I would like to go to Svalbard!

Since I got visitors from Spain, France and Sweden I thought I might compromise and write in english! At least today! I don't have the strength to bring up my rusty french haha!!!

Anyhow, Svalbard is located HERE

the name Svalbard is icelandic meaning "the land with the cold coasts" even though the western coast is somewhat warmer due to the gulf stream (which enable ice-breaker-boats to transport mining materials all throughout the year)

It's a norwegian group of islands with 2800 citizens and around 3000 polar bears!!! The biggest island is Spitsbergen and Svalbard is a demilitarised zone. The climat is arctic and the average temperature in july is 4.4 degrees. The sun never sets by the end of April and never rises by the end of October, THAT'S SO AWESOME!!! This is because of the northern position of the islands! Here you can find the most northern school, banc, hospital, church and so on IN THE WORLD!

In february 2008 the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was founded with approximately 4.5 MILLION seed samples and about 1400 different species from the worlds' most important field crops and stuff like that. The gene bank is situated about 125 metres deep into the parent rock and it was founded on the initiative by the Norwegian state because they wanted to prevent the disappearance of species. The vault will remain there no matter electrical supply thanks to the permafrost.

The gene bank!




The capital is Longyearbyen and most citizens carries weapons when strolling down the one and only main street because of the polar bear risk! Today a friend of mine told me that in the airport there is a sign "leave your weapons HERE" ROFL! But the natives themselves believe that the risk of being shot by a tourist is MUCH HIGHER than being eaten by a polar bear LOL!





Longyearbyen:


Main street of Longyearbyen, picture borrowed from http://www.wideview.it/travel/svalbard/en_menu.htm



Longyearbyen:


CIAO FOR NOW!