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Qaqortoq Greenland
Independent travel tips for the professional at Leisure
October 2008
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WIP - Not ready to publish
Intro . . . .
segue . . .
The Melting Greenland icecap
Approaching Greenland by ship is an amazing experience. The constant
icebergs are being shed from the glaciers, and the rugged peals and ice-sculpted
mountains provide a dramatic backdrop for their unworldly landscape.
The sunrises in Greenland are an amazing spectacle of color, quite amazing
Greenland icebergs
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Is Greenlandic the longest language?
What language has the longest words? While nobody has ever calculated the
average length of words, it’s commonly believed that the Welch language has
super-long words, especially town names like
Gorsafawddachaidraigodanheddogleddollonpenrhynareurdraethceredigion.
The Welsh is even longer than German, where they paste many words together into
a single large word.
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Gepäckaufbewahrungsschein (luggage-up-hold-certificate) = luggage check
ticket
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Geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung = speeding
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Hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung = maximum speed limit
But I have a new contended for the world’s longest words. The folks in Greenland
folks speak Greenlandic, an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken only in Greenland.
The native Greenlandic language beats the Welsh language for the longest words,
with these beauties:
There are Greenland web sites but thankfully whey abbreviate their word length:
The town of Qaqortoq
Qaqortoq is a
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welfare housing for the poor |
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Hunting for whales
We took a ride into the frontier and came upon a spectacular site of a young
whale feeding in an isolated inlet:
A young whale feeding in a Greenland inlet
Sadly, out guide was right on his cell phone telling his buddies about the
whale, and planning to kill it.
He explained that the whales are killed instantly with special whale guns and
the death of the baby whale would be quick, painless and delicious.
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Eskimo medicines
I was impressed with the hardiness of the locals, folks who
thrive in very harsh conditions, extreme cold, poor farming, and most of all,
relations with the Danish:
The Inuit children roam freely and safely, since everyone knows everyone else,
kids are completely safe from harm.
I also came across this is a store, medicine for Eskimo kids. I’m not sure
if this is for Eskimo kids or if “Eskimo” is a brand name . . .
Dining Eskimo style
The idea of freshly clubbed baby seal is met with repulsion by hippies and
members of PETA, but to the Eskimo’s, fresh baby seal is a real treat.
I was in Eskimo country recently and I was surprised to find out that they can
hunt all sorts of unique goodies, including seagulls, seal meat and whales.
At the market, the seal meat is a vivid red, and it almost turns black then
cooked:
They also say that the baby seals taste much better than the adult deals, which
have a very strong fishy and gamey flavor. It’s like the difference between lamb
and mutton.
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Fresh Seal meat is bright red |
Incidentally, the Eskimos say that baby seal has a fishy taste and it has a
distinct gamey flavor which most Americans would find disgusting. I’d like to
say that it tastes like chicken, but it tastes more like seagull, which they
sell in their public markets
We Americans are hypocrites when it comes to the slaughter of baby seals. The
baby seal harvest is no more gruesome than the slaughter of baby lambs, and just
as violent. Where I live, the farmers slit their throats and hang them upside
down while they are still alive so that the last beats of their hearts flush the
blood from their dying baby bodies:
Real estate in Greenland is expensive, this home is over $300,000:
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Colorful lichens on the tundra |
Older folks get around in supercharged scooters, this one was careening through
town at breakneck speeds!
Eskimo potato farmer
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Misc pics:
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