Svalbard Islands: trip to the North Pole

Today seems impossible but 65 million years ago, Svalbards were covered by tropical forests.

The North Pole is one of those historic, fascinating and legendary places.
It is because of its being an extreme, imaginatively difficult to reach.
This is especially true for its cost, but with some changes and a bit of luck, you can find the right opportunity.

This travel was born to me in one day in May, when other destinations had risen too much in price, forcing me to postpone them to another date.
It was time to go to the North Pole. but where is the North Pole?
The Svalbard Islands often are not into the globe, covered by the earth’s axis.

I immediately say that I have not reached the exact point, but I have arrived a few hundred kilometers, almost the maximum that can be achieved.

HOW TO GET

Formally they are part of Norway but are outside from the Schengen area so passport is necessary to come here.
They can be reached by plane from Oslo or Tromso.
There are also cruise that connect Svalbard to Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

HOW TO MOVE

Longyearbyen is the most populous city in Svalbard with just over 2,000 inhabitants.
You can easily go around the city but it’s essential to always be careful not to leave the town.
The danger of polar bears is real and road signs are note folkloristic.
The guides always have a rifle with them and know how to use it (killing the bear is the last of the possible choices and even those who frighten it without a real need risk a fine salt).
The doors of the houses are usually open to allow quick access at any time.

Two days are enough to see every place of Longyearbyen but getting to the Svalbard Islands and stay only a few hours means just wanting to tell have go there.
The best way to visit this part of the Arctic is definitely to board a cruise of at least 5 days on the postal ship Hurtigruten.

As an islander I have always seen ships as a means of transport to reach what in Sardinia we call “the continent”.
My style of traveling is very different from seeing a ship as a comfortable hotel/restaurant on which to spend most of the time, as if the portu cities were only a secondary interlude between a meal, a dance, a karaoke song, a dip in swimming pool and well-deserved rest at the end of the day.
But Hurtigruten is none of this, quite the contrary.

Navigating in the Arctic on the historic MS Nordstjernen, built in 1956, makes the journey to the North Pole more fascinating.
In this ship you are not on a cruise but you participate in a real Arctic expedition, with descents from the ship thanks to catwalk or zodiac in semi-abandoned Soviet cities, glaciers, beaches where you can swim in the icy water, scientific stations.

It’s also likely that there are scientists among passengers who are studies climatic changes and will be happy to deal about these topics.

WHERE TO GO

LONGYEARBYEN

If the Argentine city of Ushuaia is considered the southernmost city in the world, Longyearbyen, with just over 2,000 inhabitants, is the northernmost city in the world.

You can easily go around the city but it’s essential to always be careful not to leave the town.
The road signs indicating the presence of polar bears are not folkloristic.

From here leave all the daily tour and polar expeditions that in several days exceed the 80th parallel north or circumnavigate the archipelago.
[Read the full article]

PYRAMIDA

One of the most common day tour from Longyearbyen, goes to the city of Pyramida, an important Soviet settlement in Svalbard.
Here in fact lived up to 2,500 people, engaged above all in mining activities.
Today is stil a Russian territory and you can visit the various buildings, accompanied by Russian guides.
In the streets of the city the bust of Lenin can still be clearly seen.

I remember this excursion with particular emotion because in the immense Nordenskiöldbree glaciar in front of the city I saw polar bears, and in the nearby waters a lot of belugas appeared.
[Read the full article]

BARENTSBURG

Reachable by snowmobile in winter, in summer it’s the first stop of the Hurtigruten expeditions or one of the daily tours that leave from Longyearbyen.
Barentsburg (in russo Баренцбург) is the last mining settlement dating back to the Soviet period still operating in the Svalbard Islands and has an important geopolitical value.

Around 450 Russian citizens still live here, mainly engaged in the mines of the Russian state company Arktickugol.
Tourism is the other important source of income and, besides the rapid visits, you can stay in a hotel or hostel.
[Read the full article]

NY-ÅLESUND

The Svalbard Islands have many similarities to Antarctica.
They are both places where some international scientific research are concentrated.
In the town of Ny-Ålesund there are the bases in which scientists from many countries study the climate and the implications that its change is having.

This place is also linked to the first historical expeditions to the North Pole.
From here, on 11 May 1926, the airship Norge with the commander Umberto Nobile and his dog fox terrier Titina, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the crew of 6 Italians and 7 Norwegians, the American financier Lincoln Ellsworth and the Swedish meteorologist Finn Malmgren realized the first overflight of the North Pole..
After the success of this expedition, the subsequent ones turned into tragedies.
[Read the full article]

In this regard, I also recommend visiting the North Pole Expedition Museum in Longyearbyen.
In this museum, original videos and documents explain the history of expeditions to the North Pole.

CLIMATE AND CURIOSITY

THE MIDNIGHT SUN

From April 19 to August 23 the sun is high 24 hours a day. This is the famous “midnight sun”.
I have been to the Svalbard Islands in August and it’s certainly a special experience.

When I talk about the high sun 24 hours a day, many people ask me “how do you sleep?”
I have never considered travel as the time of year to rest.
Perhaps it’s precisely the period in which I get tired more because I try to do and see everything.
The rest of the year I rest (and organize my next trip).

In the days spent in Longyearbyen I simply closed the curtains in my room and slept normally.
In the 5 days of sailing on the Hurtigruten however, I didn’t sleep more than 3-4 hours a day.
I come here to see arctic landscapes and polar bears.
I’d never have forgiven myself for not seeing something because I was sleeping.

THE POLAR NIGHT

If after a sunset there will always be a sunrise, the long polar night contrasts with the phenomenon of the “midnight sun”.
From November 14 to January 29 the sun remains at least 6 degrees below the horizon, in what is officially considered precisely the polar night.
But in reality the sun is no visible from 26 October to 8 March..

It’s the cycle of nature in these latitudes.
Hard to imagine for those who don’t try it.
Difficult to live for those who do not grow there.

RATED ALCOHOL

Because of the strong alcohol problem especially during the winter months, alcohol is rationed.
Monthly, residents can buy a maximum of 2 liters of spirits and 24 cans of beer at the supermarket.
Each purchase is noted on the personal card and non-residents must show the return flight ticket.

IMPOSSIBLE TO BORN AND TO DIE

You can’t be born here..
The hospital is not equipped and pregnant women must go to Tromso 3 weeks before birth.

And you can’t even die..
The Arctic climate prevents the decomposition of bodies and allows viruses to survive.
They noticed this in the 1930s, resurrecting the bodies of some victims of the terrible Spanish influence.
Since then there is no one cemetery at Svalbard.
Older people are forced to spend the last years of their lives away from here.
Longyearbyen is precisely called the city where one cannot die.