Svalbard, while only 3 days into my travels, was a well deserved reprieve. I got to change from bloody sneakers (as in literal dried blood was in the back of them from my blisters on each foot, both the British prefix) to loose snow boots, lifting my spirits exponentially.
This trip was I think the most spontaneous trip of my life. It all started in late December, when Sean, the karaoke king I met on my final night in Lisbon, posted on his instagram story that he would be in Svalbard from February 12 to 15 and asked if anyone would want to join. My original plan for my February vacation was to spend all my time in Spain so the new potential of going to Norway complicated my itinerary. I pestered Lisa (the friend I was meeting in Spain) more than I’m proud of asking her when she wanted to meet me in Spain and eventually we were able to work out our plan of meeting on the 15th before heading our separate ways on the 20th. With my Spain dates secured, I began my planning for Svalbard, deciding I could make stops along the way to see other friends. In January, Sean made a chat with all the friends that had also said they would meet him in Svalbard. At the start we were a group of 5 but one person ended up not being able to make the dates work and had to drop out. All of us in the group only had connections to Sean so I was intrigued to see how we would all get along. Turns out there was no need to worry because we had a blast. I arrived on the same flight as Eric to Svalbard so we had ample time to get to know each other, during which I learned that he had never actually met Sean and that he knew of him through his partner. Eric and I arrived in Longyearbyen first and opted to wait at the local husky cafe to wait for Sean and Kirby, while continuing getting to know each other. After a few hours, we finally had our whole group in the same place so we made our way to dinner at 1600 because we were famished. Dinner that early turned out to be a slight mistake because later that night when we were playing cambio, we were victims of hunger once again. After settling in at our guesthouse that night, we were (with some searching and luck) able to book a snowmobile tour for the next day too.
Our guesthouse offered free breakfast so the next day we were able to grab some food before getting picked up for our snowmobile tour at 0930. At the clubhouse, we got all our gear and a small lecture about polar bears and the safety procedures regarding them. The previous day, when booking, we had listed that I was vegetarian so I didn’t think to mention anything before leaving earlier that morning. Needless to say, I learned the importance of emphasizing my dietary restrictions. Lunch aside, the tour was extremely fulfilling for me, and full of many firsts. The tour provided me with my introductory snowmobile driver and passenger experience. I chose to be a passenger at the start of the tour because I was a bit intimidated at the idea of getting behind the wheel when the only thing I knew going in was the general knowledge that snowmobiles flip super easy. Lucky for me, Kirby was motivated to drive and we set off. During the ride, I was able to see reindeers munching on the limited amount of grass that the island provides them while simultaneously freezing through the provided gear. Eventually the group stopped and I finally took my chance to drive the snowmobile. Right off the bat, the driving experience beat out being a passenger (I mean….the scooter had heated steering!) and I had a blast as the group made our way to our next stop. When we stopped, we got to stretch our legs and check out a frozen waterfall. At the waterfall, I learned that in the summer hiking is necessary to reach areas throughout the island, unless you’re able to sail around the outside, and generally a 30 minute snowmobile ride translates to one day hiking (!!!). After leaving the waterfall, I was back in the passenger seat as we made our way to Tempelfjorden, where we stopped for lunch. As I mentioned earlier, lunch was complicated…my MRE options all included meat (bolognese, chicken curry, or beef stew) so I opted for eating one of the emergency granola bars I brought in an attempt to satisfy my hunger. We stayed at the fjord for a while and even got to walk towards the water, all of us but our tour guide, Oliver, doing our best to ignore the cold. February is meant to be the coldest month in Svalbard and there should have been sea ice but instead the water was slushie-like (which was something I had never considered a body of water could be, silly me.) Watching the slushie waves was Sean’s favorite memory of the trip, which probably explains why he was able to randomly slide and fall while watching the waves (don’t worry, he landed gracefully). Before we knew it, Oliver had us all hopping on our snowmobiles for the drive back. We didn’t end up stopping to change drivers on the way back, I think because there was a potential white-out coming our way, so I drove the whole way back. After driving the snowmobile for a prolonged period, my forearms, core, and thumb began to feel the burn but stopping for the final time still felt bitter-sweet. After the tour, we got a drink before making our way to dinner. We finished off the night playing cards and somehow, I ended up deciding to disregard my budget and booked an ice cave tour for the next day with Kirby and Eric.
Waking up on the 14th, I was excited for the day to come. We wouldn’t get picked up for our hiking tour until 11:30 so we had plenty of time to eat breakfast and get ready for the day. When Johnathan, our tour guide for the day, came to pick us up, I made sure to let it be known I was a vegetarian (good thing, because we had to go back to the clubhouse for him to grab me some food) before we started the hike. We all had to get outfitted in snow-shoes and a helmet before setting off into the snow. Minutes into the walk, I lost my snowshoe and, while bending over to fix it, lost my helmet. After that small hiccup, I was able to successfully walk for a longer amount of time before needing to fix my snow-shoe again. The walk was pretty, we were surrounded by snow everywhere we looked leading me to comment on how it was hard to differentiate any changes in terrain because all I saw was white. What felt like not even five minutes after that observation, the guide stopped to wait for the others to catch up to us. Him and I chatted for a bit and my inability to stand still led to me taking a step. What I didn’t realize before I took the step was that the guide had us stop close to a ledge and my one step would result in me falling (completely silently because it took me fully by surprise) off the ledge. My helmet fell off (again) in the fall but not my show-shoes (yay). I had to wait at the bottom of the drop for a bit before the others joined me and we started our final (very intense) ascent to the ice cave. When we finally reached the cave, we came across a departing group that had the cutest guide dog with them! The ice cave is a really a carved water tunnel in a glacier and we needed to climb down to access the cave before accessing what felt like a sauna compared to outside (I didn’t know before this hike that ice insulates so the temperature stays around 0C/32F inside). We walked around the cave a bit before finally eating lunch. My couscous lentils were delicious and washing it down with black currant syrup made for an even better experience. After lunch, we all ate some cookies before finally packing up and heading back out into the cold. It didn’t take long to reach the monstrous slope we climbed but, this time around, we were able to slide down it. Sliding down was super fun aside from the wind that made me have to close my eyes (and my snow-shoe fell off for the third time, nothing new). For both Kirby and Eric, the slide down was one of their favorite memories. Sliding down was also one of my favorite memories but my fall tops any other memory I made in Svalbard. Our trek back felt like it flew by and before I would’ve liked we were back at the van and returning our gear. We asked our guide to drop us off in the center of town so we could check out the shops before leaving the next day. Sean met up with us in town and filled us in on his day. In our absence, he was asked by the guesthouse staff if we would be willing to star in a promotional video (he said yes, obviously and our debut into Svallywood was scheduled). After catching up with him, we went to grab some dinner and celebrate friend day (our guide was part Finnish and he told us how they celebrate friendship on valentines day) before heading back to our guesthouse. At the guesthouse, we had some time to kill so we played cards before the videographer showed up. After we finished filming, we invited the videographer, Jack, to join us and then spent the rest of the night talking and playing cambio before we all made out way to bed.
Our final day we all met for breakfast, even Jack joined us, and soaked up the last of our time together. From my other post you know how chaotic my morning was but I still left Svalbard so happy with my time there. I would love to go back another time in the summer and see how my experience differs. And, of course, I want to go back North in the winter to try my luck again at seeing the aurora borealis because I had no luck seeing it this past trip. I’ll leave you with some final pictures. Thanks for reading!
Tash the Traveler 