Advertisement
Published: November 7th 2009
Edit Blog Post
I just got back from GREENLAND!
If i could describe Greenland in a few words, they would be: snowy, cold, and rather barren.
The trip was really eventful, starting with day one. I woke up with a really sore throat. Our flight was supposed to depart from Copenhagen at 9:30am on Monday. When all 30 of us arrived at the airport at 7:30 to check in, they told us the flight was to be delayed until 2pm due to mechanical issues with the Air Greenland plane. We were all tired and upset with this information, but we made the best out of the wait, getting to know each other. Unfortunately as 2pm came around, they continued to push the time back further and further. Finally at 4pm they announced that they were canceling the flight. We were all REALLY upset because this wasn't just any flight, it was our flight to GREENLAND which we've been awaiting for months now. By about 6pm everything got worked out that they would put us all up in a hotel together in Copenhagen and we'd fly out the next day at noon. I guess the plane had something wrong with it, and Air Greenland only
has one plane that flys across the ocean from KBH to Greenland. So they would have to fly in another smaller plane to get us the next day.
Tuesday I woke up with absolutely no voice, and it was incredibly painful to swallow. I don't think I have ever completely lost my voice from being sick. We fly out at noon, and get to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland which is on the Western coast, really close to Canada actually. So for the next few days I was back in my home continent, North America. Stepping out of the plane I literally could not say anything, just stared in wonderment at the sight. The airport was covered in snow, and it was SO COLD. After picking up our baggage, we piled into a school bus that took us to the old camp where we were staying which was built as a U.S. Air Force base. After putting our stuff in our rooms and putting on more layers, we loaded into a different vehicle which was ours for the time we were there. We stopped and got hefty Sorel snow boots, and seal skin gloves. We then left to go on a musk ox
Kangerlussuaq
view looking down on the town safari. We drove through town which took probably 20 seconds, and off into the white abyss to find some musk ox. We sighted quite a few right away. They are very lazy animals (to conserve energy, of course) and will just stare at you until you get rather close, and then they will run off till they feel they're at a safe distance again.
After the musk ox safari, we went and had dinner at the only restaurant in town, the Rowing Club. We had blackened halibut, and it was delicious. I still had no voice, and now I also had no appetite, which was really unfortunate because the food was so good. We waited outside as long as we could without freezing (this night it was around 5 degrees Fahrenheit) hoping to see some northern lights, but no luck. The moon was too bright our leaders thought. I went to bed early hoping to feel better the next day.
I woke up Wednesday with still no voice, but my throat felt much better. I sneezed all day long, and developed quite a head cold. I didn't let this disturb my fun though! We left early in the morning to
Musk Ox Safari
Our first sighting! go on a day excursion to the inland ice sheet. The drive took quite some time, and the roads are not really roads. We paved the way with our truck/bus, and got stuck quite often and had to dig out way out. The drive was beautiful though, white snow everywhere for miles, and for a long time we could see the ice sheet in the distance. We made it about a half km away from the ice sheet before we had to stop because the truck was not going to make it in that far. We walked a bit closer, but the wind was so strong that we didn't make it to the ice sheet. At this point it was said to be about -4 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the wind, about -22 degrees. IT WAS FREEZING. But it was so beautiful, as you can see in the pictures, it looked like we were standing on another planet. When we got back into the town, we went back to the Rowing Club for a special Greenlandic buffet dinner. The cook made three buffets, totaling about 50 dishes of authentic Greenlandic foods. These included three whale dishes, as well as raindeer
and musk ox, and lots of shrimp. They served the whale raw, cooked (which was my favorite of all the dishes), and also raw whale skin which you chew like chewing gum. That was the most interesting of all, it had little taste, but I can now say i've eaten raw whale skin. The buffet was great, but I still had little appetite. After much anticipation, the northern lights decided again to not show, so our cook made us Greenlandic coffee, in which he PUT the northern lights. A Greenlandic coffee is like an Irish coffee, but then at the end you heat up some liquor over a fire, and as you pour it in it is blue and swirls into the drink. It was a cute idea, but didn't get our minds off of seeing the real lights. We bundled up that night and went outside for quite awhile hoping to get a glimpse, but still no luck.
Thursday morning with my voice just barely beginning to recover, we had a leisurely day to do some research for a paper we have to write on "Greenland in Transition" and then we took turns going on snow-cat adventure with out
Inland Ice Sheet
Watching out the window on the way to the ice sheet guide Jens. In the snow-cat we went and visited a place where they kept a bunch of sledge dogs, and we got to pet and play with the young dogs. They were so cute, and friendly. We also saw a lot of musk ox, as well as caribou. On the way back to the camp, Jens let us all practice driving the snow-cat. At night, like the rest of the nights we had lectures by our professor, Henning, and another guide Carson. Dinner was again at the Rowing Club, and we had musk ox meat wrapped in bacon, SO GOOD, but again my appetite was nonexistent. That night I was really not feeling well and went to bed immediately after getting back to the camp, while everybody else waited up late trying to see the northern lights (they still had no luck). I forgot to mention, that Greenland time is 4 hours earlier than Copenhagen time, so that certainty did not help the healing process since they had things planned till about 2am Copenhagen time every night (only 10pm greenland time).
Friday morning we woke up early to go to the airport and check our bags. After checking in though,
we got back on the bus and went to the Kangerlussuaq museum in town to really get a feel for the history of the town. The history was mainly that there were a bunch of plane crashes, and finally they made an airport, and the US air force occupied the place for quite some time. Then back to the airport in time to jump on the plane and wave goodbye to Greenland!
The trip was absolutely amazing, but I there are defiantly things that I wished I could have done. Dog sledding is only in season starting in January, so we didn't get to do that. The northern lights were not out (which makes me REALLY sad). So I will defiantly have to see those another time. And also, I wish that we had had more time to meet and talk with the native people. The town we were in wasn't really a native town, so it lacked the history that I would find most interesting. I am home safely in Copenhagen for a few days, trying to recover (my voice is back) before I fly to London on Monday, then Amsterdam on Wednesday!
Until next time...😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.228s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb