78 degrees North

This may sound (really) stupid, but I don't think I was expecting as much snow. I knew it was snowing here, but Longyearbyen is just whiteness, save for the little lights of the town. No little lights in that photo, though. Nothing. Just miles and miles of snow and icey cold water.


Wanna here something weird? There's no trees. That's not me exaggerating, there are literally no trees on the whole of Svalbard. Not one. I think because of that, it looks more alien - you get used to seeing green everywhere, don't you? Nope. Not here. Everything is imported from the mainland. There's only one flight a day, so if we miss that because of a storm, you might not hear from me for a few more days.


There's 2000 people on the island. There's 3000 polar bears. I haven't seen one, apparently they don't come down here very much. Shame, because I'd quite like to meet one. When I say 'meet', I mean look at from a safe distance, somewhere warm and inside. Did I mention it was bloody cold here? Not cold like I imagined it. About -9, I think. As I learnt last night, it's far too cold to make snow angels when you're drunk, if you're not wearing gloves.

We're off into the village now (so I really should get dressed and wrapped up warm), to talk to the locals about 'The Dark' and how it affects them. It's a kind of dull light, not pitch black yet. It'll get darker over the next few weeks, but sunset is around 3:45 at the moment. Apparently the guys are excited about the Philips wake up lights, so that's cool.

Right, that's enough from me, hopefully later you'll get exciting tales from the village. Or, I'll be drunk in the local bar and making trouble. I'm uploading my photos to Flickr if the connection holds out, and you can see those here.