(Hyperborean Hopscotch 2017: Days Six and Seven)
Grabbed coffee and a Danish (appropriate in a constituent country of Denmark, right?), then started mapping the day. I considered a whale watching tour, but those are really expensive and I figured I could survive without it.
So instead I returned to the one thing I had been doing: walking the icefjord. As I’d already completed the two main trails, this time I opted for alternative routes. The first was simply climbing down the rocks until I was right at the water. Eye level with the icebergs. Seeing the arctic whites and glacial blues up close was worth the entire trip.
In The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, Gretel Ehrlich describes her close experiences with glacial environments:
It began raining harder than usual while I was up there, so I fled the World Heritage area and walked into town. My ticket from the Ilulissat Museum was also good for the Kunst Art Museum, so I ducked in there and looked around. I spent an hour or so in the company of paintings, sketches, photographs, and sculptures crafted mostly by local Greenlandic artists.
Somewhere that day, I’d heard that the hallen (hall, or in this case public gymnasium) had free showers, so I hit that up, more for the passengers on my flight the following morning than for myself. (I don’t want to get too much into the hygiene of this camping adventure, but the showers were few, far between, and always overdue.)
A brief overview of my campsite:
To end the day, I had a final meal at Café Iluliaq: A so-so musk-ox burger with an Aasiaq juniper beer (by Immiaq brewery). Full, happy, satisfied with my time in Greenland, I returned to my tent and fell asleep early again.
It was a very cold night.
…
The next morning, I packed up my gear and walked the hour and a half to the airport. It was another peaceful flight.
Landing back at Reykjavik’s domestic airport, I walked across the city to the hostel campground and set up my tent.
The guy at the hostel’s front desk told me that a restaurant I’d eaten at back in 2014 was still open. I had to go. Veitingahúsið Lauga-ás still served their seafood gratin: a fishy, shrimpy, cheesy, creamy, godly concoction that I described as “most probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten” when I first tried it. The description still holds.
Post-dinner, I drank green tea at the hostel campground, updating my travel journal and waiting for my phone to charge. The second third of the trip was over. As if to mark the occasion and welcome me back, Iceland provided another showing of the Northern Lights.
Sometimes I’m so lucky I don’t believe it.
Grabbed coffee and a Danish (appropriate in a constituent country of Denmark, right?), then started mapping the day. I considered a whale watching tour, but those are really expensive and I figured I could survive without it.
So instead I returned to the one thing I had been doing: walking the icefjord. As I’d already completed the two main trails, this time I opted for alternative routes. The first was simply climbing down the rocks until I was right at the water. Eye level with the icebergs. Seeing the arctic whites and glacial blues up close was worth the entire trip.
 |
| Down to the water. |
In The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, Gretel Ehrlich describes her close experiences with glacial environments:
“I began to understand about being silanigtalersarput: a person who is wise about things and knows the ice, who comes to teach us how to see. The first word I learned in Greenlandic was sila, which means, simultaneously, weather, animal and human consciousness, and the power of nature.”
 |
| Weather, consciousness, the power of nature. |
More at water-level.
I sat there by the ice for a while, then climbed back up, up, up, passed the Blue Trail, up onto an unmarked path into rocky hills that gave new views of the fjord. And as luck would have it, I spotted a few whales surfacing and spouting out in the bay. Perfect.
Whales in the distance (Above and to the left of that rock island).
It began raining harder than usual while I was up there, so I fled the World Heritage area and walked into town. My ticket from the Ilulissat Museum was also good for the Kunst Art Museum, so I ducked in there and looked around. I spent an hour or so in the company of paintings, sketches, photographs, and sculptures crafted mostly by local Greenlandic artists.
 |
| In the museum. |
 |
| In the museum. |
Somewhere that day, I’d heard that the hallen (hall, or in this case public gymnasium) had free showers, so I hit that up, more for the passengers on my flight the following morning than for myself. (I don’t want to get too much into the hygiene of this camping adventure, but the showers were few, far between, and always overdue.)
A brief overview of my campsite:
Between glaciers and a graveyard.
To end the day, I had a final meal at Café Iluliaq: A so-so musk-ox burger with an Aasiaq juniper beer (by Immiaq brewery). Full, happy, satisfied with my time in Greenland, I returned to my tent and fell asleep early again.
 |
| Goodnight Greenland. |
It was a very cold night.
…
The next morning, I packed up my gear and walked the hour and a half to the airport. It was another peaceful flight.
 |
| Jakobshavn glacier and Ilulissat icefjord from above. |
Landing back at Reykjavik’s domestic airport, I walked across the city to the hostel campground and set up my tent.
The guy at the hostel’s front desk told me that a restaurant I’d eaten at back in 2014 was still open. I had to go. Veitingahúsið Lauga-ás still served their seafood gratin: a fishy, shrimpy, cheesy, creamy, godly concoction that I described as “most probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten” when I first tried it. The description still holds.
 |
| Final meal before my big Icelandic hike. |
Post-dinner, I drank green tea at the hostel campground, updating my travel journal and waiting for my phone to charge. The second third of the trip was over. As if to mark the occasion and welcome me back, Iceland provided another showing of the Northern Lights.
Sometimes I’m so lucky I don’t believe it.
The most adventurous part of the trip would start in the morning...
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