24 Hours in Greenland | The Perfect Layover in the Capital

24 Hours in Greenland | The Perfect Layover in the Capital

It is mid August and I’m in sunny Nuke, Greenland. This is one perfect day in Greenland. After seeing it from my window across many transatlantic [music] flights, I’m finally realizing my dream of visiting this mystical country. With United’s historic new route, I’m able to fly a monster one-way journey from LA across the Atlantic to Greenland and onward to Europe. And then my final destination, Toad, I’ll have an amazing 24-hour [music] layover to explore Nuke, the capital to sightsee, learn, and taste the culture of this place. and you’re coming with me on my first ever recorded [music] travel video. I’m Yang Me. I solo travel to 127 countries, all while working a full-time office job by maximizing my vacations and points. And now I’m finally on YouTube to take you along for the journey. Welcome to the adventure. >> Today we are in Nuke, the capital of [music] Greenland, an entire country of only 56,000 people with 20,000 in the capital. This is Greenland in maps that we’ve learned. But this is actually the size of Greenland, but it’s still a massive country. Long gone are the Inuit Hunter gatherer days. The vast majority of people are actually in permanent settlements, mostly in the western coast of the country. Check out my other flight experience video how I flew United Newark [music] to Nuke. Exiting the airport, the large bus shuttle to the city was waiting for our flight. It was €13, but I waited in a taxi line instead, but there weren’t many taxis. [music] There’s a city bus that’s cheap, but timing isn’t ideal. So, I finally got a taxi and it [music] was a 10-minute 3 km meter trip for around $21 to my guest house in the city center. Welcome to Greenland. Nothing’s very budget here. I take [music] my first glimpse of Greenland. It feels oddly familiar yet slightly different than the Fau Islands I visited 2 years ago. The terrain and the weather [music] are strikingly similar, as well as the Danish infrastructure. In case you didn’t know, Greenland, [music] as well as Fau Islands, is a territory of Denmark. Now, Hotel Centro [music] in the heart of the center was clutch. Hotel prices here are around $200 a night, and I found this gem. [music] It’s small, basic, and has a shared bathroom, but it’s cozy. And there were Filipino migrant workers who lived there full-time, which was fascinating. [music] And check this out. Unlimited glacial water. I was super tired from my trip, so I actually just slept hard. So, I got up bright and early, more like gloomy and early, but the rain sounds were lovely. So, I hope you enjoy the ASMR. It’s morning, but still the peace and quiet is striking. I see Greenlanders and also foreigners out and about walking in the rain to work, leaving the homeless zombie war zone of downtown LA. The noises, the stress, the tension were all gone. Nuke is a very small city, so everything is walkable and you can see the whole city in one day. Next to this quaint little church is the statue of Hans Egade. I will climb up there just out of pure curiosity. There’s another viewpoint listed on Google Maps, but this turned out to be the best view and not sure why it’s not highlighted as a viewpoint landmark on Google. There were other tourists here who walked down the treacherous wet and rocky cliffs, but Daddy Hans has the best view in town. So, definitely mark this place on your map. Now, who is this man? Hzade was a Norwegian missionary who arrived here in 1721 and established Gautab, now known as Nuke, as a trading settlement with Denmark, as well as evangelizing throughout the country. The majority of the population is Christian now, but before that, they practiced a traditional animistic religion centered on shamanism, believing in spirits and nature and animals. At 7:00 a.m. here, at 7:00 p.m. here, it’s 12:00 p.m. You just don’t know because it’s summertime and the sun sets at 10:30 here. Rain, snow, sun, you’ll get it all even in prime mid August summer. So, yesterday was bright and beautiful and I wake up today and it’s Greenland weather. I come back down and walk towards the coast where I see this legend who will be on my flight onward to Europe later. >> What? Apparently, this is a popular cold plunge spot with tourists, even though there are literally glacial ice still floating in the waters. Next, I walk along the pier and I find there’s an extensive network of water taxis here for locals and tourists to see the city as well as to transport to other settlements along with glacier, whale watching, and even northern lights tours. But none of the offices or stores here were open at the time. And I’m not messing with getting splashed with glacial water along with the icy wind. So instead, I watched a group of locals head off somewhere, maybe to work or home. I don’t know. And I would just imagine back in the day when they set off on canoes and paddle for days when they would come back and with what kind of hunting prize. And here’s just a piece of glacier ice floating in the water. And now we get to the boardwalk which offers amazing nature views. It’s around 300 m, so it takes 10 minutes to walk, but you’ll definitely enjoy the views here and take your time, including seeing a seagull sardine feeding frenzy. You have planes out and about, water taxis. There’s just so much going on. Definitely set some time to walk here. I took a nice little stroll and start thinking about things, including the local language. Kali or Greenlandic, a unique Inuit language, has been spoken here by the indigenous people for over a thousand years, evolving from the tool culture. [clears throat] The language continued even during centuries of Danish colonialism. But in 1953, Greenland became a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland was forced to dify. Luckily, a strong movement for the language came in 2009 where Kalishu was declared the country’s sole official language. Today, the statistics are impressive for an indigenous language. Approximately 85 to 90% of Greenland’s total population speaks Greenlandic, which makes sense as the rest would be Danes and other foreigners. In Nuke, the capital, lots of people are bilingual with babies even learning English these days. And in the country, 70% only speak Kalichu, which makes me so nerdy and happy. This is an amazing linguistic success story and I hope other colonial areas can learn from Greenland. It may be cold for me, but for that dog, he is built different. So, he’s probably even sweating right now. After finishing the boardwalk, I headed back to the city center and I came across the projects. Now, this is totally different from Fura Islands, which had nice houses everywhere. No projects to be seen. There were signs of people living here. Let me know in the comments if you know if this is a rough part of town or if they are moving people out of here. On the way to the city, I see a Danish funded Greenland school. And here I get to the city center, which was surprising. I had no idea what to expect before coming here, but to see it this built up was pretty interesting. Obligatory. I head into the market to see what the prices are. And yep, you guessed it. Everything is shipped over from Europe. It is very expensive. And this is when you know we made it big. We’re worshiping blue duck all the way to Greenland. >> A great success. >> And we have the puffin which is also famous in the fur islands. Now this was a cultural trip. Centuries of Danish colonialism and intermaring. Lots of the people I see in the city are actually partially white where this guy I think is just fullon native blood. Thousands of miles away from the motherland. I am two tans away from looking like bro. What do you think? And here we have Greenland’s latest summer collection. I checked out another bigger supermarket here. There’s local uncle. There were some Filipino workers here for their English skills. They also have some Spanish mixed blood and it made it really hard to tell them apart from the locals. Here we have the Hans Egiday Hotel with a great brunch spot view of the city. How to spot a tourist. Over in the distance, you see the mountains covered in cloud and mist. Everything just looked so mystical. There is a public bus line here. And this is a sign to park your huskys. Love the raven design here. Much better looking than the other projects. And this was funny. This guy was definitely telling Trump, “Hands off of Greenland.” And now the highlight of the city, the Greenland National Museum. The Furough Islands Museum in a much more developed city was honestly pretty bare. And this one, I just love how the museum preserves the culture, tries to tell it to foreigners like me. And in the beginning exhibition, there was a poster that had very negative connotations of colonialism. So hats off to them for keeping it real. The history of Greenland started with the first Asians to cross the ice bridge into North America going all the way down into South America and one heading all the way east to Greenland. Those are the Sak and Dorset cultures thousands of years ago and later followed by the arrival of the Tul people around 1000 AD who are the ancestors of the modern Greenlanders called Gali. Then Norse Vikings settled briefly in the south around the same time. That’s the story of Eric the Red, who called this place green because in the southwestern areas where he first discovered, it was surprisingly lush at that time. But historians also believe it was just a marketing term to get people to move there to join his cause. But the settlements didn’t last long and they disappeared by the 15th century. And this is a recipe book to show how many animals it takes to make one adult outfit. This is a wood carved map. From Africa to Bora Bora, from Alaska all the way to Greenland, the seafaring people really had some amazing knowledge. And yes, not only canoes, but dog sleds were the main ride here. And I’m honestly fascinated about how Asian people look here. Like that guy in the back can be my uncle. And one thing I like to do in places like Hawaii, Kazakhstan, and New Zealand was to see what the real locals look like before centuries of colonial intermarriage. Like that mask is scary how much it looks like me. The one most fascinating, mind-blowing, culturally interesting part of Greenland is exactly this. There are places that is the east and west of the world. The Middle East, Central Asia is where east meets west. But have you seen where west meets east? It is literally Greenland. You have the Asian looking people all the way in West Siberia traveling the lengths of up to three Siberia to get here to Greenland. And the furthest west the early Vikings went was Greenland. So you literally had east meets west here. This is why Greenland was so high on my list as an anthropology nerd. Back outside with my mind blown. I wasn’t feeling the modern art museum. So, I came here to the Katua Cultural Center. You’d think a Danish city would have public Wi-Fi, but no. This place was the only place that I can find Wi-Fi, but you had to pay for it, and they give you the Wi-Fi password as well as a bathroom password. The pictures and reviews made it seem like they had a lot to offer, but it was literally just a few artwork and that was it. The main reason why I stayed is traditional local whale. They had a fusion platter. The whale, it tastes like burnt cardboard. It It was a really interesting cultural experience to taste what the locals lived off of for thousands of years. What an amazing 24 hours. [music] Honestly, any longer than this, I’d be bored to death. But 24 hours [music] was super impactful. So, I pack my bags, get my taxi, 10 minutes back to the airport, and think it’s going to be a smooth ride onward to Europe. But [music] next time, you’re going to find out what a disaster this airport is. [music] [music] Thanks for watching. I’m just starting to record my adventures on YouTube, so subscribe and stay tuned for lots more.

I spend one perfect day in Greenland with a 24 hour layover.

You know about the Silk Road where East meets West. But this is where West meets East. From East India and Western Siberia, “Asians” stretch far to the East pas Alaska all the way to Greenland on the doorsteps of Europe.

I do a wonderful day walking tour of the city of only 20,000, in a country of total 56,000. I talk about the language, the history, and the cuisine of the country.

In this video:
✈️ First impressions of Nuuk & arriving at the airport
🏨 Accommodation costs & a look at a budget-friendly guesthouse
🌊 The boardwalk, colonial harbor, learning Greenland history at the national museum
🐳 Trying traditional whale meat at the Katuaq Cultural Center

⏩
Next up: Disaster at Nuuk Airport: SAS A320 GOH-CPH Airport/Flight Experience

—–
00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Welcome to Greenland
01:08 – Airport Transfer & Hotel Prices
02:30 – Best View in the City
03:50 – The Colonial Harbor & Local Life
04:47 – Boardwalk Views & Nature
05:15 – The Success of the Greenlandic Language
06:40 – City Center Tour & Grocery Prices
08:23 – Greenland National Museum
11:05 – Katuaq Cultural Center & Tasting Whale Meat
11:45 – Final Thoughts on 24 Hours in Nuuk
—–

국악힙합 BGM 출처 : 성북구청

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