Yes, it's Dutch and maybe we will reclaim it...
Ha, ha! Look what I found... My friends at the CIA also have a website (not as interesting as yours or mine, but they did gather some useful facts for us). And what do they tell me about the beautiful island of Jan Mayen? Yep, you've guessed it: it's discovered by a Dutchman and named after him. Well, the Norwegians are looking after it on our behalf now, but Jan Mayen was a Dutchman and if I have some spare time left, I might take a boat and plant our little flag on the volcanic island to reclaim it for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Or are my territorial claims going too far? And what about Australia? Remember Abel Tasman?
The last lines of the CIA fact sheet read, Military - note: defense is the responsibility of Norway. OK, Norwegian friends - we will not start a war about this desolate piece of rock - you can keep your island. But I do want to hear from you soon!
One more question - what on earth does this mean? Teori er når man forstar alt men ingen ting virker - praksis er når alt virker men ingen forstår hvorfor. My Norwegian is a bit rusty, but I guess they want to say that theory is what you are looking for and practice is what you actually get - or something like that. Look at this website, click on Olonkin City (in side bar left) and you will see why I want to know this...
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8 comments:
I understand there is a crew on the island to maintain the airport and roads....
What I don't understand is why have an airport, a crew and roads on an island that could spew forth heat and destruction at any one time. There are no natural resources, no farming or anything so why make it even slightly habitable?
I can understand the Dutch wanting to claim Australia - who wouldn't? It's a beautiful land, but why would you even consider claiming Jan Mayen?
Well, just for the fun of it, of course! I'm a boy, you know! Just imagine asking the same question to the Americans about their moon landings, "No natural resources, no farming or anything..." why do you even bother to go there and put your stars and stripes on the surface? JUST BECAUSE WE CAN DO IT! Arrgh, women - they don't understand us at all!!
But seriously, I do think they go there because of the weather station and probably for scientific purposes. I think that they don't really have an airport, it is an upaved landing strip. I just found another interesting website: http://www.alvoyages.com/articles/arctic/jan-mayen.html and I am also going to have a look at http://home.online.no/~vteigen/index_e.html - a website from one of the Jan Mayen crew members!
Did you go to the crew's home page? http://www.jan-mayen.no/
I must admit I am really enjoying finding out about Jan Mayen and guess what it does have plants and birds - even the Puffin visits it.
Did you email the crew member?
It's also a good topic to discuss with friends - like today when we were surrounded by dutch friends and I got to tell them about you and found out where Hoofddorp is etc. (head town?)
I am looking forward to finding out about your next island too.
Hi Carolanne! I was just typing an email message to Vidar T Eigen - the man behind the website that I mentioned in my last comment!
This is what I wrote him:
I just visited your website about Jan Mayen and I think it is great! I'm a virtual tourist / weblogger from the Netherlands and I have no intentions to go to this volcanic island (although it must be fun!). I started my personal game of virtual island hopping and guess where I just started? Right their on your beautiful island of snow, ice and volcanic rock! Now it's the idea that some friendly Norwegian man or women with connections to this island leaves a comment on my weblog posting which can be found here! In the meantime I try to find some interesting facts about the island to get the real virtual tourist experience and learn some interesting geographic / human interest things along the way! It's all just for fun.
I would higly appreciate receiving your comment on my weblog, but of course you can also reply by email. Thanks for your help!
Best wishes from the Netherlands
Paul
So, let's wait and see what happens next! Even if I don't get any comments from the islanders, I'm enjoying this virtual trip! Yes, I did visit the crew's homepage (it's mentioned as a link in my first posting) and asked them to reply. But maybe theses guys are enjoying the weekend (drinking beer, hunting for ice bears, fishing for sperm whales and other important jobs a guy just has to do). Ha, ha.
PS Yes - please follow me while I am hopping to the next island. Maybe I will do a new island every month? I already know where I want to go - it is really exciting. Maybe you can do something similar with distant planets? I'm sure you will find some Dutch pioneers there too! Say hello to your Dutch friends. Try this: Groeten uit Hoofddorp van jullie landgenoot! :-) Hoofddorp means something like head town, that's right. It is located in the centre of the Haarlemmermeer polder (this used to be a big lake) and the original name is Kruisdorp (cross village). The canal and the main road were crossing here, that's why. Later they thought Hoofddorp was a cooler name, I guess.
Sorry my friend not sure we can let you have Australia, but at the very least you should try for Australia!!
PHIL
Woops that was a mistake I meant to say Tasmania! But then that's where my dad was born.
PHIL
Don't worry, friends - I'm just building some settlements in the virtual world - no real territory claims here. We Dutchies already have such a bad reputation for trying to steal the rest of the world and all the national resources. I sincerely appologise - and I'm a Kingdom citizen most of all! But I did create a nice fake photograph with our red white and blue flag, didn't I? Anyway, I had some fun with it.
And Phil, isn't it stupid that Blogger doesn't allow you to edit your very own comments as a visitor? But, I like to receive many (friendly) comments, so keep them coming. Tasmania, huh? Well, maybe we will give that piece of land to your family. We also owned New York (New Amsterdam) once, maybe we try to reclaim that little village first.
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