Nuuk airport bus

Nuuk airport

Adventure from Day 1:

Margaret emerges from Nuuk airport and locates the bus stop, and then another bus stop. Soon a bus pulls up, to the other stop, and I race over through sandy gravel, trailing my wheelie luggage. (Everyone else on the flight had wheelie luggage as well, so not all sturdy backpackers as I feared.) The bus driver says he will be back in ten minutes, and to wait at the other stop. I say OK and go back.

A Nuuk bus stop

Ten minutes later, he reappears, having gone past the airport to Nuuk's second suburb, and back again. I board. He is wearing a blue Manchester United t-shirt and yellow reflecting shades. I am wearing a down puffa jacket covered in fake fur. We stare at each other. 'You have to put the coins there,' he says at last, indicating the stand in front of me, 'and then pull on the lever to get the ticket.'

'Where are you going in Greenland?' he asks, and when I tell him I am starting by staying four days in Nuuk, he says, 'Oh, don´t do that! Why would you want to do that? Nuuk is terrible. You want to go up north, and go dog sledding.' Meanwhile I am being driven past brilliantly coloured apartment blocks backed by spectacular mountains, all glowing in brilliant sunshine the likes of which I haven't seen in Britain, even in June. 'I don't know,' I say. 'It looks pretty nice here!'

Each bus stop in Nuuk has a handy individual number that co-ordinates with the bus route map.