Longyearbyen, Svalbard

Hey Everybody,

Made it! Landed at Longyearbyen's airport this afternoon. It's quite small - check-in, departure gate and baggage claim are in the same place. From the airport it's barely 5 minutes to the hotel. We did make a very quick stop at the expedition boat to drop-off staff. Starting Saturday this will be home for the next 10 days.

As you can see the town itself doesn't have much snow at this point - so the locals have parked their snowmobiles for the season. It's in the upper 30s and not much wind. The local kids are out on their bikes. And the main street has one skateboard ramp that the boys use for foot racing. I didn't see one skateboard as I wandered the town this evening. The town has a movie theatre - it is open on Wed. & Sun. nights.

As you can tell it's is a pretty small town, and it seems like tourism is one of the main sources of income. During the long summer months people can hike up neighborhood mountains at 10pm. There are 2 hikers with a guide in the lower left..but locals climb just to write in the snow.

Longyearbyen was named after an American who founded a mining company here in 1906. The main entrance to the mine is still visible, and other buildings from that time remain. The town is now home to the doomsday (or seed) vault, which has 2-3 million seeds from plants all over the world.

This Arctic island lies 400 miles north of the mainland & I am north of the Arctic Circle - more than half is covered in glaciers. The sun doesn't set in the summer. And there is currently a rabies outbreak....imagine my first thought when I was walking along the water (without a gun. They can be rented for those who were wondering) and heard a growl. Luckily, it was only a guard dog & he was chained.

This might be the last time I have easy access to internet for about 1.5 weeks, but I hope to be able to email directly to the blog from the boat at some point during the trip.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for stopping by! More soon....