Svalbard!
Ok, everybody knows I'm crazy, but this time it's serious. Today I'm leaving for Svalbard, one of the most remote parts of Norway. We are about 16 people with connection to 2 AFS chapters, Kristiansund and Molde, who suddenly found a good excuse to go somewhere special. So we chose Svalbard.
Svalbard is Norwegian territory. It's far to the north. Really far to the north.
So who actually lives up there? In the Norwegian town Longyearbyen there are about 1800 people, and in the Russian mining town Barentsburg there are about 800 Russians. There are also the mining town Svea (about 250 ppl commute every week from Longyearbyen) and the two research stations Ny-Ã…lesund (Norwegian, about 25 ppl) and Hornsund (Polish, about 12 ppl). There are no roads between the towns.
Svalbard is the only part of Norway where there are polar bears. They might look cute on tv, but they eat everything that moves. We have to bring guns (for warning shots) when we go out of the town. And it's really cold up there, at least by my standards. (Paul would laugh at me..) Won't be too cold up there while we're up there, though, just around -5 to -15 degrees centigrade. Ok, I can handle that, it easily gets that cold here in winter. But isn't it supposed to be spring up there too?
..and that's pretty much everything I know, to be honest. So in a few hours I'm on my way to the airport in Kristiansund to fly to Oslo (yup, that's south of here). After waiting for hours and hours in Oslo, we fly northwards to Tromsø, and wait there for a couple of hours until we fly on to Longyearbyen at midnight. We were supposed to fly to Oslo at 6 pm, but I recieved a call about an hour ago from our chapter leader telling me that the flight was cancelled, and we would have to leave more than three hours earlier. A bit complicating, seeing as the plane takes off an hour before I finish school, but that's how it is living in the Hooray! No German class for me today! =)
Ok, should stop now, my science teacher saw me working on the laptop... =) I'll get some photos and exciting stories up here once I get home.
Svalbard is Norwegian territory. It's far to the north. Really far to the north.
So who actually lives up there? In the Norwegian town Longyearbyen there are about 1800 people, and in the Russian mining town Barentsburg there are about 800 Russians. There are also the mining town Svea (about 250 ppl commute every week from Longyearbyen) and the two research stations Ny-Ã…lesund (Norwegian, about 25 ppl) and Hornsund (Polish, about 12 ppl). There are no roads between the towns.
Svalbard is the only part of Norway where there are polar bears. They might look cute on tv, but they eat everything that moves. We have to bring guns (for warning shots) when we go out of the town. And it's really cold up there, at least by my standards. (Paul would laugh at me..) Won't be too cold up there while we're up there, though, just around -5 to -15 degrees centigrade. Ok, I can handle that, it easily gets that cold here in winter. But isn't it supposed to be spring up there too?
..and that's pretty much everything I know, to be honest. So in a few hours I'm on my way to the airport in Kristiansund to fly to Oslo (yup, that's south of here). After waiting for hours and hours in Oslo, we fly northwards to Tromsø, and wait there for a couple of hours until we fly on to Longyearbyen at midnight. We were supposed to fly to Oslo at 6 pm, but I recieved a call about an hour ago from our chapter leader telling me that the flight was cancelled, and we would have to leave more than three hours earlier. A bit complicating, seeing as the plane takes off an hour before I finish school, but that's how it is living in the Hooray! No German class for me today! =)
Ok, should stop now, my science teacher saw me working on the laptop... =) I'll get some photos and exciting stories up here once I get home.
posted by Kiwi-88 at 10:25 f.m.
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