Spitsbergen 2022
Spitsbergen SVALBARD
Spitsbergen represents one of the northernmost locations on Earth that can be accessed by regular tourists via conventional transportation. A region in the Arctic Ocean characterised by the presence of polar bears, whales, breweries and “Russki”.
The Svalbard expedition was originally planned as part of the wider “completion of the northern part of the world” project, which began with the legendary Greenland Expedition. The route proceeds from Oslo to the capital, Longyearbyen. En route, the former mining town of Pyramiden and the Soviet backwoods of Barentsburg are visited. The return journey follows a route via Tromsø and Riga. The expedition is full of interesting facts about the local area, with lots of photos to show you what it’s all about. It’s also got lots of useful tips for beer tourism and general advice on what to do and see.
ROUTE AND ARRIVAL TIPS
What to leave behind, how to get there and what to pack.
Shop opening times
You can leave the head nets at home, as there are no Arctic mosquitoes in Svalbard. The weather can be pretty unpredictable, but the Norwegian yr.no website is a good place to start. There are a few shops in Logybaerden (the biggest COOP), but they tend to close quite early (around 19:00). If you take a trip around the area like we did, you’ll be returning either at a very borderline time, or well after 7pm. The best place to evaluate the day’s activities will be in one of the local pubs, which are pricier than the bottles from the shop (the booze part of the shop closes at 6pm).
Cash or card?
One of the main mistakes we made right from the start was having too much cash on hand. In Svalbard, the vast majority of payments can be made by card, both in town and with Russians in the backwoods. From the airport bus to pubs, shops, taxi drivers and museums, everything is done via card. We also came across a few cases where people refused to take cash. The Norwegians are way ahead of us on this one. They’ve got it figured out: cash is heading for obsolescence.
Getting there
The route is pretty straightforward: you can fly with Norwegian or SAS to Svalbard. There’s a bus from the airport to the city, but it’s quite a distance on foot (about 5 km) if you’re carrying a few heavy backpacks. Locals don’t seem to consider the road between the airport and the city a “bear-safe zone”. As a general rule, the recommended precautions for polar bear occurrence are valid all year round, but it’s especially important to be aware of them during the winter season. It’s not uncommon for local guides to be armed with a rifle at all times, even in summer (just to be on the safe side). The bus fare is 100 NOK. The taxi driver dropped the three of us off at the airport for under NOK 300 on the way back from the city via the SeedVault stop, so it’s definitely worth taking a taxi if you’re in a group larger than two.
The impact of Russian aggression in Ukraine on local services
If you’re planning on travelling to the surrounding area (Pyramiden/Barentsburg), it’s a good idea to check with your chosen company to see if they’ll be docking at these locations. These are Russian territories and, given that the Russians have proven to be even bigger dicks than previously thought, some companies are reluctant to dock in their ports. Some of us will only find out this fact after paying the fee on board the ship, which seems a bit unfair on us customers (they should just put it on the website or tell us in advance). My brother and I were really keen to find out more about the port policy, so we wrote to a few companies online to ask them about it. We also wanted to know which company we should choose, so we asked them which one had the best port policy. Henningsen Transport & Guiding was the company that replied to us, and they were really helpful. They told us all about their port policy and also updated their website to say the same thing. We absolutely recommend this company! Their staff are so professional and they stick to the schedule perfectly.
OSLO
You can get to Svalbard either via Oslo or Tromsø. We stopped in the capital to see what we could find. Fortunately, there was a friendly match between Manchester United and Atlético Madrid on Saturday, so the city was filled with red MCU jerseys, including traditional fans who resembled figures from The Brothers Grimsby. Současně se jednalo o první střet s místními cenami v lokálech, které jsou lehce vyšší (přeci jen Krakonoše za 25 Kč jen tak něco „nepřekoná“). If you’re an untappd beer badge collector, this is the ideal spot to boost your stats and make other people green with envy!
Oslo is almost as big as Prague in terms of population. You can easily explore the centre and surrounding areas in a day (check out this Oslo guide). We spent our 72 hours in the capital city just wandering around, beer touring and visiting a few cultural and educational places that I would normally avoid as a museum noob, but these were not normal circumstances. Oslo may not be the most fascinating city in the world. While the city boasts a high standard of living and level of services, some might say it lacks a certain vibrancy. This evaluation is based on personal preferences and may not align with the interests of those who enjoy visiting galleries, museums, and viewing sculptures. The rest of Norway is in a league of its own! I’ve been back to the north many times and it never disappoints. My brother joined us the day before we set off for Svalbard, and we were all set for our adventure!
Polar Expeditions Memorial
A visit to the Norwegian ship Fram (meaning “forward”) on whose deck such notable figures as Roald Amundsen,Fridtjof Nansen and myself walked.
A schooner constructed at the turn of the 19. 20th century, boasting a steam power output that is double that of a Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI.
Cabin crew: Boarding completed
Oslo-LYR-flight
Spitsbergen
The expedition’s main destination
The expedition reached its main destination, Svalbard, on 1 August 2022 at 19:45, landing at Longyearbyen-Svalbard Airport (LYR). Guess what! Along with the Arctic climate, we were also greeted by our friend Vojta, who was just about to take the same plane back home (what a great coincidence to meet someone you know at the end of the world, even if we only waved at each other through the departure hall window). Accommodation in the local area is on the pricey side, especially when it comes to hotels and hostels. We decided to go for the AirBnB option instead (a whole apartment for 650 euros for three nights).
Longyearbyen is basically two streets between which you’ll find the essentials – shops and pubs. If you stand in the middle of the city and look around, you can see everything. In fact, you can see the whole city. If you’re not in a hurry, you can easily walk through the city in two hours. Most shops close at 19:00, but pubs stay open until 02:00. Since the sun wasn’t setting during our visit, we decided not to stay until closing time.
LONGYEARBYEN
Mobiles photos of Svalbard’s capital and surroundings.
The population is around 2,500 and is made up of a large minority of Russki and Thais, as well as Norwegians, followed by Swedes, Germans and Danes.
We can leave aside the multi-day luxury boat trips to the north of Spitsbergen for now. The two main destinations from Longyearbyen, the capital, are the former mining town of Pyramiden and the still active mining town of Barentsburg. Both towns are under Russian control. They have a few Lenin statues and some pretty well-preserved buildings from the era of “socialist prosperity”. The weather was pretty unpredictable, but we were lucky on our trip. Especially at sea, the clouds disappeared and it was blue skies all the way.
PYRAMIDEN
The Stakhanov movement’s former stronghold.
Why not just come out and say it? Pyramiden was one of the main reasons for the trip. It’s one of the northernmost places that is relatively “easy” to get to, and there’s Lenin’s head as well. You might think it would be like Chernobyl, but the locals have kept it pretty well preserved thanks to the local climate. Unlike Chernobyl, this place isn’t dismantled and devastated – it’s still somehow holding together.
The journey from Longyearbyen to Pyramiden is by boat and takes around four to five hours. There are a few stops along the way, including the bird-pooped rocks (they show you just how much the birds poop there!) and the glacier (a polar bear habitat). You’ll also get some interesting facts about Svalbard as a whole and keep an eye out for whales. There are plenty of opportunities for photographers to practise their panning techniques as the ship is constantly surrounded by gulls during the cruise. The site itself allows for only about two hours for a guided tour, which is not much and is unfortunately what most companies do.
If you know Chernobyl well, the Pyramiden settlement is like Chernobyl/Prypyat in its prime, just before the explosion. Most of the houses in Pyramiden are still standing, with all their walls and windows intact. The interiors have not been damaged by vandals, and some houses are even still lived in or function as tourist junk shops. The objective of this establishment, which had previously been a hub of the Stakhanovite movement, was modified in a manner that was unfavourable to the five-year commitment. Consequently, mining operations were terminated during the initial two quarters of 1998. Since then, the settlement has become a popular destination for tourists and worshippers of the St. Barbara cult. In the summer months, the local population (not including tourists) reaches a respectable 15-20 people (there is a hotel and an information centre/souvenir shop). In winter, 3-5 people work together to keep the place going. The buildings are in pretty good shape and you can actually go inside (they lock the main doors). There are former common rooms, a dining room, a swimming pool, an indoor sports hall and a local community centre. Even the little details inside the buildings are so well done! They don’t look kitsch at all! They show us what each room or building was used for in a time of so-called socialist prosperity.
BARENTSBURG
Soviet backwoods with a brewery
The second Russian settlement, Barentsburg, is a lot more lively outback than Pyramiden. They’ve got a brewery, a hotel, a government office, a sort of dysfunctional multifunctional building, a hostel, a supermarket, their own mobile operator and, of course, the traditional head of Lenin. This is where they still mine coal, but not as intensively as before. The local infrastructure is adapted to the needs of the local Stakhanovites and Heroes of Socialist Labour. The whole thing is built in a pretty impractical way, right on the hillside. You can see over the roofs of the coal-dusted mining halls into the bay/fjord.
It might seem a little overdone, but even this trip we started with the glacier. This glacier was completely different to the one at Pyramiden. There were no bears, but we saw lots of new things along the way (some of which you can see in the Barentsburg Attractions subchapter below the drone video, which you’ll get to in a moment). It’s not unusual to see glaciers in this area, and they’re a great sight to behold. They’re not the massive floating shrubs you see in Greenland, but they’re still pretty impressive (over 10km in the upper parts). The crew gets lunch ready around noon. For instance, there are local variations on seafood (such as Norwegian salmon), German sausages, Italian pasta and British steamed vegetables. At Pyramiden, the team toasted to the sighting of the bears with a glass of whiskey, adding ice from the surrounding ice floe. Even though there weren’t any bears, we quickly found a reason to have the digestif (the helicopter!). We were able to offset the swaying of the boat with a few units of Irish blend whiskey under blue skies .
The embassy there does more than just repeat messages on Twitter. They also help locals with everyday things like getting travel documents, handling executions and dealing with military call-up orders. While you’re there, you might also get a text message welcoming you to Russian territory, as the Russki have built their own transmitters on site for communication purposes. The cultural centre with a swimming pool (multifunctional complex) is not worth paying attention to. There are more important investments to be made, such as rewriting the socialist sign and restoring the Lenin’s head (more on that below). What interests us besides the photos is, of course, the Red Bear Brewery (Красный медведь / Krasny Medved). Prior to the establishment of a brewery in the capital, this location held the distinction of being the northernmost brewery in the world. Since 2011, Svalbard Bryggeri has taken the lead in this regard.
A bird's eye view of Pyramiden and Barentsburg.
Barentburg's noteworthiness
On the way there and at the place itself, we noticed a few interesting things that we just had to share.
The Socialist Sign
In the residential part of Barentsburg (the two blocks of flats), there’s a sign that today bears the striking slogan ‘Our Goal – Communism‘ (you can see it on Google Maps). We thought it had been there since the beginning of time until we looked at some old photos showing how the different messages on the sign have changed over time. Following Bellingcat’s example, we did some digging in the archives of the internet and found at least two historical records that show different messages than are seen today.
- [1] - The oldest slogan was Arktikugol. This is the name of the Russian mining company that operates all activities on Russian territory in Spitsbergen.
- [2] - When Arktikugol was purple, Lenin's name was in green letters.
- [3] - During the middle period, they changed the company name to the city name and repainted Lenin's name.
- [4] Google Maps shows that the new slogan was installed between 2016 and 2017. Since then, it's been back to Communism.
Participation in a rescue drill
On the way there, we stopped by a nearby glacier for a view, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see any polar bears. What we did manage to do, though, was take part in an unplanned exercise/drill with the local rescue forces. It involved dropping the helicopter crew on board our ship and then bringing them back to the helicopter. This is something the emergency services have to do from time to time as part of their ‘always ready’ plan. It’s not often you get the chance to watch an AS-332 Super Puma struggling to keep balance with an ever-floating ship from just a few metres away.
Falling off a chunk of iceberg.
On our way to Barentsburg, we saw some ice from the glacier break off. It might not have been the most spectacular collapse of a massive glacier, but even so, these few photos concentrated in a nice timelapse demonstrate the photographer’s great observation!
Before heading south
A short visit to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault reveals its critical role as a secure backup for the world’s agricultural biodiversity. The vault stores duplicates of seed samples from gene banks worldwide, ensuring the preservation of diverse plant species in the face of natural disasters, war, or other catastrophic events that could lead to the loss of crop varieties.
The Czech Republic has a few dozen samples stored in the vault. We really hope that Žatecký poloraný červenáček (Saaz “noble” hops) was one of the first deposits.
TROMSØ
Overnight beer-stat boosting
The stop in Tromsø was more of an afternoon stroll around the city and the waterfront, which ended with a big increase in beer consumption, not only in the city’s oldest beer hall, Ølhallen, which has fifty taps, and our beer consumption increased quite a bit. My brother said goodbye to us at the airport and headed back south on his own. I’d already been there a few times (I also go back for the Northern Lights), so I could save my colleagues the trouble of picking out the right places to visit in the short time we had (about 5-6 hours) given the early morning flight to Riga, Latvia.
RIGA
A few days in a clean city
I know Tallinn well, and I was expecting Riga to be a bit behind it in terms of the city’s overall offering. I’m pleased to say that I was wrong. It’s a lovely, clean city (at least the centre), with lots to see and do and great value for money, plus there’s a direct flight to Prague.
For three days we walked the historic streets, explored the area, picked up geocaching boxes, and enjoyed the local microbrewery offerings. I have to say that Riga exceeded my expectations. There is not much point in describing what there is to see there, I would copy what is already written elsewhere. The cobblestone paths in the historic centre are a real challenge for your ankles, so get ready to test your endurance! We didn’t use the local public transport. We walked everywhere and took the Bolt from the airport (the airport to the historical centre costs about 10€).
There’s a great selection of beers on offer, with lots of places in and around the city centre serving draught and bottled beers from local breweries or from the nearby cross-border area. We’ve also done well in terms of responsible growth in the number of beer-badges awarded.
The End
Riga marks the end of our trip. We head back home with a good feeling that I’ve added another piece to the puzzle. The north of Greenland, Canada’s northern islands or the Arctic could be another challenge. I am still looking for a few more pieces of the puzzle to complete the picture.
I would like to express my gratitude for your attention and wish you all the best.
pixelarium
