Pushing the limits: Svalbard.
Most people hadn't a clue as to where Svalbard is whenever I mentioned the place. Situated roughly 800km from the North Pole, Svalbard is the northernmost inhabited land accessible by visitors as well as the natural habitat to thousands of polar bears. The archipelago is part of Norway and the name translates to 'Cold Edge', which really lived up to it's reputation.
The only way to get here is to take a 1.5hr flight from Tromsø. I figured if we did not fly to this northern frontier of human settlement while we were here above the Arctic Circle, we would never had that chance to do it anymore. And since we had decided on it, we might as well do something extreme there to test our physical and mental limits. Should we survived this, any further difficulties encountered along the trip would be just be negligible to us after this ordeal.
While waiting to collect our bagpacks from the conveyor belts, I had a good look at the passengers from our flight; Production crews with their big boxes of equipment (hmm.. probably from National Geographic, Discovery Channel or something), teams of big tough looking guys with their huge gears ready for expeditions (all of them looked like some US special forces who can take me out with one punch), burly locals with their goods and supplies. Obviously, we ended up looking like some noobs in the midst of these people..
I took my first step out of the airport and was almost choked by the freezing air outside. The bitterness of the cold was simply out of this world! Never had I experienced such 'painful' and difficulty in breathing that I went back into the warm comfort of the airport arrival hall within a minute. The level of bitter coldness is totally on a whole new level, unimaginable until one had a taste of it. Deep down, I was really excited. This IS the real deal, bring it on!
Svalbard is notoriously an expensive place to visit, there is little choice of accommodation for us budget backpackers except the Spitsbergen Guesthouse, which still came up to S$230+ per night in a hostel style double room with shared bath. To make it worse, the guesthouse is situated 2.4km from the town centre. It was around 3:30pm by the time we checked into the guesthouse. Couple of hours more to acclimatize ourselves, both body and mind, before tomorrow morning first challenge..
The only way to get here is to take a 1.5hr flight from Tromsø. I figured if we did not fly to this northern frontier of human settlement while we were here above the Arctic Circle, we would never had that chance to do it anymore. And since we had decided on it, we might as well do something extreme there to test our physical and mental limits. Should we survived this, any further difficulties encountered along the trip would be just be negligible to us after this ordeal.
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| While waiting for the airport bus outside Longyearbyen Airport. |
I took my first step out of the airport and was almost choked by the freezing air outside. The bitterness of the cold was simply out of this world! Never had I experienced such 'painful' and difficulty in breathing that I went back into the warm comfort of the airport arrival hall within a minute. The level of bitter coldness is totally on a whole new level, unimaginable until one had a taste of it. Deep down, I was really excited. This IS the real deal, bring it on!
Svalbard is notoriously an expensive place to visit, there is little choice of accommodation for us budget backpackers except the Spitsbergen Guesthouse, which still came up to S$230+ per night in a hostel style double room with shared bath. To make it worse, the guesthouse is situated 2.4km from the town centre. It was around 3:30pm by the time we checked into the guesthouse. Couple of hours more to acclimatize ourselves, both body and mind, before tomorrow morning first challenge..
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| Spitsbergen Guesthouse double room, shared bath, breakfast & Wi-Fi at separate building. |
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