Colourful Greenland

GREENLAND Last week I came back from a mind blowing trip to Greenland. This country is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is oh sooo beautiful, oh so different, so wild, so raw, so breathtaking.

Greenland is under Danish rule, but is still populated by indigenous inuit people that mainly still live off hunting and gathering. In total there is only some 56 000 people in the huge continent, so the settlements in Greenland are charming and small. Most small towns on the west side are clinging to the mountain cliffs right by the icy fjords, they are unlike any other communities I have seen. Many of the settlements rarely gets visitors, and therefore the people here do not put on tourist shows as I have seen indians in America do or even Norwegians in national costumes do in the valleys of Norway. You can see people carrying newly fetched meat on the streets and the houses are often decorated with sculls or hides.

I was so fortuned to be invited by the Norwegian company Hurtigruten to attend a press trip with their ship Fram to Greenland. We could enjoy the often humble settlements at daytime and then return to the high end standard on the ship at night. A winning combination.

One day we came in to a quite large settlement with a hotel, cafe and restaurant, but none of them were open, even though everyone knew the ship was coming in. What attracted the people that day was that some hunters had caught a large whale and people were gathering around to buy some pieces of the fresh meat.

I have to write more about this place and other fascinating aspects about Greenland. But for now I just want to share some pictures from one of the last places we visited. A small town called Itilleq with only 130 inhabitants. I think it has all that I really love about Greenland. The colourful small houses, the greenlandic dogs barking outside, outstanding nature and the most adoring people.