Sitting on the dock af the bay – or something like that

Writing this I'm enjoying a much needed cup of coffee on Cafemma – the only cafe in Uummannaq (not counting the restaurant in Hotel Uummannaq), located by the harbour with a beautiful view of the town center. The sun is shining and I couldn't ask for more.

Now I've been here for almost a week and I'm beginning to get the hang of how things work around here and where everything is – with emphasis on beginning, for there is a looong way a head.

I've been put in one of the hotel rooms with my own bathroom and tv. The tv just has 2 channels, KNR-tv (the Greenlandic network in cooperation with DR) and a radio channel, so it's turned off most of the time :-)

Instead of sitting in front of the tv I've been out exploring Uummannaq and I've been busy figuring out how to do my trips with the guest; since Uummannaq is a new destination for Arctic Adventure (my employer) there are no manuals on how to do the different trips. This means that I get the full say so on how I want to do it! Excellent – but hard.

Some info about the town of Uummannaq:

The town is located on the south part of the island. And sitting where I am right now, I have a view of Ikesarak and Store Øen towards east, the bottom of Ummannaq Fjord towards south east and the snow-covered mountains of the Nussuaq Peninsula in the south. It's breathtaking.

There are several supermarkets here and they are all surprisingly well-stocked.

The town is so beautiful with small houses in all kinds of colors placed around on the hills – I guess that's how it's done in Greenland.

All over the town you can see a lot historical buildings, e.g. the old hospital, the old storages for food, and even old huts build from stone and turf. One of the was still used up until the 1980's.

And of course you always have a view of icebergs and of the famous mountain on the island, Uummannaq-fjeldet (Uummannaq means heart-shaped. Can you see why?).

The Uummannaq mountain in the background

Very typical view. Looking towards the Nussuaq Peninsula

For those of you who doesn't know, I'm doing work for both Arctic Adventure (AA) and Hotel Uummannaq. When I have guests here through AA I'll be completely committed to them, but at other times I'll be doing both guide- and reception-work for the hotel. For example, today I was helping out at the local lunch room, taking orders and payment.

This might need some explanation:
Hotel Uummannaq is the only proper restaurant in town, but the prices in the hotel restaurant are too high for the locals here. Therefore we serve the same lunch for the local people in another room for a lower price.
Everyday we have 25-50 people in for lunch

My co-workers in the hotel deserves a mentioning. There are Louise and Britta mainly working in the reception and then we have the cleaning-/cooking-/serving-crew. Before I came here I figured that I would have Greenlandic co-workers, but no.

Apparently Arne travels a lot in the east, where he has a lot of connections. Because of that the mainpart of my co-workers are Philipino and Thai. Weird.

But they are lot of fun, and they have been so welcoming from day 1. They've really made the first days a lot easier for me.

Now. I've finished my coffee and I have to prepare for friday, when I get my first two guests! Again, I have no idea what to expect, but it'll be good!

Schüss!