yann in the arctic

Sunday 31 August 2008

back on svalbard (again)

I have spent the past few days back in London and have just returned to Longyearbyen. It was so nice seeing friends and family again. It felt like going to China or something, since it was so hot and humid - or at least here is cold and dry.

I also made sure to eat as much as possible: I was literally stuffing my face with cake, doughnuts, puff pastries, croissants, lattes, chocolate eclairs, fruit salad ... basically all the things I crave for but cannot get hold of in Svalbard.

I also (finally) bought a bike which means going to lectures in the morning is not so difficult.

What's really silly is that the flight to Svalbard are NOT compatible with any other flight i.e. you leave Oslo either very early in the morning or very late at night. And whatever connection you have to Oslo, you will still need to wait a long time. And so there I was last night in Oslo airport, waiting for my next flight which would be leaving 12 hours later. I basically listened to music the whole time and got no sleep at all.

When I finally arrived in Longyearbyen, I was asked if I wanted to play water polo in kayaks at the pool, which I of course agreed. I kept toppling over but it was still lots of fun - can't wait to try again. So yeah - a non-stop day :)

I still have those three peaks to conquer though ...