Our first stop in Greenland, and our first visit ever to Greenland, was in Paamiut. I feel a bit sorry for this colorful town of 1,500 people, who when a cruise ship stops, have an equal number of people, maybe more, descend upon the town for a day.
Fun facts: Kalaallisut is the Greenlandic language spoken by most people in Greenland as well as Inuit people who live in mainland Denmark. Greenland is a district of Denmark and has two representatives in the Danish parliament. 80% of Greenland is covered by ice leading to the often heard joke aboard the cruise: there is more ice in Greenland than in Iceland, and more green in Iceland than in Greenland. Greenland was probably named by the head of marketing.
For our first stop in Greenland we had booked an excursion with the cruise company. It was a simple walking tour which lasted an hour or so. There isn't much to the town, but what there is is very colorful.
If you visit Paamiut be sure to bring your bug nets and bug spray. We'd brought both on the cruise but made the mistake of leaving them aboard the ship. We were swarmed by mosquitoes which seemed to be common in Greenland when the weather was warm and the wind was calm. Although we never encountered as many bugs as that first day, we never again left the ship without our bug nets and bug spray.
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