Longyearbyen - Where Is That You May Well Ask?


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August 25th 2015
Published: August 25th 2015
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This is the lovely gentleman who drove us about the townThis is the lovely gentleman who drove us about the townThis is the lovely gentleman who drove us about the town

His name is Viggo Antonsen, and he is a passionate local historian, a gifted storyteller, and a long-time resident.
Well if you are anything like me, having arrived here in Longyearbyen yesterday afternoon not knowing too much about the place, today I am full of knowledge having taken a two hour ride around the town with a local and a few others in a taxi van. The town is not very big.

Today was a little brighter then yesterday when I arrived to rain, today with the sun attempting to shine late afternoon, but not warmer being 4C all morning possibly reaching as high as 7C later on. There was no wind to speak of so no chill factor.

The driver of the van was a retired army officer, full of interesting information, and we pretty much went in every direction and saw all that there was to see. It was originally named Longyear City until 1926. It was named after the American entrepreneur John Munro Longyear who founded the town and started coal mining. It was just a company town that supported coal mining, not so now with just one mine No. 7 still in operation and tourism taking over as the main industry. Theaverage stay is just 2.5 days. Interestingly the population is made up of many nationalities with Norwegian making up the highest number, then Filipinos. There are almost no teenagers here but around 600 younger children, I guess that is long cold Winters for you! With a population of 2400 (this varies depending who you talk to) thats a lot of kids. There is no crime, other then the odd drunk tourist who apparently they don't worry too much about as the cold weather sorts them out.

On the rare occasion a polar bear has come into town, however once you get to the edges of the town and there is a sign with a polar bear on, after that point it is compulsory to carry a gun. The bears are protected so if you shoot one you have to have a darn good reason why.

After the tour finished I took a walk around the buildings, shops, etc. and I saw all the signs of how cold it can get here and all the clothing against the cold, and wet weather gear, then doubt came into my head knowing that I am going to be on a boat for seven days and going even further North towards the North Pole and I kept asking myself, do I have enough warm clothes? I am pretty sure I have - but the window shopping was screwing with my head.


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