Kalaallit - Grønland - Greenland

KALAALLIT - GRØNLAND -GREENLAND 

Lucy isn’t cycling this year. She has hurt her knee and has to use a walking stick so she will be travelling by plane, train, boat, bus and hobbling as she tries to visit  seven Nordic capital cities. 

Flying to Greenland

Thursday 23rd May 2019

Flying over the icecap

 Greenland is an autonomous, Danish-dependent territory with limited self-government and its own Parliament. 

Flying for a few hours across the icecap which covers most of the country brought home the ruggedness, the isolation, and the size of Greenland. It is about 9 times bigger than the UK and, on a map, it completely dwarfs all the surrounding countries. But it only has a population of approximately 56,500, of whom almost 90% are Inuit and the rest are mainly Danish. The language is Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) and Danish and most people are bilingual. Kalaallit is the Greenlandic word for Greenland. Temperatures varying from area to area, but the average Summer temperature in the towns from June to August is below 10C and below freezing from November to April. In Upernavic in the north the average temperature in February is -20C. However the quality of air is excellent and humidity is very low so in the summer sun it can feel much warmer. The towns and villages are scattered along narrow strips around the coast and are not linked by road. Travel between towns is  by plane, helicopter, boat, snowmobile and dog sledges in the North. The economy is dependent on exports of fish and has financial support from the Danish Government. Everything has to be imported.  

Lucy was a bit nervous arriving in Nuuk as she wasn’t sure what to expect, but she stepped off the plane proudly wearing her Greenland flag-badge and was greeted by Jackie, the owner of our accommodation. He drove us around the city, which is very small, and pointed out the main places: museum, shops, cafes etc. Our room was in a house next door to  Jackie and his partner Maali’s house. They have very tastefully converted it into what I can only describe as a very clean, ‘posh’ hostel overlooking the fijord about 1 km from the town. I had the only bedroom on the ground floor with my own very large bathroom next door. There were four or five more rooms upstairs and I believe they shared a bathroom. There was also a shared lounge and a well-equipped kitchen.

 

The shared kitchen and my bathroom 

The lounge  and kitchen overlook the fjord and while I was there I saw whales swimming past and white-tailed sea eagles flying overhead. They are huge. 

The view from the kitchen window. 

Lucy’s First Capital  City - Nuuk

Friday 24th May 2019

Nuuk, the world’s northernmost capital is situated on the SW coast and is Greenland’s largest city with a population of 17,984 (Jan 2019) which is approximately one third of the country’s inhabitants. It is located on the edge of a large fjord system, Nuup Kangerlua or Godthaabsfjorden, against the backdrop of Sermitsiaq mountain. I spent the first day exploring and Lucy sat in the Katuaq (cultural centre) planning an itinerary for her week in Greenland. The cafe is a popular meeting place for locals. (There were very few tourists in Nuuk while we were there).

The outside of the Katuaq (cultural centre) 

This area was first inhabited as far back as 2200 BC by the pre-Inuit Paleo-Eskimo people of the Saqqaq and Dorset cultures and later by Inuits from Canada. 

Viking explorers arrived in the 10th century and lived side by side with the Inuits. The current city was founded as Godthåb (Good Hope) in 1728 by the Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede when it became a Danish colony. It officially took the name Nuuk, the Kalaallisut word for Cape, in 1979, although the name Godthåb is still used in Danish. 

The statue of Hans Egede  on a hill overlooking the Nuup Kangerlua fjord. 

I went to look at the cathedral, Annaassistta Oqaluffia,  (Cathedral of our Saviour) and spent the rest of the day in the picturesque, old colonial harbour, Kolonihaaven. 

Annaassistta Oqaluffia (Cathedral of our Saviour)

The colonial regime under Danish rule, maintained an extensive divide-and-rule policy in legal, administrative and economic matters and Greenland 

 could only trade with Denmark through the Denmark Trading Company. The  Inuits who o out numbered the Danes by the ratio of 30:1 were marginalised and Greenland remained a ‘closed country’ until 1953. Only Danish administrative staff and their families were permitted to enter the country and tourists were banned by the Ministers of Home Affairs in Copenhagen. 

One of the brightly painted Colonial Houses that line the waterfront. 

WW II brought many changes. The German occupation of Denmark, and the establishment of American military bases in  Greenland resulted in the opening-up of the country. The people were able to order goods from abroad by mail order and there was a move towards independence. In 1953 it was recognised as a Danish Province with representation in the Danish Parliament. Home Rule was established in 1979, although foreign affairs, defence, currency and the legal system were still under Danish control. Today Greenlander Inuits have regained their status and have a higher degree of autonomy. They have their own Parliament and as part of the self-rule law of 2009 they took control of law enforcement, the coast guard and legal system and Kalaallisut became the official language. The currency is still the Danish Krona. 

This is only a potted-history of Greenland and the information and statistics I have used are taken from the ‘Greenland National Museum Guide Book’. It was hard to write as I didn’t know what to leave out. I could have written a book about it. So I hope I haven’t distorted the facts in my attempt to summarise them. 

I was going to visit the National Museum and Archives, but as it was such a beautiful day I decided to leave it for another time. So I sat and looked out to sea and found a cafe where locals were enjoying the sunshine sitting outside eating ice cream and playing board games. 

 

When I returned to the Katuaq (Cultural Centre) I found Lucy drinking coffee and she told me that she had booked a water taxi for Saturday and a plane to take us North of the Arctic Circle on Sunday. 

A Day on the Fijord
Saturday 25th May 2019

The day started with brunch at the Katuaq. Weekend buffet brunches in Nordic countries are wonderful and you help yourself to an array of different food items, as much as you can eat and drink between 11 and 3. You don’t need to eat again that day. I first encountered them at the Nordic House, the Cultural Centre in Thorshavn when I cycled with Lucy to the the Faroe Islands in 2017. The cafe was packed, so I joined an elderly lady and we conversed for about an hour using a mixture of her limited English, my smattering of Danish, and gestures. 

The bread and cheese brunch selections. There were also tables of breakfast items, fish dishes, cold meats, fruit, pasta, salads, hot food, pastries and pancakes that you made yourself. 

After brunch we joined the locals who were crowded along the water’s edge at the Old Colonial Harbour making the most the wonderful sunshine. Although the air temperature was about 2 or 3C it felt very warm in the sun and many people were wearing summer clothes. 

Lucy waited patiently for the water taxi to depart. 

As soon as we got on she rushed to the front to get the best seat. The taxis have seats for 8 people and there were 4 Greenlanders on board with us. Again we conversed using Danish, a little bit of English and gestures. It is surprising how much we were able to talk about, and how quickly I am learning Danish. I am so glad I did a basic course before I left home. We travelled along the Nuup Kangerlua, the longest fjord on the Labrador coast of Greenland, passing icebergs, waterfalls and a glacier on the 75 km journey to Kapisillit. 

For longer journeys between towns Greenlanders use ferries with cabins on board. If I ever go again this is what I would do. We stopped  for an hour at  Kapisillit where the other passengers left and we were joined by three more for the return journey. 

Kapisillit has a population of 90 and can only be reached by boat or helicopter 

On the return journey we started to search for whales as they had heard that there were some humpbacks in the vicinity. 

Junis, the taxi driver, stopped the boat, opened the roof, stood on his seat and started to scan the fjord for whales. We didn’t see any, but Lucy from her front window seat reckons that she did. 

Flying North into the Arctic

Sunday 26th May 2019

Although Lucy speaks fluent Danish she didn’t understand when people spoke Greenlandic, of which there are several dialects. So she took the opportunity to learn Kalaallisut while we waited at the airport for the flight North. This is the standard dialect spoken in the West, in Nuuk and is taught in all schools. Some of the other dialects are:Tunumiisut, East Greenlandic and Inukkun, the Thule dialect spoken by about 1,0000 peopl in the North. She taught me a few words:

Alu - Hello

Baaj - Goodbye

Ajunngi? - How are you?

Ahunngikaq  - OK / Good

Qujanaq - Thank you

An interesting word is Qarasaasiaq - Computer. This translates as ‘artificial brain’.

We were the only tourists on the small Air Greenland plane flying 560 km North to Ilulissat, a small town which is 350 km North of the Arctic Circle. When we arrived we checked into Nuka Hostel. This was another ‘posh’ hostel and we had a single room, with a small en-suite shower room and a little kitchen. 

We also had a tv and when I came out of the shower I found Lucy watching a very old episode of ‘Midsommer Murders’ with Danish subtitles. Weird to think that this was in such a remote, isolated part of the world. The WiFi connection was also excellent, and never buffered while I was using it. Far better than in lots of parts of the UK. 

Afternoon and evening in Ilulissat 

I spent the afternoon exploring Ilulissat, got a map and some food to take back to the room and visited the art gallery.  Ilulissat is the Kalaalluist word for iceberg and it is the third largest city in Greenland with a population of less than 5,000. All the towns are called cities.and it took me about 45 minutes to stroll around it. The main road through the centre is just wide enough for two cars to pass and the pavements are dirt  tracks. My shoes and the bottoms of my trousers got very dusty because the weather was so dry. I am not sure what it would be like in the rain or snow, although there are raised boards in some places to keep your feet dry. There is a wider road on the outskirts of the town connecting it to the harbour and airport. Everything has to be brought in  by boat or plane. Like all towns and settlements in Greenland the roads end at the edge of the inhabited area. There are no roads connecting them. 

This is the main street that runs through the town.

 The houses are on either side of the roads and rise steeply up the hillsides and overlook each other. They have to be like this as the land rises steeply from the sea.

This shows how the houses are built on the rocky hillsides. The supports are usually covered in. 

The view from my bedroom window. 

Mittarfimmut Aqqutaa - Kunstgaleri - Art Gallery

It took me a while to find the art gallery because there are no signs on the buildings. There is no need as eeryone knows where they are located. Luckily I had pictures of the main buildings on my map. Also something that I noticed in Nuuk, there are no signposts as you can’t drive out of the cities, so there is nowhere to be directed to. 

 This was the entrance to the art gallery. It felt like stepping into someone’s house. 

The permanent collection on the ground floor is mainly devoted to the paintings of Emanuel A. Petersen (1894 - 1948). A Danish artist who spent many years travelling around Greenland painting the landscape and the Inuit culture. He is known in Danish as Grønlandsmaleren (Greenland’s Artist). The upper floor houses exhibitions by contemporary Greenland artists or themes based on Inuit culture. I had a long chat to the curator who was in the process of mounting a new exhibition that opens next week.







Three paintings by Petersen

The Sun was shining when I left the gallery so I walked down to look at the icebergs floating on Disko Bay in the colonial part of Ilulissat. 

From a distance it looks as if there are waves rolling in from far out at sea,  but they are large pieces of ice that have  broken away from the ice fjord and joined together to form walls of ice. 

The Lutheran Church of Zion overlooking the bay was built in 1778 and at the time it was the largest building in Greenland. 

The hospital is on a cliff top also overlooking the bay and is known as the hospital with the best view in the world.  

The Sermermiut Glacier and the Midnight Sun

Monday 27th May 2019

The lady at the hostel gave Lucy two vouchers for breakfast at Hvide Flak, a hotel in an old colonial building overlooking the bay, so this was a perfect start to the day. My plan was to do an 8 km ‘hike’ that was marked on my map along the edge of Ilulissat kangia, the icefjord. 

On my way to the icefjord I found the Knud Rasmussen museum. Rasmussen, who was born in Ilulissat, was an Arctic explorer and the museum, situated in his house, a tells the story of his explorations, and the history of the area. The first settlement, Sermermiut, is on the edge of the icefjord about 2.5 km from Ilulissat. It has been used by Saqqaq, Early Dorset and Thule cultures from as early 600 - 200 BCE when Greenland was much warmer and could support farming. The Inuit population was moved from Sermermiut to Jakobshavn (Ilulissat) by the Danes in 1850. Jakobshavn was founded as a Danish trading post by Jakob Severin in 1742 and named after him. It later took the name Ilulissat. 

There was also an exhibition of photographs of people living in the Arctic between 1940 and 1961

Dog sledging

Ilulissat is the summer home to thousands of dogs that pull the sledges in winter and they can be found tied up on every scrap of land outside of the town. It is said that they outnumber the inhabitants. When I reached the edge of the town, it was about 1 km to the start of the trails along the Icefjord. There were hundred of dogs tied up on either side of the track and several puppies playing on it. 

One of hundreds of dogs I passed in the way to Ilulissat kangia. 

Lucy jumped straight into my pocket as she thought they might eat her. The closest she got to a dog was at the museum. 

One of the exhibits in the museum

Ilulissat Kangia

Once I reached the fjord there was a choice of trails, so I chose the shortest 8km and easiest one. After about a mile or so I arrived at the site of the old Sermermiut settlement, where I sat and imagined what it would be like to live there, on the edge of the fjord, over 2,000 years ago. 

The site of the settlement. There have been several archaeological  digs in the area and it is well documented in the Knud Rasmussen Museum 

From there the trail led along the edge of the fjord and Lucy and I ate lunch, sat on rocks, looking at the icebergs that have broken away from the glacier. 

After lunch the easy path became a lot harder and I had to scramble up over rocks to a higher level. 

I had to climb up here following blue marks painted on the rocks. 

I had only seen about 6 other people all day and even Lucy got worried at the foolhardiness of a 70-year old woman who uses a walking stick clambering up the rocks.  I took it very slowly and the stick was a great help so I easily kept my balance.  I also knew that a ranger was out on the trail. Once I made it to the top the rest of the my route  was easy and it didn’t take me too long to get back to the town. 

Sermeq Kujalleq - Jakobshavn Isbræ - Ilulissat Glacier 

The glacier is 65 kms long and is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. It moves an average of 45 metres a day and drains 6.5% of Greenland’s ice sheet and produces 19% of its ice bergs, some up to 1km high. The front of the glacier has moved several times, forwards and backwards, over the last 10,000 years.  And this seems to be changing again according to an article in  ‘Nature Geoscience’, March 2019. It reports that Sermeq Kujalleq has begun to flow more slowly and is thickening again. It is flowing  towards the ocean instead of retreating further inland. Research shows that since 2016 the ocean current taking water to the area has become much colder, and the water temperatures in the vicinity are now colder than they have been since the mid-1980s 

Walking in the Midnight  Sun

Local weather forecast at Midnight

I was lucky that the weather forecast was good for my last night in Ilulissat so I was able to walk around the town enjoying the Midnight sun. A very weird and beautiful experience. 

Just after midnight walking around by the church. 

About  one in the morning and the sun was already much higher in the sky. It never set so it never got dark

Back to Nuuk

Tuesday 28th May 2019

Lucy’s last Morning in Ilulissat 

Again she had breakfast in Hvide Flak overlooking Disko Bay and this time the sun was shining. When we are travelling she likes to climb into my pocket. She says this is better than her cycle pannier as she can get out more easily. 

But she had a shock when she peeped out of my pocket and saw the carpet at Hvide Flak. So far she had only seen polished wooden or tiled floors since she left home. 

After breakfast she had a last look at the bay and drank  her first, and last,  glass of a very expensive Greenland beer (110 DK, about £12.50) in Café Illuliaq. All the ingredients are imported but it is brewed with Greenlandic water. Earlier she had arranged for the lady from the hostel to give her a free ride to the airport in her pick-up and we arrived with plenty of time to check in. How would I get by without her?

The flight back to Nuuk

As I have said before everything has to be imported and the plane returned via Kangerlussaq, the International airport. It stopped there for about an hour while they loaded supplies for Nuuk. This detour meant that we flew a lot more over the ice field and there was a great view, although Lucy slept through most of it as she was tired from her night walking in the Midnight Sun, 

Maybe it was the beer that made her sleepy. 

We arrived back at our room in Nuuk about 10.00 pm and discovered that the house was being  painted.  Jackie told me that they have to paint their houses every three years. 

There were also six Greenlanders staying that night. They had been visiting Nuuk and their flight home was cancelled because of fog. It seems that this is a frequent occurrence and they were quite resigned to spending another night in Nuuk, courteous of Air Greenland. So we were lucky with our planes to and from Ilulissat.  

Lucy’s Last Full Day in Greenland

Wednesday 29th May 2019

The other guests at the house left early, although two of them returned later as their flight had been cancelled yet again. So I had the kitchen to myself and lingered over coffee. It was a grey and misty day and when I ventured out I found that it was also very cold so I needed my thermals and gloves. Many of  the locals were wearing padded suits, especially the children, like a sleeping bag with arms and legs. Lucy stayed firmly in my pocket and didn’t venture out until the sun broke through. 

It was grey, cold and misty, so I am glad I did the water-taxi trip in sunshine 

A visit to the Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu

I went to Katuaq for lunch and then wandered down to the Kolonihaaven to visit the Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu, the National Museum and Archives. Several people told me that I must go there, and they were right. It is well displayed and very informative about the history, life and culture of Kalaallit. 





Lucy loved the room devoted to clothing and how it has changed. And, as you may have guessed, she wanted an outfit to add to her collection. But she decided that the only one that they had in her size was too ‘girly’.

The Qilakitsormiut Mummies 

But the highlight for both of us were the Qilakitsormiut Mummies. Four of the six mummified women and two boys found in a burial chamber at Qilakitsoq north of Disko Bay. The cause of death is unknown, but they are believed to have died at the same time and are most likely to be from the same family interred c.1475. They were wrapped in extra skins and clothing and equipped with personal belongings to keep them safe on a long journey. The older women have facial tattoos, which, were common amongst Inuits to show kinship ties and social status. 

Woman with facial tattoos, Painter unknown, 1654

Tupilak and ancient customs and beliefs

Another interesting room was about Inuit beliefs, customs and religion and I have given a short definition of some of the principle concepts, again taken from the National Museum Guide Book. 

Sila and silap Aappaa

The world was divided into two parts: Sila, the visible world and the invisible world, Silap Aappaa and the two world’s were interconnected. 

Inua 

The belief that everything in nature was animated by inua, a thing’s owners. This underlies the belief that all things, people and animals have an inherent owner or soul. 

Drum, song and dancing

These were used for everything from entertainment to resolving conflict. 

Amulets

These were worn to acquire strength and protect the wearer from evil spirits and forces.

Tupilak

Tupilak is a figure with magical powers often carved from whale bone to bring death or misfortune to an enemy. During carving a spirit was blown into the tupilak, drawing power from the genitals of its creator. But it could backfire if the person targeted had a stronger inua than the creator. There are lots of references to Tupilak around Nuuk and several modern sculptures inspired by it. 

A sculpture in Nuuk based on Tupilak 

Inatsisartut -The Greenlandic Parliament

There are 31 members of the Inatsisartut which meets in Nuuk, and Greenland  has two representatives in the Folketingimut, the Danish Parliament. There was a Gereral Election in Denmark on the 5th June, so while I was in Greenland there were election posters in the towns for the different political parties.

One of the election posters in Ilulissat 

There was a 72% turnout in Greenland and both of the elected representatives were from Separatist Parties, the Siumit and the Inuit Ataqatigiit Parties, which campaign for an Independent Greenland. The MPs role is to represent Greenlandic Matters in Denmark and to advocate for the Denmark Government to create Ministry for Arctic Affairs. 

Last few Hours in Greenland

Thursday 30th May 2019

I spent the last evening, Wednesday, in the lounge at Jackie’s chatting to a couple from Rio and a Greenlander while we were watching whales on the fjord. 

 From the lounge window, the whales are out there if you look closely enough

In the morning Maali ordered a taxi to take us to the airport, so I sat and reflected on the experiences of the last week. It has been truly amazing. Lucy sat on the balcony for the last time and was rewarded when a sea eagle flew overhead. 

The taxi arrived on time and I had to drag a very reluctant Lucy away from her perch. 

Our Icelandic Connect plane to Reykjavík departed on time, but the pilot of the internal Air Greenland flight came into the waiting area and gathered all his passengers together to explain why he couldn’t take off. I have never seen that happen before. The passengers went off to the departure desk, there is only one, and they sorted out accommodation for them. No wonder Air Greenland flights are so expensive. 

Flying back across the icecap

The weather during the flight was fantastic so we were able to see the icecap clearly as we flew across Kalaallit and said our good byes to this fascinating country. I feel privileged to have been able to visit it and to have been made to feel so welcome.  

Next stop Reykjavik and Iceland to continue Lucy’s Nordic Capital Cities Adventure.