Traveling the Coast

I left Kangerlussuaq on Thursday bound for Maniitsoq on the coast. I arrived in Nuuk instead. After circling a cloud and fog embanked Maniitsoq, the pilot flew us on to Nuuk. Next flight to Maniitsoq would be on Friday, thus I found myself stranded in one of the better places to be stranded. The airline put me up in the nicest hotel in Greenland, Hotel Hans Egede, and gave me a 185 kroner (~$40) meal certificate to Hereford Beefstou, the fancy steakhouse in the restaurant. Sounds like a lot for one person, but Denmark is expensive and Greenland is really, really, expensive. I got grilled salmon (I had already had a steak when I was there in December, and I now know I am a KC steak snob), a baked potato the size of a tennis ball, a spinach sofflet the size of a reese's peanut butter cup, and a beer. Total cost of the meal without tip, 300 kroner (~$67). Even though americans are now griping about food prices, we still have it good.

Then a relaxing evening with, strangely, television. I got to watch coverage of US politics and world news for the first time in a month. Then Friday I caught my flight to Maniitsoq on a cramped Twin Otter plane. The radar surveys I participated in 2006 were on a Twin Otter. But that was with a total of six people on the plane, counting pilots. This flight has probably 18 people counting pilots. The in-flight service consists of the pilot turning around and sarcastically asking (in Danish) if anyone wants coffee. It was fun and the views were amazing as always. I'm in Maniitsoq now, staying with an American teacher teaching English here in Greenland for the U.S. State Department. Chuck has been a great contact and has put me in touch with several hunters, fisherman, and members of the community. And he is letting me use his laptop to type this up. Internet is still hard to come by though and this will likely not be posted until it is several days old.

The plans are to talk to and interview people here in Maniitsoq, then move on to Nuuk for meetings with government officials, museum folk, and residents. After that I head to the east coast to Tasilaq and a small settlement outside of Tasilaq for more of the same. I also found out yesterday that I get to participate in a National Science Foundation education trip to Summit Camp on the Greenland ice sheet from July 7th to July 11th. One of the heads of NSF's Polar Program sent me this email requesting I serve as one of the 'science experts' for this expedition. I will be hosting two American school teachers and serving as the most underqualified 'science expert' that this joint Danish-US-NSF venture has ever had. So now I need to find a way to brush up on my ice and 'scientific' knowledge while I am on this coastal expedition. I can't escape it. Hotel CReSIS, you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. But this opportunity is too amazing to avoid.