Cruise overview - 8 places , 4 countries and 1 shitty start
My latest travel started in Reykjavik Iceland in a real shitty way. And by shitty, I mean SHITTY
A shitty start
We arrived in the morning and a few hours later someone had pickpocketed our backpack and took all our money!!!🤬🤬🤬 Our backpack was locked with a carabiner clip like this. The pickpocketers managed to unclip it, unzip an inside pocket and remove our packet of cash, all as we were walking down a rather busy street in the city! We've travelled to many pickpocketing hotspots before and never had any issues, and out of all places in this world, I never imagined I'll get pickpocketed in Iceland!!
After a detour to the police station to report the theft (mandatory requirement for an insurance claim), we continued with more sightseeing which was all free. Just as well, as we had no cash now.
Isafjordur
After our shitty experience we couldn't wait to leave Reykjavik fast enough, and did so the next morning to start our cruise. We left for Isafjordur, a little town in the north of Iceland. The population at Isafjordur is roughly the same as our cruise ship, imagine having roughly 2700 people arrive doubling your town population for a day.
As expected, there wasn't much to do in town. We decided to do a 5km walk to see the Bunárfoss waterfall. It wasn't a massive one, but I got plenty of exercise from the 10km round trip.
Blissful cruise
I'm not a fan of cruises and only go when it's easier to get to places compared to by road. This cruise goes to Greenland, a place on my bucket list for a while. There are no roads in between towns in Greenland, you either have to fly or take a ferry, so a cruise is an acceptable option for me. It was a very relaxing cruise with more sea days than I would have liked. That said, I loved the hammock in the balcony, it was so relaxing and blissful, rocking gently as we cruised along.
An added bonus was seeing the northern lights at Greenland. In fact we saw it on two nights. Truly magical.
Greenland
Due to its location, Greenland has been in the news a lot this year. This was one of the reason I wanted to come before orange face takes over. I saw this flyer in Nuuk, the capital. Let's just say the Americans aren't very popular here.
Since my visit, Denmark, Greenland and America has signed an agreement to allow America to strengthen their military presence at Greenland. The agreement explicitly restricts non NATO members ie Russia and China to build a military footprint there, and most importantly it reaffirms Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland. In theory, orange face won't try to take over Greenland anymore. I hope the Greenlanders are ok with this agreement.
We went to three places at Greenland. I posted a teaser on the first place - Prince Christian Sound - a couple of weeks ago with some amazing images which you can see here.
Prince Christian Sound is a stunning waterway around 100km long and takes about 5 or 6 hours to cruise through slowly. It's flanked by glaciers, waterfalls and steep mountains on both sides. Some parts are quite narrow and in the winter it is filled with heavy ice making it dangerous to cruise. Our timing was good and it was a delightful afternoon especially when I enjoyed the scenery from my hammock. Check out my post above for more great views.
Our second stop is Qaqortoq, Greenland's fourth largest town with around 3300 people. We climbed up to the wrong hilltop by accident because I took the wrong turning. Luckily it turned out to be rather nice experience as we were a lot higher and got a magnificent view of the town. Despite its remoteness, the town has a couple of banks, and things in the supermarket wasn't as expensive as expected.
Our final stop on Greenland is its capital Nuuk, home to one third of its 57k population. This is the second time I saw the northern lights on this trip, from my room when we were docked at Nuuk.
Other than this, to be very honest, Nuuk was my least favourite stop in Greenland. I wanted to see the wilderness in Greenland, polar bears and whales, fjords and glaciers, remote communities and the arctic landscape. Of course, none of this would be available in Nuuk but I've ✅ another one off my travel lists. Now I have to start saving another arm and a leg to see Greenland properly one day.
Canada
After Greenland we sailed across to Canada, another location orange face has his eyes on.
Our first stop was St John's. It's the oldest and most easterly city in America. I learnt an interesting trivia during my visit. In 1497, an explorer called John Cabot set sail from England, crossing the Atlantic to explore new trading routes for England. He landed at a place, planted a flag and claimed it for the English crown. Cabot set sail from my hometown in England over 500 years ago and the place he claimed back then is St John's today. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence, and how imperialistic everything was, and still is. Like on this day, the people of St John's wake up and a massive cruise ship docks right in front of their town for the day.
I actually quite like St Johns and did a very nice walk along the coast which I hope I'll get round to share with you another time. In the meantime, here's Jellybean Row, a famous street in town with colourful houses.
The second stop in Canada is Halifax. Halifax is a town with rich maritime history.
Samuel Cunard was born in Halifax in 1787 and went on to operate a very successful transatlantic shipping company, popularising transalantic travel like rail travel. Today Cunard Line operates is a popular luxury cruises.
Pier 21, where we docked used to be the main entry point for immigrants to Canada. It started operations in 1928 and was in use for nearly half a century. During that time nearly one million came through Pier 21, starting their new life in Canada.
I didn't do much in Halifax, went to one other place which is also maritime related and will post separately. Then we spent the rest of the time shopping in Walmart. I love hanging around Walmart when we come to America.
End of the cruise
During my two week cruise, I visited four countries and eight places, picking up magnets at most stopa to add to my collection.
Finally, I reached my last port, New York in USA. Despite my detestation of orange face, America isn't a bad country to visit. It's been many years since I've been to New York city, and I stayed behind for a few more days doing all the touristy things. Lot more stories to share...
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Oh such a lovely place! I love the glimpse of Aurora Borealis! 🥰
I've seen northern lights a few times, they're always so magical
I would love to experience this! I want to see this in person and for sure my heart will be so happy!
That’s two of us this week, we were burgled last week. Sorry to hear about your experiences and very surprising of Iceland.
Glad you got to see the Northern lights and more than once, that’s cheeky! Lol
I predict Orange face will be dead pretty soon, either naturally or someone with better targeting skills and planning abilities gets to him.
Trouble is, there’s plenty of other loons who’d quickly take his place and then they’ll declare war on their own country.
I’ve seen some great YouTube videos on Nuuk and understand it’s a difficult place to get to. Landing there can be precarious at certain times of the year because the airport gets snowed in!
Omg! So sorry to hear about your burglary. I hope no one was in when it happened, I'd hate to witness it. Hopefully you'll be able to recover your losses through insurance.
I just don't understand how orange face can last so long, and twice! We spoke to quite a few Americans on the cruise and no one had a good word to say about him, though someone did mention that on some cruises you get MAGAs who deliberately go round annoying people just because they can 🙄
Will we be seeing you in London next month?
Yes I’ll in London on the 17th, do you know the timings?
MAGA people are just common idiots (homo-idiopens) and a different species, they didn’t develop properly at birth and believe deeply in other fools, especially dangerous ones.
Most Americans would rather it wasn’t like this and hopefully the nonsense will end sometime!
Two more years!
If we're feeling it so bad here, just think how bad it's for normal folks across the pond
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What a dreadful shame being robbed in Reykjavik. I,always thought of it as such a safe and inert city.
I love the picture of the cruise ship moored at the end of the road. It immediately reminded me of this iconic photo of Liverpool and this huge tanker being built in the 70s.
I hope the thieving little scum get their comeuppance and everything wlse in your world is happy and healthy 😊
Yeah, Iceland out of all places! I read online it's getting worse now because of the Romanian gypsies 😬, luckily they had the decency to not take my passport.
I was surprised to see how close we were docked to town when I stepped off the ship, literally just across the road. Pretty amazing.
Apart from the shitty start and a few too many sea days which ended up a little boring, overall it was nice going to all these new places.
Hope you're doing well yourself!
That is a shitty start. We had an attempt to get in a backpack in Venice, but I spotted them in time and they got nothing.
I've still not seen the aurora properly even though I've been to the Arctic Circle. Greenland is a nice one to clock up. I heard that they just confirmed an existing agreement so the orange idiot didn't really gain anything. Some think he's just seen how massive it looks on most maps that distort things. I'll be glad when he's gone, but the US is likely to suffer the consequences of him for a long time.
That's unfortunate not seeing the northern lights when you went to the arctic circle. I wasn't expecting it on this trip, it was definitely a very nice surprise especially I could see it with naked eyes and to take a photo with me in it, it just shows how strong it was.
Orange face still has a couple of years left, I'm sure he's going to kick up more drama and rename all buildings after him before he goes. Childish 😏
We were skiing in Finland, so it was a good trip anyway.
I said when he got elected again that I wondered if he would last the full term. I don't wish death on anyone, but he's not that healthy and someone may take over. There's just nobody else with his cult following though.
Prince Christian Sound looks incredible and the northern light are so vivid.
I've actually never been to Nova Scotia or the east coast of Canada myself.
Looks like an amazing trip overall!
It's surprising how we often travel all over the world but don't visit places in our own country. I do that as well, so many places in England that I haven't been yet.
Overall it was a nice trip. Apart from Reykjavik which I have little desire to return 😤 I've never been to all the other places before, always good to add more pins to my map
Yes,so very true!
I love adding pins to my map. I really need to start adding some again. I have no trio planned thiugh, unfortunately.
Is that a Virgin Atlantic cruise?
I scrolled down after continuing reading and got it confirmed. Having never have been on a cruise, that hammock is iconic enough that even I knew what it was 😂
I've never been in a hammock before. Boy, it's so comfortable, especially when we were cruising along Prince Christian Sound. Virgin definitely knows how to do things right.
If you're interested, I see some of Virgin cruises are around $100ish per night which isn't too bad considering it includes all the food and a holiday😄
Maybe in the future I'll take a cruise. Finding enough time off is rough.
Looks like a fun trip(even after the pick pocketing sadly)! Seeing the northern lights is something I've always wanted to do so I might be recreating parts of this trip in the future!
Wow! You really made some amazing memories along the way!♥️
That's why I had to write a summary post first in case I forget everything soon!
That’s a good idea! With so many places and adventures, you definitely need to write it down before the memories start mixing.😃
Fucking Hell Miss P that was a bummer, but I guess it didn't spoil the adventure too much, looks a fantastic voyage, and like you I hate the stuffiness and claustrophobia of mingling with strangers on a boat, a mix usually of stuffed shirts and chavs. Give me half a dozen like minded travellers and Im happy.
Keep the good stuff coming please. Hope you got your insurance claim sorted
Well, the one good thing about cruises is that you can ignore fellow passengers, whereas you can't really do that on small group tours, but yeah, travelling with like minded people makes all that difference.
Sure does, and yes in small groups I have been stuck with both anal types and well open and great folk. cruising is good for never ending food though!!
The food!!! Yeah, that's definitely the best part
yum yum LOL
Sorry to hear that you got robbed. It can put a damper on your trip.
The orange menace has managed to get what the USA already had from Greenland. Great deal maker lol.
Orange face is like a stupid little kid, he picks games to play, and when he gets bored or don't get what he wants he moves onto the next one
I wonder about the 80 million that voted for this cretin. Baffling.
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That was a shitty start but ended beautiful, that's why i never used clips and i used small lock for the zips especially on travel....
All the places you visited are amazing and that trump signboard lol 😆 i can't say something
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What a horrible thing to have happen, especially right at the very start. 😠 How does one even do anything in a foreign country with no cash...??? 😯 It looks like things picked up from there, though, and you managed to have some fun and relaxation. I am glad of that! And I am glad they didn't take SnowPea! 💗
Actually I don't usually use cash, most places are cashless nowadays, well, apart from Canada who doesn't accept cards on buses. That was a little annoying.
It's been quite an adventure for Snowpea, agest had a great time!
Sorry to hear about your experience in Reykjavik. I know some people who were there for the solar eclipse.
In my experience as well, there are a lot of good Americans.
I heard Iceland and Greenland was a prime location to see the solar eclipse. We didn't do too bad either, did we?
Oh my goodness, what a trip! A shame about the stolen cash - guess it can happen anywhere.
Let's hope OF dies. His reign can't last forever though he is certainly fucking things whilst he is here.
Awesome you got to see the lights. Some people spend a lot to see them and miss out.
I was definitely very lucky with the northern lights, can't complain there
As to orange face, the world still has to put up with him for two more years 🙄
Never knew Reykjavik have petty theft!
Also you still carry cash? I have forgotten when is the last time I carried cash...if I need it I borrow $10 from my daughter, or from an ATM if I am travelling alone. But can't really remember when I used the cash last time, seriously.
Love the "Fuck Trump/Vance" sign!!
I would have left and flower, or donate money to whoever created that! Please do tell them, if you meet there there are Americans who support that work of art and feels the same sentiment here in America! We are truly ashamed of out leadership or lack thereof.
I read online it's Romanian gypsies, dunno if that's true. I had cash leftover from my Antarctica trip last year, figured it was a good opportunity to use it, otherwise I don't carry a lot of cash either.
I really feel for you guys, I mean most leaders are crap, but not that many cause much chaos around the world
Oh, sorry to hear you got pickpocketed! It's crazy that they went through all the clips and successfully robbed you... 😞 Without noticing... Those are hardcore pros... :(
On the other hand, good to see that you enjoyed the rest of your vacation, as you did some spectacular photos! 🥂
In a way, I'm glad the shit happened at the beginning of the trip so I can forget about it very soon, otherwise it would be a crappy end to a holiday
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I would like to travel to Iceland and Greenland
I hope everyone gets to travel, no matter it's near or far, it's very rewarding
Okay, this was definitely one crazy adventure! Of course, I’m sorry that this shit happened right at the beginning, but now you can say for sure that you experienced an unforgettable trip!
Overall it was a nice trip, Greenland wasn't quite what I expected, but that's because I didn't go up north enough, can't complain though 😉
So sorry about that Shitty situation. I haven't been a victim of pickpocketing but I have witnessed it on a tube in London before thankfully A couple of people noticed and spoke up before holding the pickpocket against the wall. after reading this it makes me want to further put defences in place of my belongings.
Despite that rocky start I am so glad to hear you had a great time. I have never done a cruise but it looks very cool especially exploring icelands and those areas. Camada sounds amazing. Love the soviners you picked up from your trip.
We totally didn't expect it to happen in Iceland out of all places, that's what's so annoying. Lesson learnt to never let our guard down again, and to wear our bags in front in future.
The cruise was good in that we got to go to so many places, albeit just scratching the surface for a few hours, but I'd really like to go back to Greenland and explore the more remote areas in future.
Ah, that really sucks about getting robbed. I am sorry that happened to you. Unfortunately since it was cash they probably never tracked the people down. It's crazy they were able to get through your defenses like that. My mom and dad took a bus trip to Nova Scotia a long time ago from Michigan. They really loved the area.
I reckon they never catch any of these pickpockets. When we went to the police station to report it, it was all automated, we entered the info ourselves into the system and they just print and stamped a copy of the report for us. Another data point for them 😞
That sounds like a long bus ride! How long did it take and did your parents do stopovers on the way?
I think it was a week long trip. They did several stops on their way out there and then on the way back as well. It was a long time ago, but I remember they had a pretty good time. As I said, they loved the area.
I'm so sorry the trip began on a bad note! It's so frightening they pickpockets were able to get into the backpack despite your measures to prevent it. I wore a cross body bag for my last trip to D.C. and liked it because I could easily flip it over to the front of my body while riding public transit. I think I'll go that route from now on. Your pictures are stunning, especially the one of the northern lights!
We're definitely carrying our stuff in the front now. I always do with my handbag, but my husband had a backpack for all our other bits and pieces. We just bought a new front carrying anti theft, anti slash anti RFID bag last night. Not taking anymore chances again!
It blows my mind this happened in Iceland but I suppose no place is totally safe anymore. I'm glad you got a bag with more security. My wife has an anti-slash purse with zipper locks that she uses for travel and loves it.
My goodness... of course, in a situation like that—having a pickpocket steal your money—the trip goes sour. I don't know anything about travel matters, but I've seen that the best thing to do is carry your money on your person. There are pouches for wearing it under your clothes, or you can keep it at the bottom of your luggage.
I think you enjoyed the trip anyway and came away with some great memories. I’ve seen the photos, and they’re wonderful. Traveling is such a treat! It’s my lifelong dream!
Lesson learnt, hopefully it won't cost us too much if we can claim it back from insurance. Still waiting to hear from them.
Overall, it's been a nice trip, going to see some new places, can't complain 😁
🔥🍀🤗