Good evening Singapore. This is the fourth episode of Sleepless in Singapore. Today is February the 11th and I am Julian and I'm still talking to you from Africa this week. Again it is time to let the day come to an end and enjoy the evening in some quiet and tranquility. Make yourself comfortable. I'm going to talk about my recent trip to Greenland for the next hour or so. After that, I'm going to read from Tom Sawyer, first in English, then in German. Time to relax, breathe deeply, and let my voice be your guide to a restful night.

I think it was two years ago now that I bought a new camera. And with that camera, there came free workshops. You know, like how to use the camera, how to take better pictures, stuff like that. And I didn't have much to do, and I thought I definitely need to learn a thing or two regarding photography. So I joined these workshops. And while the first workshop, I think, was in a small conference room at the store. The second one was actually outside. I think it was in Punggol in Singapore all the way up north. And we took some pictures of the sea and the sunset. And it was quite nice. And on that workshop I made friends with the organizers, Han and Germaine, and turns out they are great guys and they have great pictures. I will link their Instagram profiles in the comments. And I kept a bit in touch with them and I was following their social feeds and they always had these super nice pictures of Greenland. Icy, rocky, mountainous, glaciers, glowing skies, nice little colorful houses. I always enjoyed that and one day when we were talking casually, I almost jokingly asked if I can join next time. And the answer was, oh, yeah, you can and you should. We are actually organizing something. And if you want, you can be part of it.

So I signed up. I've never been to Greenland. I've never been to the area. The closest I've ever came was Iceland a couple years back and I already liked that. So I thought, let's go to Greenland. Let's go to the Arctic. First time in my life. and that was last year in summer. So summers are still cold in Greenland, but I guess they are not that cold, and the whole time I decided to just wear some layers and bring my skiing jacket, and it will be fine. But then we had this very lively WhatsApp group. There were like eight people or so all joining for that trip. And there were a lot of questions. I mean, obviously, everyone, including me, been in Singapore for a long time. We're used to hot weather. No idea how Greenland is going to feel, especially I had no idea how Greenland is going to feel when I am outside with a camera in my hand for hours. and I got a little nervous in the last minute, like literally two days before departure. I thought like, wow, what if my skiing jacket and a couple layers is not good enough? So I went out, and I got a complete new set of a big jacket and pants, like insulated pants.

I went to a place called Camper's Corner in Singapore. Nothing that much to say about it. It was the first and only place I found with a big selection of winter jackets. But people were nice, prices were were regular I would say I got to try on everything I picked a nice brown jacket couldn't find shoes in my size like proper waterproof hiking shoes boots so I ordered some boots to Germany and picked them up on the way to Iceland. Yeah, and then two days later I took a Singapore Airlines direct flight from Changi Airport to Charles de Gaulle in Paris, where I met Christian and Melina for a couple days, and the kids. I guess that's a story for another day. And then I took the train from Paris to Germany to meet my family, which is also a story for another day.

And then a couple days later, finally, I flew from Germany to Reykjavik in Iceland where we met. I took air Iceland or Iceland air and was alright, was comfortable enough. Flight was a bit delayed, but that was probably due to weather. Yeah, it wasn't too bad. And then for the first night in Reykjavik. Actually, gotta be precise here, it's not Reykjavik. I also didn't fly into Reykjavik. The airport is in Keflavik, which is maybe an hour or so from Reykjavik. And we also stayed at Keflavik. I stayed at Keflavik microsuite, which is some kind of Airbnb-style accommodation. It was very nice. It was small, but it worked. The bed was comfortable. I got a shower. By the way, if you've never been to Iceland, Iceland is very volcanic. And if you take a shower, it smells like rotten eggs. The water coming out together with the air, I guess, is naturally hot. I think Iceland is one of the very few countries in the world that has more heat and more energy that they can use themselves. So the hot water, natural hot water is coming out. But if you don't expect it and you get showered with something that smells like rotten eggs, interesting experience. Doesn't matter much, after a couple of minutes you get used to it and it's a good feeling to shower in naturally warm water, why not?

So anyway, these Keflavik microsuits were alright. And then finally I got to meet my old friends Hann and Germaine and we walked over to a place called Hamburger Bula Tomasa which I suspect means Thomas's Hamburgers but I'm not 100% sure. And there we had a bunch of burgers, we had soft drinks, it was very American and I also met part of the crew for the next few days. And it was a short but nice evening. And after that everyone was tired, we just went back to our place and went to bed. went to bed. And then the next morning, unfortunately, we heard that our flight was cancelled. Flight was cancelled because it was windy, and by windy I mean it was really, really windy. I could literally lean into the wind in a 45 degree angle without falling down. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny little bit, but I could lean into the wind without falling. And yeah, unfortunately that meant it was too windy for airplanes to take off. And our flight was cancelled. And of course the microsuites were fully booked, so we had to change hotels. And I ended up staying at the Radisson something something in Reykjavik. Which turned out to be okay too. I think it wasn't as nice as the Keflavik Hotel, where some of the others stayed, and also where we had, I think, both lunch and dinner that day. Because other than that, there wasn't so much to do, because it was really rainy, really windy. What are you going to do except for stay in your hotel room and work a bit and just wait for your flight to happen?

for your flight to happen. The dinner in particular at Keflavik Hotel, I think it was called the Kef restaurant, was absolutely excellent by the way. I think we had the whole time on Iceland and also Greenland. It wasn't fine dining, it was like a regular restaurant, but they still made it look nice. I had grilled lamb. It was arranged with something that looked a little like sauce bearnese and some greens, some veggies. Yeah, I remember now. The hotel was called Park Inn. And I do remember because I very kindly asked them if they could keep my luggage for the couple of days in Greenland. And I even tipped the lady, I don't know, $50 or something for taking care of it. And she agreed and she took it and she put it in the room. And then the next day, five minutes before we left for the airport, the taxi was already waiting. She said, Oh, sir, but you cannot leave it here while you are not here. And obviously that threw me off a little. Because where am I going to go with my luggage now five minutes before leaving to the airport? So there was a short discussion. And then I kind of decided to just leave it there, hoping they wouldn't throw it out. The reason for me leaving it there in the first place was because I was on a longer trip, right? I went to Paris before, I went to Germany before, I had a stint in London after. So I had a lot of luggage and a lot of luggage I didn't need for the couple of days in Greenland. And also for the flight to Greenland we only had one piece of luggage. I think mostly because there was a helicopter flight coming up. So I had too much luggage to bring. I didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for additional luggage on the helicopter. I thought it would not be a problem to leave luggage at a hotel at the luggage room for a couple of days. But the park inn in Keflavik tried to make it a problem. I decided to risk it and leave it there. And I can already tell you beforehand, I got it back. So all good. But for whatever reason, they were absolutely not happy about it.

Anyway, so that day, we finally made it from Keflavik Airport to Greenland. from Keflavik Airport to Greenland. In Greenland we were flying into Kulusuk. And it was a bit of a bumpy flight. Not the most comfortable. They also had some mystery sandwiches. But in general it was nice, it was good. We survived. Wasn't too bumpy. And finally we were in Greenland. First time in my life in Greenland. I was very excited.

And then in Greenland at Kulusug Airport, which by the way might be the second or third smallest airport I've ever landed with a proper plane. Smaller ones I've only seen somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. in the Pacific Ocean. When we finally landed there, and when we were waiting for our helicopter to bring us to our final destination, we again learned that the helicopter was cancelled due to the bad weather. So now we had to spend a day in Kulusuk, and in Kulusuk there is not much to do. Like it's a small settlement, but it's not a real place. It's just like a little airport. Few people living there and that's pretty much it. Doesn't matter, we made the best out of it. pretty much it. Doesn't matter, we made the best out of it. There was a little hotel which I believe was only there for people who missed their flights or who cannot fly because of weather. But nevertheless it was a nice hotel. It was very rustic, very minimal but good enough to sleep. And nice decorations. The guy had two or three polar bear... Polar bear... How do you call that? Polar bear skins? Polar bear fur? Basically like the polar bear skin and fur, including the whole head. Which made for a nice look, it felt nice and it made for nice pictures. It also was the only polar bear we got to see the whole time in Greenland but that was to be expected.

That evening was also the first night we went out for taking pictures and even though it's not a big settlement there are are a few houses. And you have to know in Greenland, the houses always have bright colors. They are bright red, bright yellow, bright orange, bright blue. And apparently back in the time, that was to distinguish the houses. Because you know, everything is white white you don't have any big points of orientation and the houses kind of all look the same so you gave him different colors to know who was living in which house or what was the function of what house I took a couple of nice pictures. I really think it's scenery I never seen before. I think also for the first time I saw proper sled dogs. So we had a bit of a good time outside and I got to know the people, the group, my new friends for a little bit and I think we got along good. So that was that.

Then also turns out that I came not prepared enough. I had four lenses, I had the best camera you can buy for money. Probably not true, but I had a very good camera. And it turns out everyone else in this group brought two camera bodies. So you don't have to change the lenses when it's cold outside. And you can always have a long lens and a short lens and I only had one body poor Julian so Han luckily was super nice and he gave me one of his spare bodies that I could use for a couple of days. And that worked out great.

The next day, we still couldn't take our helicopter, but they organized a boat for us. Like a little boat, not a ferry or anything, just a little boat that fits eight people and the boatman. And they took us out on the water from Kulusuk to Amasilak, which is where we were staying. And that boat ride was amazing because first time in my life I've seen icebergs. And they are big. And they are nice. That is a marvel of nature. It's really impressive. And then also arriving at Amasilak. The sun came out and everything looked very basic, very beautiful, very natural. I had a good room. It was warm inside. It was not too cold outside.

Oh yeah, talking about temperature and the weather. So remember that I bought this new jacket, right? And in Amasilak and after that boat ride, I thought, okay, I'm wearing the jacket, of course, but even when I open it a bit and even when I don't wear the thermal pants, I am totally fine. Like, I was really afraid that I'd be super cold. I was really afraid that Singaporean weather has ruined me for anything colder than 20 degrees. And I thought I'd be walking around in Greenland, sub-zero, and I would be freezing to death. And there I was in Greenland. land. And during the day, I even opened my jacket. And I felt very confident. And I was very happy. And I said to Han, and I said to Han, look, I'm not even freezing. I'm still like a tough guy, you know. And he's looking at me and laughing. I said dude this is like 10 degrees and then I noticed it's not actually very cold and of course I'm not freezing not as tough as I thought because at night same evening, same night we went out to shoot some stars and some night scenes and then the most amazing thing to shoot some stars and some night scenes. And then the most amazing thing happened because northern lights appeared. We did not expect that. Our guides did not expect that. Nobody was expecting that because it wasn't the time. But northern lights appeared. And that was absolutely magical. Another thing I have never seen in my life. So if you keep count, that is icebergs and northern Lights, both seen for the first time in my life, in the same day.

But also, seeing these magical Northern Lights and being in a group with eight photographers, nobody was going back. So we spent hour after hour outside, at night, in Greenland. And even though I was wearing layers that time, and even though I was wearing the big pants, it got a little cold. It's still summer, right? It's not minus 40 or anything. It was maybe minus 10 or something like that. I don't even know. But it gets cold after a while so I knew the next day or the next time we go out I will dress even a little more doesn't matter I was happy that I was out all the time because the pictures are amazing but the pictures honestly don't even do it justice. The thing is, in the pictures you can capture the northern lights, sometimes even a little better, a little more than you can with your naked eye. more than you can with your naked eye. That is just due to the fact how camera sensors work and if you let in more light I feel I can make a whole other episode about how a camera works. But even though the camera catches a little more light, depending on the settings, then your eye, when you actually stand there and you have the viewing angle no camera can get and you have the chance to see everything moving, like the whole sky is moving and wobbling in green and bluish green and sometimes it's pink and violet in the sky it is a once in a lifetime thing that was absolutely impressive, absolutely mesmerizing. And sometimes I was standing there just watching instead of taking pictures, because I love to take pictures and I always want to take in everything on my camera. But some things, sometimes you also just have to experience to really get the full extent of it. So yeah, very good first night in Greenland. Or second night, actually. Very good first night in Amasilak. And I think I slept like a baby after. Cold air, some physical exercise, staying up late, little bit of jet lag. I fell in my bed and I don't remember anything after.

The next day we hopped on a boat again and took us an hour or so to get to a glacier. My phone picture information says that it was in Apusiyak Island. And that was also quite impressive. A glacier, or this glacier at least, was a little bit different than I imagined it would be. Or this glacier at least was a little bit different than I imagined it would be. It was this kind of mix of sand or soil and ice. So it was a little grayish when you were right on top of it. But then also if you looked over on the other side, the bigger part of the glacier where you couldn't walk. It was very magical. The sad thing about this, the glacier is only like one third of the size it was a couple years back. Actually our team told us every year they come they can see with a naked eye how the glacier is going back. So I'm very glad I got to see it while it's still there.

After the cave and after the glacier we went back with a boat. I did some shopping. There was a little artist's store. And this artist was carving bone to create little Greenlandic art. They call it Tupilak. I think they look quite interesting. Somehow they remind me a little bit of the computer game Monkey Island. And that was also the first day I tried whale blubber, which I can recommend that you try, because we should try most things. But it's not going to be my favorite bedtime snack. It's very salty. Whale blubber is the part of the skin of a whale. Same day also, by the way, I met this guy, Lucas. Lucas was a German guy. And you have to check out his YouTube. He is... We talked a while. And he still has a main job. But he's been doing YouTube for a couple of years now. And when I say he's doing YouTube, he's not doing short random videos. He's doing proper travel documentary he's got five or six videos online and all of them are like an hour around an hour and they are all absolutely excellent. His name is Lukas Jahn and I will definitely link his YouTube in the link section of sleepless.sg so you definitely should check that out.

I'm not sure if it was the same day or the next day, but we took another boat ride to another glacier area and the problem with Greenland is it is so vast and so naked and so beautiful and it's such an impression that it's very hard to capture it in pictures and it's even harder for me right now to describe it. It's crystal clear waters, it's giant icebergs. It's ice you can pick up and lick, which is what I did, that is millions of years old. It's rocky, it's raw, it's tough. It's all grey and blue, You don't see a single tree. There are no trees. You rarely see plants. And if you see plants, they are small plants. And they are all brownish grayish. When the weather is not good, when you have a lot of dark sky, clouds, it looks almost a bit depressing. But when the sun comes out and you have a million different hues of blue and grey and some brownish earthy tones, some brownish earthy tones. It is a truly magical experience and is nothing I've ever seen before. It's nothing you do usually see. It's just so different from any kind of nature I have seen so far anywhere else in the world is very impressive.

That same day on that very impressive view over this fjord, I was trying to capture a little bit of the beauty and I was flying my drone, my beautiful not very heavily used DGI Mini 3 and I flew it right into the fjord and there was no way to recover it and I don't have any drone footage from Greenland because I don't have a drone anymore. On the way back and that is the third or fourth first time in Greenland, we saw whales, really big whales. And I got some shots when the tail is going down in the water, when it's coming up first and it's raining from the tail and then it's going down. And again, this is hard to describe in words. You can check out the pictures My Instagram, all my social media is at jlxq0. So you can see some pictures there. Hard to describe. Very interesting feeling when you are in a tiny boat and there is a whale that is five times the size of your boat coming up right next to you.

And then there was the day where we went hunting for seal. Of course we weren't hunting ourselves and of course we weren't hunting for fun. We tagged along with a local, like two indigenous people, two hunters, who hunt seal to feed their families. They took us along. It was very interesting. It's way more difficult to hunt a seal than you would think. You have to shoot it, ideally in the head, so it dies. And then you have to be at it very quickly because you don't want it to go down, right? As long as they have still some air in them, they swim, but then when the air goes out, they drown. They go under the water and then they are gone. And you don't want that because you shot it to eat it. Anyway, that was very interesting. It took us like, I don't know, two or three hours to hunt one seal. And it made for interesting pictures. Very bloody, very raw and animalistic but interesting. Colorful. And then I also watched the hunter how he skinned the seal and how he cut the parts of meat. Maybe I don't want to go into too much detail because you're supposed to have a peaceful sleep and not imagine things you don't want to imagine.

And in the evening we got to try the seal we hunted ourselves. And again, I'd say I'm glad we tried, because most things you should try at least once, but I don't think if I don't have to, I will eat it again a lot. I think that was pretty much the consensus of the whole group. That night we saw even more northern lights. That night we also slept in this very little remote area at a fjord where there was nothing except for five or six little huts. And also not a lot of heating. There were these little electric heaters or gas stoves. That's pretty much it. It was great. I loved it. It was maybe the remotest I've ever been. And I really liked it.

Looking at the pictures, what I didn't like, but of course what is nobody's fault is my diet I had during that time. Like I said before, there are no plants, there are basically no vegetables or anything. So our breakfast was toast with butter and Nutella. Our lunch, I don't remember. I think we usually didn't have lunch. Maybe also bread. And by bread, I don't mean bread bread. I mean like wobbly white funny bread. And in the evenings, we usually had a meal. Actually, that meal, not too bad. Sometimes we had a bit of fish. Sometimes we had a bit of like some kind of meat. Actually, it was okay. It was mostly like breakfast and during the day where my diet, oh maybe I should mention my diet. I'm not dieting like right now to lose weight by diet. I mean my general diet. What I try to eat every day is no bread and no flour and things like that. Because I don't feel well with it. So here in Singapore, or usually when I travel, it works quite well. You eat a lot of vegetables. You need quite a bit of protein, meat or fish. And just don't eat any bread or cake or stuff like that. Works out quite well most of the time. Anyway, I survived it. I didn't gain too much. All good.

Going through the pictures, there were a lot more very nice photo opportunities. There were nice evenings, having dinner at the big table, all eight of us. Talking, making new friends. That was all perfect. I really liked it. I enjoyed it. To me, it was the perfect balance between quiet time, like nobody even asked when you go to your room and be with yourself and work for a bit or just lie down and read. But also you could sit and there were the one or the other I made friends with. I had quite some good talks with Clarence, a new friend I made there. So I had a really good time over there.

And then on the last day, we finally got to take that helicopter because the weather cleared up and turns out it was only a 10-minute helicopter ride but made for great views was really was really a good experience right at the end and the helicopter brought us to the airport, the small little one I mentioned in the beginning, and the plane brought us back to Keflavik, Iceland, and it was a couple of days in Greenland, like six or seven or something, but even now talking about it, it felt like it was over in seconds. It was a very good experience. It was way too fast. I think there is a lot more to do and to see in Greenland. On the other hand, I'm happy I'm back to food I can appreciate more. So obviously...

Then we had one more day, I think two more days, in Iceland, I think two more days in Iceland where we did a photo tour. We ended up going to Reykjavik and we did a photo tour during the day, looking at that church, taking pictures of Rainbow Road. We had another decent hamburger dinner. Had another decent hamburger dinner. Had a fun night at a bar in one evening. Went out for ice cream. Of course we went out for ice cream. I haven't gone for ice cream in a long time, so... So in Reykjavik I convinced Clarence and SK to walk with me for more than an hour to find some frozen yogurt. Which is apparently some famous Reykjavik thing to do. It was at Ice Spa or something. I will put the link in the comments, in the link section.

And then after a short, but very, very eventful 10 days or so, it was time for me to leave. I took a flight from Keflavik Airport to London Heathrow to meet Christian and Melina again. And I guess I'll tell you about that in one of the following episodes. For now, let's have some more Tom Sawyer. And then call it a night.