Nuuk at last

G’day from Greenland!

Well, it feels like I have been traveling for two days—which I guess is correct. I left Medford at 6am Tuesday, January 19 and arrived in Kangerlussuaq at 11am (Greenland time, 6am Medford time)) on Thursday, January 21 (exactly 48 hours)! Crikey—makes travel to my hometown of Perth, Western Australia look easy—usually only takes about 30 hours J Unfortunately, my flight to Nuuk from Kangerlussuaq was delayed a couple of hours due to “technical difficulties” but finally arrived around 1:30pm.

After the initial shock of having to leave Medford at 6am instead of 11am, everything has gone very well. The flight from SFO to Frankfurt (10 hours) was pleasant as I was able to sleep for 7 hours (thanks to my friend Ambien). Frankfurt to Copenhagen was a short one hour flight and amazingly my bag arrived at the same time as me. I was lucky to be staying in the Copenhagen Airport Hilton located directly across the street from baggage claim.

Wednesday’s challenge was to stay awake after a 2pm arrival. I accomplished this by spending some time with my friend “ellipse trainer,” a call home, and a drawn out meal at the hotel’s overpriced buffet. But by 9pm it was lights out until 6am Thursday in order to navigate Copenhagen’s airport and amazing duty free shops. You name it, they have it.

I was met at the airport by Aviaja Egede, my contact at Innerisavik and the person responsible for getting me to Greenland to take over from Frank. Aviaja has scheduled meetings at the university for Friday, and then a “cultural tour” of Nuuk on Saturday.

My home for the next four nights is the Hotel Hans Egede—it’s not the Copenhagen Hilton, but it will be fine—although I’m not sure how I will survive without a workout room. I guess one exercises in Nuuk by shuffling around on the snow and ice J.

I’ve added a couple of photos to today’s posting taken on the way in to Nuuk. Really is spectacular.

More tomorrow after I meet with folks at the university.

Cheers

Geoff