April 20, 2025

Daily photo from Greenland

Daily photo from Greenland

This photo is from Greenland, but the chocolates are from the UK.

Everything is expensive in Greenland, and in Qaanaaq even more so as it has to be flown in. A single red apple - the American kind, from the base I think - would cost around $1.50.

Chocolate? Forget about it.

But my mum, bless her, did not forget about it, and she sent Easter chocolates each year we were in Greenland, including the famous Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. They are too sweet for me today, but I loved scooping the fondant out of the chocolate shell with my tongue as a kid.

Now, the only problem with sending chocolate is that there was actually a tax on them. When Mum wrote “chocolate” on the customs declaration, we had to pay extra for receiving them.

Regardless of one’s command of English, the word chocolate is similar in a number of languages, including Danish, and Greenlandic… sort of.

Confectionary, on the other hand, is a little more obscure. And once we realised we could sneak confectionary through customs without getting flagged… Well! You can just imagine! ;-)

Unfortunately, depending on who was working in the post office in Qaanaaq, words didn’t really matter. I understand that “spot checks” on “random” packages were required, but checking every package that comes on the weekly airplane is a little much, don’t you think?

I’m oversharing now, but the day my hernia belt arrived in the mail and the package was “randomly spot checked”… Well, I had a lot of explaining to do, especially as it could very well have been mistaken for something kinda kinky!

Ah, the joys of living in tiny and remote faraway places! ;-)

P.S. regarding “everything” including Kickstarter rewards, please bear with me, it’s been a hell of a weekend, and there is a lot going on at the moment.

Other than that… confectionary, folks! An obscure word, but legit!