Beautiful, other-worldly, stark, vast and unique
Written: Jan 23 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Unique, stunning beauty, desolate, surreal
Cons: Expensive, not much infrastructure, most products to buy not importable to the US.
The Bottom Line: For the truly 'once in a lifetime' experience
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| shannon's Full Review: Greenland |
I was able to travel to Greenland in November 2006 with a group as the first direct commercial airflight between the US and Greenland. Previous to this new route between Baltimore (BWI) and Kangerlussuaq (known by the Danes as Søndre Strømfjord), one had to fly via a European city, such as Reykjavik or Copenhagen. Air Greenland has just opened the route and it will officially start for the general public in April 2007.
First the airline- Air Greenland, which serves not only inbound and outbound for Greenland, but also does commercial flights within Greenland- everything from small fixed-wing craft to helicopter travel. www.airgreenland.com for more info. The flights were well run, professionally staffed and...... rarely on time. But they couldn't be faulted for this- Greenland weather is notoriously unpredictable.
We visited 4 different towns (city seems like an overblown term) Nuuk, Sisimiut, Kangerlussuaq and Ilulissat. More on those shortly. Greenland is the world's largest island at 836,000 square miles- 81% of which is covered by ice. The population is a smashing 55,000 people. Seals number over 9 million, making the ratio of finned to legged mammals approximately 164:1.
Speaking of seals, the cuisine..... If you are vegetarian or Hans forbid vegan, you may want to just visit Greenland on the Internet. Think about the reality of almost no tillable soil, no growing season and few warm temperatures (despite human's best global attempts at warming) and you might start to imagine what locals might eat. And it rhymes with eat.
Commercial whaling does NOT occur in Greenland- under the International Whaling Commission, Greenland is placed under the category of "Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling". They do not export whale products, but eat the whale meat and blubber and sell the surplus that they can't eat to neighbouring towns.
So, eating patterns in Greenland look something like this: fish, shrimp, seal, musk ox (imported a few years ago and now run wild locally), reindeer, whale, fish again, shrimp again, etc.... It's a meat eating world. Upon spending time there, it dawns on the visitor that the people who settled and live in Greenland clawed their way out of an icy wilderness that had no trees and thus no wood! Think about it. Early settlers got virtually everything from animals- all parts were put to use. It is amazing.
The people in Greenland- 85% are Greenlandic, a mixture of Inuit and European races (primarily Danish). In regards to religion, the majority of the population are Lutherans. English, Danish and Greenlandic are all spoken by the population and there have been different eras where either Greenlandic (Inuit) or Danish were the required primary language. During the 20 or so years where Greenlandic was the primary language (60's / 70's I think- not sure exactly) it created what is now called the 'silent' generation since it isn't spoken outside of Greenland and as such as a business and trade language is unfortunately not usable in this global era.
Nearly all Greenlanders live along the coast around fjords in the south, which has a milder climate. Greenlandic is spoken by about 50,000 people, which is more than all the other Eskimo-Aleut languages combined. Both Greenlandic and Danish are official with the West Greenlandic dialect forming the basis of the official form of Greenlandic.
Denmark started the colonization of Greenland in the 1720s- this went in fits and starts until 1953 when Greenland was formally made an integral part of Denmark and is now officially a county or territory of Denmark. It has its own parliament that rules on many issues with Denmark still holding the reins on things like natural resources.
Recreation- Greenland has a larger array of activities available than might immediately come to mind. Dog-sledging, iceberg cruising, wildlife viewing, hiking, cross-ice cap trekking, kayaking, hunting, fishing, mountaineering, ice-climbing, cultural experiences and even scuba diving are some of the adventurous activities meant to entertain, feed and educate tourists and locals alike. Aurora Borealis viewings are fantastic from what we heard, but while we were there it snowed almost every night, so we only caught a glimpse of the phenom from the airplane on our way in.
Ilulissat was the most interesting city we visited. It is a World Heritage site and sits right on an absolutely stunning fjord. If you were inclined to be an artist, you would probably want to get a room at the hotel Arctic (owned/operated by Air Greenland) and spend a week being inspired by absolutely stunning views, stark skies, and a sense of powerful desolation. Ilulissat's draw is the fjord and cruising the bergs is an absolute must. There are approximately 4000 people and about the same number of Greenlandic sled dogs. Which by the way is the ONLY breed allowed north of the Arctic Circle. This keeps the gene pool pure. You should hear when they all howl at night- think Jack London writings. We did have the opportunity to do a brief dog-sledging trip and it was a very authentic Greenlandic experience. Hotels- we stayed at the Hvide Falk hotel- I think 3 star. It was very quaint and had a stunning view of the fjord. Well worth the stay. Hotel Arctic is also in town and I believe is a 5 star hotel - we had dinner there and it is VERY nice. I believe it's considered the nicest place to stay in all of Greenland. Unless you like igloos in which case it's way over plush.
Sisimiut is a shrimping/fishing/hunting town (like most) and has I believe the main shrimp processing factory in Greenland. Sisimiut lies 75 km north of the Arctic Circle and is Greenland's northernmost year-round ice-free port. Population is 5200 and it is Greenland's 2nd largest town. Hotel Sisimiut was where we stayed and it was a decent 3 star establishment
Kangerlussuaq is the Greenlandic word for 'Big Fjord' and is sometimes known by its Danish name of Søndre Strømfjord. It is also nearly unpronounceable. :) This is where the big, commercial airplanes currently land (until Nuuk's runways are lengthened which if I heard right will be within a few years) and is a former US Military base also known as Blue West Eight. Following the fall of Denmark to Germany in World War II, responsibility for the security of Greenland moved to the U.S. military. There is not much to the town- we stayed in former military barracks (very basic- basically now a hostel) and there is an air museum which should be fascinating for WWII buffs.
Nuuk was our final stop and is the capitol, with 15,000 people and 2 stoplights (one is new), the only ones in the country. The city was founded in 1728 by the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede, and given the name Godthåb. Since home rule was enacted in 1979, the official name of the city is its Greenlandic name of Nuuk. It is the seat of government for the municipality of Nuuk, which encompasses about 39,000 square miles of Greenland. Nuuk is home to the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik). We stayed at the Hotel Hans Egede and it was a nice 4 star experience. The bar had a Transylvanian DJ who put out an amazing array of 70's and 80's tunes on a piano with an electronic drum kit backup. It was quite surreal to dance in Greenland to a Transylvanian cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Culture- there is a great cultural center where we were able to see local films, imported movies, music acts, etc. There are great bookstores and art galleries there as well and a very interesting Nuuk museum. We were struck by a Danish/Greenlandic artist Mads Nordlund: http://www.katuaq.gl/database.asp?lang=eng&num=885 is his exhibit at the Katuaq Culture house.
Overall, the experience of Greenland was incredible. Don't miss the chance to see a part of the world that very, very few tourists ever will see.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
shannon
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Location: Seattle WA
Reviews written: 76
Trusted by: 37 members
About Me:
Outdoors enthusiast. Bibliophile, no, make that biblio-obsessed. Love literature, adventure and travel.
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