Plane Rides to the Polar Region

Flying on SAS to Oslo

My last view of the USA

20:00 EST/ 2:00 CET (Central Europe Time)

I’m comfortably seated in a window seat of my eight-hour flight to Oslo. I upgraded my seat to SAS Go Plus or something so that I could bring my second bag. Apparently the cost of a second bag was twenty dollars more than a seat upgrade. Both were over $100. I got to sit in the SAS lounge for three hours, I get a nicer seat, and thanks to the free Wi-Fi, I was able to check-in and buy an extra bag for my connecting flight to Longyearbyen, so maybe in the end it was worth it. I have a little bottle of red wine, the sun is setting over Maine, my seat companion is a young Asian man who fell asleep nearly as soon as we got on board. I wonder if he’s going to Longyearbyen. Probably no. 

7:28 AM CET

About to land. Norway looks beautiful.

Rivers near Oslo from the plane

10:54

On the last flight on my way to Longyearbyen. Making the transfer at Gardemoen airport was not particularly difficult, and I was able to make it to the gate with plenty of time. The only weird thing was that I went all the way to domestic check-in, assuming that because Longyearbyen is Norwegian, it would be domestic. They checked me in, but the old woman serving me looked very confused. I then had to walk all the way back through to international to get to my gate, and then had to wait in line for passport check. I guess Svalbard is lumped into international. There were quite a number of Americans, particularly older couples, with me on their way to a cruise leaving from Longyearbyen. There was even a couple from Melbourne, Australia. They were all very pleasant to talk to in the passport line. One couple was just returning from Svalbard, and they said that not only in the hospital in Longyearbyen very good, but there is produce in the supermarket. That’s a relief. I talked to another UNIS student while waiting for the gate to open, Andrea, a German environmental engineering student studying Arctic Technology. She was as excited and unknowledgeable about life in Svalbard as me. She will be staying in a tent for eight weeks and then eventually moving into the short-term student housing. That sounds gross, and I hope she does OK. She also claims that we need to swim in the Arctic Ocean as part of our preparation. I don’t know about that, but I’m not too worried. I’ve swam in cold water before, and we’ll be wearing lifejackets and be constant supervision. Now the only thing to worry about is getting my suitcases on arrival (apparently suitcases are lost quite often) and then getting to my apartment without incident. 

I’m passing the time by reading the safety literature.

Approaching Svalbard

I didn't realize we were approaching land until I saw the tops of mountains sticking up through the clouds. There didn't seem to be any land beneath, only a sea of white clouds with purple and white mountains. It was surreal and alien, and I began to question this entire endeavor just based on the fact that there was no civilization in sight and no green at all.

Then we descended through the cloud layer, and everything became white. For about five minutes, we couldn't see anything outside the window except for pale brown fading in and out as we passed mountains. I must admit I was nervous we were going to crash into something. But eventually we passed down through the cloud layer and into an Arctic wasteland of dead grass and rock. We landed with a loud crash, and then I was in Longyearbyen. After grabbing my bag, I stepped out into the cold. I wondered what my first impression of Svalbard would be: the cold? the bright sun? it's beauty? I would say the cold was certainly on my mind, but I didn't think desolation would be the first thing to pop into my head.

There just WASN'T MUCH HERE. I walked into the large, boxy airport and joined the crowd of people waiting for baggage. I had heard how often baggage doesn't make it to Longyearbyen, so as I waited, I was half-expecting my bags to be lost. But they weren't. I grabbed my bags and said goodbye to Andrea, who was going to go live in a tent for several weeks instead of student housing (?!?). 

So then I was standing outside the airport, in the wind in cold, feeling lost in the middle of no where. There were several buses, but they seemed like they were meant for tour groups. I had no idea what to do, besides wait. I stumbled into another UNIS student, Mariana, who I had sort of communicated with on Facebook, and she told me she was waiting for another bus. Good. Something for me to do besides feel entirely lost. So we waited. And waited. Eventually a big taxi van came by, and somehow UNIS was brought up. So we both pushed our bags into the van and sat down, not knowing where we were going or, in my case, how I was paying, and set off into the windswept land I would now call my home.