Polar night and polar bear island - a Norwegian winter adventure

[Justinf]

Once we were off the aircraft at 3.20pm it was a race between me and time. With a 4pm departure I scooted through the terminal but my gate had been changed to 16, which was miles away.
I didn’t realise how big Helsinki airport was.
Got to security and fortunately it was pretty empty so I breezed through.
But then it was a LONG walk to go.
Made it to passport control and was allowed straight in given my connection time.
The guy who processed me asked a couple of questions but was chill as.
Then the mega trek to gate 16 which was miles away.
Ended up making it there at 3.45pm and there were still passengers boarding.
I got through no problem and sat down in 1A, hot, sweaty and feeling so yuck.
There were 4 of 12 seats occupied in J and the flight looked relatively lightly loaded, not that I cared or looked too hard.

 

[Justinf]

After take off, which was closer to 4.30pm, I asked of I could move over to the vacant window seat opposite so I could recline as the seat behind me was taken.
All good.
We taxied out and my easily amused brain enjoyed seeing some de-icing going on.

 

[Justinf]

Take off for our 75-minute flight was rather nice and it was announced we would be getting a hot meal in J.
I wasn’t hungry, but decided to wait and see what it was .

 

[Justinf]

The FA was totally nonplussed by my presence but I got the feeling after I paid attention to her safety demo (I just consider it basic manners to do so) she changed her tune a bit.
The meal was spaghetti and meatballs with a salmon side and it was highly decent.

After that I had a G&T and just as I had finished it, some light turbulence sent the drink on its way to the floor.
Nothing was spilled but without asking, the FA brought me another despite it being only 20 minutes to landing.
Not gonna say no.

 

[Justinf]

We landed a little late and all I could think about now was checking into the Radisson Blu and having a damn shower after a 28-hour trip.
My bag was one of the last to come out and I headed outside and geez it was cold. Probably only -3 but I wasn’t dressed accordingly so my mission was to make the short walk to the hotel as quickly possible.
When checking in, I was told I hadn’t paid up front, when I knew i had, but that was sorted out.
The room is ok and was able to get clean with a nice shower.
One thing I did before collecting my bag was buy a duty free red so I could help get myself to sleep.
It was a French Pinot Noir for around $23 and it turned out to be a decent drop.
Please forgive the state of the room. I had to turn everything over in search of something I needed.

 

[RooFlyer]

With my free wifi expired I decided to pay €15 for three hours but it was disconnected when flying near Inidian air-space as apparently they don’t have Star link.

Similar experience for me. I paid for wifi I think for the entire sector but it kept dropping out and I did my dough. Was given a form by the FA with some instructions on how to make a claim, but I lost it.

 

[RB]

We landed a little late and all I could think about now was checking into the Radisson Blu and having a damn shower after a 28-hour trip.
My bag was one of the last to come out and I headed outside and geez it was cold. Probably only -3 but I wasn’t dressed accordingly so my mission was to make the short walk to the hotel as quickly possible.
When checking in, I was told I hadn’t paid up front, when I knew i had, but that was sorted out.
The room is ok and was able to get clean with a nice shower.
One thing I did before collecting my bag was buy a duty free red so I could help get myself to sleep.
It was a French Pinot Noir for around $23 and it turned out to be a decent drop.
Please forgive the state of the room. I had to turn everything over in search of something I needed.

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Did you find it?

 

[Justinf]

Room service was hideous. A burger for $51 plus a $15 delivery fee (for room service) and a GLASS of banrock station which goes for $12 a bottle in Uas, was $24.
I cheated and ordered a kids meal burger.

Did you find it?

it was in the last place I looked, but it was also in the first place I should have looked.

 

[Justinf]

Awake at 7am after sleeping very well.
11am flight up to Svalbard so I was out if the hotel around 9am.
I thought it was a domestic flight so I didn’t hurry.
Did the bag drop and security was fairly long and of course my carry-on got pulled aside for a check as it always seems to do.
Got through and then realised the flight leaves from the international part. Svalbard is part of Norway, but it’s kinda like an autonomous territory, hence the need to go through passport control, which was pretty painless.
Was eventually airside around 10am.
With the Seahawks winning their way through to the Super Bowl I thought it was acceptable to have a celebratory pint.
Pint and a bottle of water cost $32.

 

[Justinf]

SAS flight SK4490 was on an A320 and was pretty full, but I had my seat 30D had a vacant spot next to me.
Legroom was as you’d expect, but I wasn’t sure how my old knees would fare for this three-hour flight.

 

[Justinf]

Unfortunately my ice cave snowcat tour is cancelled as there isn’t enough snow for the snowcat to operate.
I don’t want to get into the climate change debate, but Svalbard is warming at a rate faster than anywhere on the planet.
There is a hiking tour out to the ice cave, but it’s 7km each way, although they do say they make sure everyone is looked after.
Looks like I will have to do that one instead as I really want to see the ice cave.
It’s a pay as you go thing, onboard the flight, so I ordered a beer and a sandwich and have stopped looking at how much things cost.

 

[Justinf]

Wifi was a very reasonable €3.80 for the entire trip, but I couldn’t access it as it kept saying they weren’t sure I was onboard. Pretty sure I was. The FAs didn’t know what to do so it was AirPods and Spotify instead.
After a while I ordered another beer, a muffin and a chocolate bar.
What really surprised me was how many people used the toilet. It seemed like everyone onboard did, except me and my seat neighbour on the window.

 

[Justinf]

As we approached Svalbard the sun was setting despite it being only 1pm.

 

[Justinf]

We landed right on three hours flight time and it was eerie at just how dark it was at 2pm.
This is what I came for. To experience the polar night.

 

[Justinf]

It was very cold out.
The 3km bus into town was $16.43 and soon enough I was again at a Radisson Blu.
Check in agent was a champ and the room, while small, is perfectly fine. Not overly impressed at the two single beds next to each other, but upon checking the booking, that’s what I paid for, presumably because it was cheaper.

 

[Justinf]

Headed out to the supermarket which was pretty well stocked although I only bought a few things.
Damn it was cold out.
And there’s a really nice pub at the hotel called Barentz Gastropub where I had a couple pf pints and got a takeaway pizza.
Tomorrow I’m doing a tour, it I’ll describe that in more detail after it happens.
Back to the room at 7.30pm to watch episode 2 of The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Still feeling very jet lagged.

 

[Justinf]

today I am doing a coal mine tour, which sounds rather ho hum, but it gets great reviews and I’m not sitting around all day doing nothing.
Here’s the link.

https://www.getyourguide.com/en-au/longyearbyen-l97776/longyearbyen-historic-coal-mine-tour-at-gruve-3-t264387?ranking_uuid=727bb157-ed1a-4b0a-91b7-9cb661b0d53f&date_from=2026-01-27

Also it’s 11.37am here and this is what it looks like outside.

 

[Justinf]

I had some takeaway pizza left in the fridge so that was breakfast.
I also couldn’t resist the urge to do some work so I wrote a couple of sports stories to keep everyone happy back home.
Unfortunately it wasn’t looking good for things to do for the rest of my stay here.
None of the ice cave tours are running and the Global Seed Vault tour is booked out until after a leave.
I decided to the naked Arctic swim followed by a sauna, but that too is booked out until after I leave. Probably a good thing as -14 degrees…well, you know fellas.
I ended up booking a brewery tour for Wednesday. Svalbard Brewery is the world’s most northernmost brewery and the tour and tasting is at 6pm and goes for an hour and a half.
I’ll go to the museum, which is supposed to be good, but the North Pole Expedition Museum is closed until February- you guessed it, just after Ieave.
Anyway, today was the Coal Mine 3 tour.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this, given this place is the fastest warming on the planet and I was a bit worried that it might turn into a propaganda exhibition.
Fear not. Svalbard’s coal is so soft that it is used mainly for manufacturing and the experience didn’t contain any promotion at all.
Here’s a brief rundown:
Step into the history of Longyearbyen and its extensive coal mining industry. During this tour you will experience the life of a miner and explore equipment and machinery from Gruve 3’s days of production.
The coal mining industry laid the foundations for settling at such high latitudes and eventually allowed Longyearbyen grow into the – in many ways colourful – town it is today.
Sharpen your ears and prepare for a historical and exciting tour into one of Longyearbyen’s coal mines.

Pick up time from the hotel was 1pm and I dressed accordingly. Thermal longjohns and layers.
The drive up to the mine was stunning even though it was pretty dark.

 

[Justinf]

there were 19 of us on the tour and our guide Anders, from Denmark, has been living here for seven years.
From what I could tell, nationalities were UK, Norway, China, Poland, Lithuania.
We were given a rundown of the mine’s history and what it was like to be a miner in the day. There were 7 in total with the last ceasing to operate only in 2025.
Only three took up the option to do the short detour by crawling into a mine shaft. I was not one of them.
After an hour it was hard hats on and away we went.



There were frequent stops where Anders would explain a certain type of machinery or the way the miners would extract the coal as well as the dangers that presented.

 

[Justinf]

Here’s the very squeezy mine shaft crawl.