Stuck in Greenland then on to Slovakia

One thing about travel is that it teaches you things. When we were taken to that hostel in Narsarsuaq in  Greenland when our flight got cancelled I realised how much our lives have changed since we travelled in our 20's. In those days, we stayed in hostels all the time. Some had dozens of bunk beds per room. We shared kitchens and bathrooms and put up with people snoring, farting and coming and going at all hours. Now in our 60's I stood in a room with four bunk beds, the other three of which were taken by men, and it felt like a foreign world to me. The communal living area was so full of people that I felt claustrophobic. There were RULES. I was mortified at the thought of staying there. Had we got soft? Had we got old? Had we just got too comfortable?

It wasn't just me that felt like this either. Two English geologists, much younger than us, who had been working nearby, abandoned the youth hostel at the same time as us. One of them later said, with his tongue just slightly in his cheek, that he has travelled extensively and the scariest experience he had ever had was going into that hostel.

Our hotel room was nothing flash but I was so grateful we were there. Normally I'd be critical of the missing shower screen doors, but I'd just think of the hostel and I'd be grateful that we had our own shower. Normally I'd be critical of the way people slammed their doors at 6am but I'd think of the hostel and I'd be grateful that people in our room weren't getting up and down at all hours. We later heard that in some towns in Greenland when the weather has been bad and multiple flights have been cancelled, they've had to put blankets on the floors of basketball courts to accommodate everyone! It's been a long time since I remember being so grateful for a simple hotel room.

As much as we would love to have returned to Qaqartoq, or to go anywhere but Narsarsuaq, we couldn't leave because we didn't know when the replacement flight would be. It took us ages on the first day to rearrange flights and accommodation. At least there were a few nice walks in the area. 

The hotel was used to this sort of thing happening and they did their best to provide food for everyone, including those who were in the hostel. The airline was paying for all the meals and accommodation and the hotel was the only place that provided meals. They were buffet-style. The first couple of days that we were there the food was great, however once we were all stuck there, they clearly had to get a bit more creative with what they had in the kitchen. At one lunch there were hot dogs. Clearly there was plenty of them as, that night, sliced hot dogs turned up in the both the tray of chips and in the stew. The next day there was pasta with carbonara sauce with more sliced hot dogs in it. We weren't complaining but it was interesting to see what they had to do.

Finally, notification came through that the replacement flight would be two days after the original flight. We all rolled up at the airport again and a cheer went through the crowd when the flight in from Reykjavik finally landed. No doubt the people on that plane were relieved too! Obviously our original plane wasn't available because this was a flash new plane that was far bigger than we needed. I watched our last view of icebergs backed by enormous mountains as we flew out, trying to embed every detail in my brain. I have no idea when we will ever see scenery like this again.

I watched a few Icelandic documentaries on the plane and one was on elves. Apparently, 10% of Icelanders believe in elves and 15% don't. The remaining 75% aren't sure!

We had a wonderful flight to Reykjavik with a stunning sunset to welcome us back.

We caught a taxi from the airport and our Kenyan driver was wonderful. He had lived in Iceland for 10 years and loved it. It wasn't until we arrived at our accommodation that John realised he had left his daypack in the airport trolley with our passports in it! Our fabulous driver came to the rescue, calling ahead and having it found and ready to pick up. He parked outside the parking area at the airport to avoid us having to pay for airport parking and ran in himself to pick the bag up. To our amazement, he refused a tip!

Similarly, John had a haircut the next day. The somewhat inebriated Polish owner of the salon was great value although every second phrase was "fuckin' shit". John went to pay the listed price but they charged him less because his hair was short. Again, such honesty is surprising, especially as these immigrants are presumably here to make money.

It's always a different experience coming back to a country you've visited before. We felt at home in Iceland straight away. After the remoteness and rawness of Greenland, Iceland felt ultra-modern and so comfortable. Its two big downfalls became obvious immediately though - the weather was rubbish and it cost us $60 for two falafel wraps and two coffees!

We had two nights here but, with a late arrival and an early departure, we decided to stay near the airport at Keflavik, supposedly Iceland's most boring town! It was actually pretty good and worked well for us. We visited the Rock n Roll Museum and saw lots about Bjork but not a lot about Ragga Gisla, the singer we saw a few weeks earlier. Maybe she's not as big as we thought!

We passed by a "Troll House" after dinner one night. Many Icelanders believe in trolls too. Apparently, this troll is only available from 10am til 5pm but she still growled scarily from inside as we checked out the outside of her house. 

Knocking at the enormous door to see if she's home.

Resting in her enormous chair. It was all a bit of fun.

To get from Iceland to Poland, our next destination, our original plan had been to go via Helsinki and spend a couple of days there as neither of us have been to Finland before. We had to change these plan though as we were now three days behind our bookings and ended up just transferring flights at Helsinki and going straight through to Poland.

After all the dramas we'd had, we couldn't believe it when we boarded our flight to Poland and were taxiing out when the plane stopped then turned around again. There was a long pause. Staff opened the door to the cabin and there was lots of discussion. The captain announced an apology for the delay but there was no explanation. After about 10 minutes stairs were brought out to the door. Was there a mechanical issue? Were they going to unload us? A few minutes later a van pulled up. Three uniformed men got out and boarded the plane. There were more discussions. Then the three big, burly guys with guns attached to their belts started making their way down the aisle of the plane. As they passed us, I saw a badge on one of them that said. "Border Control". They walked right to the back of the plane and as they passed each row of passengers, that row turned around to see what they were doing. It was quite comical watching the flow of turning heads.

At almost the back row they stopped and spoke to a man. He got up, got his bag and they escorted him out of the plane and into the van. What the? We later learned that someone overheard something about him being aggressive but he seemed ok on the plane. I guess we'll never know! Finally we took off and landed in Krakow.

It was almost dark by the time we picked up our rental car. We pulled out onto a very busy highway. A bulging half-moon the colour of old teeth hung fatly in the sky. It was the first time we had seen the moon in two months and it made up for lost time by hanging in our vision for the entire three-hour drive. We thought we would be driving on quiet country roads but the traffic was awful. The Tatra Mountains are a popular holiday destination, even late at night apparently. We finally arrived at Tatranska Lomnica, found our apartment and went straight to bed. We had made it!

We woke to green grass, tall pine trees and soaring mountains. Then a storm set in. I had some weird sort of cold coming on anyway so we had a quiet day. So much for starting with the 'easy' four hour hike that John had planned!

We soon learned that thunderstorms are a regular occurrence here. Lightning flashed. Thunder didn't rumble, it crashed. And the rain poured down. It made it really hard to fit a decent walk in without running the risk of getting saturated. 

The Tatra Mountains are beautiful. They rise straight up from the flatter landscape around them and their jagged peaks look wild and awe-inspiring. The slopes are clad with forests that harbour deer and bears. Hundreds of kilometres of walking tracks lead hikers through areas of great natural beauty. Unfortunately for us, these things attract Slovakians and people from other countries in droves at this time of year. Some of the tracks were really busy.

Tatranska Lomnica is a typical European village in that everything is central - there are no sprawling suburbs like we have. The only thing between sections of the small town were parks and it was lovely having to walk through a park to get to the bakery and shops. These next two pics were taken within metres of our apartment building.

We didn't even have to drive to get to beautiful walks. We just walked from our apartment. Too easy!

I still had my cold which was nothing more than an annoying cough and - wait for it - insomnia! How strange! Being so tired, I returned early from our first walk and John kept going. Much to my amazement, on a main road on the outskirts of town, I saw a deer! She had a cut on her leg and the flies were driving her mad. In desperation she tried sitting down to block the access to her cut but they just moved to her head so she gave up and got up again. We later saw a few more deer but none as tame as this one.

This is a big skiing area in winter and there are a number of chair lifts. We got caught in the rain on one walk so we caught the chairlift down. It had a coloured canopy which, together with the rain, made it hard to see a thing!

Tatranska Lomnica is a beautiful town and the walks were gorgeous, but it was these two ladies that made the place special for us. Lila and Katerina were waitresses at the steakhouse next to our apartment and were the friendliest ladies you would ever want to meet. Thanks to them, we ate there every night. (They had more than just steaks on the menu). They told us at the end of the first night that we had a special energy. Lila said this energy gave her goosebumps! As much as I'd like to take some credit, I wasn't feeling 100% - it was John that was giving them goosebumps!

We also loved sitting in their outdoor dining area. A babbling brook ran past and the cool air descended in the evenings.

One walk we did started beside the main road and led up to a waterfall. It was so beautiful.

We caught glimpses of the mountains through gaps in the forest.

A river tumbled down along a rocky river bed.

There were lots of people on this hike. We were continually impressed by the number of young kids in hiking boots giving these decent hikes a go with their families. We didn't see many of them complaining and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves as a rule.

We drove to a nearby town called Stary Smokovec. You think that's a strange name? The next town was Horny Smokovec! Stary Smokovec was full of old half-timbered houses and grand buildings of yesteryear.

The weather was quite warm - high 20s and very humid - so we slogged up the hill on a walk with sweat pouring off us. We only got a few glimpses of the mountains from here but they were stunning.

On the trail we saw this tiny snake. It was so small that my heart didn't even skip a beat when I saw it!

Our biggest walk involved a long and interesting day. Chair lifts and cable cars service this area in the ski season but many of them also run in summer for the hikers and tourists. We started our day by catching a cable car from the bottom of the mountain to the next station. Instead of continuing in another cable car, we walked to the next station. We climbed over 600 metres in altitude. It was a tough walk but we did it reasonably well. 

There were some lovely wildflowers on the way.

Looking back along the ski run to the cable car station that we walked from. It looked suitably far away.

It was quite cold at the second station but there was a cafe that had the best soup ever! We then caught another cable car right to the top of the mountain. These expensive tickets had to be booked ahead and we had very little choice about when to go so we had to wait an hour or so until it was our booked time. Much to our disappointment, clouds hung around the top of the mountain. If only we could have picked a different day!

We watched the cable car arrive through the clouds to pick us up. It's a very steep ride to the top. Note the angle of the cable behind the car.

The ride to the top is supposed to be quite hair-raising, however a few minutes after we left the starting station, we rose up into the clouds and didn't see a thing!

It was freezing at the top. We rugged up and checked out the views. They were largely obscured by cloud but the wispy clouds just added atmosphere to the views.

Just beneath us, a huge jagged ridge rose up and ran up and down for a while. To our amazement we saw people climbing along this! Not only did they climb what is a hell of an impressive ridge, but how did they even get to it?

Look very closely at these pics. You might have to zoom in. This is not for those with a fear of heights!

Cold and tired but happy at 2,634 metres. The peak is called Lomnicky Stit. We called it Lickedy Split.

We saw unusual things in our travels. You'll never guess what this is. That's electric cabling around it. It's a rubbish bin location! All rubbish bins are in closed in buildings, but this is the only one we saw that was electrified. It's to keep the bears and deer out!

I love this bus shelter. They've used real trees to support the roof.

We dragged ourselves away from Tatranska Lomnica and drove a short distance to Poprad, a larger city of 50,000 people. Our apartment here was amazing! It was quite large and had fantastic views of the mountains.

The view from our window.

Poprad was an interesting place - large enough to have all the shops you'd need but only a 15 minute drive to the mountains. We found great Asian food here!

John was fascinated by the way they pour beers. You can have standard froth, half froth and half liquid beer, or all froth! This would never work at home!

My weird cold was hanging on and sleep was becoming a real issue. Then John started coughing and couldn't sleep...... Anyway, we were in the best place to be unwell. This apartment was so wonderful that we spent one entire day just lolling around. We caught up on things and watched an amazing sunset with the city and the Tatra mountains in the foreground one night.

Thanks for following along.

Heather and John

Greenland - the South

We landed in Narsarsuaq, our first town in south Greenland, and began the section of our trip where we travel around to a few different places by boat. We checked into the weird huge hotel there which looked like it was built of modular blocks (it probably was) and headed straight out for a hike.

South Greenland is very different to the rest of the country. It's more fertile and has a warmer climate, although we didn't really experience much sunshine there. We were still surprised though to find ourselves hiking through a forest! Apparently these trees have been planted, but it was nice just to see a plant more than half a metre high.

Narsarsuaq is another airport town so its not very large and doesn't have a lot of character. It was fine for a night though. There's a company here that organises accommodation and boat transport and I had booked our five day stay through them. We were picked up the next morning and ferried across the fjord in a six-seater boat. Our destination was a UNESCO heritage-listed site called Qassiarsuk where there are ruins of a Norse settlement called Brattahlid. It was supposedly founded by Erik the Red, a Viking with a bad temper (not a good combo!). We were wandering aimlessly around the ruins when a young man approached us saying he was a UNESCO guide and he offered his services. He seemed lovely so we accepted (and we trust people here a lot more than we would in some other countries). It was a good move. He was fantastic.

There was a reproduction of the first church in Greenland which was sited here. 

Another reproduction was of a Norse longhouse. It was built with turf blocks. It would look at home in Hobbiton!

The keys to the buildings were so cool!

Beds lined the sides of the longhouse. There wasn't a lot of privacy in those days. Servants got to sleep closest to the door so if they were attacked, the servants would get killed first!

There was a set of clothes that the Inuit use when they go dog sledding. These polar bear pants were incredibly heavy but apparently they're the only thing that keep a 'musher' (dog sled driver) warm enough. Polar bear skin boots were lined with musk ox fur.

The rest of the historic site was mostly in ruins. We finished up and headed to the only cafe in the tiny village for lunch. If it wasn't for the 'Open' sign we would never have even known it was operating! To our surprise it was warm and cosy inside and we bought sandwiches and a cake from two lovely ladies. Both ladies had travelled overseas in a student exchange programme when they were younger - one to Paraguay and one to Panama!

A boat picked us up again and as we headed to our next destination we saw beautiful misty scenes.

We started to see vivid blue icebergs. They were stunning!

It was a short ride to Itilleq, which is really just a small dock for the local boats. From there we walked 4km to Igaliku, our destination for the next two days. We saw the first farms we have seen in Greenland and were amazed to see fresh silage bales in front of icebergs!

Igaliku is set in a beautiful valley beside a fjord. It was misty when we arrived but the mist added its own charm.

To our amazement there were a few vegetable gardens here and even some chooks!

The grass was lush and wildflowers grew profusely.

We stayed in a cabin here which was really lovely. We've missed those Icelandic cabins!

We met a Belgian lady along the way and we ended up doing a big walk together the next day. She was really good company. It rained on and off but it wasn't too bad. With more green in the scenery it was really lovely. I love the pops of colour from the clothing and the trail markers.

We made it to the lookout point. Rain obscured part of the view though sadly. The walk was 17kms long although our friend's smart watch said we did 20 kms. Either way, we earned our dinner that night!

We were staying right beside another UNESCO heritage-listed site. This farm was supposedly run by Erik the Red's best friend. When the Vikings converted to Christianity, a cathedral was built here. The bishop had about 100 cows at a time when most people only had a few.

The doorway to one of the cow sheds.

The Inuit still seem to be in awe of the strength of the Vikings. They had to be super strong to build with stones like these.

We had a really lovely stay here. To our surprise the summer staff were mostly in their 50's. They all seemed to be Danes who fell in love with Greenland and saw a summer job as an opportunity to spend time here.

Where else can you see sheep, icebergs, fjords and mountains?

We hiked back out of the village again. It was gorgeous looking back on it.

We passed a large farm on the way. The green paddocks were dotted with silage bales.

We were picked up again and headed out for a tour of the Qooroq Icefjord. We were amazed at the number of blue icebergs here.

The closer we got to the glacier, the thicker the icebergs became. In the end we were pushing our way through the smaller ones. The thudding noises are when we hit ice!

When it became too difficult to get the boat any further, we stopped. We had the obligatory drink with glacier ice. I love knowing I'm drinking water that's thousands of years old!

This was as close to the glacier as we could get. Note how blue it is. We were told that the blue icebergs are formed when meltwater re-freezes but there's a lot of frozen meltwater in this glacier if that's the case!

The glacier is 1.5kms wide and about 70 metres of it shows above the water. Looking at the photo below, how far do you think we were from it when we stopped? I have zoomed in a bit but it's not much. Take a guess then I'll tell you the answer under the photo.

How far did you guess? One km? Two? Four? Nope - we were seven kilometres away! it would look amazing if we could get closer!

Nearby mountains reflected in the icy water.

There's that stunning blue again.

We swapped onto another boat of the same size with a young female captain and her young assistant. They were both great value. John and I were the only passengers for the 100 minute trip and we joked and laughed the whole way. They were really great.

Our destination was the town of Qaqortoq. As we approached the town an enormous iceberg came into view. It was hard to judge the size of it but the locals jokingly referred to it at Qaqortoq's new airstrip! It was quite rectangular in shape. 

With a population of about 3,000, Qaqortoq is the largest town in south Greenland. I was expecting it to be a bit ugly but it was beautiful as we approached it from the sea. Colourful houses ran up the hills surrounding the port.

A heavy fog soon settled in though and it stayed for almost a day.

We stayed in a wonderful modern hotel here and had a room overlooking the port. As the evening approached, we were surprised to see the massive iceberg moving with the currents right to the port. By the next morning it had retreated back towards the sea again,

There was a long walk around a lake near the town. Even though it was foggy, the town was still very scenic.

To our surprise, while we were walking through town we saw these girls dressed up in traditional costumes. Apparently it was the first day of school and this is celebrated in many ways including fireworks, parties and, apparently, traditional dancing!

School obviously hadn't started for this group of boys though. We saw them a few times during the day and they were fishing every time. We didn't see them catch anything but it's amazing how it's something that they loved to do - and how there was no adult in sight.

There's a small market where fishermen and hunters bring in their catches to sell. This is minke whale meat which is allowed to be hunted. There are hunting restrictions on various whale breeds but hunting and eating whale is a part of the Inuit culture.

Colourful boat and houses.

Later, the fog lifted and it turned into a beautiful afternoon.

Qaqortoq is known for more Norse ruins, however we had other plans here. When we were in Iceland, a lovely waitress told us about a Greenlandic band called Nanook. We really liked their music and couldn't believe it when we realised they were playing in Qaqortoq on one of the nights that we were there! We noticed out of our hotel window that the boat we had arrived on was now back - with the Nanook members on board! John hung out of our second-storey window and yelled a welcome to them!

The doors to the show didn't open until midnight so we went to dinner first at a Thai restaurant. It wasn't exactly in a salubrious location right at the industrial part of the port. We had trouble even locating the entrance door but but the food was good!

At about 10.45pm we wandered up to the pub where Nanook were playing. We had learned that the music venue only holds 150 people so we were worried we might not get in as we don't know how the system works. The music venue was downstairs so we had a few drinks in the upstairs pub part while we waited. It was pretty rough. Drunk but lovely locals were interested in us and would sit down with us uninvited. They were generally really nice people but they were hard to understand with the music blaring and the alcohol slurring their words. English is their third language after Greenlandic and Danish so that didn't help.

15 minutes before the doors opened downstairs we headed down to get in line. We stood there in wonder as we realised it was completely dark. It was the first proper darkness we had seen in nearly two months. Being further south and later in the year, there is now a few hours of real darkness at night.

Just as amazing was the fact that we were the only ones waiting! A well-dressed lady about our age soon joined us and we got chatting. Just before midnight a dozen or so more people turned up. They had all been drinking upstairs and were pretty boisterous. Finally the doors opened and we were the first ones in! We went to pay - and our credit card didn't work. We tried the other one. It didn't work either. Then the lady we had just met offered to pay for us all! But her card didn't work either! To cut a long story short, we paid upstairs and bought the kind lady a drink. She then returned the favour. Then a random guy that we had said nothing more than "hello" to bought us a drink each! We ended up staying together with the woman the rest of the night. Even this manicured lady, who dressed like a school principal, drank a lot. The Greenlanders sure love to drink!

Nanook.

After several beers and a shot of schnaps, John and the lady were very happy! Beer isn't my thing so I didn't drink much but we still all had a great night. Whenever someone bought me a beer, John would quickly drink some for me while the person who bought it wasn't looking!

People loved singing along to the songs. During the band's smoko break (everyone here smokes too) a Fargone Beauties-style remix of "Thunderstruck" came on and John and I boogied out butts off, much to the amusement of the locals.

Needless to say, we had a great night!

We set our alarms for as late as we could but were woken at 8.30am on Saturday morning to jack-hammering in the port. Ughh!

We walked down to the port in the rain to catch our last boat. The weather changes so much here. Our boat pulled up to take us to the airport and it was our lovely friends who had brought us here! She's the captain - she was just taking a break from driving when I took this pic.

We saw more amazing icebergs. There are four types and we saw them all in one trip:
Normal - the white ones.

Basal - the dirty ones from the bottom of the glacier that have picked up gravel and dirt.

Blue - there were so many of these here!

And finally, black ice. This has no air bubbles inside at all and is completely clear.

We picked up some men on the way and one of them was a lovely guy we had met earlier. He was an archaeologist who was working on maintenance of the various UNESCO sites. Like many Greenlanders, he was really friendly. We were starting to feel like we knew people here!

As I write this, we are back in our hotel in Narsarsuaq waiting for our flight out via Iceland. All other flights except ours have been cancelled so far today as it's rainy and misty here, but we have faith as we've heard a number of times that the Icelandic pilots are braver than the Greenlandic ones! I actually think they might just have better technology in their planes that allows them to land when they don't have full visuals of the runway. Also, the Greenlandic flights are heading to places where the weather is often worse.

I feel sad to be leaving Greenland. It's such a unique place. The scenery is simply spectacular and it's like nothing else we've ever seen. We saw whales and ice caves. We fished where the fish just jumped on the line. We hiked in beautiful places and saw spectacular mountains. We saw days of sunshine and days of wild storms. And those icebergs - oh my!

But the people were also amazing. They were friendly, welcoming and genuine. They have a very interesting traditional culture based on survival in a difficult environment. The Danish influence adds another level of complexity. 

Would I come back here again? Absolutely. John might not answer with as much certainty as me as he's a bit over the cold but I think it's worth it.

Thanks for following along. We're heading for warmer weather now so I hope you've enjoyed our cold adventures!

Heather and John

UPDATE

We're still here! The fog hung around. The plane arrived from Iceland, circled a few times, then returned to Iceland.

Bugger.

It was a full plane and most people were in groups. The groups seemed to get priority for getting rooms. By the time they got to us there were only rooms left in the hostel! We were duly taken to a very busy hostel and given bunks in a room. Oh my god - I'm too old for this! I was tired and the hostel was chockablock full. We were sharing a room with two Swiss guys who had pushed in ahead of us in the queue at one stage so it wasn't going to go well. 

I went outside and called the hotel. I was told they were full. I've heard those exact words before when someone tried to get some rooms late one night in Kulusuk and they were told the hotel was full when we knew there were plenty of spare rooms. I pushed it. We'd pay I said. We'd do anything. "Ok, come down" I was told. Woohoo! Not only did we get a room but we didn't have to pay anything extra! Sometimes things work in strange ways. 

It's just a pity to get stuck in this town as it's not very interesting here. It's also looking unlikely that we'll even get out tomorrow. In the next few days we were supposed to fly to Iceland, then Helsinki then Krakow in Poland. Who knows when we'll get there!