Hiking in Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park

Comforted by a description I found online, The Grind & Brew seemed like the perfect place to spend Sunday morning.

"The closest Starbucks to Iqaluit is in Ottawa, but that's okay because the city has a comparable coffee house, called the Grind and Brew. This popular coffee house specializes in fine coffee, tea and chocolate. Come in for a cup of joe or a friendly chat with the locals."

Expecting a familiar scene, I pack my book and my ipod and off I went! Once I finally arrived, I was faced by  reality:  The Grind & Brew was a pizza joint meets dinner, that happened to serve coffee, and where people hang out to watch sports on the big screen. Serving multiple purposes seems to be common up here!

Skeptical, I took a sip of the Hazelnut Cream coffee I had just served myself. It was so good! So good, that I even asked the owner where he gets it was from. Turns out it's from BC. I'll definitely be back! Next time though, I'll be sure to bring my travel mug so I don't have to hang out there.. not exactly coffee shop atmosphere!

Grind & Brew Cafe

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, and eventually into Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park. The views were spectacular! I spent 3 hours walking around here, and admiring every inch of the landscape. Here are a few pictures I took... Get ready!

Some rocks, some tundra, the Sylvia Grinnell River and the ocean in the distance

Waterfall

SUNSHINE :) Haven't seen much of it since I've been here

Rocky trail up to the top!

Amazing fall colours!

View of Iqaluit as I head to the top

Hanging out at the very little summit of 68m! 

I'm on top of the worrrrrrld!

 
Oh! And because it's Sunday, I though it would be appropriate to share a picture of the "igloo church", an important landmark in the city of Iqaluit. It was just re-built after a fire in 2005.

St-Jude Anglican Cathedral aka "Igloo Church"

My Polar Bear Dip

It's Friday and I'm tired! It's been a long week... which evidently translated into a few long blog posts since I've been so busy exploring my new surroundings.

Tonight's adventure unfolded because my craving for Gatorade pulled me off the couch. But at 7$ there was no way my craving was going to be satisfied! I ended up just buying a $5 calling card instead (actual cost: $5,25), which only gave me a 17 minute phone conversation to Ontario! At the rate I talk, that was less than a single phone call home.

Anyway, the wind had died down, and it felt a little warmer out so I extend my walk and headed towards the ocean! Turns out, it was much closer than I thought. It was a good walk. A plane was coming in overhead, and it was the closest I have ever been to a plane as it was landing. Two sled dogs also came running towards me. They looked nice, but I didn't pet them since I wasn't sure. There were actually a bunch of dogs just hanging out between the water and the airport.

Random dog sledding dogs chilling here

I made it to the shore of what I think they call Frobisher Bay. I could even see some mountains in the distance! We've been having a lot of rain, so it was nice to be able to see far in the distance.

A view over Frobisher Bay

With the cold weather, the water, being in the Arctic, and polar bears on my mind... I had a genius idea: Polar Bear Dip! ... So off went the shoes, and in went my feet! I was in the Arctic Ocean!!!

In the Arctic Ocean! Not sure I'd be ready to jump in ;)

It was cold! And I also had a hard time getting out. My feet kept sinking in the sand. The Ocean wanted me to stay!

The sand was like quick-sand!

 Say what you want about my toes, but they're little troopers!

Cold feet!

It was quickly getting dark, but sunset was pretty much non existent. The sun kind of just slowly stopped being bright, and secretly went away. I hurried back to avoid all sketchiness that takes place after the sun goes down.

View of Iqaluit from the shore line at dusk

It's officially the weekend... Not that I have anything going on! I wonder how the weekend will unfold. I'm thinking of all of you in Ottawa having a blast at Kitchen Party! I wish I was there.. or that I was at an Iqaluit version!

Royal Muktuk (Makttaq, ᒪᒃᑖᖅ)

Will and Kate must have really loved their time up North when they visited Yellowknife during their Royal visit in summer 2011. I can just imagine how much they must have hyped it up at Sunday dinner to make their aunt and uncle so jealous that they needed to plan a Northern visit of their very own! The not so impressive Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, included Iqaluit as a destination as part of their first ever trip to the North, which was certainly not their first trip to Canada.

Nunavut Premier, Eva Aariak, greeting Prince Edward and Sophie

The Earl and Countess of Wessex visited with community members tonight, and I'd say it was a pretty big deal. About 1,000 people came together to greet the Royals at the Community Parish Hall. A full house is an understatement! The majority of the people who attended were Inuit. The young girls were the most excited about it all with their cameras, cell phones and iPads ready to capture the moment.

A full house at the Parish Hall

Television reporters from major networks made it out! I recognized cameras from APTN, City TV, CBC... and there were more!

A little girl being interviewed in Inuktitut by a news reporter

A demonstration of traditional Inuit activities followed as Edward, Sophie, and myself, watched attentively. Throat singing, drum dancing, and an inuit games were among the main "numbers". 

Inuit game demonstration -  A ball hung 6' high is kicked .

Throat singing is unique to the Inuit culture, and generally performed by women who sing duets/compete to see who can outlast the other before running out of breath. Historically, throat singing was a form of entertainment among the women while men were away on hunting trips. I kind of think it sounds like beat boxing! Click >here< for a video - no, it's not a Julia Dales video! ;)

2 girls throat singing

The evening finally progressed to the finale: The community country food feast complete with bannock, Arctic Char, caribou, Muktuk and bannock.

The above - served RAW! 

My plate at the community feast
bannock, frozen Arctic Char cubes, frozen raw caribou meat,
and Muktuk (sprinkled with salt and soy sauce) and Char chowder 

Muktuk (Makttaq, ᒪᒃᑖᖅ) is most often made from the skin and blubber of a whale, although beluga and narwhal muktuk is also very common. The Muktuk we had tonight was of whale origin. I guess the pinky part is the blubber, and the black part is the skin...

A closer look at the Maktaaq (Mulktuk)
A layer of whale skin and blubber

I'm sure you're wondering how much food off my plate I actually ate... Mom, I did better than you think! I loved the Char, especially the Char chowder, and enjoyed the bannock as well. I eat my steak well done to begin with, so the raw caribou steak, although frozen, really wasn't my thing, but I did try a mini bite and it tasted like blood! I couldn't get my teeth through the Muktuk, so I didn't really get to eat it! I can't even tell you how it tasted because I had dowsed it in soy sauce! The texture though was soft, and really rubbery. I was only able to scrape a tiny layer off the corner with my teeth.

Attempting to bite into the Muktuk, but it wasn't working!

I really lucked out coming to Iqualuit and experiencing such a wonderful community event! You can probably tell that I'm quite indifferent about the visit of these "second class" Royals but it was great to see the community come together the way they did, and experience some Inuit culture and tradition!

The visit was obviously a big deal! <3 craft time!

Fun fact! Street signs were only installed to make the city look more legit prior to a "Royal visit" a few years back.. before Will and Kate. Even though street signs are present, locals have a tendency to disregard them and continue to identify location based on building number only. Building numbers aren't repeated. I'll have to remember that I'm staying in the "one thousand" part of town!

I think the Royals would like the street names! 

Iqaluit: Day 2

A trip to the post office today turned into a major detour around the city so I could get an unofficial tour!

City of Iqaluit

Every pocket of the city identifies as a different neighbourhood, and it was neat to see the differences between the newer parts of town, in comparison to the older parts. Iqaluit was founded in 1942 as US airforce base, strategically located as a transportation hub/stop-over/refueling site. Original military houses are quite distinctive with their A-frame structure, whereas newer homes have little character and pretty much look like boxes. The older neighbourhoods are closer to shore and are mainly made up of single family homes. In order to keep up with increasing housing demand, multi-family homes make up the newer neighbourhood. As a general rule of thumb, the newer the neighbourhood the more units make up each building. Urban planning doesn't really exist here, and buildings are pretty much just built where there is space. Building codes are also non-existent in the territory, so housing isn't necessarily of good quality... this could explain the whistling  in my apartment yesterday! It was raining, so I didn't take pictures of these housing types. I'll add pics later.

View of Apex from the sky. The winding road takes you to Iqaluit.

My tour brought me to the Road to No Where (actual name!) and to a neighbouring community ~5 km away called Apex.










I also got to see the old Hudson's Bay Company trading post which is right on the beach.

One of the Hudson's Bay Company buildings

Distracted by the HBC buildings, it took me a little longer than it should have to notice the iceberg that had washed up onto the beach! Once my excitement wore off, I was informed that the size of this ice chunk was nothing... and that it was probably just "pack ice" and not of glacial origin.

Check out that colour!

Me and the 'burg

I also checked out the StoreHouse tonight for wing night, which is a restaurant attached to the Frobisher Inn, a well known hotel in Iqaluit. Wednesdays are a busy night in the city with wing night also taking place at the Legion... I thought the StoreHouse was the classier choice for obvious reasons! The restaurant was great, but a few things were weird such as "mandatory coat check, for security reasons" and the local Inuit wandering from table to table trying to sell art, mostly rock carvings. I was expecting the latter, but it was still weird, and gave my dinner a displaced mexican-vibe. A carving would be cool... but I would rather see the actual wildlife!

Today's tour happened because of a trip to the Post Office, so I thought it would be appropriate to end the day with a picture of the Post Office on my rainy walk back to my apartment before dark!

Downtown Iqaluit - Canada post in the white building, apartments above.

First impressions matter...

Late night, early morning... Airport living's not all that bad when you get invited to hang out in the AC Lounge pre-flight. Thank you to a very special coworker that was also lucky enough to travel on the 11th anniversary of September 11th for the hook-up! I may have gone overboard on the free magazine perk!

Loaded up with magazines. Ready for my trip up North! 

At the gate, I see the amount of baggage being loaded onto my flight to Iqaluit. I remembered the First Air attendant asking me at check-in which of my bags was my "priority" bag, as they were expecting a heavy flight this morning. Lots of field equipment, Rubermaid bins and coolers were also loaded onto the plane. Warned about the price of food in Iqaluit, I was also guilty of over packing, and packed a last minute suitcase filled with food. I think my 30$ grocery will end up saving me lots! 

Glad I wasn't the only heavy packer!

The flight was short, only 3 hours, and I got to enjoy complimentary in-flight food! Quiche, potatoes and grilled zucchini (my fave!) was on the menu. A nap and a magazine later, I was excited to get my first glimpse of land after being trapped in thick cloud cover while crossing the Arctic Ocean (exciting!) over to Baffin Island.  It looked pretty surreal, especially with Bon Iver playing in my earphones, and the memories of last night's concert so fresh in my mind!

It's fall in Nunavut - you can tell by the red in the tundra.

For those of you who aren't geography nerds, Baffin Island is the giant island in the Arctic archipelago on which Iqaluit is located. Aide-memoire: The island looks like an upside-down dog, and Iqaluit is located in the dog's mouth!

Map of Nunavut - Baffin Island is on the right

Ready for landing, I snap a quick picture of the city from the window. The city looks interesting, and nothing like I've ever seen. Dirt roads, and buildings that look very resilient. This being said my apartment whistles because there's a draft somewhere... I'll need to get to the bottom of that because it is a windy night.

Part of Iqaluit. View from the sky. It looks cold!

The Plaza I am staying in is called Inuksugait, and is made up of mixed-use buildings of different colours. I am staying in the blue one, and my office, is the green one. After the summer we've had, I'm glad my commute is only 10 seconds long! It's not that cold, but it was 6 today - brrrrr!

A look down the street from the balcony. 

Luxury satellite TV is waiting for me, and the finale of my favorite MTV show's about to start. I better go so I can watch it "live" for the first time in 2.5 years! ...I could get used to this!