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Leaving Svalbard
Entry 20 of 21 | show all | print this entry |
I got to "sleep in" until 8:00am. After getting up regularly at 7:00am or earlier it was kind of nice. I took a shower and then headed to the kitchen for breakfast. The supermarket didn't have any milk, so Trond couldn't pick any up. Trond said the airplane didn't bring it the previous day. So, we didn't have any museli. Instead I had a sandwich, crackers and jam, and bread and Nutella. Nutella is made from hazelnuts and is pretty good. After breakfast I fell asleep for an hour and half or so. I guess all the excitement on the ship has caught up with me.
The transportation to pick us up was late. So, we were waiting around outside for a while. An 1-ton van finally arrived to pick us up. All of us and all the bags (we have far too many bags) filled the van to absolute capacity. Bags were stacked in the aisles.
Check in at the Longyearbyen airport went smoothly for once. Apparently Pat had saved our boarding passes from the flight in. These had some number that jived with their system better than the "E-Tkt" number on the tickets we were issued. This made the check in process a snap. We were plenty early and so hung out in the airport for a while. There wasn't much beyond security, though there was a branch of the local supermarket that sold food and other items. I got lunch for about 80 NOK, but that was with an ice cream dessert.
The flight was about an hour and a half. I sat next to Patricia and a guy who works for the Natural History Museum in Oslo. He was a geologist and was studying the rocks around a rich find of late Jurassic fossils that were found north of Longyearbyen. The site was special because it contained many nearly complete skeletons of pleisiosaurs and other ancient marine animals. The animals were fossilized near what he called a methane seep. Apparently, bacteria feed on the methane and eventually deposite calcium carbonate, which builds into a column. The exact processes involved are unknown, but it was an interesting area of research.
Our itinerary called for us to fly to Oslo today. However, we had to de-plane in Tromso and go through customs. We got off the plane and picked up our baggage at a baggage carousel. Then we walked through customs, which if you didn't have anything to declare was only a doorway. Then we re-checked in (we only had to show our passports at the ticket counter and check our luggage) and went through security. By the time we got through security our plane was already boarding. We took the same seats and soon we were airborne. The whole process seemed kind of trivial and unnecessary. However, Svalbard, while under Norwegian jurisdiction, is bound by the Svalbard Treaty. The treaty stipulates that Norway has to administer the islands, but has to be equal about it. So, whatever rules it imposes it must impose them equally no matter the nationality.
We landed at the Oslo airport without incident. We checked into the Radisson, which is almost connected to the airport. That is really nice because that means we don't have to race to the airport tomorrow. The Radisson here is super nice. It is all styled really "Euro" and trendy. I don't want to know what we paid for this place.
We had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. I had the stir-fried beef, which was 185 NOK plus a beer for 60 NOK. With tip (20 NOK) that put the meal at about 53 USD! That was a normal price for a meal and would be comparable to something that you might get at Applebees. Norway is expensive! Madison told some hilarious stories about being a cab driver in New York City. At least that was free.
After dinner, we walked back to the airport and had some gelatto (35 NOK = 7 USD). We sat down and talked a little bit out the trip, but mostly about traveling in general. Then we headed back to the hotel because we have to get up at 5:15 tomorrow for the trip back.
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