not already know, there are no roads that connect one town to the next in Greenland. (However, there are roads within the towns themselves. But not in settlements.) So, there’s no Spring Break road trip. There’s no taking a Sunday drive to the countryside.

But ok, there can be traffic of the ice kind sometimes 🙂 This photo is taken by Robert Holmene from onboard Sarfaq Ittuk, the coastal ferry that sails between Qaqortoq and Ilulissat nearly year round. Last spring, April 2018, it got a little backed up in South Greenland.

 Photo by Robert Holmene.

Country Stores. Just the style of that old, antique look with all kinds of jams, candies, hostess gifts, knick knacks for the house. There was one in Fenwick Island, Delaware called the Seaside Country Store that my grandmother and I used to ‘ride up to’ every other day on our annual beach vacation together. Suddenly I feel the need to see that place at least once more in my life! That being said, the Pilersuisoq stores in settlements in Greenland do have the same concept 🙂 They’re usually the one and only place in the settlement where things can be bought, so clothes are sold next to yarn and art supplies and on the next isle over boat motors and hunting rifles.

Power outages. I had never really thought about it before, but I guess the majority of power outages are caused by trees downing power lines? There are no trees here. Or, where there are trees, they’re not tall enough to do that kind of damage. 

Thunderstorms, including lightning. Only ONCE in now seven years did I experienced thunder in Greenland, and I have NEVER experienced lightning here. Without knowing the ins and outs of these weather phenomena (although, I should, because that is something that is right up my alley), I say this is because of a lack of enough moisture or humidity to create the electrical charge needed.

Dry cleaners. It does not exist in Greenland.

Business clothes for the office. There is no professional dress code here. People wear whatever they damn please, whatever they feel comfortable in. The amount of suits I have seen in Greenland could be counted on one hand, and, true story, the other week we were in a meeting with various government Ministers and most people had on jeans and casual wear. I like it, really. To me, it means that everyone is just a person.

Retractable measuring tapes. Another REALLY random one! But in our house, at least, we used the old-school wooden zig-zag foldable measuring things instead. I just had to Google it, and surprisingly enough, “zig-zag” worked perfectly! I’m cracking myself up. It’s called a folding rule, for anyone interested to know.

And that’s it, so far! Really strange sometimes to think about some things being so common in some places while totally off the chart and out of mind in other places.

Aerobridges. You know, the enclosed walkway you pass through between airport terminal and plane. Yeah, we don’t have those in Greenland, and thus why first-time winter visitors to Kangerlussuaq get a huge shock to the system (literally) when they step out of the plane directly into -25*C air! So refreshing.

Bookmarks. I just flew out of Berlin and was looking around in their airport shops and came across an entire display of bookmarks. Go figure! I’m sure there are bookmarks to be found in Greenland, but it’s not something I run across every day, and honestly I don’t think I’ve thought of these since I was a teenager and my grandmother always used to bring me gifts like little notebooks, makeup bags and… bookmarks.

Paid parking/Restricted parking. Most places in Greenland do not even have designated parking lots or lines between which one should park, (OK, there are outside Nuuk Center, but again, that is the only shopping mall in Greenland) let alone rules about how one should park, where one should park, which hours one may park or not park.

Happy New Year, from South Greenland!

One year since my last blog post… well, that’s embarrassing. But as I have informed before, these days I am SO much more active on Instagram. Instagram is just much easier with little blurbs and a picture, and stories – voila. Follow me: @polarphile. That being said, I will *try* to be a little more active here where a full length story is necessary.

The greetings come from South Greenland because we moved!! More on that below…

Well, I cannot and will not go through an entire year’s worth of events (that can be seen ad nauseam in Insta), but suffice it to say that 2018 was pretty much 300% focused on Nakuak’, the ship my boyfriend and I bought in connection with the sailing company we started last January. We are above water (pun intended) but still in upstart phase, thanks for asking.

I spent all spring, summer and early autumn in work overalls getting down and dirty with rust removal, motor room tasks and painting projects. When I look back, that is ALL I can remember. At least she sparkles reallllllllll pretty now 🙂 Our last day onboard before the winter freeze over was 6 October. As in, it began snowing on the 7th.

 

 

 

But I did a little exercise on Instagram (mostly to remind myself) of making a Year in Review picture collage that accurately represents the year in its totality. There were four trips to Ilulissat (one of which was sailing with photo tourists with my boyfriend’s father) plus a few private sailing trips/weekend fjord getaways of our own around Nuuk; we spent a month in Qaqortoq getting our official Boat Captain licenses complete with courses on navigation, long-range radio operation, elementary firefighting, safety at sea and first aid; we took a jaunt to Sweden; the normal dinners with relatives and coffees with friends; plus there were three additional quick trips to Qaqortoq and last but not least the big finale to the year was… we MOVED to Qaqortoq permanently, in mid-November.

So it’s therefore this New Year’s greeting comes from South Greenland! It has been amazing to compare this region to the Capital and the North that I know so well. Qaqortoq lies at 60* north latitude, which is about 670 km / 400 mi south of the Arctic Circle. And in relation to Nuuk, we are now 440 km / 270 mi further south. It’s quite a ways! It’s also much smaller. There are 3015 residents here (as opposed to 17.000 something) and only about 5-7% of the residents are foreign-born (compared to nearly 30% in Nuuk, the capital).

Most noticeably for me, the temperature here was like summer (ok, “this year’s Nuuk summer”) until not that long ago – hovering at just about 0* Celsius or a few degrees above / 32-40* Fahrenheit. In fact, I was in serious crisis wondering if we were going to have a white Christmas or not!! It really affected my mood, to be honest. And some days, it was hard for me to remember that we were actually still in Greenland. Thankfully, it did begin snowing on Christmas Day (25 Dec) itself. And this week we’ve had many days in a row with consistent snow all day long.

Here’s a visual depiction of the big impressions from our first couple of months at South Greenlanders…

 

TREES & HUGE NATURE! South Greenland has two whole forests, actually. This one is in Narsarsuaq, and there’s another in Tasermiut Fjord. It’s fun to walk through the Narsarsuaq arboretum during a layover, and even more fun if you get a delicious to-go coffee drink from Cafe Polar-tut and enjoy it amongst the colourful trees. And those snowy peaks of the mountains toward the southernmost part of South Greenland – I was blown away by how gorgeous it was in autumn!

 

THAT VIEW! THOSE SUNSETS! Life at the top of the town’s hill certainly has its perks, namely a fantastic view over the whole town and out to the sea. That was really important to me. One’s biggest inspiration can also be one’s biggest distraction. You have no idea how hard it is to not just stare out the window all day long! And when sunset time comes (in the 15.00 / 3:00 PM hour in late autumn/early winter), you can definitely count on not being able to do anything other than stand on the terrace and take photos for an hour.

 

A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO LIVE! The town is filled with little gems like cobblestone stairways, little benches to stop for a spell, old houses in the town center whose structure clearly takes from the German missionaries and artwork carved out of rock walls at every turn. One day I will do the full art walk throughout every street in the whole town.

I hope to write again soon. Until then, see you in Instagram 😉 

 

Autumn adventure along the Arctic Circle, Part 1

You know you’re in one of the best jobs on Earth when… it sends you to guide international agents through 200 km of the Arctic Circle from ice cap to coastline. It was a five-day adventure that (almost) made me and the 7 agents forget we were working! Read about my extended weekend of new experiences here.

In mid-September 2017, on home turf, Greenland hosted Vestnorden Travel Mart, a trade show to connect international travel specialists with the three North Atlantic destinations: the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. One immersive and extremely important part of this trade show is the pre-tours that take place in the days before all the meetings. No suits or formal handshakes here. Agents get into their travel element and have the exact same adventurous and fun tourist experience that their guests will have in the future. Together with local partners, Visit Greenland planned and sponsored these pre-tours, and hence, my guiding 🙂 

Autumn is such a nice time of year to be outside. Though there are no piles of fallen leaves to crunch through and kick up, the changing colours of the mountain alder and Arctic thyme to yellow and red hues are more than #fallyall Insta-worthy. Usually there’s already been a few snows at the higher altitudes, and the snow-capped mountains just add to the whistfullness of the landscape.

And into the inland autumn wonderland that is Kangerlussuaq is exactly how we started the long weekend.

HIKING THROUGH MUSKOX COUNTRY

Nini Frydkjær Holstebro, owner of the little boutique called ByHeart, led us on a narrow pathway trodden not by backpackers but by – get this – muskox. Her voice is calm and soothing, and I could instantly tell she is every bit the ‘beautiful soul’ I have heard her described as before. As we walked, she showed her true colours as a modern-day gatherer, describing in detail the homeopathic uses of different herbs, including which ones work best in cookies. I, for one, took notes!

Following Nini off-track to investigate an area just over the hill paid off. After a few hours we found a blended herd of muskox bulls and females with their calves. At first we counted 5 or 6 animals, but in time, ‘rocks’ came alive and turned out to be little ones hunkered down!

Muskox in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Photo by Anne Kiel.

 

The hike, and day, ended at Restaurant Roklubben on Lake Ferguson. Over a three-course plated dinner followed by the famous nightcap called Greenlandic Coffee, the agents wrapped their heads around the fact that just fifteen hours earlier they stood in European capital, Copenhagen, Denmark, and now they sat a world away in the Arctic, looking out over the widest landscape imaginable with a green swirl of Northern Lights overhead.

For more hiking inspiration and information, ready my Ultimate Greenland Hiking Guide on visitgreenland.com.

Though an Ice Sheet may sound like a flat ice skating rink, it is anything but. Cracks, crevices and snaking rivers define this Arctic landscape.

FLIGHTSEEING

Day 2 got us up in the air and was such a perfect experiential segue from the previous day’s backcountry hike and into this day’s upcoming mini expedition on the ice.

We circled and swirled over the same lakes and reddish hills we walked through, this time getting so much more perspective of the vastness we stood in. We saw the lakes’ true depths as evidenced by their technicolour layers, not to mention hundreds of muskox. Funny to think that though I only saw 12 muskox with my own eyes, we were actually completely surrounded by them.

My stomach was in my throat half the time, but I did enjoy nonetheless following the braids of glacial runoff further inland to their source. The Greenland Ice Sheet is so monstrous and obvious but somehow it still seemed to surprise me how fast it popped up on the horizon. Russell Glacier gives such a stark contrast to the land it creeps onto one cm at a time, and the only thing I could think was, “I can’t believe I’m going to be sleeping down there tonight!”

From above, one gets perspective – always on the landscape and even sometimes on life.

GLACIER CAMPING

Four and a half years ago I stood on the Greenlandic Ice Sheet for an afternoon to watch a charity football game (yes, you read that correctly). Though that story is pretty hard to top, I do think camping overnight on the ice gives it a run for its money, and I was so excited for the opportunity to try this staple adventure experience in Kangerlussuaq.

The drive out to the ice is as rough as I remembered – an hour and a half jostling around on a dirt/sand/gravel road leftover from Volkswagen’s car-testing days in Greenland. Thank goodness for short breaks for fresh air and silence!

Tents and sleeping bags, check. Barrels of food, check. The pulks are ready to be strapped down and pulled up to camp.

Once we reached the end of the road, we went immediately into pulk preparation mode. The camp is located half an hour’s walk on the ice, so there’s no running back to the bus to grab something real quick. Everything we needed for the night we had to take in ourselves. This is not glamping, folks!

Pulks are the classic piece of equipment that the bonafide Extreme Adventurers use when they cross the Greenland Ice Sheet from coast to coast. (It is not uncommon for them to train for their expeditions by pulling heavy tires, CrossFit style!) While the pulks we had were super light, I couldn’t help putting myself in the expeditioners’ shoes for a moment to imagine the feeling of heading off into a frozen world with 70 kilos strapped to myself – everything to (hopefully) keep me alive for upwards of thirty days in an otherwise uninhabitable environment.

The mini expedition begins.

Camp Ice Cap by Albatros Arctic Circle. Open from March to October.

Our glacier walk with the pulks was pretty painless – 30 minutes or so and we had arrived to the camp where two large expedition dome tents stay erected for the whole season. We paired off and set up our small two-man sleeping tents (provided for us, along with a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag+liner good to -35*C), plus the all-important bathroom tent, and then enjoyed a nice cup of cocoa before heading out again (sans pulk).

We were fighting the waning light a bit, but we still managed to get in a good couple hours of glacier walking. We went up and down over the frozen waves of light blue, dark blue and black, looked sheepishly into moulins where liters of rushing water disappeared into a deep hole every second, and even collected cold glacier water directly into our water bottles. By the end, head lamps were a necessary tool to navigate back to camp, which definitely added to the feeling that this is real adventure.

Though I never said it to my group of agents, I was so thankful they all are the adventurous and ‘respectful’ type. They were up for anything, no problem, and they were also quiet when on the trail. It is more important than one realises. The pleasant ambience of shared silence gives everyone the peace to connect and reflect on the experience in real time. Live in the moment, you know?

This is adventure.

Me. Don’t ask how an Amazonian feels perfectly at home in the Arctic. I don’t even know the explanation myself.

Crampons and hiking poles are a necessity out here on the ice.

Night-walking.

Dinner was a surprisingly delicious just-add-water packet of spicy rice mix, seated comfortably in the gathering tent on foldable camp chairs pre-arranged in a cosy circle on the perimeter. In the middle, the top on a pot of soon-boiling water fluttered, and soon the steam plus body heat made it more like a sauna tent. A hat was complete overkill!

Like on most camping trips, the excitement of adventure mixed with physical activity puts everyone early to bed. My tent mate and I turned in for the evening, noting verbally that it really was not cold at all! I slept the whole night through until we woke to the sound of little droplets of sleet hitting the rain fly in the morning.

The obligatory ‘our feet were here’ shot! It’s just like field camping, only icier.

ONE NIGHT IS TOO SHORT!

We were all pretty sad to leave the ice – the fun had only just begun! But yet new adventures awaited us out on the coast. Fast forward through the same bumpy drive between ice and town, plus another lunch at Hotel Kangerlussuaq Restaurant (it’s like Groundhog Day here sometimes) plus a flight out to the coast and we landed in Sisimiut.

But that story you will have to wait for Part 2 for…

 

 

Autumn Arctic Circle Adventure in a nutshell

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes of everything, in chronological order, that we packed into 5 days/4 nights of discovery:

• Direct flight on Air Greenland from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq (in summer, there are also direct flights with Air Iceland Connect from Keflavik)
• Lunch buffet at Kangerlussuaq Airport Restaurant
• Hike through Muskox Country with Greenland Outdoors / By Heart
• Dinner and Greenlandic Coffee at Restaurant Roklubben, RSVP only via Albatros Arctic Circle
• Overnight at Polar Lodge, run by Albatros Arctic Circle
• Flightseeing with AirZafari Greenland
• Camp Ice Cap, a combination glacier hiking and overnight glacier camping experience with Albatros Arctic Circle
• Lunch buffet at Kangerlussuaq Airport Restaurant
• Visit to Kangerlussuaq Musuem
• Air Greenland flight to Sisimiut
• Three-course dinner at Restaurant Nasaasaaq at Hotel Sisimiut
• Sailing trip / Tour of Assaqutaq, an old settlement, with Arctic Incoming
• Overnight at Hotel Sisimiut
• Adventure day of sailing, fishing, grilling at a fjord cabin, hiking, ATVing & mountain biking, meeting sled dogs, and sauna, all with Arctic Incoming and Greenland Extreme
• Greenlandic buffet dinner at Restaurant Nasaasaaq at Hotel Sisimiut
• Overnight at Hotel Sisimiut
• Walking tour of Sisimiut with Destination Arctic Circle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read my articles on Visitgreenland.com

Me on the Greenland Ice Sheet in September 2017. Just one of the things that has kept me occupied since the last time I posted here on this blog.

I haven’t written anything for half a year – how on Earth can that be?! I think about it nearly every day, and I certainly have had lots of exciting moments. I make reminders to myself to write about the little ideas I jot down here and there. But I write SO much in my daily job that I think I just get burned out…

So I’m killing two bird with one stone here and giving a shameless plug to read my latest writing about Greenland over on www.visitgreenland.com 🙂

*

*

Relaxing Lodge Getaway Highlight on the new waterfront Ilimanaq Lodge that opened in summer 2017 in Disko Bay

8 Times the Light in Greenland was Absolutely Heavenly Greenland’s landscapes and light are a photographer’s dream

Winter Sailing a highlight about why winter on the water isn’t as scary as you think, plus where to do it

6 Instagram Shots You Must Get in Nuuk Like a social media scavenger hunt, these photo suggestions will take you running all around the capital

Greenland’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites are Pure Nature a peek at what you will find up here plus how to experience it

5 Greenlandic Foods + 1 Cocktail to Try How to ‘go native’ without eating the really exotic stuff (unless that’s your thing)

Arctic Weather: For Better or For Worse a photo collection to show all the wonderful types of weather in Greenland, plus tips on how to thrive in them

The Coolest Skiing in Greenland isn’t where you think! Watch this video of skiing in Nuuk that will leave you so pumped for the snow season

Drone Rules in Greenland what everyone needs to know before packing any drone gear

Behind the Camera An interview with professional photographer, Paul Zizka, about his photography workshops in Greenland

*

*

And, as always, my @polarphile Instagram account is where I post most frequently about the small, daily moments of #lifeatthetopoftheworld. Follow me!

My Greenland Sailing Staycation

Staycation (n): a trip in which one uses his or her time off to remain home and, in fact, go nowhere. A play on the American English word “vacation”.

Okay, so I’m using a bit of poetic license with this one since I did not actually stay home for my summer holiday, but I did stay in the country as opposed to the vast majority of friends I know who travel to Denmark for summer holiday, plus another handful or two who venture further to places like Bali or Los Angeles. Plus, it is alliterative with “sailing” and “swordfish”, which made for catchy and unique hashtags.

I’m fresh back from a nearly three-week summer holiday in which I sailed along the west coast of Greenland between Nuuk (64*N) and Disko Bay (69*N) in my own private boat. By the way, when we say sailing here, 8 times out of 10 it is actually with a boat with an engine instead of with a true sailing vessel. I guess I’m not really sure what to call sailing with a motorized boat otherwise? Anyway…

To put it simply, my sailing staycation was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had! Of course I have been sailing before, and I’ve even been sailing along most of the west coast before, but when it is your own boat, and when it is YOU yourself as captain some of the time, it is an experience on a whole other level!

I’m nowhere close to being able to compose a concise post about my holiday, so for now I give a few teaser thumbnail photos and a suggestion to follow the trip in short-story form via my in-trip Instagram posts on @polarphile.