http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Svalbard/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Svalbard en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:57:39 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:57:39 BST Longyearbyen has been anything but a damp squib. The flight alone was riveting and I spent an hour and a half with my nose pressed against the window of the plane. There wasn't much to see but that was part of the interest. It was 45 minutes after leaving Tromso that I spotted the first piece of land. Bear Island Bjrnoya sits roughly in the middle between Tromso and Spitsbergen. Before w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Svalbard/Spitsbergen/blog-223491.html A bleak landscape appears outside our balcony. Voyager has arrived in Longyearbyen located on the island of Spitsbergen part of the Svalbard archipelago. We are halfway between the North Pole and the Norwegian mainland. Once a mining area oildrilling drives todayrsquos economy. With four months of midnight sun and four months of polar night it takes a hardy soul to live here. Alan and I j http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Svalbard/Spitsbergen/blog-180633.html This trip was solo for Mark well with a friend Martin. I had entered into Fjllrvens Polar husky competion 2 years earlier and got to the last 80 out of several thousand. Unfortanately I did not make it to the final 5 despite doing the unthinkable for a skiny little guy like me who feels the cold yes swimming in a hole in the ice during the 1 day selections. So having failed to make it on a fr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Svalbard/Spitsbergen/blog-158080.html Its midnight and after flying in from the arctic we are now sitting on Cord and Leoniersquos front door step waiting for Cord to return from work to let us in. A good time to do some writing. What is really amazing is that this is the first time we have been under a night sky in 2 weeks.On arrival at Longyearbyen airport we were met by a stuffed polar bear and a very fuzzy haired Dutchman ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Svalbard/Spitsbergen/blog-11140.html