Now we have really emerged into civilization in the town of Qaqortoq. With over 3,500 residents it is the largest town in Southern Greenland and has some of the oldest buildings, dating to the 1700s. It is called the study town because there are so many students here. Greenland only has three high schools, one in the capitol, one on the east coast and one in Qaqortoq. They specialize in tourism education. As there are no roads connecting any towns, you do not see a lot of cars. They consider their marina their parking lot.  

It is interesting to hear about growing up in Greenland from Leila, on our expedition team. She is half Greenlandic and half Danish. Her parents are divorced and her Greenlandic mother now lives in Denmark and her Danish father lives in Greenland. She’s been working in tourism for nine years. She studied in France to learn French but said everyone there spoke English. 

The Greenlandics love their traditions and storytelling, their history books are their “sagas” which are read and reread through the generations. You can go anywhere in the world and will be welcome into the home of any Greenlander living there. No Greenlanders are strangers to each other. There are no real class differences because the only way to survive is to help each other.

Their way of living is dependent on the weather, which changes often. This makes them spontaneous and one of the most commonly used words is immaqa which means maybe, as in, “Maybe I will be out tomorrow.”  They value nature and most feel the need to return to their homeland when they are away. They talk often about the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, which we have not yet seen as the weather has not been conducive with clear skies. A fellow passenger posted a sighting while we were in Iceland that nobody else witnessed. Come to find out it was shot on a tripod with time lapse and could not be seen with the naked eye. Pshwew, thought I missed it!

The NatGeo photographer has been bombarded with questions on correct camera settings, just in case it does appear. What ISO? What f-stop? What aperture?  What lens? How do you focus? He finally declared the best thing to do is sit on your balcony with a glass of wine and watch it. He will take the photos for us.  

We strolled around town; visited the Great Greenland Fur House, Greenland’s only tannery; sampled traditional Greenlandic food at Hotel Qaqortoq (I even tasted musk ox, it was delicious); and watched a traditional kayak demonstration in the harbor.

The people of Qaqortoq: fishing is a way of life here, the children are delightful, trolls are real, sled dogs are Danish and once you’ve eaten musk ox you can call yourself a Greenlander.