Longyearbyen!
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
7
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Longyearbyen,
Svalbard and Jan Mayen,
Norway
Sunday, July 6, 2008
You can see icebergs in the sea as we approach the island of Spitsbergen.
When we landed it looked really bleak. There were low hanging clouds, no sun, windy, and it was about 40 C. Everything looked grey. Longyearbyen is situated on the south side of a fjord called Isfjord. It is actually in a glacial moraine, which leads to the fjord. There is very little vegetation and lots of exposed rock. Up until about 1990 or so it was a very rustic and rough town. Most of the people there were there for mining as it was a "company town". So, it has a vaguely prefabricated, slightly temporary look and feel to it. There is a lot of old coal mining equipment strewn about the glacial moraine. It kind of feels like a frontier town, but there are ammedities like schools, a Radisson, and even a small shopping mall. The houses look fairly new (in fact most are less than 20 years old) and look well kept.
We took a bus to Guesthouse 102, our home before we board the ice breaker. Guesthouse 102 is situated in a glacial moraine between two huge ridges. Guesthouse 102 looks like a prefabricated 2-story rectangular building. It reminds me of a cracker box. This building is quite old, too. My guess is that it was built in the 50s or 60s. Fortunately, I have a room to myself this time. The girls, however, are stuffed 4 to a room. Not ideal, but it is the cheapest that could be found. Guesthouse 102 is pretty far from the main part of Longyearbyen. The only transportation is an expensive taxi or walking. The walk to the town is about 30 minutes. Not ideal.
After we checked in, I went off to the downtown with Pat to see about finding the camera store and an ATM. We had good talks on the way about cameras, life, and Svalbard. The camera shop was closed, but Pat was able to hit the ATM.
We walked back up the hill to the Huset (The House) to have dinner with everyone. Along the way we stopped to investigate a little cemetary. We found a grave as late as 1994. When we got there, everyone had eaten. I ordered pork and potatoes. The meal was about 130 NOK with a beer, which isn't too bad. The food was good and I shoveled it down since I had walked a ways today.
After dinner, Pat, myself, and a few other people headed back down to the town. We checked out some old wooden towers that were used to support ropes that carried coal down the mountain. I counted the growth rings on a piece of timber and came to about 135 +/- years. I also took a lot of pictures.
Pat and I split from the ground and continued down to the Radisson. Yes, Longyearbyen has a Radisson. It is not much, but probably the most classy joint in the place. We took our time and poked our way back up the moraine to Guesthouse 102. I relaxed for the rest of the night and sorted through pictures and had a couple beers.
