Tourists have many questions

Guide Karen Foss Hansen takes tourists on a walking tour of Nuuk.

Suddenly they were here. 

Suddenly they were here

All the tourists who were supposed to come when the Atlantic Airport in Nuuk opened.

Suddenly they were here. 

Suddenly they were hereAnnouncement

All the tourists who were supposed to come when the Atlantic Airport in Nuuk opened.

The great tourist invasion really took off when large jet planes from New York, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Billund and Aalborg landed last week filled with expectant tourists.

This has caused a lot of hustle and bustle at hotels, restaurants, taxis and among the many guides and guide companies. Among them is Karen Foss Hansen, who takes care of the guests of the Aarhus travel agency Ruby Rejser in Nuuk.

Although Karen Foss Hansen now lives in Copenhagen, she knows Greenland and also Nuuk like the back of her hand, because she was born and raised in Ilulissat, where she lived for the first fifteen years of her life. Since then, she has also spent nine years in Nuuk, where she worked at the Greenland Travel Agency. Karen Foss Hansen speaks Greenlandic, Danish, English, German and French.

New guests twice a week

– Twice a week I get new guests with the direct flight from Aalborg. When they are accommodated in the hotels, I start with a city walk, where we walk from the city center and down towards Kolonihavnen and back again by a different route.

– Here we pass, among other things, Naalakkersuisut, Inatsisartut, police, judiciary and Katuaq. The tour is a good starting point for both telling about Greenland today and also history, but I also adapt the story to the guests’ wishes and, not least, questions.

– Because the many tourists are very curious and have many questions. Many of them have an expectation that things are just like in Denmark – and it is new to them, for example, that the houses have B numbers. So I will have to tell you a little about it.

– They also have many questions about the healthcare system, the education system, the city buses and not least the many cars in the capital. For many, it is difficult to understand what you need a car for when you can’t get out of the city.

Of course, there are also many questions about politics. Here I will answer as best I can, but I will leave the discussions about the big political issues to the guests.

Karen is the lifeline

Among Karen Foss Hansen’s guests last week were the couple Mona and Peter Jensen from Aalborg. They have been to Greenland before, but never to Nuuk.

– We have a tradition of maiden flights, so it was a good opportunity to visit Nuuk, says pilot-trained Peter Jensen about the trip from Aalborg to Nuuk.

– We have heard a lot about Nuuk – and we also have acquaintances in the city, but it still surprises me that it is so much different than in Denmark, admits Mona Jensen.

– Fortunately, we have Karen as a lifeline – and I think she does a good job of explaining to us how things work together.

– For my part, I found it very strange that there is an old cemetery in the middle of the city. I couldn’t understand why the graves weren’t looked after – and it wasn’t until Karen told me about the tradition of not erasing graves that it made sense to me.

Suddenly they were here. 

Suddenly they were here

All the tourists who were supposed to come when the Atlantic Airport in Nuuk opened.

Suddenly they were here. 

Suddenly they were hereAnnouncement

All the tourists who were supposed to come when the Atlantic Airport in Nuuk opened.

The great tourist invasion really took off when large jet planes from New York, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Billund and Aalborg landed last week filled with expectant tourists.

This has caused a lot of hustle and bustle at hotels, restaurants, taxis and among the many guides and guide companies. Among them is Karen Foss Hansen, who takes care of the guests of the Aarhus travel agency Ruby Rejser in Nuuk.

Although Karen Foss Hansen now lives in Copenhagen, she knows Greenland and also Nuuk like the back of her hand, because she was born and raised in Ilulissat, where she lived for the first fifteen years of her life. Since then, she has also spent nine years in Nuuk, where she worked at the Greenland Travel Agency. Karen Foss Hansen speaks Greenlandic, Danish, English, German and French.

New guests twice a week

– Twice a week I get new guests with the direct flight from Aalborg. When they are accommodated in the hotels, I start with a city walk, where we walk from the city center and down towards Kolonihavnen and back again by a different route.

– Here we pass, among other things, Naalakkersuisut, Inatsisartut, police, judiciary and Katuaq. The tour is a good starting point for both telling about Greenland today and also history, but I also adapt the story to the guests’ wishes and, not least, questions.

– Because the many tourists are very curious and have many questions. Many of them have an expectation that things are just like in Denmark – and it is new to them, for example, that the houses have B numbers. So I will have to tell you a little about it.

– They also have many questions about the healthcare system, the education system, the city buses and not least the many cars in the capital. For many, it is difficult to understand what you need a car for when you can’t get out of the city.

Of course, there are also many questions about politics. Here I will answer as best I can, but I will leave the discussions about the big political issues to the guests.

Karen is the lifeline

Among Karen Foss Hansen’s guests last week were the couple Mona and Peter Jensen from Aalborg. They have been to Greenland before, but never to Nuuk.

– We have a tradition of maiden flights, so it was a good opportunity to visit Nuuk, says pilot-trained Peter Jensen about the trip from Aalborg to Nuuk.

– We have heard a lot about Nuuk – and we also have acquaintances in the city, but it still surprises me that it is so much different than in Denmark, admits Mona Jensen.

– Fortunately, we have Karen as a lifeline – and I think she does a good job of explaining to us how things work together.

– For my part, I found it very strange that there is an old cemetery in the middle of the city. I couldn’t understand why the graves weren’t looked after – and it wasn’t until Karen told me about the tradition of not erasing graves that it made sense to me.