No paved roads, population just over 2,000 people, an old coal-mining village, you see stuffed polar bears in stores and on the one, small main street. It is an extreme environment. It’s 78 degrees north, so the sun doesn’t set from April until August. Svalbard Global Seed Vault has 770,000 seeds stored longterm in case anything should happen to our world and we may need to draw on the seeds to regrow any existing plants. People can eat whale, seal, arctic char and even polar bear meat. I just had a $10 coffee with Bailey’s and Kailua. Yikes! Did I mention that everything in Norway is crazy-expensive?
On this rare day, the whole cast of 8 got off the ship together and we took a walk down to see a kennel for Alaskan huskies- which are important for the locals to travel around the Arctic. To get there, though, we had to dodge the Arctic Terns, who migrated all the way from Antarctica (?!?) and are notoriously protective of their nests, right by the road to the huskies. There are signs explaining that before the terns attack your head, they circle and shriek - which they certainly all did as we passed. The signage recommended holding a stick above you head so they attack the stick instead of your head and there was a bucket of provided sticks to borrow. We must have been quite a ridiculous sight to the locals driving by, 8 crazy theater people squealing and running past the shrieking terns while they dive-bombed us!
The highlight of the day was getting to talk to Danny, my big brother, for over an hour on his birthday! I may have called at 5am (oops!) but I’m sure it was totally worth it ;)
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| Captain sailed us as far north as possible before we hit ice! |
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| Longyearbyen |
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| Prized handmade Norwegian woolen mitten/gloves |
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