Monday, October 9, 2023

Greenland

 Greenland

and Iceland

Sept 17- Oct 4, 2023

I booked this trip over a year ago.  I never thought this day would come.

I came to Iceland a few days early just to be sure that I had plenty of time to recoup the consequences of travel errors.  And, of course, there wasn't anything close to a glitch in getting here.

I'm traveling with Quark Expeditions, the same group I took whenI went to Antarctic in 2007.

I had a private cabin which gave me so much privacy and a place to retreat but I think it also gave me a place to hide from everyone.

It was cold and windy and icy.

There are only 60,000 people who live in Greenland which is about a third the size of the USA.

There were 71 people on the tour and 79 staff members.

We had people from the USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, the UK, 

To leave the ship, we had to wear our heavy duty issued parks, our Muck boots, waterproof pants and a life jacket.  All of this gear added another 20 pounds to my already heavy frame and I felt that weight as I walked around.

We got to keep the yellow parkas they issued to us.  I think the jacket cost over $350 and that gift alone made the trip for me. This jacket is really three jackets in one and it is so damn heavy and it kept me warm.

I didn't go on most of the zodiac expeditions. I didn't feel like getting all geared up to go out in to that cold weather.

Each excursion was at least two hours and that was beyond the amount of time I wanted to be in that cold air.

The food was good.  I had dessert every damn night.  And sometimes I also had dessert at lunch.

I had to buy my beers in a 3 pack price of $20. So, every fourth day, I had to buy another beer pack.

Our lecturers were excellent.  Yvonne, the glacier ice expert talked to us for over an hour abut the physics of ice and her talk was so damn interesting.  Marla was a marine biologist and she was great fun to listen to her enthusiasm.  Ria is from Greenland and although she was not a good public speaker, she h=gave us a great insight to life in Greenland. Craig gave us the history of the people, their culture and the explorers. Hein showed is the birds.

Each night, one of the guides gave a talk about some aspect fo their lives and their stories were so interesting.

I ate with the same couple most meals and we never introduced ourselves to each other.

We saw a polar bear and a bearded seal.

The northern lights were minimal.

I went in to the hot tub on the 5th deck once.  It was nice but it was too damn cold when I got out.

I had sea sickness on the 2nd day.  One the third day, I stopped vomiting but I had an equilibrium problem with my balance on the third day.  And then I had my sea legs for the rest of the trip as we were on calmer waters.  On the return home, I had that same equilibrium problem on the last day.

We were late to getting in to port because of ice issues which slowed us down dramatically.  Fortunately, my flight home wasn't until the next day.

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