Arrival in Longyearbyen, Svalbard

My flight out of Oslo took me through rainy Tromsø, a town in northern mainland Norway. The weather there was not good - dark clouds, snow, and rain! The landing was slightly nerve wracking, and the runway seem extremely short- it was tucked tightly between a mountainside and a fjord. After picking up more passengers during a brief 30 minute layover, we departed on the same plane for Svalbard. As we journeyed northward above the cloud layer, it became clear to me that the Sun I was enjoying would soon dip below the horizon. Slowly, the disc of the Sun sank lower and lower until it was altogether gone. Yes, it appeared to be just like a sunset, but this was different. The Sun set because I traveled beyond the Arctic Circle, to 78˚N in the month of February. which means darkness for most of the time with a bit of twilight from late morning through early afternoon during my stay. The next opportunity I will have to see the Sun will be on March 8, unless I climb the mountains that surround the town.



As we made our approach into Svalbard–my home for the next month–I could see snow covered mountains bordering an enormous fjord. Majestic sights indeed! Geologically speaking, they reminded me of the fjords near Bergen that I explored in 2001. But this time, the land looked completely different. It was barren, totally isolated, and wild. There was not a sign of any infrastructure or civilization. No trees. No grass. Only mountains, rocks, ice, snow–and polar bears!



After we landed everyone exited the aircraft down the stairs and walked across a frosty runway to the terminal. It was probably -10˚C, and quite windy. I stopped along the way and took a deep breath of cold air and observed my surroundings. It was dark, and the lights of Longyearbyen could be seen in the distance, several km away.

When I entered the terminal, three enthusiastic students from UNIS waved signs to greet new arriving students. After grabbing my two bags from the baggage claim, I got a packet of student information and met up with Galena, a very peppy and fast walking girl from Russia who gave me and five other students a very rough ride to our dorms in a van she seemed to have some trouble controlling. We laughed if off, though, and greatly enjoyed what little we could see out the fogged up windows. A few minutes later, we arrived at Nybyen ("new town"), an area of Longyearbyen that is located 3 km away from UNIS up a giant U-shaped glacier carved valley. We jumped out of the car and grabbed our luggage and settled into our new home.