My latest travel started in Reykjavik Iceland in a real shitty way. And by shitty, I mean SHITTY
A shitty start
We arrived in the morning and a few hours later someone had pickpocketed our backpack and took all our money!!!🤬🤬🤬 Our backpack was locked with a carabiner clip like this. The pickpocketers managed to unclip it, unzip an inside pocket and remove our packet of cash, all as we were walking down a rather busy street in the city! We've travelled to many pickpocketing hotspots before and never had any issues, and out of all places in this world, I never imagined I'll get pickpocketed in Iceland!!
After a detour to the police station to report the theft (mandatory requirement for an insurance claim), we continued with more sightseeing which was all free. Just as well, as we had no cash now.
Isafjordur
After our shitty experience we couldn't wait to leave Reykjavik fast enough, and did so the next morning to start our cruise. We left for Isafjordur, a little town in the north of Iceland. The population at Isafjordur is roughly the same as our cruise ship, imagine having roughly 2700 people arrive doubling your town population for a day.
As expected, there wasn't much to do in town. We decided to do a 5km walk to see the Bunárfoss waterfall. It wasn't a massive one, but I got plenty of exercise from the 10km round trip.
Blissful cruise
I'm not a fan of cruises and only go when it's easier to get to places compared to by road. This cruise goes to Greenland, a place on my bucket list for a while. There are no roads in between towns in Greenland, you either have to fly or take a ferry, so a cruise is an acceptable option for me. It was a very relaxing cruise with more sea days than I would have liked. That said, I loved the hammock in the balcony, it was so relaxing and blissful, rocking gently as we cruised along.
An added bonus was seeing the northern lights at Greenland. In fact we saw it on two nights. Truly magical.
Greenland
Due to its location, Greenland has been in the news a lot this year. This was one of the reason I wanted to come before orange face takes over. I saw this flyer in Nuuk, the capital. Let's just say the Americans aren't very popular here.
Since my visit, Denmark, Greenland and America has signed an agreement to allow America to strengthen their military presence at Greenland. The agreement explicitly restricts non NATO members ie Russia and China to build a military footprint there, and most importantly it reaffirms Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland. In theory, orange face won't try to take over Greenland anymore. I hope the Greenlanders are ok with this agreement.
We went to three places at Greenland. I posted a teaser on the first place - Prince Christian Sound - a couple of weeks ago with some amazing images which you can see here.
Prince Christian Sound is a stunning waterway around 100km long and takes about 5 or 6 hours to cruise through slowly. It's flanked by glaciers, waterfalls and steep mountains on both sides. Some parts are quite narrow and in the winter it is filled with heavy ice making it dangerous to cruise. Our timing was good and it was a delightful afternoon especially when I enjoyed the scenery from my hammock. Check out my post above for more great views.
Our second stop is Qaqortoq, Greenland's fourth largest town with around 3300 people. We climbed up to the wrong hilltop by accident because I took the wrong turning. Luckily it turned out to be rather nice experience as we were a lot higher and got a magnificent view of the town. Despite its remoteness, the town has a couple of banks, and things in the supermarket wasn't as expensive as expected.
Our final stop on Greenland is its capital Nuuk, home to one third of its 57k population. This is the second time I saw the northern lights on this trip, from my room when we were docked at Nuuk.
Other than this, to be very honest, Nuuk was my least favourite stop in Greenland. I wanted to see the wilderness in Greenland, polar bears and whales, fjords and glaciers, remote communities and the arctic landscape. Of course, none of this would be available in Nuuk but I've ✅ another one off my travel lists. Now I have to start saving another arm and a leg to see Greenland properly one day.
Canada
After Greenland we sailed across to Canada, another location orange face has his eyes on.
Our first stop was St John's. It's the oldest and most easterly city in America. I learnt an interesting trivia during my visit. In 1497, an explorer called John Cabot set sail from England, crossing the Atlantic to explore new trading routes for England. He landed at a place, planted a flag and claimed it for the English crown. Cabot set sail from my hometown in England over 500 years ago and the place he claimed back then is St John's today. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence, and how imperialistic everything was, and still is. Like on this day, the people of St John's wake up and a massive cruise ship docks right in front of their town for the day.
I actually quite like St Johns and did a very nice walk along the coast which I hope I'll get round to share with you another time. In the meantime, here's Jellybean Row, a famous street in town with colourful houses.
The second stop in Canada is Halifax. Halifax is a town with rich maritime history.
Samuel Cunard was born in Halifax in 1787 and went on to operate a very successful transatlantic shipping company, popularising transalantic travel like rail travel. Today Cunard Line operates is a popular luxury cruises.
Pier 21, where we docked used to be the main entry point for immigrants to Canada. It started operations in 1928 and was in use for nearly half a century. During that time nearly one million came through Pier 21, starting their new life in Canada.
I didn't do much in Halifax, went to one other place which is also maritime related and will post separately. Then we spent the rest of the time shopping in Walmart. I love hanging around Walmart when we come to America.
End of the cruise
During my two week cruise, I visited four countries and eight places, picking up magnets at most stopa to add to my collection.
Finally, I reached my last port, New York in USA. Despite my detestation of orange face, America isn't a bad country to visit. It's been many years since I've been to New York city, and I stayed behind for a few more days doing all the touristy things. Lot more stories to share...
You can check out all my travel posts on the Worldmappin here or click below
