The trip I have been hinting about, the great adventure, finally happened. The Arctic!!!!
My friend Emily and I booked this trip in 2019 for a 2020 departure. We all know how that story ended. After two years and a couple of re bookings, we finally got to go. Emily came first to visit me and then we headed off for two days of travel to get to Longyearbyen in Svalbard.
The first leg took us to Oslo where we spent the night and had time to visit the new MUNCH museum. What I never knew is that there are actually three versions of The Scream. One as a pen & ink, one in a blue hue and the famous one. They only show one at a time and they change on the hour. We managed to see two of the three versions. The whole museum looks amazing and is worth a return visit. We were just too exhausted to go through the whole thing.
The next morning we boarded another plane for Longyearbyen in Svalbard. The archipelago, while technically part of Norway, falls under a special international treaty giving nationals of 40 countries the right to live there. This makes it almost like another country so everyone has to go through passport control AGAIN. My EU passport allowed me to go through the fast lane but poor Emily got stuck in a nightmare queue and almost missed the flight.
Longyearbyen is an interesting place. It has two industries: coal mining and tourism. The mine is still operational and coal is how the town is powered. Given its location at 78 degrees N, that is really the only option. Wind might work, but for now it is coal.
While in the town for a quick 24 hours, we took a morning tour around the outskirts of town with a small local company. We hoped to see arctic foxes but they were shy that day. We did see wonderful scenery, some reindeer and a few birds. The husky wasn’t wild, just super friendly and curious about my camera. At the end of the long day, we were treated to an amazing sunset (at 11:30 pm).
Longyearbyen has a couple of interesting laws: you cannot leave the town without carrying a rifle; you are not allowed to die in town; AND, you can only purchase two bottles of alcohol a month. The first law is to keep you from being eaten by a polar bear and the last one is a relic from the mining years. The one about dying is because there is no way to bury you. Permafrost. If you fall ill, they evac you to mainland Norway. I wonder if you are allowed to die in Nome, AK?
Finally, after two whole days of travel, we got on the boat. We traveled with Oceanwide Expeditions and, based on their land operations, we were not expecting much. We were pleasantly surprised. The ship was small and the passengers were very international and well traveled. About ¾ of the passengers were European, about 1/8 were American and then the rest from other parts of the globe. Most of the passengers had traveled to the polar regions (Antarctic and Arctic) at least once. One major highlight of the trip was the group from the Scot Polar Research Institute, INCLUDING the guy who found the Endurance (Shackleton’s ship); John Shears.
John Shears was the expedition leader for Endurance II, which at 4pm on 5 March 2022 found the wreck of Shackleton’s Endurance, exactly 100 years to the hour after “The Boss” was buried in Grytvicken, South Georgia. He gave us an amazing lecture about the search for the wreck, the technology that was used and all the different and talented people who made the dream come true. I feel so lucky to have been on this ship to hear the lecture a year before the National Geographic documentary hits TV’s all over the world. If you remember my posts from Antarctica, you will remember us toasting “The Boss” at his grave.
We departed Longybearen about 8 hours late as weather made leaving the dock too dangerous. Once at sea, we had amazing vistas both in the water and in the sky. We stopped at another island in the Svalbard archipelago the next day and enjoyed some light hiking and photo opportunities. The little teeny plants are actually trees. They have just evolved to be tiny because of the climate and the lack of deep soil. We got to see them in all their autumnal glory!
I have been having a real tough time with the Greenland part of this post. It is an amazing place and the experience was incredible, but there isn’t much one can really write about. We were there, sailing around for about a week. It seemed every place we saw was more awe inspiring than the last. There just wasn’t anything really to differentiate the places. We did see the Northern Lights and Penguin had a ball. Have a look for yourself:
There weren’t many animals. There were a few birds but most had already begun their journey south. We did see some Musk Ox (they look a lot like bison), one polar bear and a couple of seals. The ox and the bear were really, really, really far away. One of the seals hung around for a photo shoot.
The last couple of days were perhaps the most interesting. We sailed through the Iceberg Graveyard where ocean currents push giant icebergs. The photo with the zodiac boat shows how truly immense these things are.
Our final day in Greenland we stopped in Ittoqqortoormiit, one of the settlements. I loved the multicolored houses. I like to think that these help brighten up the place during the long, dark winters.
Stay tuned for the next exciting post, since I did not go home after getting off the ship…
TRIP TIPS
The Oslo airport is lovely and getting to the center of Oslo is super easy on the FLYTOGET train. Buy your ticket at the kiosk just before the turnstiles. At time of writing, the train was 250 NOK one way or 440 return (about 25 or 40 USD/EUR). The train is really nice with plenty of space for luggage.
If you want to try to see all three versions of The Scream, time your arrival at the Munch Museum for about 15 or 20 minutes before the hour. Go straight to the fourth floor. You will see the version on display and then it will change to the next version at the top of the hour. Spend the next hour looking at other parts of the museum and return after the top of the hour.
Flying from Oslo to Longyearbyen does require going through passport control again. Keep this in mind when gauging time to make your flight. If you don’t have an EU passport, the queue can be quite long.
If you want to buy any alcoholic beverages (at the liquor store) in Longyearbyen, make sure to save your boarding pass and/or departing ticket. Locals need a card. Your travel ticket will enable you to purchase without the local card. Prices, surprisingly, are not exorbitant.