Polar night and polar bear island - a Norwegian winter adventure

[Justinf]

The tour finished up and it was time to head back.
My verdict?
Much better than sitting around the hotel or wandering the very minimal streets of Longyearbyen.
Not sure I’d give it a rave review. It was good and I don’t regret doing it. It was just nothing mind blowing like the damn ice cave tour I will be missing out on.
anyway it was a good way to fill in the afternoon.
I couldn’t figure out how to use the damn shower this morning. I couldn’t convert from bath tap to shower head and as Ieft it late to get ready, I had to basically sponge bath myself.
I put in a call to reception when I got back and it turns out there is a very secretive thing underneath the tap that you have to not only pull down, but turn around. If I hadn’t asked, I would never have worked it out.
Really bizarre.
Tonight it is a few quiet pints at the hotel bar.
Tomorrow I’ll be at the brewery and my final night I’ll go somewhere different, although there’s not a huge amount of choice.
I am NOT someone who dines alone in public.
The weird thing here is the tap water is not safe to drink because of high levels of magnesium. It’s more a recommendation for prolonged consumption, but I really can’t be coughd getting all dressed for -15 just to go to the supermarket for bottled water. I’ll ask hotel reception for some or just drink magnesium laced water.

 

[Justinf]

Beer has water anyway

 

[VPS]

Interesting that you don't like dining out alone. I travelled so much for work that I hated room service and one restaurant in Paramatta they knew me really well and were so friendly it was great

 

[RooFlyer]

'Interesting' ground support there - don't think I've seen that type before. One thing they won't have is water ingress I guess .

There is also the Global Seed Vault thing up on the hill, but maybe not. You go there -you see it sticking out of the ground, you go back.

 

[Justinf]

Interesting that you don't like dining out alone. I travelled so much for work that I hated room service and one restaurant in Paramatta they knew me really well and were so friendly it was great

I’m not totally against it, but it’s just not something I would typically do.

 

[Justinf]

'Interesting' ground support there - don't think I've seen that type before. One thing they won't have is water ingress I guess .

There is also the Global Seed Vault thing up on the hill, but maybe not. You go there -you see it sticking out of the ground, you go back.

That tour is booked out until Saturday unfortunately.

 

[Justinf]

With all the tours either booked out or not running, today was a bit of a do it yourself day.
I went shopping and got some souvenirs and bought some pretty cool winter gear for back home at reasonable prices.
Took some snaps as well.

 

[Justinf]

Then it was off to the Svalbard Brewery tasting thing.
I won’t go into the history of the place as you can search for it if you really want to know, but the guy who founded the place is absolutely fascinating and well worth a look. His name is Robert Johansen and his entire story is quite inspirational.
There were only about a dozen of us tonight and Maria, our host, was great.
We tried five different beers and she also explained the history behind the brewery and the hurdles Robert had to jump over just to get the legislation passed to even start proceedings.

 

[Justinf]

Of course when booze is involved it makes people open up to each other and that’s what I enjoyed the most.
After everything was done, a few of us stayed around, paid for a beer and chatted.
Just as aside the return taxi trip for a 3km jaunt each way was $50.
Ouch.
I have saved the museum for tomorrow as I have nothing else to do.
Then on Friday it’s down to tromso.
No football on anywhere here, and I can’t even get my vpn to work to watch the Spurs game.