Cruise day 7

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Today started with the ubiquitous glacier-front cruise. It is impossible to get enough of this scenery, willing the front of the glacier to collapse (or “calve’). No luck today. Heard a few cracks from within the glacier but no big falls of ice.

The highlight today was surely the afternoon stop at an ex-Russian mining town called Pyramiden. Any signatory to the Svalbard treaty is entitled to a piece of the action provided they keep to the terms of the treaty and follow Norwegian law. From a population close to 900 during the cold war, Pyramiden now has a summer population of 9 or 10. Back in the day it was considered a pretty nice posting. Food was free and plentiful – it was a window on the west that the Soviet Union didn’t want to let go, so facilities were kept modern and comfortable by Soviet standards. Nowadays it is a shrine to splintered wood and broken rock.

The Russians still don’t want to let it go in case something valuable is found there – not to mention they own a bit of “western” territory that might come in handy some day.

It was like walking into a cold war film set. The buildings were crumbling and collapsing in many cases; some of them were being maintained with the hope of building a tourist business. We saw the statue of Lenin. The Yuri Gagarin sports centre. Old signs from the days of the USSR (CCCP). You could film a 1970’s James Bond there!

And then 40 Australians traipsed into the only functioning business (a bar) to have a shot of vodka on Russian turf. She (who shall be known as Svetlana, even though we didn’t know her name) was generous with the vodka, limited with her English, and conveniently short of change in whatever currency was being tendered.

They get at least one boat a day, six days a week, with day tours from Longyearbyen and hikers dropping by. Only 2 staff stay over winter which must make for a sad, sad, sad place.

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Photos

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The town built on splintered wood and broken rocks