My October 2019: Tasiilaq and a boat trip to Tiniteqilaaq

October has been an eventful month. I settled into life in Tasiilaq, fell in love with a very small puppy and had two visitors from Nuuk, with whom I went on a wonderful adventure to an icefjord and a small village!

The break in at the museum

The month didn’t start out that great though. The museum director was out of town, so I went to work alone on October 1st. I was expecting a quiet day at the museum office, but it became the opposite as the museum got broken into the night before. I saw some artifacts laying about on the outside and got suspicious, and then I saw that a window was broken. I didn’t open the door as I was scared they would still be in there, so I just called the police. They came straight away and opened the door to a terrible scene. The majority of the showcases were smashed, and several artifacts had been ruined. There was shattered glass, some with blood stains, all over the floor, and the office had been torn apart. It was a horrifying sight. I can’t believe anyone would break into anywhere, let alone a museum with irreplaceable artifacts.

Ever since the break in, I’ve been in a different office at the youth cultural center, which has been great (the positive side to this story!). I’ve met more people here and I’m closer to all the action. Economically, the break-in has affected me badly, as I was supposed to keep the museum open for tourists while the museum director was out of town, so I lost out on quite a bit of money. It did push me to look for another job though, which I got – on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. My brother is living there at the moment, and secured me a job for all of January and February. So despite the negatives, there were a few positive outcomes of this break-in.

My new friend Ayla

I spent a lot of time exploring Tasiilaq and its surroundings in October, and one day during a hike, my heart melted. Two cute puppies came running over a hill, and moments later, an even tinier puppy popped up. I was in love, head over heels. I named the little one Ayla (after the Cro Magnon girl in the Clan of the Cave Bear, a Stone Age book series and movie!) and decided to visit her everyday from that day, despite her being a little hike away. Unfortunately, one of her siblings went missing the next day and still hasn’t returned, but I’ve gotten to know Ayla, her brother Qimo and her mother Ananaiva quite well during the past month – as well as their owner Daniel, who just happens to be my office mate.

I often sit with Ayla until I get too cold, and it’s wonderful to see how comfortable she has become around me. She has started following me everywhere, jumping up my legs and falling asleep in my arms. I wish I could adopt her. I plan on continuing to visit them everyday until the day I leave – which will be a very sad day indeed!

Let it snow

On the evening of Friday the 11th, it finally snowed for the first time! Oh how I’d been longing for it! It changed the landscape completely and made me excited to redo all the hikes in the area! It was a lot of fun to see children playing in the snow, and to watch Ayla experience her first snow.

Climbing the Pyramid

October was a mountain-climbing month. I conquered the last of the three mountains on Saturday the 19th, “the Pyramid”, which is located deep in the Flower Valley. It took over an hour just to get to the foot of the mountain and another two to climb it.

Out of the three, this was by far the most difficult one to climb, mainly due to a very narrow and steep summit. Much of the snow had melted, but it was icy, and thus made it even more difficult. Had I waited any longer, I probably wouldn’t have been able to climb the mountain.

Snow’s back!

The night of Sunday the 20th the snow finally returned, and it snowed soooo much! This time it was here to stay!

It couldn’t have come at a better time, as I was really starting to notice how quickly the daylight hours were getting shorter. The snow lights everything up and makes the dark nights more bearable.

Visitors from Nuuk

The last week of October was amazing. My friends Augusta and Eleanor, who are both from the States but currently live in Nuuk, came to visit me!! We’d been talking about it ever since I was in Nuuk in early September, so I was thrilled when they booked their tickets!

I took the week off and planned to work a few weekends in November instead, so we could hang out! We went on some beautiful adventures together – sailing through the Sermilik Icefjord to the village of Tiniteqilaaq and climbing Mt. Qaqqartivakajik, which I’d also climbed before the snow had fallen in September. We also hiked through the Flower Valley, hiked on the promontory Tasiilap Nuua to the ocean, visited several of my favourite viewpoints, cuddled Ayla and all the other cute puppies, explored the town, went shopping and just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. It couldn’t have been a better end to the month.

Destinations visited in October 2019

• Tasiilaq and Tiniteqilaaq, Greenland

Highlights

• Meeting and hanging out with Ayla, my puppy love!
• When it finally snowed! I especially loved revisiting the Flower Valley in the snow!
• The wonderful trip to Tiniteqilaaq. It was a dream of mine ever since I came to Tasiilaq, both to see the Sermilik Ice Fjord and to visit a village. And it was the perfect day – perfect weather and perfect company.
• Hiking and hanging out with Augusta and Eleanor – it was so much fun to show them my favourite places and introduce them to all of my puppy friends!

Challenges

• The break-in at the museum. Not the best start to the month! But on the flip side, it did bring me to the youth cultural center, where I met more people, so there was some positive to all of the negative. But it doesn’t take away the pain of seeing all of those destroyed artifacts.

Most popular post

• My September 2019: Goodbye Nuuk, hello Tasiilaq – What I got up to last month when I travelled from Greenland’s capital to small-town Tasiilaq

The other posts

• High above Tasiilaq: Climbing Qaqqartivakajik on a rainy day – About my first mountain climb in East Greenland
• Trustrup Høje: An afternoon walk by Horsens Fjord – A wonderful walk in an area close to my hometown
• Into the Greenlandic wilderness: A four-day trek to Kapisillit – The hardest physical challenge of my life summed up!
• Mingling with the rich and famous in Monaco – My thoughts on one of the world’s richest countries
• Among lakes and waterfalls: A sunny day in the Flower Valley – my first of many hikes in the beautiful Flower Valley
• Late summer in Nuuk: Revisiting the city of my heart – Two weeks back in my dream city, and a little announcement about my future there!
• Views that go on forever: Climbing Aammangaaq in Tasiilaq – The most beautiful mountain climb in Tasiilaq!

Most popular Instagram picture

My new tattoo about unity of religions got lots of love!

Vis dette opslag på Instagram

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. <3 #unity #unityindiversity #amessagefortheworld #lovewins #tattoo #tattoogirls #ink #bahai #bahaiquotes #islam #christianity #judaism #sikhism #daoism #hinduism #buddhism #shintoism #jainism #confucianism #caodaism #tenrikyo #lsdchurch #zoroastrianism #jehovaswitnesses #babism #unitarianuniversalism #folkreligions #asatru #atheism #worldreligions

Et opslag delt af Melissa Cherry Villumsen (@melissavillumsen) den 4. Okt, 2019 kl. 6.32 PDT

Coming up in November 2019

November is my last month in Tasiilaq. It started with the last day with Augusta and Eleanor, and after saying goodbye to them, I’ve gotten back to work. I’ll be spending most of the month working on my internship, and my free time will be spent visiting the puppies and going for hikes in the few daylight hours.

I’ll be leaving Tasiilaq on the 27th and heading to Keflavík, Iceland, for the night, and then finally be home in Denmark on the 28th. I can’t wait to see my family and cat again! I won’t be home for long though, as I’m going to Kiel in Germany for a weekend with my family on the 30th!