Tag: iceland

The long route home – A quick stop in Iceland

On By cockneykiwi151 Comment

Iceland

September 2024

Never one to shy away from making the most of a stopover, I has decided to take the opportunity to get off the charter flight in Iceland, rather than travel through to Denmark.  I said goodbye to everyone as I left the plane (there was only a handful of us disembarking there) and arriving in to Iceland was so easy.  There was no immigration and I didn’t even see any customs.  I just walked right through, bought a bus ticket and within about 30 minutes of getting off the plane I was heading in to the city of Reykjavik.   (The bus was definitely the best option but was not cheap, at around $45 one way, better than a taxi that apparently cost $200!)

Despite Reykjavik not being a large city (population around 120,000 with only 400,000 in the whole country), after two weeks in small isolated villages, it was really like being back in the big smoke with all the people, traffic and American takeaway chains etc!  The Airport Bus stopped at main bus station and then I took a small shuttle to the other stops in the centre of town (all included in the one price). I was pleased to see that the shuttle stop was just outside my guest house/hostel.

What a come down from my room on the ship 🥴. This is definitely back to reality with a bump but more like travel as normal – a crappy room in a large city 🥴.  Still the location was good and I was going to be out most of the time.   Once I dropped my bag my first task was to get some food and I found a nearby hotdog place (there seems to be a lot of hotdog places around).  I am not sure how Icelandic the ”Iceland hotdog” is, but it was good and I was hungry!

It had already been a long morning and I was ready for a quick nap before heading out to take a look around the city.  Unfortunately I was too late in the day for any of the city walking tours so I googled some walking maps to get a general idea of what to see and where it was. 

I started by walking up the “Rainbow Street”, or Skólavörðustígur (as it is more formally known) one of the city’s main streets which has been painted as a rainbow to celebrated the Rekjavik Pride movement.   The area is also well know for it’s colour houses, street art and art installations.

The top end of the street is dominated by the famous Hallgrímskirkja church.  At almost 75m tall, the church actually dominates the city skyline as it is among the tallest buildings in the country.  Completed in 1986, the Evangelical-Lutheran church’s unique design is an ode to the Icelandic landscape and was named after the 17th century clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson.

From the church I headed back down to the sea, and to the  ‘Solfar’ or ‘Sun Voyager’ sculpture.  It is a beautiful sculpture on the seafront apparently represents “a dream boat and an ode to the sun” however I think I join with most and thinking it looks like a viking ship – makes sense given that we are in the land of the Vikings.

I continued along the sea front to the next architectural marvel – the Harpa, Reykjavik’s concert hall which is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera.  Completed in 2011, the glass façade of the building is made up of geometric shapes that represent the natural basalt columns you can see around the country, and the colour of these panels change with the light of the day. 

I wandered around the harbour, into the small Ingólfur Square and around to the City Pond – a rather large ‘pond’ near the city centre.  I walked through an area filled with tourist shops, tourist bars – English and Irish pubs etc. 🤦🏻‍♀️and a pizzeria thats marketing was based on getting a terrible review on TripAdvisor lol.

As I had a long day trip planned for the next day I tried to have an early night, but the down side of having some a central location is that it was very noisy with traffic and nearby bars and clubs!  So, after a terrible nights sleep, a terrible coffee from a local convenience store (no coffee shops open early enough) and a shower in sulphur smelling hot water I was ready for the day lol. 🥴 (Apparently the water in Iceland is so pure it can go through taps without processing – I am not so sure as it also had a slight sulphur taste to it!)

The pick up point for the tour (and as it appeared every other tour in the country) was right outside my door, and I was glad that the guide had sent through the vehicle details so I did not have to rush up to each vehicle that arrived and we were soon on our way out of the city.  I had been to Iceland before, many years ago, so choose to avoid the main touristy sites (which I had seen on my first trip) and the large bus tours and do a full day, small bus, south coast trip.  Its worth noting that this choice was influenced by a google screen saver for an Icelandic waterfall I saw a couple of weeks before my trip  lol.   I had really wanted to see puffins but unfortuantely they had already left for the  winter 😢, there is always next trip 🤣🤣.

Out Icelandic guide was called “Al” – kindly, Icelandic people always seem to anglize their names so of us who are linguistically challenged don’t have to try and butcher their actual name!  Al was great, and full of interesting information, starting with some general facts. 

Reykjavik, in the early 1900’s, was a small town focused on farming and fishing, but this all changed with WWII when the British built an airport (now the domestic airport, pretty much in the centre of the city) and then the Americans came bring more infrastructure and jobs.  After the war, the airport was ‘given’ back to the country and Reykjavik soon became the thriving metropolis we see today.

We headed out of the city on the ring road, which – not surprisingly, you can drive all the way around the country on it (if you have 6-7 days) and we learnt about the volcanic nature of the country.  Now everyone knows that Iceland is full of volcanoes and of course eruptions in Iceland have caused flights disruptions, not only in Iceland but around the world!  What I did not know was that they pump the hot geothermal water straight in to houses for hot water and heating – that will explain the sulphur smell in the shower!

Apparently the weather this summer has not been great and we were blessed with an almost perfect day for this little outing and the landscapes we passed through were beautiful, ranging from volcanos, remains of old eruptions and beautiful volcanic cliffs lined with waterfalls to lots of beautiful green fields with horses (the famous Icelandic horses) and very shaggy sheep.

A couple of fun factors about Iceland according to Al:

·       It’s unofficial motto is ‘it could be worse’ lol

·       Beer was illegal until 1989!  You also can’t by alcohol in the supermarket (so it is not too easily accessible), BUT you can get it on line and it will be delivered within the hour lol.

On the way to our first stop we passed the unimposing but infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano, that caused all the travel issues back in 2010.  It was know as E15 in the international press as no one could pronounce the proper name 😝.  And finally our first stop, the google screensaver waterfall – Skógafoss.  With a drop of around 60m and a width of 25m, it is one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland and today we were so lucky to have perfect conditions for the waterfall spray to create a double rainbow.  I could have walked to the top, but by the time I finished taking photos from the bottom I didn’t have time 🤣.  It was stunning.

As we continued along the the south coast, we  passed more stunning landscapes of glaciers, towering cliffs and waterfalls until we arrived at the famous black sand beach – Reynisfjara.  It is famous for not only it’s black volcanic sand, but also for it’s tower basalt columns. Science tells us that these were formed by cooling lava and if you prefer a good local legend, they are actually two trolls turned in to stone as a curse.

As I previously mentioned, the puffins that nest here are already gone for the season but there were lots of Fulmars and gulls still hanging out on the cliffs surrounding the beach. 

The beach is also famous for “sneaker waves” and there are warnings posted everywhere to watch out of these deceptively powerful waves that surge up the beach from calm looking seas. 

Next we had a quick stop in the southernmost town in Iceland – Vik í Myrdal (more commonly know as Vik) to see the 1877 white, wooden church.  Interesting the church seats around 450 people, and there is only around 600 living in the town.

This was our turn around point and we headed back towards Rejavik but not without a couple of other stops.  First at the most unique glacier I have ever seen – Sólheimajökull.  The glacier and the icebergs in the glacier lake are actually striped, with layers of black volcanic ash through the ice!  As with glaciers around the world, the glacier has been receding at a fairly fast rate and the lake we see today at the foot of the glacier has only been created in the last 25 years.  That said, this glacier extends back around 14 km to the ice cap.

Our final stop for the trip was Seljalandsfoss, another iconic waterfall and this one we walk behind. Another 60m high waterfall but this one we could walk behind which was a little damp but fun.  By now the clouds had rolled in  now and the waterfall spray masked the rain that started to fall 😂 .  It was a long day but great way to spend my one day in Iceland.  I rounded it off my shouting myself Hard Rock Cafe for last dinner of the trip – not Icelandic but who I am going to kid thinking I am going to enjoy Icelandic fish – not me that’s for sure 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️.

I had called early in the day to book my pick up for the airport bus to be told my pick up would be at 3am 🥴 and I was so glad the stop is right outside the hotel!  The early bus meant I arrived at the airport at 4.20am and after using the self check in, I easily made my way through the airport until I was ‘detained’ my the immigration guy as he told me a long winded story about some random guy in the 1800s who moved to Hobart – not sure if he thought Hobart was part of NZ or that NZ was part of Australia 🤔. Thankfully, there was not a long queue behind me! It was nice to have another stamp in my passport as I haven’t officially  left Denmark, Canada or Greenland 🤣

As I boarded my first flight on the long trip home I was amused to hear Icelandic Air playing a Björk song as we boarded – classic 🤣. So that is it for my big trip for another year, now on to booking my big trip for 2025.  Something for all readers to look forward to 😜.

Greenland – final days

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Itilleq and Kangerlusaaq

September 2024

Our final full day in Greenland was spent sailing south whilst we had couple of talks.  Firstly we were given a briefing about the disembarkation process for the following day and house keeping that needed to take place e.g. return boots, pay bills etc, followed by a talk on the Geology of Greenland.  This was followed by a session with Julien, the incredibly accomplished guide I have previously written about.  It was basically a Q&A entitled “everything you need to know about Greenland and more”.

He covered topics from the development of Greenland (mainly fishing in the north and farming in the south), I quote “no one is living in igloos wearing polar bear pants”🤣 He went on to say that education is a problem – most people just fish or have technical education and that boys work with their father or uncles so don’t see point of higher education. 

Most high school teachers are from Denmark and many children don’t speak Danish these days, as more and more are speaking  English.  For this, amongst other reasons, many fail at school and give up.  Most educated people in the country are women who stick it out at school longer than the boys.

We pulled into our last stop during lunch and I spotted the chef fishing for dinner 🤔 off the ship lol.

The afternoon was spent in the small town of Itilleq, located on a small island just of the coast of the mainland  –  population around 100!   The island has no fresh water, so they have a facility for desalination of the sea water and as with all Greenlandic towns, there are no roads to get here, and in fact the closest airfield (for planes) is in Sisimiut, 45 km away across the sea.  The town does however have a helipad for on-demand air services and emergencies.

The main trade in the settlement is fishing and hunting, with a fish factory being the main employer in the settlement. There is one store in the town – the local Pilersuisoq store.

It was a quaint town surrounded by beautiful mountains and after some time to wandered around we had an opportunity to go into one of the locals house’s for tea.  The house had a 70s vibe decor and it was not dissimilar to houses in Fiji with colours, décor and religious icons.

Our hosts did not speak English well, but we had one of our guides with us who had lived in Greenland as a child.  She explained that after World War II, the Danish government started 5 companies including Royal Greenland (the fishing company), Royal Artic Line (shipping), Air Greenland (transportation) and Pilersuisoq (a chain of general stores).  Apparently, these companies must operate in all towns, even if they run at a loss.  By law, Air Greenland must operate flights, even if the planes are empty.  If this is the support currently given by the Danish government, I am not sure if Greenland will ever want, or be able to sustain true independence?

As all the village kids played in the Jacuzzi on the ship, ‘crowds’ gathered on shore for the all important football game between the town and the ship.  Even the local fish factory closed early so the workers could play!  All players welcome, any age, any size and any number of people were on each team lol!  It was a lot of fun and a great way to end the day and the trip.

After our final dinner, it was time to finish up packing as our large bags had to be left outside our room before 11pm.  As annoying as that was, it meant that it was taken up to the lecture room for the morning where we would be joined by check in staff from the airport who would then whisk our bags away to the airplane later the next morning. 

I must admit I felt a little like a fish out of water on this trip with 95% of passengers not having English as a first language, hardly any other solo travellers – in fact I think there was actually only 1 other travelling on their own, and 4 travelling with a parent. Anywhere I sat for dinner threw out the dynamics of any of the tables as they were all set for 2,4, 6 or 8.  That said, it did work in my favour a lot as it meant I got my own room when I had paid to share.

On top of that, most of the other passengers were Danish couples in their 60-70-80s (clearly a marketing thing) so it was not easy to get involved in conversations!  Despite all of that, I met some lovely people and the ship and trip has been amazing.  And lets be honest, if I was not comfortable with my own company, I would not travel solo!   Next time, however, my next expedition cruise will be more wildlife focused 🥴

Our last evening saw us sailing south in to the mist, just how we had set off a couple of weeks earlier when we arrived and the final morning was bitter sweet.  As I mentioned above, our flight check in was done on the ship and it was then time to jump into the zodiacs and leave the ship for the last time.  Can I just say I won’t miss my waterproof pants 🤣!

Back in Kangerlussaq, I had booked to do a tour of the ‘city’ (I had booked all the extras in advance, not wanting to miss anything lol).  I am not sure if I would have booked this tour now,  but there is nothing else much to do there while waiting for the plane so I was happy to have something to do.    

We jumped in to a big bus and headed out of town on Greenland’s longest road which starts at the harbour where we got out of the zodiacs.  This is actually 14 km from the ‘town’ as the silt build up from the melting glaciers means this is as far as the large ships can get to town.  At low tide, a small channel needs to be dredged to allow the zodiacs to get to shore!

From the town, it is a further 36km to the ice cap (which we had driven on our first day) making the road 50km in total.  Apparently, part of the gravel road was built by Volkswagen in the late 90’s as a venue for car endurance testing.  They had planned to extend the road on to the icesheet itself, but the plans were abandoned in 2005 and it is now mainly used for tourism.

We did see a couple of Artic hares on side of road (👍🏻👍🏻 yay for some wildlife) but I did not have my camera on this trip so no great photo 🥴,  but I saw it and I was happy!

We drove back through the town towards the airport and to be honest we didn’t learn too much more as the driver was from Denmark and had only been here for 2 months!  Anyway, the little excursion killed some time and we were dropped back at the airport for our plane.  

The trip had some ups and downs but overall it was amazing and it is no surprise that I would love to come back to explore other parts of the country or experience it at a different time of year. 

I had visited this year as I had suspected that the new airport being built in Nuuk would result in direct flights from American – making these remote places more accessible is great I am sure for the country itself, however it makes it a little less adventurous for me, not to mention it being overrun with Americans who are only there because it is ‘easy”!  My suspicions came true this week when direct flights were announced for Summer next year!  Greenland will never be quite the same again.

Back to Greenland

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Davis Strait and Sisimiut, Greenland

August/September 2024

After our day in Pangnirtung, we started our trip back across the sea to Greenland which of course meant time changes again – 1 hour the first night and 2 hours the second.  As there was not much to do on the sea day (thankfully there are only 2 full days at sea on this trip, one of the reasons I chose it) I thought I would do a little ship tour as I watch the icebergs float by in the distance. 

The Ocean Albatros is just over one year old and definitely the nicest expedition ship I have been on.  She is Polar code 6 and Ice class 1A rated ship, with an x-bow Infinity class which apparently provides high stability – I can certain say that although the weather was never particularly bad, sailing was generally very smooth.  She also uses dynamic positioning which means they don’t often need to use an anchor to stay in place, and, she is powered by low energy consumption engines which are designed to reduce emissions. 

My room (one of 94) is great (better than some hotel rooms I have had) and having it to myself is a dream.  I am on level 4 of the 8 story ship.  The mud room is on level 3 – the area where we put on our waterproof gear and life jacket and get in the zodiacs.

Level 5 is the main congregation space with the lecture room, bar, small library, main reception and the restaurant.  A great thing about this ship is that the lectures are broadcast on the TV in the rooms, so if I don’t feel like going to the lecture room, I can still watch them.

Breakfast and lunch are buffets and dinner is ala carte with free wine or beer.  The wait staff are very attentive when it comes to filling up our wine glasses but it is often difficult to get a water refill 🥴.

Level 7 has the main outside area, including lots of nice chairs (which are often too wet to sit on lol), a small pool (which has been empty on this trip) and 2 small hot tubs which seem to get used a lot!  This level also has a small gym and a spa – neither of which have used 🤪.

Level 8 has another small restaurant which serves the same buffet breakfast and lunch but without the queue, the observation lounge which is a great place to relax with a view and some more outside deck area.

During today’s voyage we had talks on Whales and Greenlandic hunting.   All of the expedition staff have varied and interesting backgrounds, but one is truly exceptional.  A French man who was a professional action sports athlete (including BASE jumping, ice climbing, paragliding etc) as well as being a commercial helicopter pilot, and then settled in a small Northern Greenlandic village with a Greenlandic wife and for the last 17 years has lived the life of a traditional hunter and fisherman, leading expeditions on the ice cap in his free time.

I learnt that basically, Inuit can hunt anything, including whales and dolphins, polar bear, seal and things that hunting for most in the world is banned.  They use everything, food for humans and dogs, skins used for clothing etc.  All things have quotas etc to manage the populations and much of the hunting must be done traditionally e.g. narwhal can only be killed from a kayak with a harpoon, and it is forbidden or use speedboat. 

For some things like musk ox, there is a lottery to see if you can hunt them that year and the Ministry of Hunting and Fishing set quotas and provide licenses.  Commercial hunters need to complete forms confirming their hunts the previous year to get their license for the next season.   Mostly all hunters respect the rules.

Now I know most of the other people don’t speak the same language as me (pun intended) when they all cheered that we don’t need to go to shore in zodiacs tomorrow – that is my favourite part 🥴!

Back in Greenland, our first stop was the town of Sisimiut, meaning “the people living in a place where there are fox dens”.  With a population of around 5,500, it is the second largest town in Greenland, after Nuuk. 

The area was initial settled around 4,500 years ago, and like much of Greenland, it has seen settlements by the Saqqaq culture, Dorset culture and the Thule people, whom much of today’s people descend from.  As it is Greenland’s northernmost year round ice free port, it is one of the main shipping based for western Greenland. 

I opted to do another walk today and the walk took us to Tele Hill, not surprisingly the site of the telecommunication towers for the town.  (I must admit I did take a couple of photos of the towers to bring back to my colleagues who are currently designing and working on site builds for similar towers in New Zealand lol.)

It was a fairly easy walk and the views back to town were stunning, the water beautifully clear and the route was dotted with historic ruins of house and other buildings, dating back to the 1600’s.  I must admit you did have to use some imagination to see the footprints of some of them. 🥴 Thankfully there were good interpretation panels dotted around the sites, helping with the identification.

Near the telecom towers, the visible rock piles are unexamined graves – because they are unexamined, it is impossible to know just how old they are, but they are considered to be later than the likely Saqqaq culture settlement that dates back to 2300-1200BC which was also on the site.   

As we wandered back towards town, we learnt about the historic use of colours that are part of the traditional Greenlandic towns. Yellow indicated a doctor’s house or a hospital.  Red is reserved for big churches, museums, schools and other cultural centres.  Blue was for fisherman and black for prisons and police stations.  These are not so strictly adhered to today and sometimes houses are painted in the colour of paint that came on the last ship!

Despite saying above that church’s are red, Sisimiut has a blue church (although it does have a red roof) – the Bethel Church.  Built in 1775, it is built on rock so as not to sink into the permafrost (a never ending problem) and is the oldest church in the country. 

After a lovely morning walk, I headed back to the ship for lunch before heading out again, this time to the town where I found a lovely little café with good internet.  I enjoyed a half decent coffee whilst catching up from news from around the world, but I passed on the minke whale in soy sauce the café also sold! 🥴

It was then my groups turn to enjoy some of the activities the town had put on for us.  One of the most popular was the Greenlandic sled dog puppies or Kalaallit Qimmia. A large breed of huskie that is a national icon and important part of the Greenland identity.  The breed are descendants of dogs brought to Greenland by the immigrating Inuits and even today, provide an important role in the life of Greenlanders.  And let’s be honest, all puppies are adorable!

Couple of fun facts about Greenlandic Sled dogs …  Firstly, they have a double coat which consists of a dense undercoat and a rough outer coat which provides the insulation needed to live in the Artic (where temperatures can drop to below -50C).  And secondly, they are known for their stamina and strength and they can travel for long distances without tiring.  Apparently, they are the only animal that outrun humans over long distances because of they way they burn protein without glycogen/carbs!

Next was an introduction to the Greenlandic language – which proved to be a major challenge for me but it was really interesting and the ‘teacher’ made it fun.  Greenlandic is similar to all Artic and Inuit languages and for a long time it was only an oral language until missionaries wrote it down (in particularly for bible translations). 

Some Greenlandic words are very long, and one word actually forms an entire sentence e.g the Greenlandic word for harbour, literally translates to “place where the skin boats are”.  Did you know we used some Greenlandic words (perhaps the same in other Inuit languages) in English.  Kayak, Igloo and Anorak are three that have Greenlandic origins.

A few of the other challenging ‘basics’ of the language are; all t’s are pronounced d’s, k = g and rl and ll have a sound I can not say or spell 🤣🥴.  To round off our lesson we have to sing a song (it was to the tune of Silent Night) in Greenlandic – no sure we were particularly successful lol but it was fun.

Next up was authentic local food tasting and not surprisingly I did not try much. Unadventurous maybe, but I don’t like fish at the best of times so I can’t see that raw whale is going to work for me (I know not technical fish).  Delights included Cod (dried and flaked), mattak (raw whale skin and blubber), raw seal, Capelin (a local fish that looks like a little sardine served whole), dried whale and the famous Greenlandic shrimp (a deep-sea shrimp, or prawn depending on who you talk to, is a huge export via Royal Greenland).  I did succumb and tried the dry whale, it tasted like a very fatty biltong.  The kind of fat that you just can not get out of your mouth 🥴.

Back on the ship, we were treated to a demonstration of kayaking by a Greenlandic kayak champion.  He was rolling under water and paddling upside down🤣.  He must have been freezing but I guess he is used to it as these are the skills kids learn to keep them safe when hunting and fishing from kayaks.

Today I chatted to some new people on the hike.  I noticed an Australian accent for the first time –  turns out he has been living in Sweden for 50 years so it is probably just the first time I have heard him speak English.  I also chatted with a lovely Danish lady named Greta.  He husband apparently has Covid and they have both been isolating in their cabin.  She has now been allowed out but her husband is still unwell and confined 🥴! It was a win for me as I really enjoyed our conversation.