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Greenland
Time
Traveler | Cool Facts! | Technology
Time
Traveler
Greenland's national post-office
Filatelia is located in Tasilaq, a town situated on the icy east coast of
Greenland. Tasilaq was established as a trading hub for Greenland back in 1894,
and now has a population 1,700-strong.
Cool
Facts!
One of the most interesting parts
of the Greenland Post has to be weather-related. With Piteraqs (inland
hurricanes) whipping the land at any moment, the delivery of mail has some great
limitations. Here I introduce one of the most exciting journeys of mail across
acres of ice to its final destination of Tasilaq.
Mail bound for Greenland is collected and sorted in Copenhagen, capital of
Denmark, and then delivered to Kangerlussuaq, a town on the west coast. This leg
of the journey is the safest as weather on the west coast is usually stable.
However, the
second leg of the journey, which is the trans-country flight between
Kangerlussuaq and Tasilaq, is usually treacherous. Icy and snow-covered
runways, worsened by blizzards and fog, are common hazards to this part of the
journey.
Sometimes when
mechanical equipment becomes unreliable, the good ol' huskies come in handy in
the bitter cold.
Technology
"The mail in Greenland is delivered
by air or ship, and then the post is sorted into mailboxes. We only deliver post
to people' houses one or two times a week. But generally the mail is distributed
as all other countries. All mail from abroad is going thru Denmark. If it's by
mail it takes one day and if it's by ship it takes one month from Denmark to
Greenland. Some special things I can tell you aubout Greenland POST is that in
wintertime the waters from Aassiat and further up north is frozen [for the
whole] winter so delivery by ship is not possible. And sometimes the mail is
delivered to the small towns by snowmobile or dogslede. "
Morten
Kjær
POST Greenland
Po. box 9999
3900 Nuuk
Greenland |
