(I’ve Never Been to) Greenland

No, I’ve never been to Greenland but I’d love to go there someday. A few years ago I was flying between the North America continent and Iceland. The Iceland trip involved great places like Reykjavík, Landmannalaugar and the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, but I digress.


From Above

Anyway, the pilot came onto the intercom. He informed us about a seldom-seen and mysterious sight off the side of the plane: Greenland. So he explained that usually it’s obscured by exceedingly thick cloud cover. However, today for some reason we had crystal clear skies and an unobstructed view of the world’s largest island.

Greenland from 35,000 Feet. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

It looks like pretty amazing, doesn’t it? Towering mountains, narrow fjords, snow-capped ridges and stark bare rock. It’s the home of fewer than 60,000 people who somehow manage to cling to the fringes of this immense landmass.


A Call for Visitors

Since I’m not likely to be able to visit Greenland anytime soon I can always hope for the next best thing, to have someone from Greenland hit my website and leave his or her digital fingerprints behind on the logs. Regular readers know quite well my fascination with the Google Analytics map function. I get lots of hits from many different foreign destinations but I’m still waiting for Greenland.

I think maybe my fascination goes back to Google Analytics’ use of a Mercator projection. This particular mapping algorithm makes Greenland look as large as Africa. Day after day I’m confronted by a disproportionally large, empty Greenland. It hogs a central chunk of the page reminding me that nobody has visited.

Maybe I should pander. Well, maybe if I mentioned the traditional names of Kalaallit Nunaat and Grønland, perhaps some random inhabitant checking blog engines will stumble across this entry and stop by? Maybe someone from a scientific station on one of the ice sheets could come over? Or maybe an American at Thule Air Base or someone from one of the Danish military bases will be kind enough to humor me?

Twelve Mile Circle calling Greenland… anyone out there from Greenland?


UPDATE (July 12, 2008)

I got two hits from Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland yesterday. Thank you Greenland visitors! Sometimes whining really does work.


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Comments

2 responses to “(I’ve Never Been to) Greenland”

  1. Lincoln Ho Avatar

    I’ve always found it interesting that Greenland is mostly covered in ice, and Iceland is mostly void of ice.

  2. Sanford_Manwich Avatar
    Sanford_Manwich

    Greenland blood! — but not *from* Greenland — saying ‘allo. Cheers to the interesting intrawubz blog.

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