hey. i just got back to Nuuk on Tuesday from my sojourn up to Sisimiut and Ilulissat, 300km north of the polar circle. it was filled with adventure and danger and seasickness. i have about 1,000 pictures of ice and icebergs which i will have to share in about 10 days when i know i'll be getting access to some free wireless internet. it snowed all night last night and it snowed on me as i was walking to the library - the brief autumn seems to coming to a close here in Greenland.
i was going to write an exciting entry about all of my adventures in the past week, but that will have to wait, i think, as nothing puts a damper on fun like spending unfair amounts of money for basic necessities. ok, i just have to vent for a second. i just spent nearly 1,000 USD for my airfare out of Greenland and onto Iceland. this doesn't include of course me getting back to North America. i curse, curse, curse the weak US dollar. these are truly the most expensive countries in the world, make no mistake about it...everything from food to getting around costs about five times what it would cost in the US. my ticket from Reykjavik to New York will cost about a third of what it is costing me to take a domestic flight within Greenland.i feel that it is difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't spent time in places like this how frustrating it is on the wallet. also, in regards to Greenland, there are no roads connecting any towns in the country, at all.i think there is one exception in the south of Greenland. that means only flying or infrequent ferries - actually, i am in awe that people get what they do done here, considering that it is expensive for them too.
in other news, i think i may have sailed past the Pope this week, no joke. apparently there was some "interfaith rally for climate change" and he was in Ilulissat at the same time that i was praying over the glacier there so that it wouldn't melt so fast. too bad i didn't find out about this until i got back to Nuuk!!!
Yahoo News:
In Greenland, an interfaith rally for climate change
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Whoa, that's so crazy about the pope! I haven't been to Iceland or Greenland yet but I just picture them being two or three times as bad as Norway and I get the idea. When I was there I would have days where I stood in the rain hitching for hours and slept in an old shack and still managed to spend like sixty bucks just to eat and take some local buses or something. I'm sure you would kill for some Norway prices right about now though!!! I'm kind of amazed that you even managed to make it away from Nuuk at all!
cant wait to see some snaps of glaciers! maybe these leaders can create some awareness of this changing planet! P.S. have you seen any animals out there? ice bears?
when i returned to the states, my bank account had a severed wound.
heres a quote about ice i just read in a robert smithson book
"Ice is the medium most alien to organic life, a considerable accumulation of it completely disrupts the normal course of processes in the biosphere."
P.A.Shumkii, Principles of Structural Glaciology
Post a Comment