Flight to Svalbard and First Day in Svalbard (June 12 - June 14, 2009)

Friday, June 12 , 2009

9:20 AM (Alaska Time)
Started the adventure! About 5 ½ hour flight from Fairbanks, AK to Minneapolis, MN (arrived 5:40 PM Minnesota time). Only one small blip when checking in because I have 4 individual flights, and the last one’s to a kinda “no-name” airport… so I had to fix some things at with the airline attendant to make sure my bags made it all the way to Norway. Fingers crossed they make it to my final destination! I lucked out because the flight was only about half full… lots of super nice older “lower 48” tourists flying home from their Alaskan adventures. It was pretty fun talking with them about all of the fun they had, but it also made me that much more greatful to be living in such an amazing state that most people are lucky to visit once in their life. Talking with some of the older crowd made me realize a couple of other things too. 1) They reminded me how short life really is and how fast time flies by. We all really need to make the most of every day we have here. There are adventures around every corner, whether it’s in your hometown or across the world. 2) Seeing those that were having difficulties even walking around on the plane made me realize how lucky I am to have opportunities to travel while I’m still young. I’m So Very Greatful!! And I want to document all of my travel so I can share stories with my own kids one day. 3) Finally, a conversation with an elderly couple across the isle made me realize how important it is to keep you parents close as they get older. This couple talked about how much they love their kids and grandkids, but they never come to visit… they always have to go to them… which is extremely difficult in their old age. This just reinforced my plans already to take care of my own parents as they get older (I’ll build a cabin for them next door to my own)…

5:40 PM (Minnesota Time)
I land in the Great State of Minnesota!!! It was very bittersweet to be passing through the state though because I felt like I was home, however I wasn’t able to see any family, just a brief 1 ½ hour layover. I my last few phone calls while I was still in “the states” with cell phone service, talking with mom and dad and a couple of friends. The flight was overbooked and I debated taking the offer to give up my seat and spend a night with my parents, but I was afraid that it would lead to big problems in my connection flights to make it to Svalbard.

7:30 PM (Minnesota Time)
After cramming everyone on board we left the Land of 10,000 lakes for Amsterdam. My first ever trip overseas! It was a pretty good flight aside from being a little long (about 8 ½ hours). A couple glasses of wine and on-board movies (“He’s Just Not That Into You” and “Gran Torino”) made the time pass quicker. I was also really weird to see the sunset completely and have darkness as we flew over the Atlantic Ocean… no darkness in Fairbanks, Alaska in the summertime.


Saturday, June 13, 2009

10:50 AM (Amsterdam Time)
We land in Amsterdam! I can officially say I have set foot in Europe now. I only had a couple hours of sleep on the plane, but I’m not too worried. My internal time clock is all messed up right now anyways… haha… and it will be 24 hour light once I arrive in Svalbard so the plan is to sleep it off after I arrive. As soon as I set foot in the airport I switched to my “Amazing Race” mode… haha… For those of you that haven’t heard this story…
It started when I had my first flight out to Hawaii 2 summers ago. I was pretty nervous to have to travel on my own and switch flights and go through the process of renting a car and finding a hotel in an unfamiliar area…. So the way I got rid of my nerves was pretending I was on the show “The Amazing Race” Hahaha… a little weird I know, but it really did help!!
The main thing I’ll remember about this airport was all of the fancy shops and the smell of perfume! Smelled soooo good! At the airport I had to go through another security check point to get to my gate… another nerve wracking moment when the main language is not English and their procedures vary a little, but with a smile on my face I made it through pretty quickly and found my gate. I had to ditch my diet pepsi at the checkpoint and I was super thirsty so I found a lil stand and picked up a “Light Coke” … haha… that made me giggle a little! Now I’m waiting for our plane to arrive to fly to Oslo, Norway… it’s weird being the odd one at the airport! I usually make new acquaintances while I’m waiting at the gates but it’s a little more intimidating when no one’s speaking English… haha. I’ve decided I’m going to do my very best to leave all of those I meet these coming 3 weeks with a good impression of Americans by showing them my “Minnesota/North Dakota Nice”.

12:35 PM (Amsterdam Time)
Started boarding for the Amsterdam flight and it was really different. At the gate where you’d usually walk down or walk out and board the plane, we instead walked through one of those spinning doors and then boarded a bus… haha. It was just like a regular city bus… they packed us in… and then drove us about 5 minutes out on the tarmack to our plane. The flight itself wasn’t too eventful… talked with a nice older guy coming back home from work in Africa. He was from northern Norway. Enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and got a little shut eye. Landing in Oslo it was neat to see the landscape since I had a window seat… lots and lots of rolling hills with farmland. I asked the guy next to me what they farm and he said it was mainly hay and other grains for cattle and other animals. It was really pretty!

Oslo, Norway

2:30 PM (Oslo, Norway Time)
Landed and the confusion began… haha. The airport was kinda confusing to me. We had to exit the terminals and then wait to pick up our baggage… thankfully I stopped and asked someone otherwise my luggage would have been SOL when I arrived in Longyearbyen without my luggage! So I picked that up and then had to completely exit the airport and go back in up to the 2nd floor. There I had to print off my boarding pass and the luggage stickers… another difference from the US… then drop off my luggage (which was too heavy, so I had to pay 500 some Krone… not sure how much that is yet… haha… just put it on the credit card [just did a rough calculation… 6 Krone ~ 1 US Dollar… thus the luggage cost me approximately $83.33) and have my fingerprint taken. After that it was back through security once again… pretty fast thank goodness… and then finally had to find the gate. And now I can finally relax a little again… Woohoo! Time logged in airports/flights so far: 20 hours.

Thoughts thus far on international travel:
1) You’ve really got to be patient… in some ways it’s nice that I’m traveling alone, I have a feeling that there would be a lot of arguing and added stress if I were traveling with a group.
2) Kinda goes off of point 1, when traveling alone I’ve learned that you really need to just stay calm, read whatever signs you can read (or look for pictures…haha) and ask for help when needed. The minute you panic things go downhill… I even talk to myself sometimes… (haha… a few of you will get a kick outta that statement since you know me so well!)
3) It’s really odd and occasionally intimidating sitting around when you can’t understand a word of what others around you are saying. It’s kinda humbling, and I know I’ll keep this in the back of my mind when we have new grad students coming in to UAF in the fall.

4:00 PM Oslo, Norway Time
Time to board the plane for my last set of flights!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYY! I’m tired! This flight has two legs, we fly from Oslo, Norway to Tromso for a quick stop and then FINALLY to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway! It’s very odd waiting to board a plane when they call out which rows can board and other instructions and announcements on board in a language other than English. You really take that for granted when traveling in the states!

Alright the first leg of this last flight was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately I had a middle seat between 2 individuals that didn’t speak engligh. There was an older European guy on the isle that seemed pretty quiet, and the gal in the window seat was going to some conference. I picked up on that from her broken English. Flying out of Oslo I did get to see the beautiful landscape once again. I think it would be great to visit sometime. I ended up napping for most of this short flight.. about 2 hours before we came in to land in Tromse’. That town is Beautiful! A lot like the Kenai peninsula of Alaska. After landing in Tromse’ about 2/3 of the plane got off, and then about 25 people boarded as we got ready to leave for the final destination, Longyearbyen.


7:00 PM Tromse’, Norway Time
This turned out to be quite the entertaining flight!!! A very entertaining group of young men came onboard laughing… just “piss” drunk (as they say here). I could literally taste the vodka in the air besides smelling it… and when one of them took the seat next to me I knew it was going to be a wild flight! After listening to them go on in Norwegain for a while and realizing I was the subject of part of the material with the guys behind our row smacking the guy next to me… haha… I turned to the guy next to me and said “Vodka?” while raising my pretend glass… and he just laughed and nodded. He then proceeded to tell me that his buddy… (wearing the coal miner’s hat behind me)… was getting married soon and they goofballs had decided to kidnap him and bring him to Svalbard for the bachelor’s party. There was lots of drunken Norwegian banter the whole time and it was hard not to laugh at them. I think each ordered an additional 2 or 3 drinks on the short flight, which concluded with a guy in the back of their group taking his guitar out and singing “Hey Hey Hey Hey what’s going on” in Norwegian.
Here’s part of the song with the views outside as we started flying over Svalbard!







I was practically glued to the window as we caught views of the mountains and glacier below. It was just breathtaking! Eventually we came around in for our landing and caught a view of the town I’ll be living in for the next 3 weeks, Longyearbyen. I live in Nyben ( I guess it’s another town but only about a mile walk straight in from Longyearbyen.) It’s at the very back of this picture.



This is the furthest north location that still has daily arrivals from a major airline. Here’s a view as we stepped off of the plane.





After walking into the terminal I met up with a bunch of the other IPY field school students and we happily gathered our luggage. Thankfully no one’s was lost! Then we tossed our bags into a couple vans and drove to our barracks for the next 3 weeks. I’m staying in Barack #1… the new one… Yay! They’re actually really nice! We each have our own room with a bed, closet, 2 tables, and a bookshelf… and we share a bathroom with one other person. The view is also Amazing! The base of the mountain is only like 100 feet from the building. [View from my window]



After getting settled in and chatting with a few other students I made it an early night and crashed. The time difference and jet lag had caught up with me!


Sunday, June 14, 2009

2:30 PM Longyearbyen time (4:30 AM Alaska Time)
I eventually woke up… it was nice to have a good night’s sleep! I jumped in the shower and got ready to walk down to UNIS (The University Centre in Svalbard) where we’ll be having classes. It’s about a 20 minute walk, about a mile and a half to get there. We were able to meet all of the students from all over the world… Norway, England, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, Canada… We had about an hour of welcome type presentations. We found out a little about the classes we’ll be taking and also about all of the “big wig smart guys” that will be attending our final presentations… a little intimidating!! Then we also had a short tour of the building, followed by a pizza dinner where we got to know each other some more.
[UNIS and a Svalbard reindeer... kinda look like stubby miniature reindeer compared to those on the mainland and Alaska]



Then we walked back up to the barracks for the evening… pretty low key again. Everyone’s still trying to get used to various time changes but the 24 hour daylight is helping. Tomorrow we have safety training that includes shooting rifles in the case of a polar bear attack, and jumping into the Arctic Ocean (in a survival suit of course). Should be a crazy adventure-filled day! I’ll write all about it in the morning, but tonight I need to get some sleep… 8:30 AM (10:00 PM Alaska Time) will be coming quick!