Greenland Overview

May 16, 2006 (Press Release) -- Intro

Ever since 15th-century explorers returned from the distant north with wild and

woolly tales of a remote region of brutish hairy pygmies, unicorns, mind-bending

visions and citadels of ice, Ultima Thule has been the fantasy of all fantasies.

Poets from Virgil and Pytheas to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have celebrated it in

verse; the Weimar Republic used it as a template for one of their mythic Nordic-

Germanic societies; and big-haired '70s rock bands, with a penchant for heavy

feedback and fuzzy guitar solos, have used it as a clarion call to youthful

rebellion.

Even the juggernaut of global technology has not flattened the myth. Greenland,

and especially its northern regions of Ultima Thule, remains a land of fantastical

and semi-mythical proportions. The aurora borealis, the vast tundra, the

glittering columns of ice and the monstrous glaciers that calve icebergs into the

sea are one thing; the cold, the igloos, the dogsleds and the proverbially tight-

lipped Inuit are another. But any land that has a mirage-inducing atmosphere

capable of conjuring up an entire city out of thin air, or turning a dog turd on

the horizon into a sailing ship, has got to be worth visiting.


Destination Facts

Full country name: Greenland (Gr鴑land) or Kalaallit Nunaat (local name)
Area: 2,175,600 sq km (848,484 sq mi); estimated 341,600 sq km ice-free, 1,834,000

sq km ice-covered
Population: 56,000
Capital city: Nuuk (Godth錬) (pop. 14,000)
People: 87% Greenlander, 13% Danish and others
Language: Eskimo dialects, Danish, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect)
Religion: Evangelical Lutheran, shamanism
Government: Self-governing Danish territory since 1979
Head of State: Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
Prime Minister: Jonathan Motzfeldt


Facts for the Traveller

Visas: Citizens of Nordic countries require only an identification card; citizens

of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, the US and EU countries require a valid

passport but no visa for a maximum stay of 90 days. Most other countries require a

visa.
Health risks: Hypothermia, runny noses, Fata Morgana
Time: GMT/UTC plus two hours (three hours in summer)
Electricity: 220v, 50Hz
Weights & measures: Metric


When to Go

If you think bone-chilling weather and long arctic nights when the sun don't shine

is not for you, then aim to be there sometime during the summer months: mid-July

to the first week in September. This is feel-good time for Greenlanders; the days

are long, the tundra is a riot of wild flowers and red berries and there is a

general feeling of wellbeing and contentment throughout the land. The trade off

for these fabulous Arctic summers is mind-bending plagues of mosquitoes that sting

all the way through late June to early August. If you stay on until October,

you'll get a ringside seat for the aurora borealis, although the lights can appear

as early as August. Just about all Greenlandic festivals and events occur in the

summer months. Going in the harsh winter months between December, January and

February is just not a good idea unless you're a scientist studying seasonal

effects, or a masochist, or both.


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