Well.. ok, it's not the coolest town, that's probably somewhere in Russia. It is however the worlds most Northerly settlement. Which is a pretty groovoid claim to fame as claims to fame go.
Below you can see the main street of town.
As you may know, we're here to do some serious science, and the usual winter population of 15 people has been rather overrun by the 30 students and teachers who are here to poke the polar night and see what pokes back.
Below you can see the main street of town.
As you may know, we're here to do some serious science, and the usual winter population of 15 people has been rather overrun by the 30 students and teachers who are here to poke the polar night and see what pokes back.
As we are here to study the polar night, aka what happens when it's dark outside. The guys running the town, Kings Bay, have had all the lights off and the windows blacked out around the marina so that hopefully the animals in the water are acting as close to normal as they would if there wasn't any human interference. Which is kinda cool, though a little offputting to be working in such a building..
We spent the majority of the day in lectures which, as I have mentioned before, aren't really the most aesthetically pleasing of things. Event when they do consider exotic fruits (in this case both the avocado and the mango).
So instead I shall share with you some of the photos taken from wandering around the town this evening, which is not the most time intensive exercise due to the size of the town.
It's possible that by the end of this page you will have seen each and every building in Ny Alesund..
So off we headed, down the main street, stopping to hear history and anecdotes.
It's possible that by the end of this page you will have seen each and every building in Ny Alesund..
So off we headed, down the main street, stopping to hear history and anecdotes.
This is the ever so slightly creepy stretch of road we have to walk down to get to the biology labs, creepy because it's the only open stretch where there aren't buildings to hide from polar bears in.
These are old buildings from a town optimistically labelled "New London" which was a marble mining town over the other side of the Fjord.. it was unsuccessful, though apparently the buildings did well!
These are the dog kennels for the sled dogs, I don't quite know what they do with sled dogs around here but I'm sure it's important..
Snow mobile tracks, snow mobile tracks EVERYWHERE
Possibly the most important building in town other than the mess. This is where all our electricity is generated (from diesel). It was suggested that if the pipes freeze it could get a bit cold here. I'm going to suggest that thats a slight understatement.
The old pier.. nothing says weird more than a pier covered in snow
The airport!
A rather random wood working shop
And my personal favourite, jerry cans frozen in!
All up it's been a very exciting few days and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into some science!