A War Hero’s Stories in the Hotel Sisimiut Bar
Outside the window of the Somandshjemmet, or seaman’s home, horses are standing in the snow. They don’t move much, unlike the dogs who yap and tug at their chains. These three brown horses with their thick fur coats stand motionless. It makes me think of what the temperature must be–about […]
The Last Fisherman Hangs on in Assaqutaq
What a day we had in Glorious Greenland! I am very excited about the nascent tourist business that will soon turn into something very significant when Air Greenland begins its twice-weekly flight from Baltimore to Greenland in late May ’07. You can feel that the country is ready to welcome […]
Greenland Lets its Laundry Hang Out
In Greenland everyone hangs out their laundry, even during snowstorms…we are in Sisimiut, on the coast and here there is a year round harbor. The big employer is Royal Greenland they process shrimp and halibut but the cod is scarce. Today we heard about a trade school where people can […]
The Yip, Yap, Howl of Greenland’s Sledge Dogs
We took a short crash course tonight in Greenlandic: in this language there are only 20 letters and three vowels…and a sound that is common for two L’s is sort of like the sound someone with a lisp makes. Greenland is fantastic: The food has been first rate, fresh fish, […]
A First Mate’s Story
We took a boatline called Disko Line out into the channel, and passed huge icebergs and small chunks of ice as we made our way out of a long fjord. Greenland’s size and immensity makes you feel small and insignificant. The first mate we met in up in the helm […]
Navigating the Fjords to the Edge of the Polar Ice
We boarded a red boat in Ilulissat harbor, it was snowing quite hard. The boats deck was slippery with snow, and the captain and his crew were topside, inside their quarters you could see a flat screen with the map of the glaciers and in front his two radar screens, […]
Ilulissat’s Famous Icefjord Awaits
A dinner of Greenlandic food was consumed at 10 pm tonight. Fin whale, smoked salmon and halibut, raindeer slices (tender like beef), turnips, fried potatoes, white wine, (there has been lots of wine here) We flew in during a snowstorm to Ilulissat, a town of 4500 with 3000 sled dogs. […]
Greenland: A First Glimpse of Life Above the Circle
We landed in Greenland’s biggest airport, in Kangerlussuaq, above the Arctic circle, and stepped onto the tarmac. Inside the small airport, four youths stood in a row, as if waiting for us, they had features of eskimoes, the high cheekbones and Asian eyes. We had a late dinner of reindeer, […]