Arrival On Svalbard

Danik has seen his first ever polar bear - at the airport!

After checking out of our hotel in Tromso, and checked in for our flight to Svalbard with SAS (my first time flying with the airline), we were on our way to the island in the Arctic. It was a short flight (thank god), and while we were sitting on the back row of the aeroplane, I was listening to some music when the pilot makes a loud announcement. (Great, I thought, weather conditions, flight time left and a big thank you from the airline coming up!), but the pilot wanted to be a tour guide, and pointed out just through the clouds on the right hand side of the plane, (which we were sitting) we could see BEAR ISLAND! Wow, another small island belonging to Norway, but only reachable by boat. So I tried to take some photographs, knowing that I will probably never get there, but at least I have flown over and seen the island.

Flying over the island of Svalbard, its mighty mountains pointing upwards to the clear blue skies, still with heavy snow on the peaks, an amazing trip beckons.

Danik and Olga are acting for the new Harry Potter film!

Olga and me tried to play spot the polar bear on the approach to the airport, but none were to be seen, but as our tour guide, Mr Pilot pointed out, we did see the small town of Barnetsburg, the Russian settlement on the west coast. We landed on a small airstrip just west of Longyearbyen, and after a long wait for our luggage, it was time to walk into town. It is about 4km from the town to the airport, and while other passengers paid to use the expensive bus service, me and Olga set off down the long boring and dusty road. After twenty minutes, and my bag hurting my shoulders, a car pulled up beside us. It was a young man, asked us if we wanted any help and we weren’t going to turn down the offer. After loading up the luggage into the car, we drove off. He didn’t understand English, but as soon as I said, ‘Russian’, him and Olga started to have a long conversation. He had to use his phone to ask his friend for directions to the hotel we were staying in (great, a very small town and you never heard of this hotel!) and afterwards said to us that his friend has heard bad things about the hotel.

Olga caught her first polar bear, found walking around the huge town centre of Longyearbyen!

We didn’t let this put us off. Also Olga found out she is not the first Latvian to come to the island, and that in one of the bars is a Latvian working for the summer months. This made me laugh.

We said our goodbyes, and checked into the Mary-Ann’s Polarigg guesthouse. Our room was small, cosy, and dark. There were two single beds, but we soon pushed those together, which one of them despite is made out of steel, collapse. (I blame Olga). I manage to solve the problem, but then on the chest of draws, Olga broke one of the covers, but once again I came to the rescue!

Time to check out the town.

Daniel is all steamed up on the walk to Tromso airport today!

The sea was not a far walk, so we decided to check that out. After walking a couple of minutes over ashes and rock, we nearly made the sea when these Arctic Thuns birds (similar to seagulls, but smaller with black heads) despite to keep hovering over our heads and try to hit us! (Luckily they didn’t!)  We walked very fast back to the main road. There was a sign with a bin full of wooden sticks. We read the sign. This was a nesting area! Oh dear, so that was why they were attacking us, to protect us from the eggs. The sign also said to take a stick and point it upwards above your head, then they won’t attack you. Ok, so we did this and off to the sea we went. An amazing view with mountains on the other side looking down at us with all the snow on the peaks. I put my hand in the Arctic Ocean. Bloody hell it was so cold! I never felt water that cold before. Walking back, making sure we didn’t get hit by any of the birds, the sun was still high up in the sky despite being late afternoon, and a strong wind coming in making this a kind of enjoyable walk.

Svalbard Aiport

After a bit of shopping, and buying postcards for the postcard exchange members on TravBuddy,  (also a cuddly toy of a polar bear for Olga), we walked up to the most northern church in the world, which looks like any other house in Svalbard but converted into a church. A walk to the nearby village of Nybyen, just south of Longyearbyen, along a long dusty road. We were in search of a road sign just outside town with a polar bear on it, but never found it (yet!), but it was not in Nybyen. Oh well. Back into town, we just walked through all the housing estate to see the different types of houses, then just headed back into our hotel, where all the other guests kept saying hello to us. Never been to a happier and pleasant place.

Svalbard Aiport

One thing I did notice while walking around today is how quiet it was. It was so quiet that I didn’t even hear cars approaching us from behind. It was perfect. Much better than the busy stressful life of London back home.