estonia, germany, italy, chech, switzerland, japan, brazil
they say that they were on holiday in
Vilnius, Genf, Monaco, Warsaw, Graz,
Busan, Puerto Rico
they smile
an awkward smile
i smile
an even more awkward smile
essence of quirkiness
it's not my city, not my country, my language not even close
or is it
It's all the same from a distance
no trees i gather my thoughts
fear not
for I can tell you all the wonderful stories of my home
the gaze goes past
to another person
a hand is reached out
to another person
that was it
our introduction
my questions
where did my questions go
where are YOU from what do you DO
i stand up and look across the room the space i see around me where
are they the foreigners with whom i don't share country culture language we
share being foreigners we speak in a foreign language with each other and we
listen to
I forgot to answer to the most important question: How do you get to Svalbard, Longyeabyen?
The easiest way is to fly. There are two flights a day to Longyearbyen at least by SAS and Norwegian. Flights to Longyearbyen start from Oslo or Tromso. Then Finair announced to start flying to Longyearbyen in the summer from Helsinki. So if you are coming from somewhere else than Norway... you have to fly to Norway first. (Or Finland, if you're coming in the summertime).
That's that :)
In the summertime you can also come by boat. Many cruise ships have a stay in Longyearbyen, but it lasts only for some hours up to a day, but even that could be enough, depends on your travelling style :) And from the boat there is actually a bigger chance to see wildelife... but the bigger the boat, the more people the less opportunity to see the smaller fjords. I have never been on a cruise ship, so i have no idea what's it like, but people i have met from those tours usually are happy and chill. I guess it's like being in a fancy hotel that moves around?
The first question people ask: when is the best time to travel to Svalbard, Longyearbyen?
The answer: When we started living here i caught myself after every month thinking that the last month was the best. In October i thought: Wow, September is so beautiful here, the coulours of the endlessly long sunsets, the beautiful mountains, the smell of the first snow in fresh air. No trees! In November: Wow, the cold, the snow, the promising auroras! And this would continue until September next year thinking: Wow, August is awesome, the colours of the plants, the grass, the reindeers, the hikes to the mountains! You see?
Then again, now i do have a little insight perhaps; The first question might actually be to yourself: what am i looking for in this trip? What do i want to see and experience?
I have a feeling this will become a long post, right.. O_O
Aurora borealis, the northern lights:
More often people are eager about the polar-day than the polar-night. As an estonian, i surely could kind of imagine the polar-day, since we have something like that in the midsummer (of course here it's like totally much more of a "day" than in estonia that one-two nights) but the polar-night seemed therefore arose more interest: how will we cope? how does it feel? Will we go mad not seeing the sun for months? Do we change as people? Haha! When the only indicator for morning or evening is the clock, will it be depressing?
It is strange, especially here, since in December there isn't even a hint on light at any time of the day. (In Tromso there supossed to be still a little blue time during midday).
But this darkness is good.... very good to see some northern lights, aurora borealis. This is something of course you cant scedule, but with a bit of luck it's possible. In my personal experience the best times for that might be November and December. In January it's usual to have a warmer period with the snow melting and rain, so the clouds cover the sky. February might work too, since it is still cold and the night still is much much longer than the subtle light that might take only an hour or three of the entire day. After the 8th of March we have the sun coming back fast and then there is even more to look out for.
Dogs, snowmobiles, skiing/hiking:
My favourite is the dogsledge rides. A tip: when you're on the sledge, riding between the white snowcovered mountains in the dark polarnight, starry sky above you - switch off your headlamp, that way you can see more. You're on a different planet, sweeping through the universe in silence. But the first rule of dogsledging is.... never let go of the sldege. As cute and loving the dogs here are, they will not stop when you fall off. Hold on tight!
The second thing: In smaller companies you get to interact with the dogs, it means, you yourself will put them on the sledge, later take them off and feed them. In seven cases of nine: I'm afraid of dogs. After interacting with the sledgedogs here, i've partly overcome that fear... im not afraid of sledgedog anymore. (Still afraid of the bulldog or something, who lives on our street.) The common breed here is the alascan husky, which is here a bit of a mix of the greenland dog too, here and there some siberian husky vibes in corporated. It's told that the innuits used dogs to keep children warm during cold winternights, -days, so that only a friendly dog could survive in that culture. We had a chance to dog-sit a retired greenlanddog couple of times and she's the sweetest ever, even with three children running around screaming and a house full of exitement.... she was chill, wanting to cuddle.
Snowmobilerides: fast and furiously through the arctic! With a snowmobile obviously one can get much further in little time on the island, but beware! Safety first! Thereare awesome trips offered, but keep in mind: you are driving, therefore you need a driverslicence with you and you need to be sober. It might seempalpable. Worth mentioning anyway. And... last year we witnesed a snowmobile accident right from our window, where a trip didn't last even 300m in the valley, when a scooter spinned and crashed. It was the day of the solar eclipse and this guy had to lay in the hospitalbed instead. The reason being: because he drives a motorbike, he thought to make some trick with the snowmobile too, well, it was an totally exiting day. Lucky he didn't crash into someone else and survived with some broken bones.
When it comes to skiing, i must say, i haven't tried this here. I've been more on hikes on the snow. The good thing: no need to go too far. The mountains around the smal town offer great views and nice nature experiences. Depending on your strength you can combine a longer/harder trip, or something more easy. The Platåfjell is quite popular during winter and summer.
Im going to leave you with two links, Spitsbergen Travel and Svalbard Wildelife, to look around and see the different opportunities. Usually trips with dogs and snowmobiles provide you a overallsuit, hat, gloves, shoes, that are suitable even for harsh conditions. The shoes are designed to keep feet safe even with -40 C.
It's quite a long blogpost aleady, so i continue some time later about other oportunities/seasons and my views and tips about them ;) and what to pack with you when travelling to Svalbard as a tourist ;) See you soon! Bisous!
