The act of travelling from one place to another, especiallyin a vehicle. That is the first definition of the word journey in the Cambridge Dictionary, it’s how I would define a journey, the sitting, the waiting and the endless queuing. Its main purpose, to get you between point A and point B. The Cambridge Dictionary also describes a second definition – ‘A set of experiences that someone has over a period of time, especially when they change the person in some way’. It’s a popular definition and the phrase ‘especially when they change the person’ is a phrase I struggle to to find any real purposeful meaning, every experience, no matter how big or small, can have a profound effect on a person, but all too often the dictionary definition is banded around and its meaning lost in what appears to be people’s inflated egos. So for me it’s not very the journey, it’s about the destination. The journey is a means to an end, sometimes enjoyable and sometimes a pain in the proverbial!
So the journey begins, that is Heathrow to Copenhagen and then on to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. A journey to the start of the Arctic Circle Trail. I’d like to travel back in time and explain why I chose this rather remote trail. Stephen and I were going to go to Patagonia and walk the ‘O’ Trek in Torres del Paine, but after looking it up Stephen suggested that the estimated 300,000 people who visit the trail every season was 299,998 people too many! A challenge was set to find an accessible trail that was rarely visited.
How I came across the Arctic Circle Trail, I can’t remember. The trail jumped out at me for one main reason though, only 300 people a year walked the trail… only 1% of the people that visit Torres del Paine. I’d found a trail that suited the introverted Irishman down to the ground! A trail easy to book and easy to self guide, well that’s the theory, anyway!
The first stage of the journey is to Copenhagen, which unfortunately I’m going to see very little of. A good excuse to bring Carolynn back for a weekend break, I think, but for now it’s a necessary stopping off point for Greenland. I could have gone via Iceland but the cost was at least double, I can only assume that Denmark subsidises the flights. Stephen and I are rendezvousing at an airport hotel before we fly to Greenland tomorrow morning.
I can’t really give an opinion on Copenhagen. I am a little put out that the hotel bar and restaurant are closed on a Sunday. It’s not as if the hotel is a small private affair, it’s a large chain, Best Western. So I’ve had to walk to the only local restaurant open, I have to say it’s been worth every step of the 2km walk from the hotel. The food is excellent as is the atmosphere, could be because it’s the only place open for some considerable distance!
Tomorrow Greenland and the start of a ‘journey that will profoundly change me as a person’ !!!