First Two Days in Longyearbyen

Driving down the street for the first time in Longyearbyen, I was a little taken aback by its starkness and utilitarianism. This was not Paris or Rome, this was definitely a small outpost in the Arctic Ocean. I was still in shock about actually getting here.

The taxi pulled up to my new home, Nybyen, Brakke 13. I fumbled with my wallet. I had three cards and one after the other failed to work. I began to panic. I still had a twenty Euro note in my wallet. "Do you accept Euros" I asked feebly, "I have twenty Euros." "Give me ten euros, then." I was instantly relieved, and said that as he was being so kind and patient me, and because I only had a 20 Euro note, I was giving it all to him. I stepped out and with the help of the two girls who were with me, entered the dorm building I would live in for the next few months. 

There was even a reindeer to greet me to my new Arctic home. It was happily munching the grass next to the building. I was thankfully able to get my two suitcases into my room without incident, and began unpacking. I didn't have internet yet, so I couldn't contact my parents to tell them I was ok, so I was a little worried. One of the two girls I had arrived with, Mariana, knocked on my door and told me they were walking to the UNIS building to get their IDs and things.

The UNIS building was nice and warm, both physically and aesthetically, with wooden paneling, large windows and Arctic watercolors. I was able to get my student ID, and WIFI log-in info, and as soon as I could, I informed my parents of my survival.

                                  

The next stop was Svalbuttiken, the supermarket/department store of Longyearbyen. I was bracing myself for utmost despair. I even had a title for that blog entry: The Threnody of Svalbuttiken.  But instead of misery, I felt delight!

 So many varieties of candy!

A small shrine of fresh produce including bananas, kiwis, pineapples, and yes, even mangoes. I'm sure each one is exorbitantly expensive, but many I'll splurge on one after a long week. 

They also had vegetables, and lots of frozen burgers and hamburger buns. 

After lugging my groceries back to my dorm, I ate, caught up on email, and then slept for 11 hours. In the morning, I walked back to the UNIS building because I needed a bathroom with toilet paper, and then started exploring the town of Longyearbyen properly. First I walked along the main street, in the center of which is a statue of a coal miner, to represent the spirit of Longyearbyen or something.

While waiting for the post office to open so I could buy stamps and register my address, I bought some stuff from the pharmacy, bought a hot chocolate from Fruene, one of two cafes here, and stared into some of the clothing stores. Longyearbyen is very very dead at 10am in the morning on a Saturday. Finally the post office opened, and the stern, older woman behind the counter gave me a form. It was entirely in Norwegian. I stared at it for five minutes with a pen in my hand, afraid to leave a mark because etternavn, fornavn, and all these other names above the boxes made very little sense to me. Eventually, I just wrote down my personal information, and prepared to get yelled at in Norwegian. I gave the sheet back to the postal worker, and she was very nice, helping me fill out the rest of the form, and there was no problem at all. 

I had heard about the Arctic Airship Museum before arriving, so I decided to visit it. It was a really wonderful museum with a lot of information A lot of it tragic, as one might imagine a museum dedicated to expeditions to the North Pole would be. Airships are very finicky and weather dependent, and even the most advanced technologies were not enough to deter most disasters. The most tragic story was of the friendship of the Norwegian explorer Amundsen and Italian explorer Umberto Nobile. Nobile was instrumental for Amundsen's airship trip to the North Pole, but Amundsen refused to give Nobile any of the glory. Fueled by the nationalism of Italy, Nobile embarked on a subsequent all-Italian airship trip to the North Pole, which led to him and his crew crashing somewhere off the coast of Svalbard. There was an international effort to save him, an effort that Amundsen joined... and during which Amundsen would lose his life. Nobile was saved, but much of his crew was lost. Norway and Italy were angry at each other for a long time, and Fascist Italy imprisoned and then exiled Nobile for embarrassing their country. I bought a Svalbard wildlife guide, a polar bear cup, and four post-cards

An arctic tern back from its annual trip to Antarctica. Every year they fly from pole to pole and back. They are understandably angry about everything. There was a sign warning visitors that the birds are known to dive bomb passerby's with their sharp beaks. The sign recommended waving your arms around in circle above your head like a lasso to ward them off. 

Some barnacle geese, identified thanks to my pocket wildlife guide.

I can't travel much further down this road without a rifle.

Peak business hours on the main road of town

I learned recently that these wooden posts sticking out of the ground in places are the foundation posts of abandoned buildings.

John Monro Longyear, an American coal-magnate and founder of Longeryearbyen, which translates to Longyear's town.

A mysterious rock

I found this leaf while walking home after a day of exploring. Where could these leaves have come from? There's not a single tree on Svalbard, so for these to be here, they must have travelled all the way from the mainland. What mysteries do these leaves belie?

Oh, they're fake.