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 😉
Adventures of a Polarphile 