Tales of Tails & Travels

At the beginning of this month we travelled to one of the worlds northernmost inhabited places, Longyearbyen, an arctic town found in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

Our aim when travelling is to soak it all in, learn something about the place, take afternoon naps and for me personally; enjoy documenting the place with my cameras. Svalbard was an opportunity to go somewhere atypical, it’s not a tropical beach holiday lying in the sun and we love somewhere a little different. We did some research before travelling which just made us more excited to go.

Some fun facts we learnt before going were :

•You aren’t allowed to give birth or die there.

•You can’t leave the main town without a firearm because of Polar Bears.

•It is common to see large marine mammals such as seals, walruses, whales and dolphins.

•60% of Svalbard is covered in glaciers.

•The population of Longyearbyen is made up of people from over 50 different nationalities, due in part to having no immigration requirements and the university.

•You have to take your shoes off when you go indoors, a tradition they kept from the days of dirty miners boots.

•The Svalbard Global Seed Vault can be found here.

•Global warming causes temperatures to increase 6 times quicker in Svalbard than the global average.

•It is a favourite for explorers as a base camp before heading to the North pole.

•Everyone speaks English. Longyearbyen was first populated by an American mining community, before now being administered by Norway.

So getting there- we flew into Stavanger for an overnight layover, then onto Oslo and lastly up to Longyearbyen. One cannot just walk into Longyearbyen, because you know- polar bears. Thankfully there are coaches that leave once the last person has their bags. The coaches run for all of the flights in & out, driving you to/ collecting you from where you are staying. We bought return tickets and as there is no bank here card payments were preferred. We asked about a limit on the return- there isn’t one, as the coach driver joked there are 3 drivers in Longyearbyen so even if you lost your ticket likelihood is it’ll be him on the way back anyway. He joked the ticket was valid for a week after his death as it’d take some time to cremate him.

We arrived at our hotel– Mary-Ann’s Polarrigg, an old miners rig. We booked a twin room with a shared bathroom as one of the cheapest options for accommodation. You’d probably already guess, but travelling to somewhere as isolated as the arctic circle- not a budget holiday. However, not as expensive as we were expecting either. This hotel was amazing; oozing with character, the beds were SO comfortable and the showers powerful and warm. There was also access to a shared living area with a fully supplied kitchen and buffet breakfast included. The dining area, the Vinterhagen, was so pretty. I have popped way too many pictures below so you can appreciate this place.

After arriving around midday we wandered into town; got a hot drink in Cafe Huskies and then headed off for a sunset cruise and dinner. We had pre-booked 2 tours through the Visit Svalbard website before arriving. Whilst we were there pre-booking wasn’t critical (one tour had a capacity of 150 and there were 38 of us) however a month before pre-booking would’ve been a must. I will also state that the sunset cruise was a little bit of a misnomer, at the beginning of September the sun does go down but it does not get dark. The first sunset of the year was actually only a few weeks before we arrived. Interestingly there are actually only sunsets and sunrises for about a month or so either side of the midnight sun and sun not rising for winter. I’ve popped some images below of the views on the cruise.

On our first full day we head into town to check out the museums. First walking down to Svalbard Museum, which was well worth a visit. Yet again, with the time of year it was quiet, there was us and one other person in the museum. We got to learn about how Svalbard was discovered at the end of the 16th century. History of whaling, coal mining, hunting, a lot of people dying and North Pole expeditions. Longyearbyen is actually still mining coal to this day with that powering the town.

After the Svalbard Museum we checked out the North Pole Expedition Museum. Which was rather cute, if not low in the ceiling upstairs and rather packed in. When we got there they mentioned the ticket allows for entry for up to 3 days. Looking in we wondered how anyone could need that long, but honestly if you read and watched everything (like my mum would) 3 days might not be enough.

Then in the afternoon we head for a walk around town to the edges of the safe zone. Which are demarcated on a map but in real life is a small ditch at the edge of the road- thankfully polar bears in town are apparently relatively rare but one couldn’t help to muse that the presence of a ditch might not stop a bear… Around town there are remnants of the old mining industry. We also go to enjoy some wildlife with the Svalbard reindeer showing up in the middle of town and plenty of birds.

The following day we headed out for a wildlife and glacier cruise on MS Bard. The views were breathtaking and we were lucky enough to see a walrus, so many bird species including the adorable yet goofy puffin, humpback whales and minke whales.

The last day we spent chilling around town. Checking out the stores, playing chess (poorly on my behalf) and cuddling dogs in Cafe Huskies.

This trip was a blast and we would 100% recommend a visit. If we were to go again we would consider visiting February/ March time so we could maybe see some Northern Lights and experience the arctic with snow! There is so much history and blended culture here. It is isolated whilst being one of the most connected places we’ve been to (literally with the insanely good phone signal and internet speeds). It seems basic on the outside, yet as soon as you look closer everything is there. Ditch the sun and go somewhere different.

*These pictures were taken using my Olympus OM-1n on either Kodak Portra 160 or 800 35mm film. Developed and scanned by Take It Easy Lab. There has been no post editing on these images.

The rest of the images were taken on my DLSR Nikon D3300.