Disko Island

So I am blogging much more than I imagined, but we have free internet here and I thought I'd give you all some new pictures. We took the ferry from Ilulissat over to an island right off the coast called Disko Island this morning. The ice was beautiful, again. And the amazing thing is that they look different every time. The water was calm and new sea ice was starting to form on the surface of the ice. It's amazing that it already seems like winter is beginning here. And it makes me kind of excited. We came into the town and walked to the research base in Disko Island, which is amazing. I want to live here. We each have our own little bunk and it has a beautiful kitchen and a wooden

spiral staircase. This afternoon we went on a hike around the pennisula around this awesome basalt cliffs with crazy rock that looks like all these bricks. The rock goes like that because it is a special kind of volcanic rock that is magnetic. They make caves everywhere and are really fun to climb around on. We spent a few hours playing on the rocks, and when we got back several of us decided we should jump in the ocean. Which I thought would hurt alot, but actually felt very refreshing. I can't wait to spend a

few days here. We will be here for 2 days before we head back to Ilulissat to catch the ferry to Nuuk. I'll update again if anything interesting happens, which I'm sure it will since it just seems like each day is better than the last here!

Greenland: the Coolest Place on Earth

Hi everyone. The saying is lame, I know, but it really is true! We flew from Copenhagen to Greenland on 8/15. First was a 5 hour flight to Kangerlussuaq (Kang-gar-loo-sack), then a 45 minute hop to Illulisat where we would spend the night. As soon as we landed in Kangerlussauq it was like being back in Alaska or northern Canada. The same wind-swept, barren tundra, brown tuft littered with exposed granite. By the time we got to Illulisat (ill-lool-eh-sat) and to the hostel we were staying in, it was late. KJ, another girl on the trip (I’ll give a better cast of characters later), and I walked to the grocery store to buy some provisions. Most of the others in the group went out to one of the towns 4 or 5 restaurants. The town is very small, but the 3rd largest in Greenland at 5,000 people. The airport is a 3km drive away and the town is clustered around a small harbor. All the boats in the harbor are swarmed around the small docks, sometimes 2 or 3 rows deep so everyone can tie up. Nearly everyone in Illulisat has a boat. The other thing nearly everyone in Illulisat has is dogs. It is common practice in Illulisat to yield to dog sleds in the winter because once they are close to home, the dogs won’t stop. The town is very cute, all the houses are bright primary colors, which we imagine is to keep spirits up in the dark winter months. The hostel we are staying in is pretty nice, it has showers and a kitchen and everything. But we did not stay long, the next day we caught a boat at 7am to a camp a few hours north of Illulisat near Eqi Glacier. Along the way we stopped to see a Humpback whale and watch the Glacier calve (have new icebergs fall off). Watching the ice was amazing. Before it calved it would give this deep rumbling sound then loud cracking as it finally gave way. Then it would crash into the water, sending huge 10m waves decending on the boat. I was struck by the massive scale of everything. The face of the glacier we were looking at was 100m tall and that was a smaller one. Many of the ice bergs we saw along the way were the size of a cruise ship or larger. When we arrived at the camp we pulled up to “dock” by dropping a car tire off the bow of the boat and lining the boat up so the bow and tire pressed onto the outcropping of rock, where a metal bridge was held in place while the ship captain gunned the engine to keep us in place. But we made it off and hiked with our two guides about 7km to the place where we would be staying near the inland ice. Our guides worked for a tour company owned cooperatively by the Greenlandic government tourism department and a Danish tourism company. They were both Danish students and very nice and knowledgable. The camp we had landed at originally was the first camp of a French explorer named Paul Emil Victor who had come to the area in the 1950’s to survey and study the ice. The camp we hiked to and stayed at was near his third camp. Amazingly, many off his things, the wood he used to build his cabin, the caterpillar machines he used to drive around his equipment, etc, were still around and in pretty good condition because it is so cold and dry. After the hike our guides prepared whale stew for us, which was amazing. It tasted just like beef stew, but the meat was tougher and a little more flavorful. I liked it though. We set up our tents and went to sleep at 10:30 as the sun was dropping behind the mountains, although it was still very bright. It was very cold and windy, because the wind blows off the ice in the night, but I slept well in the cold air. The next day after breakfast (it was so much like luxury camping, being served all our meals) we hiked to the edge of another glacier about a kilometer from our camp. We talked a lot about the features of the glacier and surrounding landscape and how they had come to be that way. We stopped for lunch near a beautiful waterfall draining water from the inland ice. After lunch, of bread and various canned fish products, we hiked up the near-by mountain onto the inland ice. It was amazing, ice as far as the eye could see, but all bumpy and crevassed. Everything I saw reminded me of Alaska and the glaciers I had seen there, but going out onto the ice was a whole new experience.

Hello From Denmark!

Hi everyone! So we made it to Denmark, and Copenhagen is amazing. The buildings are so colorful and I love all the bikes! Everyone bikes here, which is so nice. You see them riding around with their little baskets. We saw this huge group of people in the park both days and apparently young kids all just ride to the park and hang out and drink beer. We tried a danish hot dog and nachos here which were very good. And very yummy bakeries. We went to the Greenlandic Studies Department of the University of Denmark and the Arctic Geological Center here and had lectures from people at each place, which made me very excited to go. It should be so interesting to see all the research up close. Other than that we have just wandered around. Everything has been very fun expect for somehow (I don't really know how), I lost my wallet at dinner tonight. We all went as a group and when I got back to the hostel it was gone. I have no idea, but it sucks. Thankfully I still have my passport and I cancelled my cards and I'll figure everything else out when I get back. But, we are leaving for Greenland tomorrow and I can't wait! I'll try to blog sometime in Greenland as well. Love you all.