top of page

West Greenland - Days 18 to 22

In the morning I regretted not being able to stay in the wilderness longer. I had hiked enough, but there wasn’t much to do in Maniitsoq and I didn’t want to be a burden to people for another two days. Luckily Johannes was off from work and offered to show me the local museum. There were old Greenlandic boats and hunting tools as well as a lot of art. It’s really impressive how the Inuits have been able to survive there so long and how intricate their hunting equipment was. We also visited the local fish market and I enjoyed seeing how Greenlandic people live.

maniitsoq
maniitsoq

In the evening, after some more eating and TV, I was invited to Lene, Anne, and Peder’s place for dinner. Their apartment had the best view I have ever seen. It was nice to talk about their experiences in Greenland and the places they had hiked. It was also interesting to hear more about the country’s relationship with Denmark. We also drank Greenlandic coffee. For this you take coffee (which represents the sea) and add whipped cream (the icebergs), then you light some hard liquor on fire and pour that in from a good height. That represents the northern lights. Later I slept at Johannes place again.

966E5228-9AE7-47EE-AF03-AE33BF437FDC_1_1

The next day was the last day before my flight left. Johannes gave me some whaleskin to eat, which was actually not too bad. Apparently, it was a local delicacy. As he had to work the nightshift his parents invited me over and offered me to sleep there. They didn’t speak much English, so we spent most of the day just watching TV, which was fine as I liked getting some rest.

maniitsoq airport
flying over greenland
plane of airgreenland

The afternoon of the next day my flight left. It again was a small propeller plane. Apparently it wasn't uncommon for flights to be cancelled due to bad weather, but fortunately that didn't happen. It would have gotten really expensive and troublesome to rebook all three flights. In Nuuk I took a cab to its center, about a 20-minute drive away. The city was nice but not much different from other cities, just way more remote. To pass the time I decided to walk back to the airport and camp about 10 minutes away from it.

​

My flight to Iceland departed the next day and because of the time difference I landed near the evening. Due to the limited number of flights available, my flight back to New York wouldn’t leave until the next day. I spent the night at a nearby hostel where I took another good shower, hoping I would look normal enough to make it through customs the following day. I eventually made it home without much trouble.

​

This hike had been amazingly beautiful and I still feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to do this.

bottom of page