the sort-of unfortunate way to greenland

she took a long, hard look at my passport and my schengen visa, and said "come this way please" - motioning me to step aside - while the rest of the passengers continued to board. 

this air greenland staff was suddenly in charge of my fate and for the next 20-30 minutes my heart was racing and i was simmered in all sorts of emotion. i was angry at myself (was i really so stupid not to check that i needed a different visa other than schengen?) and at her (was she just power-tripping?). i felt defeated (after i spent all this money for flights and the hiking trip, i won't be able to go?) and shameful (what the hell am i gonna tell all my friends and family?!).

after what seemed an eternity to me, she finally got off the phone after talking to someone in greenlandic, and gave me a thumbs up. i was almost in tears, and a very loud OHHHH THANK GAAAAHHHD came out of my mouth and instinctively, gave her a very firm handshake. suck it, you god of misfortune, i'm going to freaking greenland.

****

it was not long after this that i realized the god of misfortune was not done with me just yet. sandwiched between two large caucasian men, both reeking of alcohol, i felt uncomfortable. both immediately claimed the elbow rest, which meant elbows sticking out to my torso from both sides. the guy at the aisle seat (let's call him creeper) started getting too comfortable and his legs were spread out a bit wider than necessary too. it was in these rare moments that i wish to be a smelly ogre so that no one can out-obnoxious me, but all i could do to express my disapproval was to cross my legs and pretend to accidentally hit his shin with my raised foot, so he'd re-consider opening his legs so widely. unless he had balls the size of baseball, i really don't see how slouching like that was necessary nor comfortable.

things got uglier when creeper stretched out and grabbed my knee, pretending it was a mistake and half-heartedly apologized. and then, the final straw came when he pat my thigh, and spoke to me in danish, as if that was the best way to strike a conversation with a stranger. i promptly put my foot down by saying "don't.f*ckin.touch.me!" and gave him what could probably be the most venomous look an enraged asian woman could muster. i doubt that he got scared, but at least he got the message. 

***

things lit up a little bit when i arrived in kangerlussuaq and took the flight to illulissat. it was there that i met up with daniel - soon to be dubbed daddy d - and we took the exit row seats at front and i had a view from the window of the great whiteness that is ironally named greenland. 

not the best weather that day, for the "not the best" travel day of my life

this is in fact the airport

when we landed he received a message from his son jonas that we were to meet at hotel arctic and then head to the yacht together after that - but perhaps either i was just stupid or jet lagged - i somehow managed to convince daniel to go to the harbour instead and drop off our bags before going to the hotel. in hindsight it totally did not make sense, but daniel did not argue with me, perhaps i've got  'i've had a reallyyy bad day' written all over my face, and once we realized the mistake, luckily, a taxi was at the harbour and at an extra 100krona deficit later, we were at the hotel. 

i was thankful that we didn't have to move too quickly because i was too tired, and meant to take a nap, though instead i found myself talking to a friend for a good hour about the recent misfortunes and it helped me relax a little bit. when sofie finally came to collect us, i met peter (who was gonna be my roommate for the trip) and olivier and we took zodiac (inflatable dinghy) from the dock to the yacht. bags loaded, we zipped through the water towards the moonlight II of london, and i was dying to just get onboard. as jan maneuvered, my small day backpack went flying into the water! miraculously the bag floated, as it took a few minutes for us to retrieve it. "was there anything expensive inside?" jan asked, and i replied "no." although, come to think of it, the olympus pen camera of floris is priceless, and i would've been super bummed if it was broken. for some reason though, i was not upset at all, and as i looked at the red wine that was still intact on the side pocket of the wet bag, i lightened up. "well, that wine is chilled now!", i yelled. olivier laughed and said "that's the spirit!"

and with that, i knew that things can only get better.