Svalbard

London, Longyearbyen, Trigghamna

By Josef // Saturday 15 Sep // 16:04:29 // 5 Comments

Hello all,

It’s been a few days since I last blogged so this may be a long one.

On Wednesday we flew from London Heathrow to Stockholm which was exciting because it was my first ever flight. Then, on Thursday morning (very early on Thursday morning) we flew from Stockholm to Oslo then Oslo to Longyearbyen.

In Longyearbyen we had a short tour of the mining town before going to the museum. There were many opportunities for taking photos of the surrounding scenery although I didn’t have long because we were going to the Norwegian youth club. There I met Andreas and Daniel- two Norwegian (Svalbardian) boys who both had an extremely good understanding of English. We ate pizza and played pool and talked about their life in the arctic

On Thursday we went to the school to do a workshop with the local children. Firstly however, we sat through a long presentation by Daniel about life in Svalbardian and also the annual reindeer hunt that the school children participate in. We then ate soup and bread made by the children. Afterwards, we did  a movement piece with the children about climate change. We then had an hour to walk around Longyearbyen. Later we boarded the Noorderlicht (which was a lot smaller than I was led to believe). I was on first watch  for three hours with Hayley and Doriana. We sailed to Trigghamna (Norwegian for “safe harbor”).

Today, we went onshore for a little walk. Amongst other things, we saw a dead reindeer, a dead arctic fox and bits of dead whale. It was very interesting and exciting to be walking amongst such a different environment to what I’m used to. About 20 minutes after we came back we saw a polar bear walking onshore. It was really cool seeing this big and powerful animal walking where we had just been.

Anyhooo, that’s it for now. Bye.

P.S.

Please note that the mobile phones don’t work up here so I may not contact anyone until the end of the voyages

Tags: Josef

5 Comments

  1. toni Monday 17 Sep, 2007 // 6:49:08

    Fantastic Joe, its great to hear from you, we thought you had turned into Polar Bear food! – hope you have taken plenty of photographs to share this with the rest of the PV team as you can imagine everyone is asking how you are getting on – so please please take loads of snaps, see ya at the Q&A session. Dad

    PS – make sure you look at all the rest of the comments pages there are good wishes from a few folks and some questions that need answering

  2. Sam Monday 17 Sep, 2007 // 7:05:18

    Hi Joe your lil bro sam just here 2 say that iv gotta good way of makeing mony it includes u!!!!! £1 4 an autpgraph each….lol
    anyhooo how are you? i read your blog did u read my last 1? i looked at ur vidios ( the ones on the internet bout cape farwell wa eva it is)
    u were totally awsome.yesterday we went 2 antie Mo’s and vic and mat were there and mat told me a boreing story bout his mate grady i thout he wa called gravy tho lol. later dude thts it from ma good luck you will need it….
    from your fav ( and only) brother Sam

    P.S or should the autographs b 50p blog ma soon Sam

  3. toni Wednesday 19 Sep, 2007 // 15:13:29

    Hi again Joe, can you ask to have the video diary re-loaded as the link is empty and no-one can see/hear it- everyone is asking me – emails from China.Korea,India & Europe -they are desperate to see it
    have a safe journey home
    Dad

  4. Kathy Wednesday 19 Sep, 2007 // 15:30:41

    Hi toni, sorry my fault! If you click to watch it, it should be fine now. Thanks for spotting it.

  5. Joe Saturday 29 Sep, 2007 // 9:09:47

    Hi Dad,

    Yes, I’ve been sure to take loads of photos. Unfortunately, I can’t answer the other questions in the other blog but thanks for commenting.

    Hi Sam,

    I’m not sure people would be wanting to pay that much for an autograph Sam. Nice to hear from you and thanks for your comment

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