Greenland: Qassiarsuk

Our second base after Igaliku was Qassiarsuk.
We got there after a one hour boat ride from IItilleq.

Qassiarsuk is a town of less than a hundred inhabitants, located just in front of Narsarsuaq across Tunulliarfik Fjord (also known as Eiriksfjord).

There are more vehicles and there's a lot of activity going on. Unboutly, Qassiarsuk receives more visitors than Igaliku.

As we got out of the boat, the first building we saw was the Pisiniarfik shop.
Surprisingly it seemed less well stored as Igaliku’s shop.
Quite strange as more people lives in Qassiarsuk, the town receives more tourists and it's very near to the international airport.

Also, the service house was not as clean and functional as the one in Igaliku: only one shower was working, the washing machines were out of order, and there was no kitchen.... let's not count the smell of cigarette smoke inside.
But let's not complain, the Service House was very useful to take a shower and brush our teeth. Service Houses are not meant for tourists, they're here for the villagers that don’t have running water at home.
Probably, most people have running water in Qassiarsuk and not many families use the service house.

There is a small red Lutheran church in town, dating from 1936.

I heard the priest was actually the same guy that has the shop, but I didn’t go to the mass to verify this.

This church in Qassiarsuk is made of wood, while the one in Igaliku is made of sandstone.

The Qassiarsuk church is colourful: red outside, white and blue inside.

There's a ship hanging on the roof between two chandeliers. Traditionally, this helps to keeps prayers in mind for sailors who are out at sea.

There's a Menorah in the altar, along with two paintings depicting Bible scenes.

The church is located just beside a ruin...a ruin that is tought to be the site of the ancient Þjóðhildarkirkja Church, the first church ever built in the American continent, around the year 1000.

See next page for more on Brattahlíð, as Qassiarsuk was called in Viking times.

There are two hostels in Qassiarsuk.
We went a couple of times to one of them, the Leif Eriksson hostel.
We didn't sleep there as we were camping. But we went there for dinner once, and for a couple of drinks a few times.
As in Igaliku, dinner had to be ordered beforehand.

The Leif Eriksson hostel is managed by a travel agency called Tasermiut.
Most of the staff is from Spain and all the tourists we saw came from France and Spain as part of organized group Tours.

The rooms seemed OK and we had a good meal prepared by a Spanish cook, who was very nice and funny guy.

It was a “traditional” meal, meaning wolf fish, whale, caribou and other arctic dishes.

“Traditional” is a big marketing word in the tourism industry.
The main ingredients are local and traditional, but they're cooked in a way that tastes good for Western Tourists.

In other words, a real Greenlandic meal won’t have the same sauce, spices and preparation.

After this kind of meals tourists can say “yes, I ate Greenlandic food” ... even if we didn't eat the way Greenlandic people would!

Qassiarsuk is not as pretty and quiet as Igaliku but it's a nice place to spend a few days.
What makes Qassiarsuk so attractive is that this town is a place full of history.

First, there’s ancient history: Qassiarsuk is the site of ancient Brattahlíð, the place where Erik The Red settled in the 10 th century.
Click here to read more about Brattahlíð.

Second, there’s also more recent history. Modern Qassiarsuk was founded by sheep farmer Otto Frederiksen in 1924.

Before this date, farming was just an extra activity for hunters and fishermen. Otto Frederiksen became Greenland's first fulltime sheep farmer.
He started with 145 animals but by 1935 he had 300 sheep, two cows and six horses.
This success inspired other people and 14 sheep farms were established in Qassiarsuk and Igaliku.

The Federiksen family also ran farms in the nearby settlement of Tasiusaq.

Otto Frederiksen house is a museum nowadays, and it gives a very interesting insight on how sheep farmers lived almost a century ago.

Click here to read about ancient Brattahlíð.

Greenland Links:

Greenland on Trip Advisor
Greenland Official Tourism board
Lonely Planet Greenland guides
Compare flights to Greenland

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