History, Science, and Northern Lights (part 2)
I’m happy to report that I slept well last night and woke fairly refreshed and ready for the day!
Today was very windy, which made for a good day to be inside. Thankfully, I was already planning to visit some museums.
After eating breakfast at the hotel, I set off for the Ilulissat Cultural History Museum. I spent about an hour and a half walking around the small museum, which was once the childhood home of Knud Rasmussen.
Among the topics covered at the museum were the history of the peoples of Greenland, which stretches back to around 2500 B.C., the legacy of colonialism, and present-day geopolitical tensions.
There was also a great little exhibition about kayaks that included a list of Greenlandic words related to kayaks and their equivilent in Danish and English:
Similarly, Greenlandic has many words for ice and snow, which allows them to be expressive about describing the environment around them. There are many different types of snow and ice, and Greenlanders know this intimately!
After the history museum, I went directy to the Icefiord Centre, which was opened in July of 2021 and is housed in a beautiful building that is meant to resemble a snow owl in flight.
The centre has interactive exhibits about the icefiord, snow, how glaciers are formed and how they generate icebergs, ice core science, and how Greenlanders and the animals of this region interact with the environment around Ilulissat. I ended up spending 3 hours here and could probably have stayed longer, but I had other plans!
Following the visit to the centre, I grabbed a sandwich from a grocery store for lunch and then headed to the ILLU Science and Art Hub, where the Ilulissat Science Forum is being held over the next few days.
I attended a session about local perspectives on change in the environment that included a panel discussion that featured Jørgen (my dog sled guide from Wednesday), someone who provides guided ski trips, and a climatologist from the Danish Meterological Institute. It was an interesting and informative session! I was given a pair of headphones that provided live translations from Greenlandic to English. I felt like I was in a United Nations session!
Finally, to wrap up the day, I hiked back to the spot that I went looking for the northern lights on Tuesday evening and tried my luck again. I spent about 2 hours stargazing and managed to see several shooting stars and the northern lights, although they were rather faint. I had heard they got pretty intense last night, so I was disappointed that I missed out on a more spectacular show.
Shortly after I got back to my hotel, however, I looked out the window and sure enough - there they were! The most intense northern lights show I have seen yet, right outside my hotel room! They were truly spectacular, and could be seen across a large swath of the sky. Even now, as I am writing this, I can see them outside my window! It is after midnight now, and I’m growing rather tired, so I think I’ll be falling alseep to the dancing lights.
