Greenland

Every Thursday should start with Greenland.

This Thursday certainly is starting with Greenland. Not that Thursday has a g in it or anything. In fact, no day of the week has a g in it.

But I won't let that stop me from starting this Thursday with Greenland.

So at this point, you are probably bored of the funny little banter and wondering when I am actually going to get to anything regarding Greenland instead of just talking about Greenland and its non-affiliation with any day of the week except Thursday, cause namely, I said so.

So, Greenland.

I was at dinner the other night, not in Greenland, but the reference is coming, and someone asked me where was the strangest place I had visited in my summer aboard the ship. I hmmm and haaaaed and basically came up with nothing.

(Greenland reference still coming.)

Later that night, I was talking about Greenland (see, a Greenland reference). And the person who had asked me, Dani, about the strangest place I had been to said it sounded like Greenland was the strangest place I had been to.

So, Greenland.

I visited Greenland for crisp, i.e. cold, clear, beautiful, Sunday afternoon, in September, for four hours. (Note as promised, no g in Sunday.)

We visited the capital, Nuuk, which proudly sells sweatshirts embossed with "NUUK, The Capital." I thought that was hysterical! Nuuk at, 14,500 is hardly a thriving metropolis. (Though with the ship there, the population swelled to over 15,500.) I suspect the thriving metropolis is limited a lot by the icebergs in the harbor which we managed to navigate around, unlike earlier in the morning, which is a different story all together, also involving Greenland, so it too will be told on a Thursday.

See icebergs in harbor:



Harbor is a bit of a misnomer. It is a natural harbor, with a ten foot by thirty foot wood plank extension into the water. The ship didn't pull into this remarkable feat of Saturday afternoon engineering (note Saturdays lack of g also). We had to board little tender boats to get to the "harbor" which was really more like a lake dock.

Greenland is such a stir of cultures it is amazing. The homes on the harbor are bright, brilliant burgundy reds, bright yellows, bright whites, bright blues and bright forest greens. They are adored with ornate white, green and yellow shutters. Some have perfect picket fences. All have somewhat steep roofs, many with dormer windows. A few also had tree house like structures in their backyards with hanging skins drying, mostly reindeer. (I regret not having pictures of the drying racks.)




Click for larger image.

Greenland is part of and loosely governed by Denmark. (Personally I think the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese managed to get the better new world real estate.)

The governorship means Greenland speaks Danish and uses the Danish Kroner (currency).

This is a very strange juxtaposition to the people who are Inuit, some in traditional Inuit garb. You just don't think of an Eskimo, speaking Danish and living in a Danish style house with pretty little shutters and a white picket fence.

I suppose this is not much different from an Inuit speaking English driving a Ford in Alaska.

This breeds a long conversation on expectations of appearance, culture and language. Namely, the expectation a person of a certain features will be of a certain culture and language. I will talk about this in a different entry.

In Greenland, the tourist trinkets were whale-bone whittles and reindeer-skin hats, gloves, etc.




I have no idea what the deal was with these whittles, but they were so unusual I had to take pictures.

Greenland also has huge numbers of whales. I never got a chance glimpse but many people did.

The dark underside of Greenland was the slums, packed cement apartment complexes, clearly over crowded, with suspicious rabid-looking dogs wandering outside, and men sitting beside the road so inebriated I found it shocking they had not passed out.

Despite having wandered into the bad neighborhood of Greenland (I guess there is a bad neighborhood everywhere), it was very interesting, the combination of Danish and Inuit traditions and cultures. (I doubt many Danish people dry reindeer skins within their picket fences.)

I would not recommend Greenland as a destination resort. I had four hours there and had trouble filling the time. It was fascinating and a place I feel very fortunate to have visited, but I would not go out of my way to return, and its Greenland, so it is always out of the way. (But there is always Air Greenland, yes, really, it exists. I am sure they have at least one plane.)

And that is Greenland, this Thursday, which still does not have a g in it, and probably won't anytime soon.