Thursday, 02-May-2024 through Tuesday, 07-May-2024
Nuuk is amazing, and I love it here.
It’s bitingly cold, to start out with, and staggeringly clear. Someone must be looking down on me with favor, because the weather my whole time here was indescribably perfect. It never got above freezing (or really even approached within 5 or 10 degrees of it), there were barely clouds to be seen, and the wind was constant… but not inhospitable.
I love the cold – I was a mess of happy grins from the moment I stepped off the plane in Iceland, and stepping onto Greenland tarmac did nothing to dissuade that elation. As with smaller airports, there was no real terminal to speak of – we simply hopped down the stairs, and then walked to the main building with the singular baggage claim. The cold air pulled all the chaos and stress from my body immediately, and by the time I was met by my AirBnB host I was ready to start right into my adventure, regardless of the lack of sleep I’d gotten on the flights.
Over the next few days I’d walk anywhere between 2 and 11 miles, taking my time to explore the city and experience as many amazing food options as I could find. My Airbnb was at one far corner of the city, but the entire city is barely over 2-miles across… so pretty much everything was within a nicely simple walk… a brisk and cold walk, that never failed to put a grin on my face.
For attractions – those will get their own blog posts, as they tend to have quite a few photos associated with them.
For food – I was able to do quite a bit of culinary exploration. As a quick summary, we’ve got (in the order that I found them):
- Centrum Grill – A small spot with burgers and hot dogs
- IGGU – Hip and Chic, has pizza and nachos and amazing vanilla milkshakes
- Cafetuaq – The first spot I found that served Greenlandic fare! Excellent breakfast / brunch cafe, very much worth a visit
- Cafe Mamaq – Simple and quick pizza slices
- Cafe Pascucci – The cool spot to have breakfast, all the exchange students I met loved it. Great breads / pastries, and a full menu that I didn’t find myself until too late
- Killut – Amazing Greenlandic fare, though it definitely wasn’t a cheap option. Very much worth it, though, and I had everything from shrimp, to snow crab, to whale skin and Reindeer stew
- Cafe Esmerelda – This place had everything. Pizza, soups, pasta, smoothies and milkshakes. It was amazing, and I’m 100% glad I visited
- Cafe Unicorn – Fancy, but down to earth, with some amazing Greenlandic food! Unfortunately they didn’t have whale steaks when I went, but I’d definitely recommend going to check out their mixed grill
Outside of food, and specific larger attractions, what adventures did I get up to?
Well, there’s a climbing gym! Totally unexpected, but I got invited by the friends I made in town, and was able to get a few quick routes in! The gym itself was interesting – everyone said “Ohh, just go to the kindergarten”, so I assumed the climbing gym was… next to it? Or something? Not so much, in fact – the kindergarten actually has a gym inside of it, and when school isn’t in session, non-children are allowed to climb! Weird.
There’s also a Library, that hosted a performance art piece about Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands! I didn’t understand much of it, since it was done in Danish, but the theme was exploring how to reconcile the three cultures in a way that limits discrimination while embracing the diversity of the unique cultures. It was presented as video, sculpture, poetry, and interpretive dance – A little more experimental than I’m usually a fan of, but it was definitely a fun experience and I’m super thankful for the opportunity!
