Attractions of Greenland
If you spin the globe once, then from above you can see a huge white spot on the edge of the globe, called Greenland. And just like on the globe, Greenland’s distinctive feature from other countries is the same white ice that the largest island in the world wears all year round.
But this does not confuse the people of Greenland or make them pessimistic. Despite the fact that almost 80% of the island is completely covered with northern ice, it still has a lot to see. For example, even on the positivity of ordinary Greenlanders, sunbathing in jackets, there in the summer on the shore.
Despite the fact that Greenland translates as “Green Land”, greenery in this country, except for green roofs of houses, can not be found often. This is because trees and shrubs do not grow on shrivelled soil and ice.
In the harsh nature of Greenland there are no bright colors. And that is why cheerful and positive Greenlanders paint their houses in marvelous, colorful colors, so as not to go crazy from the endlessly dull, monotonous-ice landscape. "Green Land" - an island covered with ice, called enterprising Vikings from Norway and Iceland in 985 AD. They did this in order to attract more immigrants. And as sometimes happens in life, reality has exceeded all their expectations.
The inhabitants of Greenland do not look like Europeans, and especially the Vikings – slanted eyes, dark skin. When you meet them, only the word Eskimo comes to mind. An Eskimo translates as a person eating raw meat. For the first time, Eskimos were called Canadian Indians. And this word is so ingrained that today almost all northern peoples are called Eskimos. But Greenlanders are very offended when such a nickname is applied to them.
Greenlanders consider themselves Inuit. The Inuit live in the same way as all modern people – not in huts covered with animal skins, but in heated houses, inside which the lack of heat and light is compensated by just pressing the switch button. Innuits are very hospitable and welcoming people. Despite the fact that almost no one comes to them, except for extreme people, and those who want to earn money, they are very happy with every rare guest and tourist.
In this warm city only from the hospitality of people, you can visit some excursions and see wild animals. Excursions in remote, northern areas of Greenland are widely popular, where you can see the world's largest carnivorous animal - the polar bear.
In fact, the polar bear is not white. The skin of the bear, which hides the strength of about a ton of muscle, is as black as its nose. And the translucent fibers of fur and, of course, the optical influence of its icy, snowy environment give its coat a white color.
The polar bear is a totemic animal worshipped by the Inuit, more tolerantly speaking. For the Inuit, the polar bear is a nanuk, the embodiment of sea power. In Greenland, there are many legends and legends about polar bears. But the most famous of them is a recently released law prohibiting close approach to the nanucs and take pictures with them, especially when their brood is nearby.
Since the Nanook spends most of his time in the water, hunting or with his offspring, it is not easy to meet. And if such luck still falls to the lot of tourists – you need to be extremely careful. Polar bears (nanuki) are very disliked, in particular, American tourists for the fact that, having seen him, careless people want to capture with him or his offspring, the best photo, not to mention a selfie. Polar bears do not like to be photographed and can run at a speed of 40 km. /hour – neither from the camera nor from the photographer, nothing remains. Therefore, in Greenland, as in a number of other similar countries, similar laws have recently begun to appear.
The capital of Greenland - the city of Nuuk - from a bird's eye view resembles figures built from a set of children's designer Lego. Nuuk is one of the smallest capitals in the world. Its population is only about 15,000 people. Walking through the wide streets of Nuuk, you can find its residents dressed in warm clothes all year round. The piercing north wind is the first thing that catches the eye in Nuuk, and this landmark, a characteristic feature of both the capital and the whole of Greenland, is impossible not to notice.
Most of Greenland’s historical collections are housed in the Nuuk National Museum. It beautifully hung national Inuit costumes - boots and jackets made of seal skins, and those made of polar bear skins, with instructions for making warm clothes from them.
Also in the museum in a special showcase for public display exhibited mummies, relatively well preserved for 500 years.
But the most interesting and at the same time funny sight in the National Museum of Greenland is the figures of folk art of the Greenlanders. On them, the Greenlanders showed all the love expressed by the Greenlanders for the polar animals.
After visiting this institution, a tourist may think that in addition to the National Museum and colorful houses with bizarre colors, there is nothing else in the city of Nuuk. But that's not the case.
There is a church in the capital of Greenland. There are interesting, strange, sometimes monuments to seals and other northern animals. One of these, the most famous monuments (there are no more than five) is the sculpture “Mother of the Sea”, on which a woman is hugged by a man, a polar bear, a walrus and a seal.
Greenland is famous all over the world for its glaciers, which are the main attraction of the country of eternal ice along with its icebergs. This huge natural refrigerator is even called the country where icebergs are born. And such a nickname for the country of eternal glaciers was chosen for good reason.
Greenland is shrouded in millennial glaciers, which tightly fetter it from all sides. Greenland is the second largest mass of ice on planet Earth after Antarctica. But every year, the ice layers slide into the ocean and from time to time break off with great rumbling. This is how floating islands – icebergs – appear.
Greenland naturally exports about a thousand icebergs to the world’s waters every year. And some of these ice caps can be 80 kilometers long and 15 stories high.
One can easily believe that one of them was once the cause of the death of the infamous Titanic. It is in the land of the Inuit that you can better see the consequences of global warming and make sure that all this is not pseudo-scientific jokes.
The thickness of the ice shell covering Greenland is about 1500 meters. If the ice melts, the sea level will rise by 7 meters, and you will have to say goodbye to some countries and islands.
Returning, finally, home, remembering the island of Greenland, I want to describe it with the words from the song of Alla Borisovna Pugacheva: “... and you are as cold as an iceberg in the ocean.” Applied to the Green Country, this quote always describes Greenland as best it can.
Greenland and icebergs are synonymous. And they will always be inseparable.