Greetings from Greenland!

Today is a lesson in flexibility and going with the flow. The schedule and all of our carefully planned activities have been thrown out the window, washed out to sea, and eaten by a whale. What is the problem, you ask? FOG!

The fog is wreaking havoc across Greenland. All flights in and out of Ilulissat have been canceled for yesterday and today, including the one we are supposed to be on. Tomorrow isn’t looking promising either. But, no worries, Air Greenland has kindly rebooked us. For Thursday. Today is Sunday. The main problem  with this plan  is our flight home leaves on Wednesday, which our clever readers  will note is the day before our rescheduled  flight back to Nuuk. There are no roads out of here (which the thousands of cars cruising the 3 streets through town must not realize).The only way out is by air or by sea. Not that I could find a boat (or paddle a kayak), but it is even too foggy for the fishermen to go out. That means 4 extra days in Ilulissat. Ilulissat may be Greenland’s third largest city, but there isn’t really that much to do here.

We spent our morning trying to book accommodations for tonight. Which is not easy when everyone is stuck in town with no place to go. The hotel we are staying at offered to book us in one of their deluxe private cabins, as that was all they had available. Of course, they have dynamic pricing (the more people looking for a room, the more expensive it gets.) They said it could be anywhere from 3.000-5.000 Kroner a night! That is $450-$700 a night! No way Air Greenland will reimburse that! Best to take our chances–if worse comes to worst, Air Greenland has emergency accommodations available! Of course, there are ony 150 cots set up in the school gymnasium. (The cots seem to be owned by a Filipino lady who has lived in Ilulissat for 12 years and seems to be the coordinator for all catastrophes in town while owning a restaurant, a café, and a steak house a half hour flight away?)

Anyways, we managed to get one room at our same hotel for Sunday night, nothing for Monday. And last night we were able to book our same hotel for Tuesday through Thursday. So hopefully there are no more hiccups.

Sidenote– sitting in my hotel room with the window open and the huskies down the hill are going crazy– must be dinner time.

Ok, so, what to do with our extra day in Ilulissat? Great question. We decided to hike the Yellow Trail today! (We have already done most of the excursions, and everything is closed on Sundays.) Luckily, we have befriended a nice German lady who is also stranded. She is an experienced hiker and much more sure-footed than I am. So, we met up at The Hangout Cafe, but the fog was so dense that we just sat and stared forlornly into the distance. (Picture the look Artichoke gives you at 4:07pm when you haven’t fed her dinner yet, and that was the expression mirrored on our faces.) It isn’t safe to hike in dense fog because you might lose your way if you can’t see the trail markers. There are no ropes to guide you from the house to the barn to milk the cows in a blizzard. You have to be able to see those yellow dots! And then to figure out how to get to said yellow dot, climbing rocks, stomping in mud, and circumnavigating small pools and puddles. While also being awed by the scenery and all it’s gloriousness. Once the fog started to lift a teensy bit, we took off like a herd of turtles for the yellow trail!

Ya’ll know I am clutzy. And I have big feet. And I am not sure-footed. But, I am determined. And not afraid to go on my hands and knees if need be to traverse a perilous spot. Or a non-perilous one. I am not picky. Despite all my precautions, I still managed to slide down a not slippery rock and nearly fall 3 feet to my doom! My feet just slid! Even in my hike-appropriate boots! (They did keep my feet dry in the few sloshy areas we had to cross.) Luckily, I just have a dirty knee on my pants and a small scrape. Nothing broken. But, if I did break a leg, I could probably get airlifted out of here instead of waiting for Air Greenland to get me on a flight…. and throw in a few more passengers to balance the load….. 

Oh, well. I am fit as a fiddle. And my trusty German hiking guide meandered across the rugged terrain with her hands in her pockets, while I carefully and cautiously placed each foot with extreme precision to avoid any further mishaps. This trail was only 2.7 kilometers long, but it took us nearly 3 hours. There were infrequent photo stops–it was so foggy you couldn’t see the water or the icebergs even though they were right there. We were climbing up and down and around all these rocks and boulders. Not really sure if I will be able to move tomorrow, but I am a hiker! I was one with nature! And, this was free! No money spent. (Which is good because credit cards were down across all Nordic countries yesterday and today–and I have no Kroner and very few dollars.) Of course, I am not sure I should ever attempt a hike on my own without a trusty German friend. This may be the last hike I ever do “on my own.”

After trekking halfway across Greenland, your fearless explorers were famished! We headed back downtown to eat at Cafe Iluliaq. By now it was 4 o’clock, and we hadn’t eaten lunch (due to a large, late breakfast and the hike taking 3 hours) We did each have a handful of Tuc Crackers towards the end of our hike–which gave us just enough energy to make it to the cafe. Today, I opted for another Musk Ox burger. I swear, I think this was a full kilo of musk ox.  The burger was huge. I liked my Musk Ox burger the other day better than today’s fare, but this was still tasty and hit the spot. Which is good because it was both lunch and dinner! Even better, our German friend had enough meal vouchers from Air Greenland due to her missed flight that she was able to pay for all of our dinners! Free dinner! (We were told Air Greenland would call us, and we didn’t need to go to the airport for vouchers. Which of course did not happen.)

Never one to pass up an occasion to celebrate important holidays, after lunch/dinner, I drug my weary bones back uphill to the grocery store. You know what I needed, right? Ice cream! It’s National Ice Cream Day. I tried to not get something I could get at home. So I picked out this green thing covered in chocolate. I had no idea what it was and picked it because it was green–for Greenland. What could be better than green in Greenland? Well, the answer is, almost everything. Turned out to be a green popsicle of undetermined flavor with a chocolate covered cap. Quite frankly, it was an odd combination. But I ate my ice cream novelty anyway. Maybe I should have just gotten the $5 Magnum Bar.

We then walked back down the hill and to our hotel–which is on the top of another hill. Taxis to the hotel are $12. Gotta save moolah, if I am going to be spending the foreseeable future here. This was a 20k step day. All I wanted to do was enjoy the ambiance of the hotel room I worked so hard for! I just sat in my chair, writing this blog for your reading enjoyment, watching the fog roll in, and out, and in again, while the sun continued to shine through and blind me.

Tomorrow is another day. We will see what it brings. According to the weather alert I just got, it is dense fog tomorrow morning.

Goodnight! Sleep tight! For some reason the room darkening curtains are about 3 inches too short to cover up the window, and the sun will not set for a few more days. My circadian rhythm is shot!

Sleep tight.
Thetwinsontour