A Long Journey Home

Today, we began the long journey home. We took one last look at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland from the top of the ship...

I took one last look at the maps in the Chart Room, illustrating our expedition route...

I went to the bow one last time for a panorama...

And then it was off to the airport! Our plane in Kangerlussuaq was an hour late, and the security was the worst ever. For the first time ever, they made me take out my camera gear. When you're traveling with 25 pounds of gear, you don't really want to take it out and hold up the line! It was crazy. Going through the metal detector, they swabbed my hands and shoes. For what? I have no idea.

Leaving Greenland heading towards Reykavik.

We landed in Reykavik around 11pm and didn't get to the hotel until after midnight because we had an hour drive to the hotel. The next morning, we had to leave the hotel by 1pm. At the Reykavik airport, I was swabbed yet again in security. This time, for my hands, shoes, and waistband of my pants. Because we got to the airport so early, it was time to do some shopping damage. Being the nerdy graphic designer that I am, I had a hoot with these candies...

Finally, we took off. Late again. On the way from Reykavik to Seattle, we had beautiful views of Greenland. Where was all this snow and ice when we were in Greenland?!

Since we took off late, we were delayed getting into Seattle and had less than an hour to make our connection. We had to go through customs, claim and recheck our bags, security and take three trams to get to our gate. This time, security swabbed my laptop. Why? No idea. In any case, we made it to the gate with 20 minutes to spare!

Sunset flying from Seattle to LA.

We were supposed to land in LA at 10:22pm and actually got in early, but ended up circling the airport for over an hour. Usually when you're waiting for a gate, you just sit on the tarmac but that was not the case. The pilot drove around the airport at least 15 times before we finally got to our gate. By the time we got home, it was almost 1am...


Thanks for reading about my Greenland/Iceland/Canadian High Arctic adventures... Stay tuned for what's to come and be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts! As always, follow my instagram @elissatitle for more pics.