The Wanderings of busman7

Just calculated Iceland costs & my lodging costs in Iceland were about 40% cheaper than the cheap Toronto airport hotel while food was 10% less so the myth about Iceland being super expensive is busted!!

It will be a few days before I can post this but am writing while the day is fresh in my mind (gotta love my ACER). They do things a bit different (read that as a LOT).

Air Greenland owns 1 Air Bus 310, 1 Boeing 757, 6 Dash 7’s, 2 Twin Otter’s, 1 s**t can’t remember now but along the line of the Otter’s & 16 helicopters of different breeds which are kept busy as there are only roads in the towns so the only way to travel is by water or air. The first encounter with their different ways was the no customs or immigration thing on landing in Nuuk. Now today when leaving, Gee didn’t have to take shows off as there was absolutely NO, NADA security check, they just call the flight then you walk across the tarmac & onto the plane. Flash-back in time or what!

The 3 hr flight turned out to be more like 2 1/2 hrs with 2 stops along the way, 1 where you have to deplane so they can top up the fuel & the other just a quick stop 10 min out of Ilulissat. A beautiful sunny day with good visibility but not much to see except rocky land, water & glaciers until we got near Disco Bay which is swarming with icebergs, now if like me you have only seen them on TV, man you ain’t seen NOTHING!!! Impressive from the air it’s not until you land & see how huge they really are that you finally realize how the Titanic never stood a chance. Words can’t do justice to the sight, kind of makes the trip worthwhile & that’s just a tease as will be going on a tour of them in a couple days.

www.ilulissatn.com is a mom & pop operation run by Silver an ex-pat Italian musician who came here 28 yrs ago for a 3 month gig, fell in love with a local girl & never left. In talking with him it seems he faces similar governmental BS from the Danes as any small business person faces here in Canada in that they have the same bigger is better syndrome, want to pay next to nothing for your business then tax what you have left away from you.

That said he does offer some really good tours, like the one yesterday that takes you through the the Ilulissat Icefijord in Disko Bay, absolutely awesome, to the fishing village of Ilimanaq pop 87 where we had lunch including a soup with whale meat at the local postmaster’s even saw a couple whales out in the bay from the dining room window. Would rather give my money to a local small business man than some big Danish or international corporation.

So far I have found everything in Greenland to be insanely expensive like $10-11 for a beer, $5.50 for a coke at the Nuuk airport but imagine that prices would be similar in Frobisher Bay so it’s just a fact of life in the north. My costs here may be a touch higher than necessary but if I am going to pay outrageous prices I am not going to stay in a dump. According to Silver a new Toyota 15 passenger van is around $60’000 & a snowmobile $20,000, prices in US$.

Did the evening Icefiford tour last night in a smaller boat where you get up close & personal with the icebergs phenomenal, the captain stopped the boat in the middle of the tour & brought out the thermos of coffee no breeze with the bay like glass & not a sound,  the scene of shimmering sea  littered with majestic icebergs with the sun on the wan in complete silence was one I will always remember. People asked me “why do you want to go to Greenland?” That one scene was the answer, have been in the north enough to know how majestic nature can be there when she is on her good behavior & how deadly when not.

Took in a tour another 100 km north today to the face of a glacier (too dangerous to be near the Ilulassat one when calving) & saw some small ice coming off it, another impressive sight, also saw a  whale on the way up & a good sighting of one on the way back who put on a show for the camera’s. So it’s back to Nuuk manaña where 3 hrs of internet comes with the room so I can post this then off Copenhagen on Air Greenland.

Is the trip worth the cost? A Big time YES, OUI, SI!!

Lots of Europeans here but have only run into one Canadian, originally from Montreal but now an ex-pat living in Boston who was in Nuuk with a colleague for a seminar & were on a bit of a sightseeing tour while here.

Cloud cover from leaving Iceland until about 1/2 hr before reaching Nuuk the capitol of Greenland so didn’t get to see Iceland from the air as arrived after dark & left in the cloud. Planes are getting smaller as this flight was in a prop driven Dash 8-100, don’t know why the 100 as it only carries 35 passengers?

No sign of any customs personal when we landed just off the plane across the tarmac, in the terminal & out to the taxi lane. Couldn’t find much hotel info on the web, looking up much of any info on this country is a chore, it’s  as if it doesn’t exist, so just used the tried & true hotel finding method, ask the taxi driver, works every time. Got the last room but got a room at the first hotel we tried. Haven’t had the nerve to convert the price yet as in Iceland I was warned it was expensive here & it’s a NICE 4*, Hotel Hans Egede, www.hhe.gl but what to hey These 2 countries blew a hole in my budget a long time ago but in Iceland’s case it was sure worth it & how many people can say they have visited Nuuk let alone Ilulissat, bragging rights don’t usually come cheap plus I am sure there will be some fantastic country to see.

From the flight in looks like the country is glacier covered except at the coast & this is southern Greenland. Desolate looking place with the land scrubbed to the bare rock by the glaciers & the town at first glance resembling a northern construction camp. On closer inspection this capitol of 16,000 is a bit more than that brightly colored buildings your basic primary colors reds, blues, whites & the odd yellow.

Can see three tower cranes from my hotel room window so things aren’t slowed to a standstill by the recession, also some residential construction in Iceland.

Had planned on a boat tour of the area but as they need a minimum of 4 to run it & only 2 signed up it didn’t go so just catch up on my journal & explore Nuuk a bit then tomorrow off to Ilulissat.

The taxi driver came through with flying colors as the hotel he brought me to is smack dab in the center of activity here in Nuuk. I just love good taxi drivers as they tend to have a better knowledge of all facets of a city or town than any one else. Of course having been one on several occasions in different parts of Canada might  prejudice me just a tad or the fact that when I am in Ontario my daily driver is a Checker in Yellow Cab livery.

It’s just an easy little stroll down to the shore where one finds for today’s trivia “Santa’s Post Office and the World’s Largest Letter-box where letters to Santa from all over the world arrive.”, the National Museum of Greenland, Hans Egede’s house (don’t be so lazy Google him) & the other main sights & shopping district & market of Nuuk.

A nice sunny fall (Canada weather) day relaxing, informative & productive at the same time, Found further proof of the mini ice-age that lasted from around 1350-1850 so once again our period global warming climate change is just a whim of nature, NOT anything man made as some ego-maniacs with a personal agenda would have us believe, Nuuk is a bustling little city where you can still smoke in the working man’s bars.

Oh yeah & one thing I have never seen else where that should be mandatory every where a sign at the entrance to the restaurant here in the hotel in international symbol a circle with a line through the picture of a cell phone (NO CELL PHONES). Must be needed as at breakfast this morn when sign was turned around there was a guy with not one but TWO Crack berries!!!

Manaña a 3 hr flight to Ilulissat north of the Arctic Circle.

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