July 16, 2002 hey hey reached
nuuk this afternoon, and am writing from restaurant. passage
was swift but weather unpleasant, and am doubting that will ever
be completely dry again. have taken showers and arranged laundry.
chuck is spending the night at a sailor's motel to rest
his larynx and nerves.
nuuk is decidedly larger than all previous towns combined, but
quiet just the same. is very european, excepting eskimos, of
course. inuit are absolutely beautiful, and more friendly than
the vikings, who look as though they are ready to don their horned
helmets and impale us on one of their whale harpoons. speaking
of which, just consumed hearty dinner of musk-ox pasta. dad and
nico had whale, which tastes of fatty steak. have yet to find
out what sort it was.
must return to deserts. they are only giving us fifteen minutes
on the computers and dad is waiting.
July 18 - is raining again, but less cold than at sea. use of
wood chips in heating stove has created log-cabin appeal and
aroma. dad preceded us to the library, and in his absence a customs-man
arrived with questions concerning the precise amount of drugs
we wished to declare. dad is going to meet him this afternoon
to fill out forms. most peculiar that he is suddenly interested
in us, as yesterday when dad went to harbor-master with our passports,
he was greeted with friendly but complete indifference.
we are rafted to a large fishing boat named "viking...(something-in-danish)."
vikings themselves are rarely present, and otherwise not sociable.
dad and nico investigated yacht club, which is ten miles from
town and has no more facilities that our present location, so
we are staying put.
have explored downtown area and discovered:
german-dutch supermarket stocked with digestive cookies and danish
blue cheese. got orange juice, too, but half was lost in efforts
of getting it to the boat in yesterday's gale.
a music store with which nico was quite disappointed because
they wouldn't let him play the guitars.
an inuit disco full of smoke and swedish techno-music
that is the extent of nuuk's modern attractions. of course, there
is always the sea and icebergs and mountains leaping out of the
ocean, but they are generally obscured by fog and rain.
chuck is becoming increasingly hoarse and has moved from the
seamen's lodgings to a four-star hotel. we are eating dinner
there tonight and will probably use his shower before we
leave. am wondering whether he will feel at all compelled to
return to the crew.
computer keyboards have funny danish things on them: æ
å language is hardly similar to dutch at all. both
danish and greenlandic are so foreign that we have a difficult
time discerning them from one another on the radio. fortunately,
most of the locals are reasonably well acquainted with english. |
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Jana van der Kolk |
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tijdens de oversteek van |
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Labrador naar Groenland |
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