How Does an Arctic Expedition Feel?
- Jul 8
- 3 min read
"Glorious it is, when wandering time is come." — Traditional Inuit proverb
I returned to Brooklyn this morning, but everything seems strange without massive pieces of ice art to admire. Our National Geographic - Lindblad Expeditions cruise spent six entire days in uncharted fjords along the southeast coast of Greenland, and that's a long time to spend in a blissful state of true discovery. Our captain and crew were excited each day to follow the sunshine, make a plan as we went along; it actually became about the journey as much as the destination. I can't describe the feeling of spending day after nightless day with the most unimaginable beauty surrounding you. It's hard to leave.
You don't get used to seeing icebergs as tall as your ship casually go by outside your window. You don't get used to seeing polar bears and whales and eider ducks. You don't get used to riding in a Zodiac by glacier after glacier, scooping pieces of floating ice up with your hands. You don't get used to the sea and sky turning soft pink at sunset for the brief hour or two when the sun goes for a dip in the ocean. You can't get used to every moment being photographable, memorable, so beautiful you can only wonder at it all. It's like having the most fantastically scenic dream, but you're awake inside it.
I haven't finished posting photos on Instagram and Facebook; I'll keep adding over the next week or so. The longing to be back there in Greenland's fjords is so intense, it's almost overwhelming to choose which photos to share out of the many memories of sunlit ice and glacier-scraped mountains. If I close my eyes I'm standing out on deck with the stillness broken by the sound of our icebreaker bow hitting and pushing away ice (boom, crunch, crackle) and the way the ice sounds as we pass it - snapping and popping as it releases air, or slushing along aside other ice. I'll be uploading awesome videos of all this soon, so keep an eye on the Nine Muses Travel Instagram and Facebook!
After reluctantly disembarking, I spent the next day delving into Reykjavik and hitting the highlights on my own list: a guided tour of the stunning Harpa, the top of Hallgrimskirkja (tallest church in Iceland), the wildly wonderful sculptures at The Einar Jónsson Museum (home of Iceland's first sculptor and Iceland's first public art museum), and a visit to the Sky Lagoon, where I did all the "rituals" except the cold plunge (unless up to your ankles counts). Photos from these will get posted soon too.
If you're interested in an arctic expedition now, you'll also most likely depart from Reykjavik, which is such an easy city to walk around and explore. Let's start planning your own polar voyage to Antarctica or closer to home in the Arctic! It will be an intensely inspiring journey and impossible to forget.
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