Year: 2000
Time of year: Spring
Country: Norway
Places / cities: Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Barentsburg
Svalbard is one of the magical places that has left its mark on me. The first trip I had there, my parents and two neighboring families were there. The neighboring families were Kvalheim and Berge.
We hired snowmobiles to go sightseeing on our own. Finn and I shared a snowmobile. It turned out that Finn was a brave man. At one point we were going down a narrow dump and up the other side. The trip down the dump went well. When I started on the uphill I gave a little extra gas to get to the top, but it turned out to be a little too much gas. At the top of the hill, the snowmobile lost ground contact! The snow splashed in all directions as we crested the top, as if we were recreating the scene from E.T.! We were about to fall off when the snowmobile landed with a hollow "BUMP!". I heard Finn sigh in relief.
At the end of the trip - when they drove over a frozen Adventfjorden - Finn and I were at the front of the pack. Finn signaled to slow down and swerve to the side. Of course I did as he said. The braking went well. But it didn't go so well with the swing. Hans Magne had not braked enough and swerved too sharply. The snowmobile took off on one side. Fortunately, we were both fast and heavy enough to account for the movement. Again a relieved sigh came from Finn.
Since then I took it a little more calmly.
Another day, a small group of us went up one of the mountains near Longyearbyen. We young people had brought snowboards and skis with us, so now we had to stand "off-piste" down the mountains. This was magical! Not everyone has experienced snowboarding in Svalbard!
At the top of the mountain we were on, there was a large flat that sloped down in the direction of Longyearbyen. On the return, we found out that those of us who had equipment on our legs could be pulled by the snowmobiles over this surface. For some strange reason, I got such a good moment that I passed the snowmobile I was being dragged behind. Weird stuff.
Otherwise we got to stay at both dog sled and Barentsburg. And the bar named "The House". Believe it or not, this was a house!
