end of trip summary e-mail

Arrived safely in Narsarsuaq on Saturday, and now am checked in to the flight to Copenhagen which doesn't leave for a few hours and it is sunny so hopefully plane will arrive & take off again on time.

Many more wonderful adventures here in Narsarsuaq, but will tell more later. Went on another wonderful 5 star walk yesterday. The big surprise here has been the fall colour, really bright. I didn't think there were any trees in Greenland, apart from a small forest tucked behind Nanortalik. But there are loads of shrub sized trees here, and a few real ones - they have an arboretum with trees with plaques saying they are from Colorado, Alaska, Kamchatka, etc.

Have met people and made not just contacts, but friends. It is surprising where artists and photographers turn up...

Well, I will be sorry to leave here but I am looking forward to term starting, and to getting going on the 10,000+ pictures I've accumulated. I have only 2 rolls of 35mm left, absolutely no more digital memory tucked away ANYWHERE, though I do have quite a bit of 120 film left, mainly because of problem with spool on the 1910 Kodak which I couldn't use, though I took Chris' large camera to some surprising places, including Year 7A at Nanortalik school, who loved looking through the viewfinder.

The best hostel was definitely Nanortalik, but everywhere I stayed was good, even the couchette on the ferry.

I've been all round the southern half of this country, by jumbo jet, Dash-7, 25 seater helicopter, ferry, bus, taxi, and even pickup trucks, and walking, walking, walking... Seen glaciers and icebergs (white ones, blue ones, and dirty dying ones), museums, artists' studios, the insides of peoples' homes, internet cafes with shouting boys, schools, a baby baptised in church, a photo of a 90 year old dying woman clinging to life, children, old people, Danes, Greenlanders, tourists from Italy and Argentina, seals, crows, gulls, trees draped over rocks, arctic cotton grass and bluebells, eaten wild crowberries and reindeer lasagne, been warm enough to run out in a t-shirt and flip flops to take a photo, cold enough to wear all my thermals, but usually OK without them. It's been a fantastic trip.

Qaqortoq e-mail extract

Ran up hill to hostel and back, have a couple more minutes to write. The library is very nice, people can drink coffee etc. here and most of the books have been rebound in a rainbow of nice colours. School is out but then kids seem to be wandering about the place most of the time. In Nuuk the school buses run all day, not just in the morning and afternoon but all day in between, and there are always kids going somewhere, or walking alone or in groups, in the most unlikely places, like way out by the airport, past the golf course (yes, there is one here, or rather, there!)

Tomorrow I have my first Air Greenland helicopter ride. Have already found the airport, by mistake, and confirmed my flight. Helicopters only, here, as in most of the small Greenlandic settlements. I may have to break off suddenly if the lady is ready to close the library.

In Greenlandic sentences are formed by adding more and more suffixes to just a few words, so the words are extremely long in print. People tend to read by running a finger along the line under the words. The purser on the ship handed out a questionnaire (not to me, it was only in Danish + Greenlandic) and all these elderly ladies were intently studying the first page, running a finger under the words. It seemed to take them a long time to read. The Danish lady at the hostel says this is typical. I have just had the librarian photocopy and article on the Greenlandic language issue for me from a new magazine called Greenland Today, new this year in Danish and English. Very interesting.

Much of the music on the radio sounds oddly like Radio Ceredigion, the Welsh middle-of-the-road stuff. I keep wondering why they aren't singing in Welsh! I have been eating kind of a lot of salami, at breakfast every day. I think I may get some pork chops tonight, for a change. Last week I got a slab of reindeer lasagne from the freezer deli section at the Brugsen supermarket in Nuuk. It was very good, made 3 portions. Sort of a more steak like hamburger.