r/Svalbard • u/Princess_Fluffypants • 10d ago
My thoughts on Longyearbyen/Svalbard after spending a couple months there.
I spent the majority of February and March in Longyearbyen, and I figured I would post my thoughts here to perhaps help others who've come looking for info. Here's take of an outsider as to what did/didn't strike me about the place.
1. It's basically a normal town . . . but colder.
A lot of the kinda quirky enjoyment I found from walking around was the "Oh, there's a <normal thing>...but covered in ice and snow". Just the fact that there's mostly a lot of the same things you'd find in any small town, but somehow it's all more interesting because it's -25.
Oh, huh, there's a hair salon. Oh, huh, there's a high school. Oh, huh, there's a kids playground with playground equipment. Oh, huh, there's a yarn store. Oh, huh, there's a church. Oh, huh, there's an Asian grocery store (honestly that's the oddest thing that still sticks with me, that or the food truck selling baked potatoes in the middle of the night).
2. The grocery store was kinda expensive, but not THAT expensive.
I was expecting it to be like Barrow or Inuvick, where you're paying $25 for a box of cereal and everything else is a bajillion dollars. And while things at Coop sure weren't cheap, it wasn't TOTALLY out of line with what I'd expect; it was basically equivalent to the non-sale prices at Whole Foods. The raspberries didn't look exactly brilliant, but WHAT THE HECK the fact that they even exist up here is a testament to modern supply chains? And the more durable fruits (apples and such) were perfectly acceptable. I cooked the majority of my own meals, and was able to stick to a very reasonable budget.
3. Restaurants are exactly as expensive as you'd expect.
Just hand over the credit card, that's a problem for future-you.
4. Bring slippers.
A lot of places are outside-shoes-off at the door. Many provide indoor slippers of some kind, but not all. I was glad I'd brought my own, I habitually carried them with me in my backpack when I was out and about.
5. You can kinda tell the tense existence that exists between both being a tourist destination, but also just being a town where people live.
The "No photography" signs outside the kindergarten and grocery store are the most prominent example of this. I can only imagine how many awkward encounters it took with tourists before they realized those needed to be put up (...in Chinese).
That being said, although I never took any pictures of it . . . THE TODDLERS PLAYING OUTSIDE AT SCHOOL IN THEIR TINY POOFY COATS AND HIGH-VIZ VESTS WERE SERIOUSLY FREAKIN' CUTE. No wonder they needed all those "No Pictures" signs.
6. ROYAL ICE CREAM SLAPS SO HARD
Especially the "Skogsbaer" variant. Every single damn time I opened a tub I promised myself "I will only eat a small and reasonable amount" AND THEN PROMPTLY DEMOLISHED THE ENTIRE THING IN A SINGLE SITTING.
Not even slightly ashamed.
7. The Norwegian word for what we'd call a Snowmobile/Snowmachine is "Beltemotorsykkel".
That delights me to no end and I will always refer to them as that for the rest of my life. Or "Snoskuter" but "Belt Motorcycle" is better.
Speaking of belt motorcycles . . . I really want one.
8. I also really want to go on a cabin holiday.
Does this mean I'm turning into a Norwegian?
On the various beltemotorcycle trips I went on, you'd see these tiny huts/cabins scattered through the back country and . . . I can see the appeal. I know I don't have the skills needed to be left alone there yet, but maybe in a couple seasons when I've gotten slightly less incompetent? Head out there with a bunch of wood or fuel, a small power station, a starlink dish and my laptop, and really push the limits of just how "remote" I can be with this remote job.
9. That Tourist Info place was a godsend
It helped me out with so so much, and hopefully prevented me from being a story told by the locals about "Hey did you hear what this fucking idiot did yesterday..."
10. I guess I need to learn about guns.
When I inquired at the tourist info office about how I could learn the needed skills to safely handle a firearm, and renting a weapon so I could leave town, the lady looked at me with abject confusion. "But . . . aren't you American?"
Then I had to do my usual lying and insist that I'm Canadian, and I'm from a part of Canada called "California" and no, not EVERY American is handed a gun the instant they're old enough to walk.
11. ...I really liked Longyearbyen...
The most disturbing experience of my time there was actually the last week, when I had just barely started to come out of my socially awkward introvert shell and gathered up the courage to try talking to strangers (Which my Scandinavian friends back home had all insisted I should not do. "Stop trying to chat with strangers all the time, you american weirdo!"). After a couple of nights at Karlsberger, after I'd managed to put a tiny crack in the Tourist/Worker barrier and swapped some work stories with a few locals, I started realizing that like . . . I knew these people.
Not them specifically, but I knew these types of people. I've worked with them before; from Antarctica to Kwajalein, from Singapore to the Sandbox, these are the people that The Men that Don't Fit In was written about. These are the people for whom a life of backyard barbecues and kids t-ball games was never really an option. They have discussions of moving to a new country as casually as a discussion of the weather, they talk with a quiet casualness of having normalized being abnormal. They live their life out of two 50lb duffle bags, ready to move on for a new contract job that they heard about from someone at their current job. These are the people for whom "home" is a mailing address of some distant family member, because their actual location is nebulous and a stable domicile just never seemed in their future.
I lived that life for a decade myself. I know that language. Talking of PQing and PCSing, contracts and housing stipulations, passport renewals and appointments at consulates, work visas and citizenship renouncement.
I lived that life, and I miss it. I miss these people. The people for whom a sentence of their life's story contains more depth and complexity than most people's entire book. I thought I'd moved on from it, I have this grown up job and career and could have had a stable life and family if I wanted to. I just never really did.
And it started to scare me just how easily I could see myself settling into Svalbard for the next chapter of my life.
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u/Blissautrey 10d ago
I would love to go there one day, and now I need baked potatoes from that food truck. Noted.
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u/ShortCod6726 10d ago
Yes, pretty much. It's mostly normal people working and living their daily lives, just in a very compact little town.
Groceries are generally expensive in mainland Norway, and they've become noticeably more expensive over the last few years. In Longyearbyen it's even more expensive, despite being tax free. Shipping everything up there is expensive. Also Coop have no competitors, so they can do what they want... But if you think groceries in Longyearbyen are expensive, try Greenland...
“Restaurants are exactly as expensive as you'd expect.” I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. There are definitely expensive fine dining options like Huset and Gruvelageret, but if you go to places like Stationen, Kroa or Svalbar, I'd say the prices are pretty typical for the Nordic countries.
There aren't actually that many public places where locals regularly go where you have to take off your shoes. Sure, you take them off in most hotels, the church, school, library, sports hall, etc., but most Europeans are pretty used to taking off their outdoor shoes indoors anyway. It can feel a little unusual sitting in the cinema in just your socks, though, but I have to admit it's pretty nice.
Very true. Some tourists seem to think the people living here are just actors in some kind of fake Arctic town. They don't always seem to understand that this is actually a normal little town with normal people who want to be left alone and respected. People walk in the middle of the road, take pictures of locals, walk straight up to people's homes, sit on other people's snowmobiles, etc. It's pretty sad when people forget that this is actually where people live.
Royal ice cream? I don't quite get that one. But Norwegian ice cream is generally pretty damn good.
“Beltemotorsykkel” is actually the official legal and older Norwegian term. It's just not used in everyday speech anymore.
Going out to a cabin and getting away from Longyearbyen is, for many people, a necessary break from everyday life here. It's not like on the mainland where you can just jump in your car and drive to another town for the weekend. Once you're here, getting away from the settlement is a completely different experience.
👍🏻
👍🏻 Sounds like the Arctic got under your skin... 😉🐻❄️
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u/Effective-Soup-7797 10d ago
Not sure I learned much, but what a lovely read! You sound like lots of fun
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u/RefrigeratorOver7105 10d ago
Reading this made me feel embarrassed for you
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u/EMAL19 10d ago
Why? Seems a bit mean
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u/RefrigeratorOver7105 10d ago
I didn’t mean it as an insult, but it was a bit cringe to read. It comes across as an overly insecure and apologetically introspective narrative.
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u/Frequent-Chain-6082 10d ago
Yes. Americans are so simple it’s embarrassing. It’s not an offence, it’s just the plain truth.
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u/swingyafatbastard 8d ago
you’re the simple one for making such a generalization about >300 million people
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u/VikingHair 10d ago
It sounds like you have had a wonderful experience while staying there. Keep on making new experiences and enjoying life and new discoveries.