Hi again guys, and thank you very much for all the nice likes.
Well...the following day I unpacked my suitcases and got acquainted with the house.
It took a lot of getting used to the fact that the water pump started every time I turned on the tap, it was making such a noise that the first time I got some water, I nearly went through the roof from the shock - and then I had a laughing fit as I realised what that sudden noise in the very quiet house was.
The house water tank was refilled with freshwater from a local lake twice a week, I noticed the big water truck driving around quite often.
And the toilet was a plastic toilet with a thick sturdy black plastic bag put inside; it was emptied three times a week, on monday, wednesday and friday.
So you just had to live with the smell during the weekends.
The reasons for this was that there is no plumbing in Upernavik - the houses are built on beams who have been drilled and cast into pure rock, so you can't dig anything into the soil, because there is nowhere near enough soil for that.
So - yes it's primitive, but it works.
I was really lucky with the weather, the sun was shining and there were little to no wind, so it was nice to stay in the sunshine, while the shade was chilly - about 5 C/41 F, while Jakobshavn had been a bit warmer due to it being located farther south - the temp there was 11 C/51 F in the daytime.
That's normal summer temperatures in Greenland.
The next many days seem a bit blurry to me by now, there were so many things going on that it's hard to keep things apart. Thank God for travel diary notes.
I went for walks almost every day, and Gina had showed me the telephone book - there was a city map in it, that helped me a lot during my stay.
She had explained where the supermarket and other useful places were, and so I used the map a lot in the beginning.
And I wasn't particularly worried about getting lost. I mean: I was staying on a tiny island on the edge of the world, it
was pretty limited
how lost I could
get, even for me!
So I went to the supermarket again to pick up the stuff I had forgotten about the day before, and later I went for a walk in the nice sunshine.
The view from the kitchen window:
The kitchen - ahhh, I loved having a decent-sized kitchen for once, instead of the tiny one I have here in Skovlunde!
The living room - nice place.
I usually sat at the other end of the dining table whenever I went online or wanted to write.
The old church in the old part of town. It is now a museum.
The pile of stones and peat in front of the old church is an old-fashioned peat hut. People in Greenland used to live in huts like this.
View of the town from the little bay by the old church.
The harbour.
Sled dog snoozing in the sun.
Raven. These big black birds seemed to follow me everywhere, and I sure didn't mind.
In greenlandic lore, the raven is a wise bird that brings good luck.
Plants and rocks.
The old peat hut.
I went to the local cemetary to see if I could find my biological father's grave. I couldn't, but I met a sweet elderly couple - Jacob and Lina - that I wound up chatting with.
They were curious to find out who this strange greenlander was, that couldn't speak greenlandic.
I told them who I was and how I was connected to the town, and Jacob wanted to know who my parents were.
I told him, and then he told me that he knew my father's family.
He then offered to help me find my family, and they invited me to their place for afternoon tea and cake. In the meantime Jacob would then make a few calls to my family, and get in touch with people.
I was totally baffled and happy, and we went to their place and had tea and cake while Jacob got his cell phone out and called a few people.
After a while I said my goodbyes and thanked them both for tea and the invaluable help in finding my father's family.
The view from the cemetary.
When I got back to the house, I decided to smoke a cig on the terrace, I needed to digest everything.
Then suddenly a guy came walking up my stairs from the neighbour house and introduced himself:
"Hello! I'm Brian, I have just talked with Jacob, he told me about you. I'm your brother - and neighbour!"
And I think my jaw hit the boards on the terrace in that moment.
We laughed and talked big time, it was just so effin' great!
Brian invited me over for coffee get-together - called "kaffemik" - the day that his youngest son started in school again after the summer holiday, and we exchanged cell phone numbers. I promised I would be there, and we said our goodbyes.
So - that was my first ever meeting with my paternal brother. Whoa! Hahahah!
While we talked, Brian noticed something swimming in the bay - the terrace had a great view of the bay area, and so I went and got my camera when he had left.
Blue whale in the bay.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQbqA-VZdw
After I had seen the whale, I went inside and made dinner - there were lots to be digested and thought about, written about and all, and photos and videos had to be transfered to the comp as well...hell yeah, there were lots of things to do and think about.
Evening.