Fire in the Sky!

Beautiful sunset turns into an unforgettable evening

Saturday afternoon, when I was sitting in my room, I noticed this strange blue colour outside – the air was misty and in the setting sun it looked like some thick, blue, velvety material falling softly on the island. I grabbed the camera and dashed outside to play tourist. In the ankle high snow just outside my door, I saw that on the other side of the harbour the sky was in different shades of orange and red that just begged to be photographed.
That made this short walk somewhat longer, as I went up a small hill to take pictures. After sinking in snow to my ankles, sliding flat on my back on ice and stepping right through thin crisp ice into puddles, I’ve reached the top, took one picture and had to change film in the camera… Typical! That meant of course I had to take my gloves off, an idea I wasn’t to keen on. But it was all worth it when I all of a sudden heard someone calling my name and saw my boss waving to me from the blue wooden house at the foot of the hill. “Oren, come in, coffee is ready!” Couldn’t be better!

Not being able to say no to such an offer, I accepted and came in, where it smelled of cooking and fresh coffee, the table was set with plates full with home-made cake and cookies and other nice goodies. After a nice long chat about this and that, during which my boss’ husband joined us, they invited me to have dinner with them. Well… After being tortured by the smells from the oven for over an hour I just didn’t have the heart to deny myself a bite. The menu consisted of nice roast with wine sauce and boiled potatoes – the ultimate Danish meal, even though they are both Greenlanders, not Danes. The conversation revolved mainly about hunting, people being attacked by polar bears and so on. On the walls hung some seal fur and an about a meter and a half long narwhal tusk. From one window I could see the hill I climbed on last weekend, and looking out the other I could see the small ships in the harbour, the icebergs floating in the sea and the mountains on the mainland.  All was covered with white snow. As I was about to leave they presented me with a present – A figure carved in narwhal tusk called Tupilak (please pronounce it as dubilagk – if you can!) Tupilak figures have been carved in bones of whatever animals the locals managed to hunt through the ages. The sort of animal varied according to location and time of year. The Tupilak was used by the spiritual leaders in different ceremonies – usually to bring enemies bad fortune. Today they are only used to bring good financial fortune for the artists selling them.

Everything is so... green...

When I started walking home it was supposed to be dark outside, but there was something weird in the air. It was dark, but… not quite. Something just didn’t seem right, and it took me some time to figure out what it was. Then I noticed green light-stains in the sky – moving about, shifting in form, size and intensity. Here it comes I thought – my turn to encounter a UFO! Inside my head I was already getting beamed up to their leader, impregnated by an alien, ditched in some off road petrol station in the American mid-west, found by a drunk red-neck in an old blue Chevy pick up, declared insane by Mulder and Scully and given Prozac the rest of my sad isolated life in a dirty old home.

Luckily, reality took a different, more sensible turn. Those ever changing light-stains were the northern lights. It was so weird, and beautiful. The sky was “stained” with green light floating around, at times strong and clear, at times hidden by clouds. It was strong enough to make the clouds cast a shadow over the snowy mountains.  I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. The night sky was so cloudy, not a star was visible, and yet everything seemed to be illuminated. I took some pictures that would probably turn out pitch dark. Maybe I’ll name them “Nanortalik by night” and sell them to tourists. However, the cold weather managed to take some of the fun out of standing there all still staring at the sky. So I hurried home and spent the next hour running from the window in my room facing north to the one in the entrance, facing south, comparing the effects the light had on the colour of the water, the snow, the ice, the town… I only went to sleep after making sure I could see the shifting shapes of light from bed. It was all breathtakingly beautiful.