Já. Alveg rétt. Ég ætlaði að kvarta undan fólki í dag. Þannig er að umsóknarfresturinn í alveg voðalega spennandi háskóla úti í Amríggu rennur út á föstudaginn. Ég er löngu spöngu tilbúin með öll gögn, nema eitt einasta meðmælabréf sem meðmælandinn á eftir að skila til mín í innsigluðu umslagi. Bréfið þarf nebbla að fara til háskólans með öllum hinum umsóknargögnunum mínum. Ég er búin að senda þessum meðmælanda tvo tölvupósta að ýta á eftir bréfinu og reyndi svo að hringja í viðkomandi í dag, og ekki svarar. Hvenær fæ ég helv. bréfið?? Skilur manneskjan ekki að hún er búin að hafa rúma tvo mánuði til að græja þetta og að vegna seinagangsins þarf ég að borga tæpan 4000 kall í FedEx (Fed up and exhausted, muniði?) sendingu í stað þess að sleppa með 265 kall á póstinum?!? Það besta er að þessi skóli býður meðmælendum að skila meðmælum á Netinu en þessi meðmælandi vildi það ekki, því ef þetta væri á gamla góða pappírsforminu væri síður hætta á að þetta gleymdist!
Annað viðlíka keis er í uppsiglingu, nema hvað í þeim skóla er umsóknarfresturinn 15. janúar. Vonandi að sá meðmælandi (nei, þetta er ekki sama manneskjan í þessum tveimur tilfellum) verði aðeins sneggri að svara endalausum ítrekunum mínum. Annars er það bara enn ein FedEx sendingin. Eins gott ég fékk Fulbright-styrkinn, segi ég nú bara!
mánudagur, desember 30, 2002
sunnudagur, desember 29, 2002
Á bloggnum þeirra Ernu og Mödda er mikið rætt um femínisma þessa dagana. Þetta snertir mig ekki jafnmikið og ýmislegt annað óréttlæti heimsins, t.d. það hvernig Ingibjörgu Sólrúnu er bolað út úr borgarstjórastól (ÞAÐ er mál fyrir femínista), en engu að síður er allt í lagi að taka þátt í umræðunni:
Mega kallarnir gefa okkur konum nærföt í jólagjöf? Ég sé ekki að sú kona sem er ánægð með e-ar blúndur frá kallinum sínum sé lélegur femínisti. Í mínum huga koma blúndur femínisma næsta lítið við, hrífist konan á annað borð af þeim og finnist þær fallegar. Það að vera femínisti í mínum augum er að vera stolt af því að vera kona og krefjast þess að njóta virðingar og jafnréttis, og það er svo sannarlega hægt að gera þó kallinn gefi manni blúndur í jólagjöf. Auðvitað eru til karlrembur sem álíta að eina hlutverk eiginkvenna þeirra sé að vera sætar og vel tilhafðar, elda góðan mat og vera góðar í rúminu. Í blúndunærfötunum frá þeim. Út frá þessu skil ég punkt Ernu þar sem hún talar um að "besta gjöf sem hægt sé að gefa konu sé tækifæri til að finnast hún vera sexý, fyrir bóndann". Þessar konur gera líklega lítið fyrir femínismann og minna fyrir sjálfar sig sem þenkjandi verur. Enda, því miður, ekki hægt að ganga að því sem vísu að allar konur séu þenkjandi verur. Þaðan af síður allir karlmenn.
Hvaða fuss er þetta um e-ar nærjur í jólapakkanum? Hvaða hlutverki eru þær taldar gegna í þessu sambandi? Jú, að gera dömuna meira sexý. Og femínistarnir draga þá ályktun að konan viti ekkert verra en að þurfa að vera sexý fyrir kallinn sinn (þennan sveitta, loðna og andfúla sem krefst réttar síns tvisvar í viku??). Konan er svo miklu meira en bara kynvera, eins og Erna bendir réttilega á, og því er það argasta móðgun við hana að minna hana á það hlutverk. Ilmvatn? Silkiblússa? Og þar sem femínisminn krefst jafnréttis geri ég ráð fyrir að konur verði að hegða sér jafnvel og þær krefjast að karlarnir geri: Má konan gefa kallinum sínum nýja Armani rakspírann? Eða þennan þarna frá Dior, sem er svo geðveikt góður að hún kiknar alltaf í hnjáliðunum yfir lyktinni? Nei ó nei. Ekkert sem minnir á hlutverk mannsins sem kynveru. Ekki silkiboxers, og alls ekki g-streng. Óver mæ dedd!
Hvaða bull er þetta? Konur eru helmingur mannkyns og hafa jafnmargar og misjafnar skoðanir og þær eru margar. Sumar yrðu eflaust arfavitlausar ef þær drægju blúnduvirki með spöngum og græjum upp úr jólapakkanum frá kallinum. Aðrar alveg hæstánægðar. Aðrar einhvers staðar á milli. Mestu máli skiptir að kallinn viti, svo hann risíkeri ekki sambandsslitum. Þær sem fíla þetta, eða halda að þær fíli þetta, ættu kannski að skoða í hugskot sitt og athuga AF HVERJU þær eru svona ánægðar með sexý settið. Er það af því þeim finnst þær ekki hafa neinu merkilegri hlutverki að gegna í lífinu en að vera snotrar fyrir kallinn? Eða er það af því þær eru svo miklar kynverur að þær fá sitt kikk út úr því að vera í æsandi nærfötum upp á hvern einasta dag og eiga aldrei nógu mörg? Og þær sem finnst þetta fáránlegt, af hverju finnst þeim það? Af því einhver doktrína sem þær aðhyllast segir að þetta SÉ hallærilegt, sama hvað einstaklingnum finnst? Eða af því þeim finnst blúndur einfaldlega ljótar?
Sjálf álít ég mig femínista. Mikinn femínista. Ég hlusta ALDREI aftur á X-ið, þó ár og dagur séu liðin síðan auglýsingarnar hættu: "X-ið. Fyrir stelpur sem kyngja". Ég horfi aldrei á MTv og aðrar stöðvar þar sem mishæfileikaríkar og/eða -snauðar konur dilla sér berrassaðar í fanginu á köllunum, vitandi að það er svo til eina leiðin til að ná frama í heimi þar sem karlarnir eru yfirleitt allir of feitir og kappklæddir, í herfilega ljótum og óæsandi druslum. Cosmo og Glamour og viðlíka rusl les ég ekki, nema mig langi í þunglyndiskast. Samt finnst mér voða næs að eiga sæt nærföt og fer m.a.s. stundum í þau alveg af tilefnislausu. Enda ung og ólofuð stúlkan, og þarf ekki að klæða mig uppá fyrir þennan sveitta, loðna og andfúla tvisvar í viku. Bara fyrir sjálfa mig. Alveg eins og Stína sagði; sexí fyrir okkur sjálfar, í kommentunum á póstinn hjá Ernu. Það er ekki þversögn. Stundum langar okkur bara að vera svoldið sexý. Sama þótt enginn annar sjái :)
Mega kallarnir gefa okkur konum nærföt í jólagjöf? Ég sé ekki að sú kona sem er ánægð með e-ar blúndur frá kallinum sínum sé lélegur femínisti. Í mínum huga koma blúndur femínisma næsta lítið við, hrífist konan á annað borð af þeim og finnist þær fallegar. Það að vera femínisti í mínum augum er að vera stolt af því að vera kona og krefjast þess að njóta virðingar og jafnréttis, og það er svo sannarlega hægt að gera þó kallinn gefi manni blúndur í jólagjöf. Auðvitað eru til karlrembur sem álíta að eina hlutverk eiginkvenna þeirra sé að vera sætar og vel tilhafðar, elda góðan mat og vera góðar í rúminu. Í blúndunærfötunum frá þeim. Út frá þessu skil ég punkt Ernu þar sem hún talar um að "besta gjöf sem hægt sé að gefa konu sé tækifæri til að finnast hún vera sexý, fyrir bóndann". Þessar konur gera líklega lítið fyrir femínismann og minna fyrir sjálfar sig sem þenkjandi verur. Enda, því miður, ekki hægt að ganga að því sem vísu að allar konur séu þenkjandi verur. Þaðan af síður allir karlmenn.
Hvaða fuss er þetta um e-ar nærjur í jólapakkanum? Hvaða hlutverki eru þær taldar gegna í þessu sambandi? Jú, að gera dömuna meira sexý. Og femínistarnir draga þá ályktun að konan viti ekkert verra en að þurfa að vera sexý fyrir kallinn sinn (þennan sveitta, loðna og andfúla sem krefst réttar síns tvisvar í viku??). Konan er svo miklu meira en bara kynvera, eins og Erna bendir réttilega á, og því er það argasta móðgun við hana að minna hana á það hlutverk. Ilmvatn? Silkiblússa? Og þar sem femínisminn krefst jafnréttis geri ég ráð fyrir að konur verði að hegða sér jafnvel og þær krefjast að karlarnir geri: Má konan gefa kallinum sínum nýja Armani rakspírann? Eða þennan þarna frá Dior, sem er svo geðveikt góður að hún kiknar alltaf í hnjáliðunum yfir lyktinni? Nei ó nei. Ekkert sem minnir á hlutverk mannsins sem kynveru. Ekki silkiboxers, og alls ekki g-streng. Óver mæ dedd!
Hvaða bull er þetta? Konur eru helmingur mannkyns og hafa jafnmargar og misjafnar skoðanir og þær eru margar. Sumar yrðu eflaust arfavitlausar ef þær drægju blúnduvirki með spöngum og græjum upp úr jólapakkanum frá kallinum. Aðrar alveg hæstánægðar. Aðrar einhvers staðar á milli. Mestu máli skiptir að kallinn viti, svo hann risíkeri ekki sambandsslitum. Þær sem fíla þetta, eða halda að þær fíli þetta, ættu kannski að skoða í hugskot sitt og athuga AF HVERJU þær eru svona ánægðar með sexý settið. Er það af því þeim finnst þær ekki hafa neinu merkilegri hlutverki að gegna í lífinu en að vera snotrar fyrir kallinn? Eða er það af því þær eru svo miklar kynverur að þær fá sitt kikk út úr því að vera í æsandi nærfötum upp á hvern einasta dag og eiga aldrei nógu mörg? Og þær sem finnst þetta fáránlegt, af hverju finnst þeim það? Af því einhver doktrína sem þær aðhyllast segir að þetta SÉ hallærilegt, sama hvað einstaklingnum finnst? Eða af því þeim finnst blúndur einfaldlega ljótar?
Sjálf álít ég mig femínista. Mikinn femínista. Ég hlusta ALDREI aftur á X-ið, þó ár og dagur séu liðin síðan auglýsingarnar hættu: "X-ið. Fyrir stelpur sem kyngja". Ég horfi aldrei á MTv og aðrar stöðvar þar sem mishæfileikaríkar og/eða -snauðar konur dilla sér berrassaðar í fanginu á köllunum, vitandi að það er svo til eina leiðin til að ná frama í heimi þar sem karlarnir eru yfirleitt allir of feitir og kappklæddir, í herfilega ljótum og óæsandi druslum. Cosmo og Glamour og viðlíka rusl les ég ekki, nema mig langi í þunglyndiskast. Samt finnst mér voða næs að eiga sæt nærföt og fer m.a.s. stundum í þau alveg af tilefnislausu. Enda ung og ólofuð stúlkan, og þarf ekki að klæða mig uppá fyrir þennan sveitta, loðna og andfúla tvisvar í viku. Bara fyrir sjálfa mig. Alveg eins og Stína sagði; sexí fyrir okkur sjálfar, í kommentunum á póstinn hjá Ernu. Það er ekki þversögn. Stundum langar okkur bara að vera svoldið sexý. Sama þótt enginn annar sjái :)
föstudagur, desember 27, 2002
Jólin hafa bara verið ágæt. Alltaf gaman að þeim.
Margir fórna höndum yfir óförum mínum og dæsa yfir þessari tímasetningu minni; að ég hefði nú varla getað fundið verri tíma til að brjóta mig á. Ég er þessu alfarið ósammála, svona að fenginni reynslu. Í fyrsta lagi: Fólk er í jólafríi og því þarf ég ekki að fá óhóflegt samviskubit yfir að biðja ættingja að skutla mér hingað og þangað, koma að sækja mig í boðin og jafnvel kaupa með mér í matinn. Í öðru lagi eru jólaboð til hægri og vinstri, þar næ ég að hitta velflesta ættingjana og einnig vini og fæ því miklar samúðarbylgjur alls staðar að, í miklu meira magni en ella. Í þriðja lagi get ég sofið fram undir hádegi og setið uppi í sófa restina af deginum, hálfdottandi með maltesín, súkkulaði og bók í fanginu, og borið fyrir mig einhverju öðru en leti og skammdegi. Ynndælt.
Annars er það helst að frétta, fyrir utan útgöngubann í Betlehem og fleiri skemmtilegheit, að ég er komin í göngugips úr plasti sem er svo hart að ég gæti rotað naut með því (hvað eru hjúkkurnar uppi á endurkomu að bauka í frítímanum??) og verð í því fram í lok janúar. Það er aðeins minna um sig en þrýstiumbúðirnar sem ég var í, svo nú eygi ég von um að komast í önnur föt en víðustu buxurnar mínar og pils. Að auki sjást táslurnar mínar betur núna, svo ég get fylgst betur með því hvernig marið þróast. Í fyrradag voru tærnar blásvartar, í gær meira út í fjólublátt og núna er komin svoldil gulgræn slikja yfir herlegheitin. Hver þarf sjónvarp þegar tær sem skipta litum bjóðast, og engin hætta á að fá fúla innheimtumenn óvelkomna í heimsókn?
Margir fórna höndum yfir óförum mínum og dæsa yfir þessari tímasetningu minni; að ég hefði nú varla getað fundið verri tíma til að brjóta mig á. Ég er þessu alfarið ósammála, svona að fenginni reynslu. Í fyrsta lagi: Fólk er í jólafríi og því þarf ég ekki að fá óhóflegt samviskubit yfir að biðja ættingja að skutla mér hingað og þangað, koma að sækja mig í boðin og jafnvel kaupa með mér í matinn. Í öðru lagi eru jólaboð til hægri og vinstri, þar næ ég að hitta velflesta ættingjana og einnig vini og fæ því miklar samúðarbylgjur alls staðar að, í miklu meira magni en ella. Í þriðja lagi get ég sofið fram undir hádegi og setið uppi í sófa restina af deginum, hálfdottandi með maltesín, súkkulaði og bók í fanginu, og borið fyrir mig einhverju öðru en leti og skammdegi. Ynndælt.
Annars er það helst að frétta, fyrir utan útgöngubann í Betlehem og fleiri skemmtilegheit, að ég er komin í göngugips úr plasti sem er svo hart að ég gæti rotað naut með því (hvað eru hjúkkurnar uppi á endurkomu að bauka í frítímanum??) og verð í því fram í lok janúar. Það er aðeins minna um sig en þrýstiumbúðirnar sem ég var í, svo nú eygi ég von um að komast í önnur föt en víðustu buxurnar mínar og pils. Að auki sjást táslurnar mínar betur núna, svo ég get fylgst betur með því hvernig marið þróast. Í fyrradag voru tærnar blásvartar, í gær meira út í fjólublátt og núna er komin svoldil gulgræn slikja yfir herlegheitin. Hver þarf sjónvarp þegar tær sem skipta litum bjóðast, og engin hætta á að fá fúla innheimtumenn óvelkomna í heimsókn?
mánudagur, desember 23, 2002
Svei mér þá alla daga, ef ég er ekki einn misskildasti snillingur sögunnar.
Ég var að þrífa loftbitana inni í eldhúsi í gær, til að koma blauta þvottinum mínum einhvers staðar fyrir. Það gekk vel, drullan fauk af í flyksum, og þar kom að ég ákvað að skoða nú hvað þetta væri fínt hjá mér. Stíg ég því upp á koll og ætla að teygja mig upp í þær hæðir að ég geti séð dýrðina. Ó vei, kollurinn minn er ekki byggður eftir sænskum gæðastöðlum, er þ.a.l. valtur eins og sauðdrukkinn Íslendingur og valt að sjálfsögðu undan mér. Ég lenti með hávaða og látum og einhverjum ópum á gólfinu, eftir að hafa rekið hægri fótinn alltof fast í setuna á stólnum sem stóð þarna við hliðina á. Þetta var svoldið vont, og þegar ég fór úr sokkunum sá ég að ristin á mér var afmynduð í meira lagi.
Umsvifalaust hringdi ég í björgunarsveitina, aka pabba og Siggu. Þau komu sem hendi væri veifað og transporteruðu mig upp á slysó. Þar beið ég með sífellt stærri rist og varð m.a. vitni að dópista læsa sig inni á klósetti og vera svo fjarlægður í lögreglufylgd þar sem hann reyndist vera vopnaður. Aksjón á slysó! Loks kom að mér, og eftir röntgen var það orðið deginum ljósara að fyrsta beinbrot mitt var í höfn. Ysta ristarbeinið tvíbrotið og næsta f. innan brotið á einum stað. Jibbí!!
Ég verð að segja að mér finnst þetta bráðfyndið. Í fyrsta lagi á ég eftir að kaupa svo að segja allar jólagjafirnar. Í öðru lagi var ég í þröngu gallabuxunum mínum og gat valið á milli þess að vera í þeim og láta klippa þær í sundur eða fá lánaðar gammosíur frá Þvottahúsi spítalanna, ætlaðar eldri korpúlent herrum sem í einstaka tilfellum þyrftu kannski að hafa bleyju sér til halds og trausts. Mér þykir vænt um Levi´s buxurnar mínar og þáði herramúnderinguna, tjúllað smart. Nú, í þriðja lagi á ég enn eftir að vinna smá feltvinnu í Helgafellinu og bið og vona að rúllustiginn upp fjallið verði tilbúinn áður en það fer að snjóa.
Ég var að þrífa loftbitana inni í eldhúsi í gær, til að koma blauta þvottinum mínum einhvers staðar fyrir. Það gekk vel, drullan fauk af í flyksum, og þar kom að ég ákvað að skoða nú hvað þetta væri fínt hjá mér. Stíg ég því upp á koll og ætla að teygja mig upp í þær hæðir að ég geti séð dýrðina. Ó vei, kollurinn minn er ekki byggður eftir sænskum gæðastöðlum, er þ.a.l. valtur eins og sauðdrukkinn Íslendingur og valt að sjálfsögðu undan mér. Ég lenti með hávaða og látum og einhverjum ópum á gólfinu, eftir að hafa rekið hægri fótinn alltof fast í setuna á stólnum sem stóð þarna við hliðina á. Þetta var svoldið vont, og þegar ég fór úr sokkunum sá ég að ristin á mér var afmynduð í meira lagi.
Umsvifalaust hringdi ég í björgunarsveitina, aka pabba og Siggu. Þau komu sem hendi væri veifað og transporteruðu mig upp á slysó. Þar beið ég með sífellt stærri rist og varð m.a. vitni að dópista læsa sig inni á klósetti og vera svo fjarlægður í lögreglufylgd þar sem hann reyndist vera vopnaður. Aksjón á slysó! Loks kom að mér, og eftir röntgen var það orðið deginum ljósara að fyrsta beinbrot mitt var í höfn. Ysta ristarbeinið tvíbrotið og næsta f. innan brotið á einum stað. Jibbí!!
Ég verð að segja að mér finnst þetta bráðfyndið. Í fyrsta lagi á ég eftir að kaupa svo að segja allar jólagjafirnar. Í öðru lagi var ég í þröngu gallabuxunum mínum og gat valið á milli þess að vera í þeim og láta klippa þær í sundur eða fá lánaðar gammosíur frá Þvottahúsi spítalanna, ætlaðar eldri korpúlent herrum sem í einstaka tilfellum þyrftu kannski að hafa bleyju sér til halds og trausts. Mér þykir vænt um Levi´s buxurnar mínar og þáði herramúnderinguna, tjúllað smart. Nú, í þriðja lagi á ég enn eftir að vinna smá feltvinnu í Helgafellinu og bið og vona að rúllustiginn upp fjallið verði tilbúinn áður en það fer að snjóa.
miðvikudagur, desember 18, 2002
mánudagur, desember 16, 2002
Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
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Hvað er Stína eiginlega að gera í vinnunni, fyrst hún má endalaust vera að því að taka þessi hallærislegu próf?!?!?
sunnudagur, desember 15, 2002
Svei mér þá ef jarðfræðin eru ekki farin að hafa slæm áhrif á heilabúið mitt.
Í gærkvöldi var ég að horfa á "Blue Hawaii" með kónginum Ella sprella hjá Fanneyju vinkonu minni. Kóngurinn dansaði af miklum móð í sandinum á ströndinni ásamt föngulegum yngismeyjum og tyggjandi brosmildum Hawaii-bangsum, og gerðist Elli m.a.s. svo kræfur að þeyta sandi yfir myndavélina; enda mikill rebel eins og allir vita. Þetta stuð hafði einhverra hluta engin áhrif á mig eða mína veru, þess í stað varð ég afar forvitin að sjá lífförin sem svona dansiball mundi mynda í sandinum. Sem þýðir: Ef ég bíð í nokkur milljón ár og kem svo aftur á hawaiisku ströndina þar sem tjúttið fór fram og sé þar fallega sandsteinskletta, hvernig get ég þá séð, út frá alls konar byggingareinkennum í sandinum (skálögun etc.), hvar nákvæmlega Elli og Co. voru að tjútta?
Þetta heitir á dönsku að vera "fagskadet", sagði Fanney mér.
Í gærkvöldi var ég að horfa á "Blue Hawaii" með kónginum Ella sprella hjá Fanneyju vinkonu minni. Kóngurinn dansaði af miklum móð í sandinum á ströndinni ásamt föngulegum yngismeyjum og tyggjandi brosmildum Hawaii-bangsum, og gerðist Elli m.a.s. svo kræfur að þeyta sandi yfir myndavélina; enda mikill rebel eins og allir vita. Þetta stuð hafði einhverra hluta engin áhrif á mig eða mína veru, þess í stað varð ég afar forvitin að sjá lífförin sem svona dansiball mundi mynda í sandinum. Sem þýðir: Ef ég bíð í nokkur milljón ár og kem svo aftur á hawaiisku ströndina þar sem tjúttið fór fram og sé þar fallega sandsteinskletta, hvernig get ég þá séð, út frá alls konar byggingareinkennum í sandinum (skálögun etc.), hvar nákvæmlega Elli og Co. voru að tjútta?
Þetta heitir á dönsku að vera "fagskadet", sagði Fanney mér.
fimmtudagur, desember 05, 2002
Today was in most respects a normal day. Not in every respect, though: The most popular thing to do here at my workplace in the hours around lunch was to watch the struggle of the rescue squads. They´d been summoned to rescue a roof the wind was about to tear with it. I waited breathlessly for someone to be blown off the roof, but miraculously that didn´t happen. And the roof survived.
Courtesy of Barry Lopez
From the chapter on migration in "Arctic Dreams":
"I came to think of the migrations as breath, as the land breathing. In spring a great inhalation of light and animals. The long-bated breath of summer. And an exhalation that propelled them all south in the fall."
"... all migration is not strictly north and south, ... animals are experimenters, pushing at the bounds of their familiar areas in response to changes in their environment. Nothing is ever quite fixed for them. One afternoon a man in Nome remarked that the bowhead migration through Bering Strait was "late this year." It was not really "late" of course, but only part of an arrangement that differs slightly from year to year. They are not on our schedules. Their appointments are not solely with us."
"Animals move more slowly than beta particles, and through a space bewildering larger than that encompassed by a cloud of electrons, but they urge us, if we allow them, toward a consideration of the same questions about the fundamental nature of life, about the relationships that bind forms of energy into recognizable patterns."
I wish I could forget everything in the book, because then I´d be able to devour it again for the first timeI
From the chapter on migration in "Arctic Dreams":
"I came to think of the migrations as breath, as the land breathing. In spring a great inhalation of light and animals. The long-bated breath of summer. And an exhalation that propelled them all south in the fall."
"... all migration is not strictly north and south, ... animals are experimenters, pushing at the bounds of their familiar areas in response to changes in their environment. Nothing is ever quite fixed for them. One afternoon a man in Nome remarked that the bowhead migration through Bering Strait was "late this year." It was not really "late" of course, but only part of an arrangement that differs slightly from year to year. They are not on our schedules. Their appointments are not solely with us."
"Animals move more slowly than beta particles, and through a space bewildering larger than that encompassed by a cloud of electrons, but they urge us, if we allow them, toward a consideration of the same questions about the fundamental nature of life, about the relationships that bind forms of energy into recognizable patterns."
I wish I could forget everything in the book, because then I´d be able to devour it again for the first timeI
mánudagur, desember 02, 2002
Alex visited today, as she sometimes does. She was working here full-time before she had little Líney Inga, and if it weren´t for her maternity leave she and I would be working together, with nothing but a thin wall separating us. Oh, that would be nice!!
She brought her Líney with her. That girl is a real charm troll, as we say in Iceland, smiling to everyone and not complaining at all if someone else holds her. I got to hold her and show her some of the mysteries of my computer screen (which, btw, has been fluorescent yellow-green all day, making me slightly nauseatic...), warned by her mom about the imminent possibility of her throwing up. I certainly did not think so, why would that gorgeous little baby girl throw up on me?!? So I babbled with her, rather absorbed in some feature of a map I was drawing, and the next time I look at her, which must have been no more than 30 seconds after I got her on my lap, she was sporting a whitish slimy trail of vomit down her cute red apron, with the trail extending down onto my cardigan and my soldier´s pants.
The thing that amazes me here is the sheer elegance of the scene. If I vomit, noone in a radius of a few hundred meters can help noticing it. When little Líney does the same noone notices, not even me, holding her on my lap. From now on I´m taking Líney as my role model.
She brought her Líney with her. That girl is a real charm troll, as we say in Iceland, smiling to everyone and not complaining at all if someone else holds her. I got to hold her and show her some of the mysteries of my computer screen (which, btw, has been fluorescent yellow-green all day, making me slightly nauseatic...), warned by her mom about the imminent possibility of her throwing up. I certainly did not think so, why would that gorgeous little baby girl throw up on me?!? So I babbled with her, rather absorbed in some feature of a map I was drawing, and the next time I look at her, which must have been no more than 30 seconds after I got her on my lap, she was sporting a whitish slimy trail of vomit down her cute red apron, with the trail extending down onto my cardigan and my soldier´s pants.
The thing that amazes me here is the sheer elegance of the scene. If I vomit, noone in a radius of a few hundred meters can help noticing it. When little Líney does the same noone notices, not even me, holding her on my lap. From now on I´m taking Líney as my role model.
föstudagur, nóvember 29, 2002
My computer screen is in a funny mood today. It has put on some yellow face, turning blue items into green ones and making my new brownish desktop background color (that matches perfectly with my new wallpaper, a beautiful India-style lichen from Helgafell) look more like baby pooh.
At least the change has made the computer silent. For the past two weeks or so it has emitted strange sounds that intermittently grow quite furious. Then I always fear the comp will explode and go out of the office, under the pretext of getting myself more coffee. My co-workers say it´s just the fan. An exploding fan is dangerous enough for me, I tell you.
At least the change has made the computer silent. For the past two weeks or so it has emitted strange sounds that intermittently grow quite furious. Then I always fear the comp will explode and go out of the office, under the pretext of getting myself more coffee. My co-workers say it´s just the fan. An exploding fan is dangerous enough for me, I tell you.
fimmtudagur, nóvember 28, 2002
Went to a wonderful fondue dinner party last night. The host was my Swiss-almost-turned-Icelandic friend Úrsúla. Her American boyfriend was there, then there were the Icelandic-Dutch couple Birna and Ino (I think I got his name right...) and their son Darri, three year old. He is a gorgeous kid. His name means "warrior" and he certainly lives up to his name, taking everything that remotely resembles a sword (gift wrappings rolled up etc.) into his hands and swinging it around. When he started attacking Úrsúla´s hanging plants we all cried with laughter. Well, they were almost dead anyway :)
Since it was such a multi-national party we couldn´t help discussing foreigners in Iceland. To our amazement we realized that foreigners living here have no means of keeping up-to-date on Icelandic news unless they speak good enough Icelandic. Sure, they can watch CNN and SKY and loads of other international news, but finding out what´s going on in Iceland is really a challenge. Úrsúla took an example of this guy working at deCODE genetics (where a load of foreigners work and the primary language spoken is English, as far as I know). A few weeks ago the company made more than a hundred employees redundant. Not being one of them, this guy barely knew why half of the people working next door to him had suddenly disappeared, but he would know exactly what the new regime in China was like or how often Arafat had been to the toilet in the last few days.
Now isn´t this strange? I would have thought that the ex-pat society here in Iceland was big enough to support at least a weekly resumé-newspaper in English about Icelandic internal matters. Correct me if I´m wrong...
Since it was such a multi-national party we couldn´t help discussing foreigners in Iceland. To our amazement we realized that foreigners living here have no means of keeping up-to-date on Icelandic news unless they speak good enough Icelandic. Sure, they can watch CNN and SKY and loads of other international news, but finding out what´s going on in Iceland is really a challenge. Úrsúla took an example of this guy working at deCODE genetics (where a load of foreigners work and the primary language spoken is English, as far as I know). A few weeks ago the company made more than a hundred employees redundant. Not being one of them, this guy barely knew why half of the people working next door to him had suddenly disappeared, but he would know exactly what the new regime in China was like or how often Arafat had been to the toilet in the last few days.
Now isn´t this strange? I would have thought that the ex-pat society here in Iceland was big enough to support at least a weekly resumé-newspaper in English about Icelandic internal matters. Correct me if I´m wrong...
þriðjudagur, nóvember 26, 2002
What do I do at work? Well, I´m trying to decipher a volcano that was formed in eruption under the last ice age glacier here in Iceland. It´s complicated. Which is why I looked up a quote from one of my college books:
"...the late Frank Schairer, once remarked that, to understand igneous rocks, a geologist must first learn "to think like a molten silicate.""
Change 'igneous rocks' to 'subglacial volcanoes' and 'molten silicate' to 'molten ice quenching magma, explosions and chaos' - and you´ll know what this task feels like. Challenging.
"...the late Frank Schairer, once remarked that, to understand igneous rocks, a geologist must first learn "to think like a molten silicate.""
Change 'igneous rocks' to 'subglacial volcanoes' and 'molten silicate' to 'molten ice quenching magma, explosions and chaos' - and you´ll know what this task feels like. Challenging.
Yesterday I spent digitizing maps. That included pushing the same mouse button 11310 times while moving it with utter precision over many twisted contour lines (ehemm... and pestering my pre Windows-generation colleagues for help. File names with no more than 8 letters?? MS-DOS? What?!?!) While doing so, I revisited a lot of dusty CD's found in my CD bag, f.ex. Suede´s Coming Up and the Cardigans´ Trampolene. Nick Cave´s latest proved too depressing for this work, I have to admit.
And now the map is all'a'digitized. Oooohhh, wonder what it will turn out like!!
And now the map is all'a'digitized. Oooohhh, wonder what it will turn out like!!
fimmtudagur, nóvember 21, 2002
sunnudagur, nóvember 17, 2002
Finished Vargas Llosa´s book "The Storyteller" when waking up today. What a brilliant piece of litterature.
At last fixed the link to life in the freezer. Look at those seal pups, and those big eyes they sport!
Now I´m blogging under strict orders from Stína. I´m at her place, just entered looking like the abominable snowman from the sleet and driving snow outside. *sob*, this weather sucks from the geological perspective.
Went to bed at 10 p.m. last night, completely dead. My friend Linda Rós was very shocked. "Hey, Herdís, how can you complain about your boyfried status if you don´t ever go out?!?!" Well, my state last night wouldn´t have attracted much positive attention from any male anyway, I told her. "Ok," she replied and reluctantly allowed me to go to bed. And gee am I glad I did. Slept 12 hours straight, and as if that wasn´t enough I added four more. Beautiful.
Have been having crazy dreams lately. It´s all been about murders and perils and immoral people. Maybe I should start sleeping more and making movie scripts from my dreams. Hmmm... might make me a millionaire :)
Tuesday´s night´s dream was about this guy who was trying to kill me with a box of Cheerios. I was on my way to take the GRE stand-by and then he went for me. I narrowly escaped from him and made it to the test center. He´d made it there before me and taken the last space available, so I wasn´t to be admitted. I freaked, screaming at the people there that he was a crook and had tried to kill me etc. They just shrugged, asking what all the fuss was about; saying that since I still was alive I could just shut up. Although the dream was pretty coherent it occasionally was interrupted by scenes from winterland; snowcovered wilderness and frozen-over rivers I had to cross.
The long sleep last night was eventful as well. This time the story was about a guy who´d tried to kill his wife. She was very oppressed , so in the dream I wondered whether she´d been subject to domestic violence for long. Anyway, the bastard got a day off from prison and went for a visit to another bastard friend of his to watch some video. The prison guards just couldn´t care less about keeping an eye on him, so before you could count to ten the would-be-killer had put on a bullet-proof vest and ran for his freedom. The guards fired after him but the bullets had no effect, and being too lazy to chase him on their car they just resumed the movie-watching. Sick mofos!! Once again finding myself screaming at the injustice and corruption of this world, I demanded of them they´d go chasing him, but they just laughed at me, saying that reopening the case would cost 300 million kronur. "So what," I shouted at them, "is this woman´s life not worth more than that?? What if he kills her, simply because those 300 million kronur for reopening his case couldn´t be paid!!" Going on like this, the dream dissolved.
Now do I have a talent for dreams or what??
Went to bed at 10 p.m. last night, completely dead. My friend Linda Rós was very shocked. "Hey, Herdís, how can you complain about your boyfried status if you don´t ever go out?!?!" Well, my state last night wouldn´t have attracted much positive attention from any male anyway, I told her. "Ok," she replied and reluctantly allowed me to go to bed. And gee am I glad I did. Slept 12 hours straight, and as if that wasn´t enough I added four more. Beautiful.
Have been having crazy dreams lately. It´s all been about murders and perils and immoral people. Maybe I should start sleeping more and making movie scripts from my dreams. Hmmm... might make me a millionaire :)
Tuesday´s night´s dream was about this guy who was trying to kill me with a box of Cheerios. I was on my way to take the GRE stand-by and then he went for me. I narrowly escaped from him and made it to the test center. He´d made it there before me and taken the last space available, so I wasn´t to be admitted. I freaked, screaming at the people there that he was a crook and had tried to kill me etc. They just shrugged, asking what all the fuss was about; saying that since I still was alive I could just shut up. Although the dream was pretty coherent it occasionally was interrupted by scenes from winterland; snowcovered wilderness and frozen-over rivers I had to cross.
The long sleep last night was eventful as well. This time the story was about a guy who´d tried to kill his wife. She was very oppressed , so in the dream I wondered whether she´d been subject to domestic violence for long. Anyway, the bastard got a day off from prison and went for a visit to another bastard friend of his to watch some video. The prison guards just couldn´t care less about keeping an eye on him, so before you could count to ten the would-be-killer had put on a bullet-proof vest and ran for his freedom. The guards fired after him but the bullets had no effect, and being too lazy to chase him on their car they just resumed the movie-watching. Sick mofos!! Once again finding myself screaming at the injustice and corruption of this world, I demanded of them they´d go chasing him, but they just laughed at me, saying that reopening the case would cost 300 million kronur. "So what," I shouted at them, "is this woman´s life not worth more than that?? What if he kills her, simply because those 300 million kronur for reopening his case couldn´t be paid!!" Going on like this, the dream dissolved.
Now do I have a talent for dreams or what??
fimmtudagur, nóvember 14, 2002
Just got an e-mail from my scooter-guide boss in Svalbard. They won´t hire me for next spring because some other company will be running their tours. Shit. What shall I do then? When not even filthy rich Norway can offer me a job?
Anyone got an idea about how to get positive replies to more job applications? All hints will be appreciated.
Anyone got an idea about how to get positive replies to more job applications? All hints will be appreciated.
miðvikudagur, nóvember 13, 2002
Am a great fan of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, especially after I figured my Spanish was quite good enough to read him in the original language (and after seeing how terribly handsome he is ;).
While I was travelling in S-America last winter I fought my way through ´Pantaleón y las visitadoras´ (available in Icelandic under the title "Pantaljón og sérþjónustan") and now I´m working my way through a book called ´El hablador´ (translates as ´The Storyteller´). It tells two stories at the same time; that of a Peruvian writer who stumbles across an exhibition of pictures of an Amazonian tribe in a gallery in Florence, and that of the same nomad tribe in the Amazon jungle, as told by their storyteller. I haven´t finished yet but it´s a fairly transparent plot; however the plot is really not the issue for me in this book but rather the magical descriptions of the Indians and their world view. Highly recommended!!
While I was travelling in S-America last winter I fought my way through ´Pantaleón y las visitadoras´ (available in Icelandic under the title "Pantaljón og sérþjónustan") and now I´m working my way through a book called ´El hablador´ (translates as ´The Storyteller´). It tells two stories at the same time; that of a Peruvian writer who stumbles across an exhibition of pictures of an Amazonian tribe in a gallery in Florence, and that of the same nomad tribe in the Amazon jungle, as told by their storyteller. I haven´t finished yet but it´s a fairly transparent plot; however the plot is really not the issue for me in this book but rather the magical descriptions of the Indians and their world view. Highly recommended!!
A turbo day!
Maður er manns gaman, says an old Icelandic proverb. I experienced a living proof of that today.
At work, I spend a lot of time outdoors, all alone, investigating my mountain just outside of town. I really like it and am starting to know every nook and cranny there. However, disciplined scientific work sometimes gives way, for a while, to musings about the ravens flying around, or a pretty flower in fading autumn colors, or the simple beauty of the rocks and the surroundings. When the wind is blowing really hard it´s also nice to bundle up on the leeside of a boulder somewhere and listen to the wailing concert of the high-voltage electricity lines running through the land. I´ve found weathered bones high up in the mountain, on a rock ledge so exposed that an alert and agile animal such as the mink or the arctic fox shouldn´t be there in the first place, let alone a significantly less agile creature such as me . Did they fall to their death? Or did they starve? (And how on Earth will I ever get away?!?) You see, when you look closely there are so many things to wonder at and about out there off the beaten, asphalted track.
Today was different, let me tell you. A girl from the U.S. accompanied me today; she´s here for a year studying Katla volcano and wanted to get out of town. She agreed to become my secretary for a day, taking care of the notebook. She also operated the altimeter, and understood all my ramblings and muttering and soliloquizing. Together we practically ran up the mountain, did one major log and two minor ones, took samples (so finally my office looks like there´s a geologist here, with rocks all over!) and, in general, just "rúlluðum þessu upp", as you say in good Icelandic. I´ve never done so much in just one day myself! I could use company like this every day.
Do I hear anyone volunteering??
Maður er manns gaman, says an old Icelandic proverb. I experienced a living proof of that today.
At work, I spend a lot of time outdoors, all alone, investigating my mountain just outside of town. I really like it and am starting to know every nook and cranny there. However, disciplined scientific work sometimes gives way, for a while, to musings about the ravens flying around, or a pretty flower in fading autumn colors, or the simple beauty of the rocks and the surroundings. When the wind is blowing really hard it´s also nice to bundle up on the leeside of a boulder somewhere and listen to the wailing concert of the high-voltage electricity lines running through the land. I´ve found weathered bones high up in the mountain, on a rock ledge so exposed that an alert and agile animal such as the mink or the arctic fox shouldn´t be there in the first place, let alone a significantly less agile creature such as me . Did they fall to their death? Or did they starve? (And how on Earth will I ever get away?!?) You see, when you look closely there are so many things to wonder at and about out there off the beaten, asphalted track.
Today was different, let me tell you. A girl from the U.S. accompanied me today; she´s here for a year studying Katla volcano and wanted to get out of town. She agreed to become my secretary for a day, taking care of the notebook. She also operated the altimeter, and understood all my ramblings and muttering and soliloquizing. Together we practically ran up the mountain, did one major log and two minor ones, took samples (so finally my office looks like there´s a geologist here, with rocks all over!) and, in general, just "rúlluðum þessu upp", as you say in good Icelandic. I´ve never done so much in just one day myself! I could use company like this every day.
Do I hear anyone volunteering??
You know I live alone, don´t you all?
A few weeks ago I bought a fern. I used to have parekeets (two different ones, at different times) but they both flew out the window. I´ve taken that as a hint that I shouldn´t get myself another one. Instead, I chose a plant that won´t go anywhere. It´s a beautiful fern, lush and big, and it´s surviving. That´s more than any fern I´ve had so far has done.
Every late afternoon/evening when I come home I greet my fern. "Hi, fernie, how´s it going?!" I ask. And my beautiful fern rests upon the livingroom table, not really knowing what to do about this attention.
I dread the day it eventually will answer me.
A few weeks ago I bought a fern. I used to have parekeets (two different ones, at different times) but they both flew out the window. I´ve taken that as a hint that I shouldn´t get myself another one. Instead, I chose a plant that won´t go anywhere. It´s a beautiful fern, lush and big, and it´s surviving. That´s more than any fern I´ve had so far has done.
Every late afternoon/evening when I come home I greet my fern. "Hi, fernie, how´s it going?!" I ask. And my beautiful fern rests upon the livingroom table, not really knowing what to do about this attention.
I dread the day it eventually will answer me.
mánudagur, nóvember 04, 2002
Hoho, life is beautiful again!!
Nr. 1: The terrible GRE is over, and I think I did quite ok. The analytical writing saw me in my element (in spite of the diarr?ea.. hoho, lucky me they didn´t check the spelling of this!!), the other parts were ok. At least I didn´t forget - FORGET for crying out loud - to mark the answer to ten - TEN - questions on the answer sheet as one girl did.
Nr. 2: I finally have a job. It´s a temporary one, and a very wet one for the time being, but it´s a job and I´m using my brain (well, trying to anyway, things are a bit mushy in there after years of vacation) and meeting other people on a daily basis - wonderful. Was beginning to feel myself sinking into the chasms of dark depressive moods, but am very sure it´ll be much better now.
Now the snow will just have to stay away for a while. Two more weeks, please. And I´ll put up with the rain if only the clouds promise to lift a bit. Went out for the first field day today; it started in this nice drizzling rain and good views of the mountain and ended with me fighting my way to the car in nearly horizontal rain, wet to the bone, cursing, hardly seeing the mountainside even as I was almost breaking my nose on it (some of my friends and acquaintances have noticed in me a slight tendency to exaggerate...). Fortunately saw a beautiful slump structure through the fog and driving rain and instantly got in a better mood. You know, nothing makes a geologist´s day like the sight of (to me, at least) pretty sedimentary structures and post-sedimentary deformation. And my absolute favorite? Anti-dunes. I just HAVE to find them somewhere!!
If you have problems understanding this jargon, try Erna´s site. Her´s will be further complicated for some of you by the fact that it´s all in Icelandic. I think it´s cute, even if I haven´t the faintest idea what she´s talking about.
Nr. 1: The terrible GRE is over, and I think I did quite ok. The analytical writing saw me in my element (in spite of the diarr?ea.. hoho, lucky me they didn´t check the spelling of this!!), the other parts were ok. At least I didn´t forget - FORGET for crying out loud - to mark the answer to ten - TEN - questions on the answer sheet as one girl did.
Nr. 2: I finally have a job. It´s a temporary one, and a very wet one for the time being, but it´s a job and I´m using my brain (well, trying to anyway, things are a bit mushy in there after years of vacation) and meeting other people on a daily basis - wonderful. Was beginning to feel myself sinking into the chasms of dark depressive moods, but am very sure it´ll be much better now.
Now the snow will just have to stay away for a while. Two more weeks, please. And I´ll put up with the rain if only the clouds promise to lift a bit. Went out for the first field day today; it started in this nice drizzling rain and good views of the mountain and ended with me fighting my way to the car in nearly horizontal rain, wet to the bone, cursing, hardly seeing the mountainside even as I was almost breaking my nose on it (some of my friends and acquaintances have noticed in me a slight tendency to exaggerate...). Fortunately saw a beautiful slump structure through the fog and driving rain and instantly got in a better mood. You know, nothing makes a geologist´s day like the sight of (to me, at least) pretty sedimentary structures and post-sedimentary deformation. And my absolute favorite? Anti-dunes. I just HAVE to find them somewhere!!
If you have problems understanding this jargon, try Erna´s site. Her´s will be further complicated for some of you by the fact that it´s all in Icelandic. I think it´s cute, even if I haven´t the faintest idea what she´s talking about.
föstudagur, október 25, 2002
What can I say? Tomorrow I was planning to take the GRE, and then I hear that the exam papers haven´t arrived yet so the test will be given next Saturday. What is wrong at ETS? Can´t these people figure out when to send a load of papers away from their office so that they´ll arrive at their destination in time? It´s not as if the test date was decided yesterday. These people want you to sign up for a test many months in advance, then they don´t send the registration papers to Iceland so everyone has to count on their luck and take the test stand-by, then the day before the scheduled test day ETS finally announces that it will be postponed by a week. 'Call me next Friday, though, just to make sure the test papers have indeed arrived', the woman at the test center adviced me just 10 minutes ago. Why on earth did ETS switch from computer-based tests here to these paper-based ones, if this is the kind of mess it brings with it?
Won´t complain too much, though, a week more to prepare is certainly ok with me ;)
Won´t complain too much, though, a week more to prepare is certainly ok with me ;)
fimmtudagur, október 24, 2002
Words are very much a part of my life these days, as I prepare for the GRE general test. Phlegmatic, quail, mollify, extirpaticatepuhdisnurfindurf... ?!?!?
The loveliest words, though, that I´ve come across in days I found on the Nature homepage: perovskite, magnesiowüstite, ringwoodite. Nearly all mineral names end with -ite, yet no mineral is called 'trite'... because noone is!
This brings back to me a fond memory of flat-sharing with my friend Erna during university. Both of us were quite occupied with being the curious science student and we´d (especially Erna, though, since she was doing all the chemistry) read the description of contents on absolutely everything bought to the home. This involved nail enamel-glasses, of course, and on my Star Gazer silver nailpolish we read that clintonite was one of the ingredients. I always thought Clinton was kinda cute, so I found it very appropriate that he should bear the name of a mica (glimmer!!) mineral ;)
The loveliest words, though, that I´ve come across in days I found on the Nature homepage: perovskite, magnesiowüstite, ringwoodite. Nearly all mineral names end with -ite, yet no mineral is called 'trite'... because noone is!
This brings back to me a fond memory of flat-sharing with my friend Erna during university. Both of us were quite occupied with being the curious science student and we´d (especially Erna, though, since she was doing all the chemistry) read the description of contents on absolutely everything bought to the home. This involved nail enamel-glasses, of course, and on my Star Gazer silver nailpolish we read that clintonite was one of the ingredients. I always thought Clinton was kinda cute, so I found it very appropriate that he should bear the name of a mica (glimmer!!) mineral ;)
miðvikudagur, október 23, 2002
Recommended reading for those of you comfortable with the German language (there are also pics there, so German knowledge is absolutely NOT indispensable for successful viewing): Alex, and her brand-new daughter Líney Inga. A great blogger at an early age!
mánudagur, október 21, 2002
Gave a bloody brilliant speech (well, at least I think so!) at the presentation course this morning. My topic: The awfulness of the Icelandic school system as it produces individuals totally devoid of critical thinking and feeling of social responsibility. Og hana nú! The inspiration came from a talk with my 15 year-old sister who´s doing last year of elementary school, as she told me of a boy in her class who was going to write an essay on the elections for the City Council last spring. Their teacher forbade him to write any critique whatsoever in the essay; 'you´ll learn that in high school'.
In the absence of any training of their critical thinking, it´s also kinda sad to hear that in the courses where they are taught about their rights in society, their duties are totally neglected. 'Duties?', my sis asked. 'What´s that?' Well, you know, trivial things such as paying your taxes, voting...
Coming to think of it, the first time I ever experienced a teacher asking his class to write a critical review of anything was in an undergraduate course in anthropology. That´s university, mind you. Until then, we´re not expected, in some cases not even allowed, to think; we´re expected to be nice and quiet and accept everything the omniscient teacher has to tell as the holy truth. I was naive enough to believe these days were long past.
Another thing that amazes me is something I heard on the evening news on the radio tonight: More than 80% of parents in Reykjavík are happy with the education their children receive at school.
In the absence of any training of their critical thinking, it´s also kinda sad to hear that in the courses where they are taught about their rights in society, their duties are totally neglected. 'Duties?', my sis asked. 'What´s that?' Well, you know, trivial things such as paying your taxes, voting...
Coming to think of it, the first time I ever experienced a teacher asking his class to write a critical review of anything was in an undergraduate course in anthropology. That´s university, mind you. Until then, we´re not expected, in some cases not even allowed, to think; we´re expected to be nice and quiet and accept everything the omniscient teacher has to tell as the holy truth. I was naive enough to believe these days were long past.
Another thing that amazes me is something I heard on the evening news on the radio tonight: More than 80% of parents in Reykjavík are happy with the education their children receive at school.
sunnudagur, október 20, 2002
Stína and I are preparing a great big chicken party tonight. They have a chicken, I have a chicken, so why not make these chicken meet and be merry?? It will be a wonderful meal, as long as they don´t make me eat the custard for desert.
The two of us spent Friday evening watching the Norwegian masterpiece 'Elling' on video. Ohhh, I love it. One of those movies that warms you up on the inside, while all the remarks are simply so funny you don´t have time enough to laugh between them.
The helicopter ride early on Friday morning was awesome, too. The pilot felt we needed a bit of waking up and showed us some fancy moves, like flying at (what appeared to us) 10cm from the ground, and dipping the helicopter 90 degrees to one side so I was lying on the window! We woke up, needless to say. Being picked up by car at the end of the day felt unusually mundane after this experience.
Am going to take the chicken to Stína´s, where it will be dissected and transformed into a delicious meal, and then back home to finish my three-minute speech I have to give tomorrow at the presentation and public speaking course I´m doing. Better do well on that!!
The two of us spent Friday evening watching the Norwegian masterpiece 'Elling' on video. Ohhh, I love it. One of those movies that warms you up on the inside, while all the remarks are simply so funny you don´t have time enough to laugh between them.
The helicopter ride early on Friday morning was awesome, too. The pilot felt we needed a bit of waking up and showed us some fancy moves, like flying at (what appeared to us) 10cm from the ground, and dipping the helicopter 90 degrees to one side so I was lying on the window! We woke up, needless to say. Being picked up by car at the end of the day felt unusually mundane after this experience.
Am going to take the chicken to Stína´s, where it will be dissected and transformed into a delicious meal, and then back home to finish my three-minute speech I have to give tomorrow at the presentation and public speaking course I´m doing. Better do well on that!!
fimmtudagur, október 17, 2002
I got the best job on earth.
Was "called out", almost in an emergency, to help out at the University with geophysical measurements, since someone got sick (this someone is actually Kirsty, a girl I know, and I´m really sad that it is under such unfortunate circumstances that I get to do this job). Disa and I drive out of town every morning, put the devices into the rucksacks and trott off. Walk 500 m (the first day in really rough lava clad with really thick and soft moss), take the packs off and measure. How hard does the earth pull here? As soon as we´ve found out, we take off again. Another 500m. What hard life!! Especially with not a could in the sky; the only occupational hazard is sunburn.
Tomorrow we´re going way off into the lava expanses of Reykjanesskagi. A helicopter will take us there. Feel free to envy us as much as you like. Anyone said geology was the wrong profession??? It may be hard to find work, but when you find it chances are it´s worth the search!!
So, what´s the catch? It´s as temporary as jobs get, just two more days.
Was "called out", almost in an emergency, to help out at the University with geophysical measurements, since someone got sick (this someone is actually Kirsty, a girl I know, and I´m really sad that it is under such unfortunate circumstances that I get to do this job). Disa and I drive out of town every morning, put the devices into the rucksacks and trott off. Walk 500 m (the first day in really rough lava clad with really thick and soft moss), take the packs off and measure. How hard does the earth pull here? As soon as we´ve found out, we take off again. Another 500m. What hard life!! Especially with not a could in the sky; the only occupational hazard is sunburn.
Tomorrow we´re going way off into the lava expanses of Reykjanesskagi. A helicopter will take us there. Feel free to envy us as much as you like. Anyone said geology was the wrong profession??? It may be hard to find work, but when you find it chances are it´s worth the search!!
So, what´s the catch? It´s as temporary as jobs get, just two more days.
fimmtudagur, október 10, 2002
Oyoyoy, what an autumn day. My brand new haircut blown to pieces and my butt (of all places!!) wet from walking in the horizontal rain.
It was a short shower, as my dad´s wife said. The jeep trip became, in my case, only 2 days instead of 8. Woke up on the 2nd day in beautiful Landmannalaugar with a mind-blowing headache that solemnly refused to surrender to any painkiller known to man. Driving on the bumpy, winding roads of Sprengisandur didn´t help a lot. Close to the threatened Þjórsárver (hydropower, what else can Icelandic politicians think of anyway??) we stopped to look at the view but I ended up puking behind a stone. Wonderful. Won´t go into the graphic details but this odd and uncomfy behavior was with me for the rest of the day, even the hut we stayed in at Myvatn got a dignified greeting by me. After all of this I wasn´t really looking forward to driving a few hundred more bumpy and winding kilometers in the highlands so I decided to call it a day and hitched back to Reykjavík on Monday. Kverkfjöll and Askja will have to wait for my return a bit longer :(
When this winter settles in, I can´t help thinking of leaving the country. A friend´s in Thailand, just chillin´. Aaahhh...
It was a short shower, as my dad´s wife said. The jeep trip became, in my case, only 2 days instead of 8. Woke up on the 2nd day in beautiful Landmannalaugar with a mind-blowing headache that solemnly refused to surrender to any painkiller known to man. Driving on the bumpy, winding roads of Sprengisandur didn´t help a lot. Close to the threatened Þjórsárver (hydropower, what else can Icelandic politicians think of anyway??) we stopped to look at the view but I ended up puking behind a stone. Wonderful. Won´t go into the graphic details but this odd and uncomfy behavior was with me for the rest of the day, even the hut we stayed in at Myvatn got a dignified greeting by me. After all of this I wasn´t really looking forward to driving a few hundred more bumpy and winding kilometers in the highlands so I decided to call it a day and hitched back to Reykjavík on Monday. Kverkfjöll and Askja will have to wait for my return a bit longer :(
When this winter settles in, I can´t help thinking of leaving the country. A friend´s in Thailand, just chillin´. Aaahhh...
föstudagur, október 04, 2002
Am I blonde??
Was going to call my friend Stína. So I picked up the phone at my dad´s Internet Café and dialed a number. Instantly my own cell phone starts to ring. 'Oh, this must be Stína' I thought and took my cell out of my pocket. The screen read 'Dad´s place'. 'How weird, I thought, they're not in'. Answered anyway, holding one phone to each of my innocent little ears: 'Hello?' and thought 'Gee, what an echo!!' Finally realizing it was myself calling myself and talking to myself, in both ears, I started screaming with laughter. Called Stína, in the right number, still howling with laughter, and explained to her what a blonde I was being. She asked me if I was drunk. Should I go and see a doctor about this??!?
Guess this is only a logical consequence of having tried to use my cell phone as a mouse so often. I´ve never tried to use the remote control as a phone, though.
Was going to call my friend Stína. So I picked up the phone at my dad´s Internet Café and dialed a number. Instantly my own cell phone starts to ring. 'Oh, this must be Stína' I thought and took my cell out of my pocket. The screen read 'Dad´s place'. 'How weird, I thought, they're not in'. Answered anyway, holding one phone to each of my innocent little ears: 'Hello?' and thought 'Gee, what an echo!!' Finally realizing it was myself calling myself and talking to myself, in both ears, I started screaming with laughter. Called Stína, in the right number, still howling with laughter, and explained to her what a blonde I was being. She asked me if I was drunk. Should I go and see a doctor about this??!?
Guess this is only a logical consequence of having tried to use my cell phone as a mouse so often. I´ve never tried to use the remote control as a phone, though.
Had a splendid dinner last night at Iðnó, down by the lake. No romance, though... just my bosses being nice. Ok, I´ve been moaning about not having any work and still I don´t really have any. At least none that you put proudly on your grad school application to show how dedicated you´ve been to geology... "selling books over the phone.. the new Icelandic-Icelandic dictionary and Snorri Sturluson complete" Terribly relevant to geology, right?
Anyway, if you want either of those books I can get you it with a HUGE discount ;) If you want both, you´ll get a surprise!
Do I suck? Never mind, since I am leaving town tomorrow and won´t be back for the next week. You see, at the demonstrations at Austurvöllur last Tuesday I met my long-time buddy Kjartan (he´s Bollason and thus the namesake of one of the most dramatic heroes of the Iceland sagas...) (although I had some trouble understanding, as a kid, why anyone would be called Cup (i.e. Bolli - Bolli´s son will have Bollason as a last name, according to our old name traditions)) and he told me about the jeep trip he´s going on with an American pal of his. I must have gone green in the face with envy or something since Kjartan asks if maybe I would like to join them. Hey, wow, of course!! I'll lose some money by not showing up at work for a week... but, what the heck. Let me explain:
In my mind Iceland has in a way turned into some sort of Gulag, and I don´t really feel well here because of this. Life here is to a large degree centered around making money, keeping up with the Jones´s, you have to work hard to be something and a person´s value is too often measured in the amount of money he or she makes. Very twisted, I know. I tend to let this mentality influence me a lot when I´m here and every summer since 1996 I´ve spent working as a psychopath, making money and not thinking about anything else. Not that it has made me rich, but I have lost out on a few things, like going abroad with friends, going camping and hiking, visiting the place my granny was raised in Hornstrandir, by now deserted and turned into a nature reserve... see what I´m getting at? So I thought, why the hell skip this opportunity to go to the highlands for some few krónur?!?! I mean, I spend a lot of money on going to Chile and Bolivia to go hiking there and on jeep tours...
Am looking forward to it.
Anyway, if you want either of those books I can get you it with a HUGE discount ;) If you want both, you´ll get a surprise!
Do I suck? Never mind, since I am leaving town tomorrow and won´t be back for the next week. You see, at the demonstrations at Austurvöllur last Tuesday I met my long-time buddy Kjartan (he´s Bollason and thus the namesake of one of the most dramatic heroes of the Iceland sagas...) (although I had some trouble understanding, as a kid, why anyone would be called Cup (i.e. Bolli - Bolli´s son will have Bollason as a last name, according to our old name traditions)) and he told me about the jeep trip he´s going on with an American pal of his. I must have gone green in the face with envy or something since Kjartan asks if maybe I would like to join them. Hey, wow, of course!! I'll lose some money by not showing up at work for a week... but, what the heck. Let me explain:
In my mind Iceland has in a way turned into some sort of Gulag, and I don´t really feel well here because of this. Life here is to a large degree centered around making money, keeping up with the Jones´s, you have to work hard to be something and a person´s value is too often measured in the amount of money he or she makes. Very twisted, I know. I tend to let this mentality influence me a lot when I´m here and every summer since 1996 I´ve spent working as a psychopath, making money and not thinking about anything else. Not that it has made me rich, but I have lost out on a few things, like going abroad with friends, going camping and hiking, visiting the place my granny was raised in Hornstrandir, by now deserted and turned into a nature reserve... see what I´m getting at? So I thought, why the hell skip this opportunity to go to the highlands for some few krónur?!?! I mean, I spend a lot of money on going to Chile and Bolivia to go hiking there and on jeep tours...
Am looking forward to it.
þriðjudagur, október 01, 2002
Finally made it! Attended the demonstrations at Austurvöllur in the early afternoon and was lucky enough to get an aluminum-paper helmet from this girl who had to go to classes and thus couldn´t attend the latter half of the demonstrations. I´ve skipped school for less... Anyway, borrowed a box of skyr (the most Icelandic thing there is, soft cheese/yoghurt thing...) from a friend and sang patriotic songs together with all the rest, while the MP´s hurried from the church into the Parliament building, closing the doors quickly after them. Then we shouted a bit and all the cops looked kinda ridiculous, facing this very peaceful crowd. It was so invigorating!!! Would have liked to see a lot more people though.
þriðjudagur, september 24, 2002
The weirdest weekend. Very nice, though.
My friend Úrsúla called me sometime during last week and told me about this huge party that would take place in Landmannalaugar the following weekend. The farmers were going to round up the sheep and a lot of other people were planning to show up and party with them. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. Sheep round-up party. Wow. How Icelandic can one weekend get?!?! So, I decided to join (the small anthropologist inside, you know).
Just getting there proved to be some challenge. Got a ride with a friend of a friend of a friend... but another friend, Hugh, and his girlfriend didn´t get any ride with anybody´s friend, because other friends´ friends decided to do something else than to give rides to other friends of mine. So, in the end the only person I knew at the party was dear Úrsúla.
So much for the party, an abominable headache turned me into a social invalid who sought refuge in the sleeping bag. By the next day it had more or less disappeared and I could enjoy a walk up a nearby mountain on my own... nature gets so much closer in on you when you´re out alone.
The return trip to Reykjavík was good. We took all the bumpy jeep tracks available, dipped into a mud pool butt-naked (and made the day for some horseriding sheep(ish)-round up guys - they went into the highlands looking for sheep and found three naked women!!!), all the time listening to some fabulously boring music borrowed from a Selfoss cop. What more can you ask for in this life?!?!
My friend Úrsúla called me sometime during last week and told me about this huge party that would take place in Landmannalaugar the following weekend. The farmers were going to round up the sheep and a lot of other people were planning to show up and party with them. Hmm, sounds interesting, I thought. Sheep round-up party. Wow. How Icelandic can one weekend get?!?! So, I decided to join (the small anthropologist inside, you know).
Just getting there proved to be some challenge. Got a ride with a friend of a friend of a friend... but another friend, Hugh, and his girlfriend didn´t get any ride with anybody´s friend, because other friends´ friends decided to do something else than to give rides to other friends of mine. So, in the end the only person I knew at the party was dear Úrsúla.
So much for the party, an abominable headache turned me into a social invalid who sought refuge in the sleeping bag. By the next day it had more or less disappeared and I could enjoy a walk up a nearby mountain on my own... nature gets so much closer in on you when you´re out alone.
The return trip to Reykjavík was good. We took all the bumpy jeep tracks available, dipped into a mud pool butt-naked (and made the day for some horseriding sheep(ish)-round up guys - they went into the highlands looking for sheep and found three naked women!!!), all the time listening to some fabulously boring music borrowed from a Selfoss cop. What more can you ask for in this life?!?!
fimmtudagur, september 19, 2002
Got this wonderful compliment from one of the professors who taught me at university yesterday. We met in a very touristy greenhouse in Hveragerði, he had been outing his wife and mother-in-law while I was showing Iceland to some tourists (including well-behaved Ed, Stína´s brother). We start discussing my plans for graduate studies, I tell him that I´m optimistic enough to apply to *peep* (a very prestigious university, I´m too superstitious to tell you which one). "Now that´s a very good idea," he says, "for someone who´s already reached your age..." His wife couldn´t help overhearing this mortal comment and snaps at him: "What, are you next going to suggest to her she soon start applying for a room at a nursing home as well?!!?" Then mommy-in-law grins broadly, looks at me and says: "You´re welcome to move in with me anytime, my dear."
This has made me wonder whether I´ll have to buy that wrinkle-cream anyway...
This has made me wonder whether I´ll have to buy that wrinkle-cream anyway...
þriðjudagur, september 17, 2002
mánudagur, september 16, 2002
Found these delicious brownies in my dad´s kitchen. He and his wife run the perfect Internet cafe, and it´s free of charge!
Took the TOEFL last Saturday morning. Had a hard time preventing myself from giggling at the instructions given to us by a tape recorder: "In the field marked 'Your name', write your name. In the field marked 'Date of birth', write your date of birth." The best, though, was "If your name, address or sex has changed since the time of registration...". I wonder how many of the TOEFL test takers actually undergo sex-changing operations in this narrow timeframe?!?! It sure would have made for a much better essay topic than the imbecile "do you prefer doing work by hand or with machines?"-topic given to us. "I prefer cutting my lawn with my nails because it gets me into contact with Mother Nature...".
Another wonderful thing about this exam is that one had to drive all the way to the NATO base, close to Keflavík Intl. Airport, to take it. The test center in Reykjavík has been closed down and thus the only place where one can take the ETS exams in Iceland now is the base. A.T.Mahan High School, to be more precise. This meant me, and some ten other unfortunate individuals, having to get up at 6 a.m. and drive in fog and rain and wind for 45 minutes. Convinced that my alarm clock would choose to die on exactly this crucial morning I slept only in 45 minutes intervals that night, waking up mortally startled and jumping out of my bed to take a look at the clock: "Phew, it´s only 2:30! Phew, it´s only 3:15! Phew, it´s only 4:10! and so on. Needless to say, I was like a zombie the whole day.
Now the exciting/tedious/depressing task of finding work awaits. Yippie!!
Yesterday was the perfect day. Met with my long-term friend Fanney at a cafe downtown for a brunch, then went to a girlie session at my friend Sif´s place. There were five of us giggling girls, a lot of good food, gossiping and, believe it or not, crocheting!! Inspired by this housewifely experience I baked some bread yesterday evening and it turned out absolutely delicious. Invited my sis over for a taste, she´s 15 and has the most enormous entertainment potential of all living creatures. She simply had me in stitches!
Took the TOEFL last Saturday morning. Had a hard time preventing myself from giggling at the instructions given to us by a tape recorder: "In the field marked 'Your name', write your name. In the field marked 'Date of birth', write your date of birth." The best, though, was "If your name, address or sex has changed since the time of registration...". I wonder how many of the TOEFL test takers actually undergo sex-changing operations in this narrow timeframe?!?! It sure would have made for a much better essay topic than the imbecile "do you prefer doing work by hand or with machines?"-topic given to us. "I prefer cutting my lawn with my nails because it gets me into contact with Mother Nature...".
Another wonderful thing about this exam is that one had to drive all the way to the NATO base, close to Keflavík Intl. Airport, to take it. The test center in Reykjavík has been closed down and thus the only place where one can take the ETS exams in Iceland now is the base. A.T.Mahan High School, to be more precise. This meant me, and some ten other unfortunate individuals, having to get up at 6 a.m. and drive in fog and rain and wind for 45 minutes. Convinced that my alarm clock would choose to die on exactly this crucial morning I slept only in 45 minutes intervals that night, waking up mortally startled and jumping out of my bed to take a look at the clock: "Phew, it´s only 2:30! Phew, it´s only 3:15! Phew, it´s only 4:10! and so on. Needless to say, I was like a zombie the whole day.
Now the exciting/tedious/depressing task of finding work awaits. Yippie!!
Yesterday was the perfect day. Met with my long-term friend Fanney at a cafe downtown for a brunch, then went to a girlie session at my friend Sif´s place. There were five of us giggling girls, a lot of good food, gossiping and, believe it or not, crocheting!! Inspired by this housewifely experience I baked some bread yesterday evening and it turned out absolutely delicious. Invited my sis over for a taste, she´s 15 and has the most enormous entertainment potential of all living creatures. She simply had me in stitches!
fimmtudagur, september 12, 2002
My oh my. You haven´t gotten the second half of my last cruise yet. By now you even have to go into Past hurricanes to see the former half, so I better post this one NOW:
Tuesday 20th of August 2002
We woke up to breakfast while rounding the Negripynten at the SW-tip of Edgeøya. Fog was close by (again!!) and for a while it didn’t look too good with our planned landing at Halvmåneøya, or Half Moon Island. Fortunately the fog lifted a bit just after we had dropped anchor off the N-coast of the island, and a zodiac with two guides was sent ashore to scout for polar bears. None were observed in the area so we decided to make a landing after all, in quiet drizzling rain. Halvmåneøya is one of the most famous hunting areas on Svalbard and famous hunters like Henry Rudi, the “Polar Bear King” from Tromsø, spent many winters here hunting bears. We saw the huts used by the overwintering trappers and around the huts a lot of stuff left behind from the hunting years, f.ex. remains of a self-shot for polar bears, hundreds of bones, oil barrels, empty bullets etc. Inside the cabin we found a guest book and a very inventive game of chess. The fast-going group took a walk along the beach and saw a pair of red-throated divers on one of the many small lakes. All of us also walked to a high pole standing on a small hill behind the huts and our guides explained to us how these poles were erected by the trappers by the polar bear self-shots, to make the bear curious so that it would come to the trap.
Our afternoon landing was scheduled to be at Andreétangen, on the SW-tip of Edgeøya. By this time the wind had picked up causing rough sea and with the fog and rain we decided that conditions were not good at all for landing with zodiacs. The landing was called off and Ian Gjertz instead gave us a lecture with a slides show about the cultural heritage of Svalbard.
We set course for Hornsund, on the west coast of Spitsbergen Island, and plan to be there tomorrow morning. In the evening Stefano Poli showed some of his slides from the Svalbard winter and told us about traveling in that season. The waves were getting bigger as we steamed in open waters, let’s hope the night will nevertheless be a good one!
Wednesday 21st of August 2002
Today we spent in the southernmost of the big fjords on West-Spitsbergen, Hornsund. Early in the morning we rounded Sørkapp, or South Cape, and during breakfast sailed north towards Hornsund. As we turned into the fjord a very thick fog closed in on us and probably we were all feeling a bit pessimistic for a while... until the fog evaporated just like that so we could admire the beautiful scenery in sunshine.
Hornsund is full of glaciers calving into the fjord and Herdís gave us a short introduction to them in the observation lounge, so we would be better equipped to admire them from deck.We spent the whole morning in the innermost part of Hornsund, where five different glaciers calve into the sea, and were lucky enough to see also the famous mountains of Hornsund, Hornsundtind (1431 m a.s.l.) and Bautaen (the Obelisk). These mountains were formed by glacier erosion and it is strange to imagine that the glaciers we saw this morning have been so industrious at eroding the land underneath that when they finally melt and disappear sea will flow over land and make the southernmost part of Spitsbergen an island of its own!
After lunch we made a zodiac landing on Treskelodden (Threshold Point). We divided into groups making short and long walks. It was quite windy but after lazy days on the ship many of us enjoyed stretching our legs walking along the beach and on the moraine ridge. We saw some fossils of sea animals (sponges and bryozoans) who lived in warm, clear oceans some 250 million years ago, shells from our own times and also two reindeer grazing. They weren’t much disturbed by us so we got a very good opportunity to watch them and take pictures. Up on the moraines we also found some sticks and a peculiar wooden box, which could have been anything from a bird trap (maybe we’ve heard too much about trappers!!) to some scientific instrument from the Poles who have a research station at the mouth of the fjord. The long walks ended by a small hut owned by the Poles, looking into it we found out that they must be very small people indeed and like Grant’s whisky a lot!
In the evening we went for a zodiac cruise in a small bay called Burgerbukta, still in Hornsund. The glaciers in the bay have been calving a lot in the “warm” summer weather and the water was full of icebergs and smaller bits of ice. We cruised around for about an hour, seeing a lot of nice ice in different colors, sizes and shapes. Some of the bigger bergs were a beautiful blue color, made more intense by the cloudy weather. In spite of the floating ice we could make our way to the glacier front; it was very impressive to see these tall walls of blue ice towering above us. A few seals were also swimming in the water and when we turned off the engine one of them got a bit interested and swam quite close to the boat. By that time we had to turn back to the ship, so the seal will have to wait for the next zodiac cruise to take a better look at us!
The zodiac crews of Tore’s and Herdís’s boats took some of this old glacier ice with them to the Polar Star and Eddy in the bar offered everyone whisky on the glacier-ice rocks, to celebrate a wonderful day in the Arctic!
Thursday 22nd of August 2002
Having anchored up in Grønfjorden (Green Fjord) at 6 AM we woke up to a rainy day with low cloud cover. At 9 o’clock we had a guided tour in Barentsburg, the only Russian settlement on Svalbard. Two Russian English-speaking guides met us on the pier, Tamara guided those who opted for a bus tour while Anna took the other ones for a walk through town, which began with a climb up the seemingly endless stairs leading from the pier into town.
The two guides told us about life in Barentsburg and took us to see f.ex. the small “farm” on the outskirts of town, the chapel, the “Pomor” museum and the hotel, where there is a post office and also a bar (of course!!) where one can enjoy Russian champagne and vodka. Being in Barentsburg is almost like being in Russia itself and maybe some of us got a small culture shock during the visit. However, it is quite fascinating that Russia and Norway are able to co-exist so close together on the same island!
After our visit in Barentsburg we steamed towards Longyearbyen, for a quick stop because of a passenger who needed medical attention. From there we sailed towards Skansebukta, a beautiful small bay on the north side of Isfjorden. During the early afternoon we had a lecture by Ian Gjertz on walrus in the observation lounge and we also had to do “last-day activities” like settling accounts and packing. How nice then, to have a landing after all the ‘office work’. This was the last zodiac landing on this cruise, and we very much enjoyed the freedom of walking around on the beach of Skansebukta; this was the first and only time on the cruise that our “bossy” guides allowed us to go further away from them than 15m!. The area is beautiful; green with moss and lichen and now, at the end of season, many flowers in autumn colours. A perfect place for a last landing!
Coming back on board the Polar Star we prepared for the Captain’s cocktail in the Lounge. Our Captain gave a farewell speech and Trine, our Expedition Leader, gave us a short summary of the trip and distributed certificates for having crossed 80°N. The chef had the BBQ dinner ready by the time all the talking was finished and all the toasts had been drunk, and for the rest of the evening we enjoyed eating the last meal on board. In the late evening we lifted anchor and steamed towards Longyearbyen so the passengers would reach the early morning flight. The last cruise of this summer was over.
We want to thank you all for your company this week and wish you a safe journey home!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
There you go!
Tuesday 20th of August 2002
We woke up to breakfast while rounding the Negripynten at the SW-tip of Edgeøya. Fog was close by (again!!) and for a while it didn’t look too good with our planned landing at Halvmåneøya, or Half Moon Island. Fortunately the fog lifted a bit just after we had dropped anchor off the N-coast of the island, and a zodiac with two guides was sent ashore to scout for polar bears. None were observed in the area so we decided to make a landing after all, in quiet drizzling rain. Halvmåneøya is one of the most famous hunting areas on Svalbard and famous hunters like Henry Rudi, the “Polar Bear King” from Tromsø, spent many winters here hunting bears. We saw the huts used by the overwintering trappers and around the huts a lot of stuff left behind from the hunting years, f.ex. remains of a self-shot for polar bears, hundreds of bones, oil barrels, empty bullets etc. Inside the cabin we found a guest book and a very inventive game of chess. The fast-going group took a walk along the beach and saw a pair of red-throated divers on one of the many small lakes. All of us also walked to a high pole standing on a small hill behind the huts and our guides explained to us how these poles were erected by the trappers by the polar bear self-shots, to make the bear curious so that it would come to the trap.
Our afternoon landing was scheduled to be at Andreétangen, on the SW-tip of Edgeøya. By this time the wind had picked up causing rough sea and with the fog and rain we decided that conditions were not good at all for landing with zodiacs. The landing was called off and Ian Gjertz instead gave us a lecture with a slides show about the cultural heritage of Svalbard.
We set course for Hornsund, on the west coast of Spitsbergen Island, and plan to be there tomorrow morning. In the evening Stefano Poli showed some of his slides from the Svalbard winter and told us about traveling in that season. The waves were getting bigger as we steamed in open waters, let’s hope the night will nevertheless be a good one!
Wednesday 21st of August 2002
Today we spent in the southernmost of the big fjords on West-Spitsbergen, Hornsund. Early in the morning we rounded Sørkapp, or South Cape, and during breakfast sailed north towards Hornsund. As we turned into the fjord a very thick fog closed in on us and probably we were all feeling a bit pessimistic for a while... until the fog evaporated just like that so we could admire the beautiful scenery in sunshine.
Hornsund is full of glaciers calving into the fjord and Herdís gave us a short introduction to them in the observation lounge, so we would be better equipped to admire them from deck.We spent the whole morning in the innermost part of Hornsund, where five different glaciers calve into the sea, and were lucky enough to see also the famous mountains of Hornsund, Hornsundtind (1431 m a.s.l.) and Bautaen (the Obelisk). These mountains were formed by glacier erosion and it is strange to imagine that the glaciers we saw this morning have been so industrious at eroding the land underneath that when they finally melt and disappear sea will flow over land and make the southernmost part of Spitsbergen an island of its own!
After lunch we made a zodiac landing on Treskelodden (Threshold Point). We divided into groups making short and long walks. It was quite windy but after lazy days on the ship many of us enjoyed stretching our legs walking along the beach and on the moraine ridge. We saw some fossils of sea animals (sponges and bryozoans) who lived in warm, clear oceans some 250 million years ago, shells from our own times and also two reindeer grazing. They weren’t much disturbed by us so we got a very good opportunity to watch them and take pictures. Up on the moraines we also found some sticks and a peculiar wooden box, which could have been anything from a bird trap (maybe we’ve heard too much about trappers!!) to some scientific instrument from the Poles who have a research station at the mouth of the fjord. The long walks ended by a small hut owned by the Poles, looking into it we found out that they must be very small people indeed and like Grant’s whisky a lot!
In the evening we went for a zodiac cruise in a small bay called Burgerbukta, still in Hornsund. The glaciers in the bay have been calving a lot in the “warm” summer weather and the water was full of icebergs and smaller bits of ice. We cruised around for about an hour, seeing a lot of nice ice in different colors, sizes and shapes. Some of the bigger bergs were a beautiful blue color, made more intense by the cloudy weather. In spite of the floating ice we could make our way to the glacier front; it was very impressive to see these tall walls of blue ice towering above us. A few seals were also swimming in the water and when we turned off the engine one of them got a bit interested and swam quite close to the boat. By that time we had to turn back to the ship, so the seal will have to wait for the next zodiac cruise to take a better look at us!
The zodiac crews of Tore’s and Herdís’s boats took some of this old glacier ice with them to the Polar Star and Eddy in the bar offered everyone whisky on the glacier-ice rocks, to celebrate a wonderful day in the Arctic!
Thursday 22nd of August 2002
Having anchored up in Grønfjorden (Green Fjord) at 6 AM we woke up to a rainy day with low cloud cover. At 9 o’clock we had a guided tour in Barentsburg, the only Russian settlement on Svalbard. Two Russian English-speaking guides met us on the pier, Tamara guided those who opted for a bus tour while Anna took the other ones for a walk through town, which began with a climb up the seemingly endless stairs leading from the pier into town.
The two guides told us about life in Barentsburg and took us to see f.ex. the small “farm” on the outskirts of town, the chapel, the “Pomor” museum and the hotel, where there is a post office and also a bar (of course!!) where one can enjoy Russian champagne and vodka. Being in Barentsburg is almost like being in Russia itself and maybe some of us got a small culture shock during the visit. However, it is quite fascinating that Russia and Norway are able to co-exist so close together on the same island!
After our visit in Barentsburg we steamed towards Longyearbyen, for a quick stop because of a passenger who needed medical attention. From there we sailed towards Skansebukta, a beautiful small bay on the north side of Isfjorden. During the early afternoon we had a lecture by Ian Gjertz on walrus in the observation lounge and we also had to do “last-day activities” like settling accounts and packing. How nice then, to have a landing after all the ‘office work’. This was the last zodiac landing on this cruise, and we very much enjoyed the freedom of walking around on the beach of Skansebukta; this was the first and only time on the cruise that our “bossy” guides allowed us to go further away from them than 15m!. The area is beautiful; green with moss and lichen and now, at the end of season, many flowers in autumn colours. A perfect place for a last landing!
Coming back on board the Polar Star we prepared for the Captain’s cocktail in the Lounge. Our Captain gave a farewell speech and Trine, our Expedition Leader, gave us a short summary of the trip and distributed certificates for having crossed 80°N. The chef had the BBQ dinner ready by the time all the talking was finished and all the toasts had been drunk, and for the rest of the evening we enjoyed eating the last meal on board. In the late evening we lifted anchor and steamed towards Longyearbyen so the passengers would reach the early morning flight. The last cruise of this summer was over.
We want to thank you all for your company this week and wish you a safe journey home!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
There you go!
þriðjudagur, september 10, 2002
Now remember why I haven´t applied for grad school yet: An impenetrable jungle of programs, research projects, instructions, begging... Simply producing an application is a major investment in time and money. Why don´t we get a degree for that??
Shit weather in Reykjavík today doesn´t help out. Yesterday was wonderful though, but that was yesterday.
Miss UNIS now. Nybyen that is, this remote part of remote Longyearbyen where all the UNIS students are packed into barracks formerly occupied by miners. Or, to be more precise, I miss the students. Here´s an example why:
Ove on the bathroom floor on a Saturday morning, head bent over open toilet bowl. Loud sounds. Ole, his best mate, stands in the door and grins: "On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad do you feel?" A muffled sound from the toilet: "Twenty-seven!"
Those were the days.
Shit weather in Reykjavík today doesn´t help out. Yesterday was wonderful though, but that was yesterday.
Miss UNIS now. Nybyen that is, this remote part of remote Longyearbyen where all the UNIS students are packed into barracks formerly occupied by miners. Or, to be more precise, I miss the students. Here´s an example why:
Ove on the bathroom floor on a Saturday morning, head bent over open toilet bowl. Loud sounds. Ole, his best mate, stands in the door and grins: "On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad do you feel?" A muffled sound from the toilet: "Twenty-seven!"
Those were the days.
sunnudagur, september 08, 2002
Felt the same need as Stína to try and look my absolute best for Hannes and Deepa´s wedding party, so I bought some wash-out color for my hair. Red. Real red, as the label said. Hmmm... Look like, let me think, a color sampler now: Flaming red, brown red, tired red, orange, and oh, the hideous concrete-pavement color chosen for my hair by a mean combination of genes still manages to squeeze itself into daylight from under all this. Hair sucks.
First night in new apartment. Was greeted there yesterday by this huge wasp that looked like a bonsai passenger jet. Killed it, of course, and found to my great surprise that a wasp cut in two will still try to fly. Interesting.
First night in new apartment. Was greeted there yesterday by this huge wasp that looked like a bonsai passenger jet. Killed it, of course, and found to my great surprise that a wasp cut in two will still try to fly. Interesting.
föstudagur, september 06, 2002
Am running to Stína´s, she´s home alone and we´re going for a girlie session with pop-corn and Friends. Have the option of going to Nellie´s and have a beer with the students from the volcano school but think I will drop it, last night saw me downing some gin and beer and red wine and singing the legendary "Icelandic Cowboy" for all present. Have to give the audience a break. Anyway, my clothes are all dirty and long to see the interior of Stina´s washing machine. Does not mean, however, that I´ll be running around naked at Stína´s.
I learned a lot about the human condition at the summer school. For instance, I met this professor from the University of Cambridge whose hair is more curly than mine ever was, wears Ecuadorian wool hats three numbers too large and grows figs. When he grows up, he wants to become an astronaut or a truck driver. More on this exotic species called geo-scientists later.
I learned a lot about the human condition at the summer school. For instance, I met this professor from the University of Cambridge whose hair is more curly than mine ever was, wears Ecuadorian wool hats three numbers too large and grows figs. When he grows up, he wants to become an astronaut or a truck driver. More on this exotic species called geo-scientists later.
þriðjudagur, september 03, 2002
Halló, halló, which one should it be? Hillbilly, didn´t I maybe get it right?? Sånn skikkelig harry...
Home in good old Iceland, and to nobody´s surprise it´s been raining fire for the last few days, actually since I arrived. Hmmm, last Sunday the rain was actually horizontal, we had storm warnings and all those things that meant no school and great fun when I was a kid. However, neither storm nor a Sunday could save us from the school bench this time; we participants in this volcanology summer school sat all day listening to lectures. It was actually a quite dramatic setting for talk on very scary volcanoes and the disasters they cause: A howling storm beating the house that lies at the foot of this very dangerous volcano Öræfajökull (now try reading that out loud), which is also Iceland´s highest mountain. The highest peak is called Hvannadalshnjúkur, by the French shortened to Ananas Yogurt.
Actually the summer school is not over but I´m back in Reykjavik. Hitched a ride with a truck driver, so got a glimpse of a profession I´ll never have. And a glimpse into subcultures I don´t meet every day. The dormant anthropologist popped up inside me. It was good fun, we discussed the weather (of COURSE we did, as usually when driving along the south coast we got ten different weathers...) and the traffic, outdoor festivals and fox hunting and even the difference between two- and four-stroke engines. Not that it´s my main hobby, but...
Am actually finding myself being more conversable (???) on engines than I am on the arts. Something has happened here. I who studied classics at high school, wanted to be an actress and even took some singing lessons. Gee. Svalbard is a prime suspect here.
Anyway, what am I doing in town? Polar Star is coming to Reykjavík tomorrow and on it three of my workmates from Svalbard. Just had to go and say hi. Will hitch a ride back east tomorrow evening, to hear the two lectures scheduled for Thursday.
Home in good old Iceland, and to nobody´s surprise it´s been raining fire for the last few days, actually since I arrived. Hmmm, last Sunday the rain was actually horizontal, we had storm warnings and all those things that meant no school and great fun when I was a kid. However, neither storm nor a Sunday could save us from the school bench this time; we participants in this volcanology summer school sat all day listening to lectures. It was actually a quite dramatic setting for talk on very scary volcanoes and the disasters they cause: A howling storm beating the house that lies at the foot of this very dangerous volcano Öræfajökull (now try reading that out loud), which is also Iceland´s highest mountain. The highest peak is called Hvannadalshnjúkur, by the French shortened to Ananas Yogurt.
Actually the summer school is not over but I´m back in Reykjavik. Hitched a ride with a truck driver, so got a glimpse of a profession I´ll never have. And a glimpse into subcultures I don´t meet every day. The dormant anthropologist popped up inside me. It was good fun, we discussed the weather (of COURSE we did, as usually when driving along the south coast we got ten different weathers...) and the traffic, outdoor festivals and fox hunting and even the difference between two- and four-stroke engines. Not that it´s my main hobby, but...
Am actually finding myself being more conversable (???) on engines than I am on the arts. Something has happened here. I who studied classics at high school, wanted to be an actress and even took some singing lessons. Gee. Svalbard is a prime suspect here.
Anyway, what am I doing in town? Polar Star is coming to Reykjavík tomorrow and on it three of my workmates from Svalbard. Just had to go and say hi. Will hitch a ride back east tomorrow evening, to hear the two lectures scheduled for Thursday.
sunnudagur, ágúst 25, 2002
Amazing how dark it gets now. We've been without the midnight sun for less than a week and yet it is almost dark outside during the night. Not pitch dark, but dark enough for the guys down at the harbour to have to turn on the floodlights. The thick cloud cover does its best to help. And the bare ground. The snow-covered earth of March and a lot if highs, bringing with them cloudless skies, make the spring so bright, long before the advent of the midnight sun.
Went to the movies tonight with Ingunn, it was Episode II: The Attack of the Clones on the menu. IIiii, it was good. Just switch off your brain and enjoy. Wonderful! The perfect way to spend the last evening, at least for the time being, in Longyearbyen. And round it all off with a hamburger and BudIce at Puben.
As much as I've bitched about Svalbard and my work here on this page, I'm sad to leave. I've come to have such good friends here and it's sad to leave them all behind. But then again, I just remind myself of the fact that if I stay here too long, working with tourists of the sort I told you about yesterday, I'll go terminally insane. It's such a shame that as a guide, you actually have to put up with tourists all the time! No, they are ok, most of them. Just in slightly smaller doses. And Svalbard holds a claim to a huge lump of me; this wonderful am-Arsch-der-Welt hillbilly community that I love, full of mine workers and rocket scientists and big guys carrying their 15 cm Sami-knive with them wherever they go. And most important of all: Honest and unpretentious. Takes itself for what it is, no more and no less.
btw, didn't the trapper's life appeal to anyone?? I won't do it alone, you know...
Went to the movies tonight with Ingunn, it was Episode II: The Attack of the Clones on the menu. IIiii, it was good. Just switch off your brain and enjoy. Wonderful! The perfect way to spend the last evening, at least for the time being, in Longyearbyen. And round it all off with a hamburger and BudIce at Puben.
As much as I've bitched about Svalbard and my work here on this page, I'm sad to leave. I've come to have such good friends here and it's sad to leave them all behind. But then again, I just remind myself of the fact that if I stay here too long, working with tourists of the sort I told you about yesterday, I'll go terminally insane. It's such a shame that as a guide, you actually have to put up with tourists all the time! No, they are ok, most of them. Just in slightly smaller doses. And Svalbard holds a claim to a huge lump of me; this wonderful am-Arsch-der-Welt hillbilly community that I love, full of mine workers and rocket scientists and big guys carrying their 15 cm Sami-knive with them wherever they go. And most important of all: Honest and unpretentious. Takes itself for what it is, no more and no less.
btw, didn't the trapper's life appeal to anyone?? I won't do it alone, you know...
laugardagur, ágúst 24, 2002
oh, last (and only...) party night in Longyearbyen this summer is over. I started at Puben, had a beef steak and read the newspapers, entertained (tried to, at least) my friend and bartender Helen... and then the people started pouring in. The crew from the Polar Star, and then the guides, all in various state of drunkenness. Very handy, since they offer you drinks. Economical... In the end Puben was completely crowded and I was having the most wonderful time, laughing my ass off and enjoying life so immensely. Then we went to Huset (where one never plans to go, one just ends up there) where all the Icelanders were (all three of them, that is). Spent long time talking to Atli, an old flame of mine, he's here with his girlfriend who's studying at UNIS; we haven't talked for ages. Now know for sure that I'm getting old, since I'm developing hangovers while still drunk. Joined some workmates to Classic Pizza for a kebab and came out with an empty pizza box under my arm, am going to use it for sending Arnon his birthday-present in it. He's getting a book. Hyyyssssjjjj....
Iha! The summer holiday has finally begun!!
Thought you might want to read my log of this summer's last cruise. We write a log for every day and then give a copy to the passengers at the farewell party the last evening on board. This time it was my turn to write the log. I enjoyed it, needless to say:
Saturday 17th of August 2002
Our first day in the Arctic started with breakfast at 8 o’clock. We were sailing along the westernmost island in the Svalbard archipelago, Prins Karls Forland, which is a national park. During the morning we had a presentation of all the guides and our guest lecturer, Ian Gjertz. The captain also came and told us about safety issues on the ship. The sea was a bit rough so not everyone could make it to the meeting and not everyone was able to show up at the lifeboat drill either.
Just before lunch we rounded the northernmost point on Prins Karls Forland and sailing unusually close to the shore we could admire its huge birdcliffs. Sailing into Kongsfjorden (King’s Bay) we saw huge glaciers deboucing into the sea and the small settlement of Ny-Ålesund, where we docked after lunch and had a guided trip around the village. Ny-Ålesund is an old coal mining village but today mining has been replaced by scientific activity; the village is inhabited by scientists and their assistants only who do research on the fragile arctic environment. This is a multi-national town and probably all the nations represented on the ship also are represented in Ny-Ålesund. But it is not only scientists who make their home there, some Barnacle geese were seen close to town and a lot of arctic terns (the most dangerous animal on Svalbard!!) breed between the houses. The arctic fox is never far away from breeding birds and we were lucky enough to catch sight of three of them on our stroll through town. It is also slowly becoming evident that autumn is approaching here in the high Arctic; strong winds from the east were blowing while we were in town and made the guiding a bit of a chilly experience. Some of us even found out that on the next landings we’ll wear a whole lot more of warm clothes!
As the ship was sailing out of Kongsfjorden Ian Gjertz gave us a lecture on the birds of Svalbard, showing slides of the various sea- and land birds. This gave us all a good head start in bird-watching. Now we can tell a fulmar from a guillemot and an arctic tern from a kittiwake and we also know which rare birds to look out for. Maybe some of us will only been seen on deck from now on, bundled up in the warmest clothing with the binoculars in front of our eyes and the new thermos-cup full of warm coffee in the hand, spying out for the ivory gull and other winged rarities.
Happy hour in Eddy’s bar came and dinner went by and suddenly we were in Magdalenefjorden. This is one of the most visited places on Svalbard, renowned for the beauty of the landscape and the wealth of history to be experienced here. Håkan gave us a lecture about the fjord on the front deck. We then spent some time in front of the Waggonway glacier, it was in a very good mood and calved several times for us, while the kittiwakes flew around the ship and rocks came thundering down the steep mountain sides, loosened by the drizzling rain we had. On our way out the fjord we saw two polar bears on the coast, but they were too far away for most of us...
As night set in we headed for the north and the east, hoping to wake up tomorrow morning close to the northern entrance to Hinlopen Strait.
Sunday 18th of August 2002
We probably were all sound asleep when we crossed the 80°N at 4:40 AM and by breakfast time we were already crossing the Hinlopen Strait. Our first landing was scheduled in Kinnvika on Nordaustlandet, one of the most inaccessible islands in the world. After a short briefing about zodiacs we were ready to go ashore, looking forward to make a landing north of 80°N and to take a look at the many huts built by a Swedish-Swiss geophysical expedition during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. But, what happens??!! The first zodiac observes a polar bear on land and our landing is cancelled. However, we made a zodiac cruise where we all drove close to the shore and saw the polar bear where it was sleeping outside one of the cabins. Hauke Trinks, a German scientist who is overwintering in Kinnvika together with his “best friend” Marie, is obviously becoming a friend of the bear since he was walking outside of the cabins just a few meters from it (with a rifle on his back, so maybe not best friends...). The bear even woke up for us but wasn’t the show-off type and so went and hid behind the toilet shack.
After this unexpected bear-encounter we had lunch, during which we steamed south through the Hinlopen Strait. The wind was blowing quite a bit when we arrived at Alkefjellet, an enormous colony of Brünnich’s guillemots, but that didn’t stop us from going out on deck to take a look at the birds and the impressive dark dolerite rocks they are nesting on. Håkan, our on-deck guiding expert, told us a nice story about the life of his friend Charlie, a guillemot who lives in this bird cliff, and he was very happy to catch a sight of Charlie himself among all the thousands of guillemots flying around!
On we went towards the south and the east. Our guest lecturer Ian Gjertz was getting ready for a lecture about walruses when we encuntered drift-ice, much sooner than expected. Almost immediately after entering the ice a polar bear was spotted so obviously the lecture was postponed. This ice has come drifting with the strong easterly winds that have been blowing for the past few days. We all stood out on deck looking out for animals in the nice weather; the wind had ceased a little bit and the sun was shining between the clouds! Another polar bear was spotted and we tried to get closer, than the ship stopped and we hoped the bear would be curious and come to take a look at us. Maybe it was an old and tired bear who didn’t feel like walking too far, anyway it decided to do something else with his early evening than to come for a visit to us.
In the evening the nice weather had turned into fog. Ian Gjertz gave us a lecture with a slides show about polar bears and as midnight approaches we are still sailing through open pack ice. A constant cloud of kittiwakes, both young and adults, with the occasional fulmar, follows the ship to scoop up the fish we make available to them by breaking the ice. Tomorrow morning we plan to have left the fog behind and visit Edgeøya, the third biggest island in the Svalbard archipelago.
Monday 19th of August 2002
Today started somewhat early, or at 3 o’clock, when a polar bear was seen in the driftice just in front of the ship. This was a young polar bear and maybe a very sleepy one since it didn’t seem to notice the ship in the fog until we were about 50 m from it! Most young bears are quite curious and so was this one, staying close to the ship for quite a while before strolling off and disappearing into the fog. That of course gave us a perfect excuse for going to sleep again... zzzzz....
When the real morning came all driftice had disappeared and we were cruising to the east of Barentsøya, headed for Edgeøya. Stefano Poli gave a lecture about the rescue operation of the Nobile expedition in 1928 and showed us a video about a zodiac trip he made last summer with a friend, in the footsteps of the rescue mission.
Fog made our afternoon landing at Kapp Lee a very special one, lending an air of mystery to the place. At Kapp Lee one can find historical remains from many different periods, dating from the days of the Russian Pomori hunters in the 18th century up to the era of (Dutch) oil explorers in the 1960’s. We also saw some reindeer grazing in the hills and the skeletons of various animals. The fog slowly lifted so we could enjoy the view to the mountains, made of Triassic sediments and basalt sills. Autumn has come here like most other places on Svalbard and the tiny leaves of the polar willow, the smallest tree on Earth and one of only two tree species found on Svalbard, are in beautiful yellow and orange, giving color to the ground after the flowers have all withered.
On we sailed along the west coast of Edgeøya and after dinner made today’s second landing in Discobukta. This was definitely an exiting one!! The sea was a bit rough and the water off our landingsite is very shallow; this combined to make the waves quite big. Lucky us that Trine told us all to wear rubber boots for this landing, we really needed them as we ran from the zodiacs up to dry land trying to outrun the waves! In Discobukta there is an old trapper’s hut and a narrow canyon with tall cliff walls where thousands of kittiwakes nest. We walked to the canyon and into it, where the noise from the birds echoes between the cliff walls. Soon we spotted two foxes running around beneath the cliffs looking for food and we also noticed how much vegetation there is in the canyon: the guano from the birds is a great fertilizer. When we returned to the ship the zodiac part was at least as exciting as when we came ashore!
During the landing some of us started looking for the sun in the sky, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Wondering what had happened with it we started thinking: in Longyearbyen the last day with midnight sun is tomorrow. Here by Edgeøya we are actually further south, and thus the midnight sun probably has already shone for the last time here. From now on daylight will last about 20 minutes shorter every day... until there will be none left in late November, when the two month long polar night begins.
_ _ _ _ _
You'll get the last three days later, don't want to choke you up with too much to read!
Talking about reading, I've stocked up for the winter on Arctic literature. Was at Longyearbyen museum today, it has a great selection of books about the Arctic and Svalbard. Bought four books, about the history of Svalbard and the lives of people here. One is called 'Isbjørnkongen' or 'The Polar Bear King', about this Norwegian trapper called Henri Rudi, who killed 713 polar bears during his many years in the Arctic!! It could be fun to spend a winter here as a trapper, to get close to the elements and be out in the wilderness a whole winter. Anyone interested in joining me??
Sometimes tourists are not very clever. And, for some odd reason, everyone gets very interested in shit when they are tourists. Reindeer shit, ptarmigan shit, fox shit, polar bear pooh. On Edgeøya, this middle-aged man pointed at a pile of dry shit: What animal is that? Oh, that's from a reindeer, I replied. And what about this, the same man asked, pointing to a nearby pile of slightly different looking shit. Well, that's also from a reindeer. But they look different, he said, not happy with my analysis. Well, does your's always look the same? I couldn't help asking back. It's very fortunate when such tourists have a slight sense of humor, as this one happened to have.
_
Thought you might want to read my log of this summer's last cruise. We write a log for every day and then give a copy to the passengers at the farewell party the last evening on board. This time it was my turn to write the log. I enjoyed it, needless to say:
Saturday 17th of August 2002
Our first day in the Arctic started with breakfast at 8 o’clock. We were sailing along the westernmost island in the Svalbard archipelago, Prins Karls Forland, which is a national park. During the morning we had a presentation of all the guides and our guest lecturer, Ian Gjertz. The captain also came and told us about safety issues on the ship. The sea was a bit rough so not everyone could make it to the meeting and not everyone was able to show up at the lifeboat drill either.
Just before lunch we rounded the northernmost point on Prins Karls Forland and sailing unusually close to the shore we could admire its huge birdcliffs. Sailing into Kongsfjorden (King’s Bay) we saw huge glaciers deboucing into the sea and the small settlement of Ny-Ålesund, where we docked after lunch and had a guided trip around the village. Ny-Ålesund is an old coal mining village but today mining has been replaced by scientific activity; the village is inhabited by scientists and their assistants only who do research on the fragile arctic environment. This is a multi-national town and probably all the nations represented on the ship also are represented in Ny-Ålesund. But it is not only scientists who make their home there, some Barnacle geese were seen close to town and a lot of arctic terns (the most dangerous animal on Svalbard!!) breed between the houses. The arctic fox is never far away from breeding birds and we were lucky enough to catch sight of three of them on our stroll through town. It is also slowly becoming evident that autumn is approaching here in the high Arctic; strong winds from the east were blowing while we were in town and made the guiding a bit of a chilly experience. Some of us even found out that on the next landings we’ll wear a whole lot more of warm clothes!
As the ship was sailing out of Kongsfjorden Ian Gjertz gave us a lecture on the birds of Svalbard, showing slides of the various sea- and land birds. This gave us all a good head start in bird-watching. Now we can tell a fulmar from a guillemot and an arctic tern from a kittiwake and we also know which rare birds to look out for. Maybe some of us will only been seen on deck from now on, bundled up in the warmest clothing with the binoculars in front of our eyes and the new thermos-cup full of warm coffee in the hand, spying out for the ivory gull and other winged rarities.
Happy hour in Eddy’s bar came and dinner went by and suddenly we were in Magdalenefjorden. This is one of the most visited places on Svalbard, renowned for the beauty of the landscape and the wealth of history to be experienced here. Håkan gave us a lecture about the fjord on the front deck. We then spent some time in front of the Waggonway glacier, it was in a very good mood and calved several times for us, while the kittiwakes flew around the ship and rocks came thundering down the steep mountain sides, loosened by the drizzling rain we had. On our way out the fjord we saw two polar bears on the coast, but they were too far away for most of us...
As night set in we headed for the north and the east, hoping to wake up tomorrow morning close to the northern entrance to Hinlopen Strait.
Sunday 18th of August 2002
We probably were all sound asleep when we crossed the 80°N at 4:40 AM and by breakfast time we were already crossing the Hinlopen Strait. Our first landing was scheduled in Kinnvika on Nordaustlandet, one of the most inaccessible islands in the world. After a short briefing about zodiacs we were ready to go ashore, looking forward to make a landing north of 80°N and to take a look at the many huts built by a Swedish-Swiss geophysical expedition during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. But, what happens??!! The first zodiac observes a polar bear on land and our landing is cancelled. However, we made a zodiac cruise where we all drove close to the shore and saw the polar bear where it was sleeping outside one of the cabins. Hauke Trinks, a German scientist who is overwintering in Kinnvika together with his “best friend” Marie, is obviously becoming a friend of the bear since he was walking outside of the cabins just a few meters from it (with a rifle on his back, so maybe not best friends...). The bear even woke up for us but wasn’t the show-off type and so went and hid behind the toilet shack.
After this unexpected bear-encounter we had lunch, during which we steamed south through the Hinlopen Strait. The wind was blowing quite a bit when we arrived at Alkefjellet, an enormous colony of Brünnich’s guillemots, but that didn’t stop us from going out on deck to take a look at the birds and the impressive dark dolerite rocks they are nesting on. Håkan, our on-deck guiding expert, told us a nice story about the life of his friend Charlie, a guillemot who lives in this bird cliff, and he was very happy to catch a sight of Charlie himself among all the thousands of guillemots flying around!
On we went towards the south and the east. Our guest lecturer Ian Gjertz was getting ready for a lecture about walruses when we encuntered drift-ice, much sooner than expected. Almost immediately after entering the ice a polar bear was spotted so obviously the lecture was postponed. This ice has come drifting with the strong easterly winds that have been blowing for the past few days. We all stood out on deck looking out for animals in the nice weather; the wind had ceased a little bit and the sun was shining between the clouds! Another polar bear was spotted and we tried to get closer, than the ship stopped and we hoped the bear would be curious and come to take a look at us. Maybe it was an old and tired bear who didn’t feel like walking too far, anyway it decided to do something else with his early evening than to come for a visit to us.
In the evening the nice weather had turned into fog. Ian Gjertz gave us a lecture with a slides show about polar bears and as midnight approaches we are still sailing through open pack ice. A constant cloud of kittiwakes, both young and adults, with the occasional fulmar, follows the ship to scoop up the fish we make available to them by breaking the ice. Tomorrow morning we plan to have left the fog behind and visit Edgeøya, the third biggest island in the Svalbard archipelago.
Monday 19th of August 2002
Today started somewhat early, or at 3 o’clock, when a polar bear was seen in the driftice just in front of the ship. This was a young polar bear and maybe a very sleepy one since it didn’t seem to notice the ship in the fog until we were about 50 m from it! Most young bears are quite curious and so was this one, staying close to the ship for quite a while before strolling off and disappearing into the fog. That of course gave us a perfect excuse for going to sleep again... zzzzz....
When the real morning came all driftice had disappeared and we were cruising to the east of Barentsøya, headed for Edgeøya. Stefano Poli gave a lecture about the rescue operation of the Nobile expedition in 1928 and showed us a video about a zodiac trip he made last summer with a friend, in the footsteps of the rescue mission.
Fog made our afternoon landing at Kapp Lee a very special one, lending an air of mystery to the place. At Kapp Lee one can find historical remains from many different periods, dating from the days of the Russian Pomori hunters in the 18th century up to the era of (Dutch) oil explorers in the 1960’s. We also saw some reindeer grazing in the hills and the skeletons of various animals. The fog slowly lifted so we could enjoy the view to the mountains, made of Triassic sediments and basalt sills. Autumn has come here like most other places on Svalbard and the tiny leaves of the polar willow, the smallest tree on Earth and one of only two tree species found on Svalbard, are in beautiful yellow and orange, giving color to the ground after the flowers have all withered.
On we sailed along the west coast of Edgeøya and after dinner made today’s second landing in Discobukta. This was definitely an exiting one!! The sea was a bit rough and the water off our landingsite is very shallow; this combined to make the waves quite big. Lucky us that Trine told us all to wear rubber boots for this landing, we really needed them as we ran from the zodiacs up to dry land trying to outrun the waves! In Discobukta there is an old trapper’s hut and a narrow canyon with tall cliff walls where thousands of kittiwakes nest. We walked to the canyon and into it, where the noise from the birds echoes between the cliff walls. Soon we spotted two foxes running around beneath the cliffs looking for food and we also noticed how much vegetation there is in the canyon: the guano from the birds is a great fertilizer. When we returned to the ship the zodiac part was at least as exciting as when we came ashore!
During the landing some of us started looking for the sun in the sky, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Wondering what had happened with it we started thinking: in Longyearbyen the last day with midnight sun is tomorrow. Here by Edgeøya we are actually further south, and thus the midnight sun probably has already shone for the last time here. From now on daylight will last about 20 minutes shorter every day... until there will be none left in late November, when the two month long polar night begins.
_ _ _ _ _
You'll get the last three days later, don't want to choke you up with too much to read!
Talking about reading, I've stocked up for the winter on Arctic literature. Was at Longyearbyen museum today, it has a great selection of books about the Arctic and Svalbard. Bought four books, about the history of Svalbard and the lives of people here. One is called 'Isbjørnkongen' or 'The Polar Bear King', about this Norwegian trapper called Henri Rudi, who killed 713 polar bears during his many years in the Arctic!! It could be fun to spend a winter here as a trapper, to get close to the elements and be out in the wilderness a whole winter. Anyone interested in joining me??
Sometimes tourists are not very clever. And, for some odd reason, everyone gets very interested in shit when they are tourists. Reindeer shit, ptarmigan shit, fox shit, polar bear pooh. On Edgeøya, this middle-aged man pointed at a pile of dry shit: What animal is that? Oh, that's from a reindeer, I replied. And what about this, the same man asked, pointing to a nearby pile of slightly different looking shit. Well, that's also from a reindeer. But they look different, he said, not happy with my analysis. Well, does your's always look the same? I couldn't help asking back. It's very fortunate when such tourists have a slight sense of humor, as this one happened to have.
_
föstudagur, ágúst 16, 2002
well, the hiking trip was very good. Good group. Have since then also been on one cruise with the Polar Star and am heading for the next one now. Came in last night, leaving tonight. Tough shit at the end of the season, I really don't feel like being nice to tourists and smile all the time anymore. Thank god it's the last cruise of the season.
Oh, the highlight of the trekking trip: My camera went off on its own down a 200 m scree slope. Silly little camera, to think it would survive something like that. The wreck was recovered from the snow field at the bottom of the steep scree slope and, to nobody's surprise, it was in pieces. Svalbardbutikken will probably sell one EOS 300 to me sometime soon... oh, we guides up here are so well paid anyway.
Looking forward to see you in Iceland soon!!
Oh, the highlight of the trekking trip: My camera went off on its own down a 200 m scree slope. Silly little camera, to think it would survive something like that. The wreck was recovered from the snow field at the bottom of the steep scree slope and, to nobody's surprise, it was in pieces. Svalbardbutikken will probably sell one EOS 300 to me sometime soon... oh, we guides up here are so well paid anyway.
Looking forward to see you in Iceland soon!!
sunnudagur, júlí 28, 2002
This template is ugly, I so swear. Hate it. But, who cares when you're going on a 14-day hike in the North? I don't!
So, tonight I'm going to the airpost to pick up my passengers who'll join me on this "Trekking at the North Pole Rim"-tour. Hehe, had a training walk yesterday with the military guide-group (three of the guides this year are retired officers from the Norwegian Air Force!!! - people in their early forties. Why can't ordinary people retire at forty??), I suspected them of being in terribly good shape but found out today that at least one of them had sore butt-muscles, just like I had! We walked up on one mountain, over it and then up another. Very ambitious, I dare say.
It's not my shape, though, that makes me maybe a bit worried about the trekking tour. It's rather the polar bears. They like hanging around in the fjord where we stay the first three days. Oh, what the heck, these tours have been running for 12 years now and no one has ever had serious problems with them. Cross my fingers. Saw on BBC Prime yesterday that Ewan McGregor (god, he's sooo handsome!) has made a documentary about polar bears. Why didn't he call me? Me being the only person who has survived mooning a polar bear!?! He's about to make a new one, couldn't someone point out my (still) existance to him???!!!!?!
Hope you will still remember me in two weeks time, even if no posts will be made in the meantime. I love you anyway :)
So, tonight I'm going to the airpost to pick up my passengers who'll join me on this "Trekking at the North Pole Rim"-tour. Hehe, had a training walk yesterday with the military guide-group (three of the guides this year are retired officers from the Norwegian Air Force!!! - people in their early forties. Why can't ordinary people retire at forty??), I suspected them of being in terribly good shape but found out today that at least one of them had sore butt-muscles, just like I had! We walked up on one mountain, over it and then up another. Very ambitious, I dare say.
It's not my shape, though, that makes me maybe a bit worried about the trekking tour. It's rather the polar bears. They like hanging around in the fjord where we stay the first three days. Oh, what the heck, these tours have been running for 12 years now and no one has ever had serious problems with them. Cross my fingers. Saw on BBC Prime yesterday that Ewan McGregor (god, he's sooo handsome!) has made a documentary about polar bears. Why didn't he call me? Me being the only person who has survived mooning a polar bear!?! He's about to make a new one, couldn't someone point out my (still) existance to him???!!!!?!
Hope you will still remember me in two weeks time, even if no posts will be made in the meantime. I love you anyway :)
föstudagur, júlí 26, 2002
Gee, this was another good cruise! I’ve added Zodiac-driving to my credit list, on board the Polar Star we the guides also take care of the Zodiac-driving on landings so I had to learn. Can’t say I was eager to do so in the beginning but the short lesson I had in Ny-Ålesund convinced me it wasn’t that terrible after all. Then the time came when I took my first boat-load of passengers. We had some waves and a snow-storm blowing, and the driving wasn’t exactly as easy as it had been on the flat-as-a-pancake surface of Kongsfjorden the day before (actually, we were making a first-ever (for us guides, that is) landing on Chermside Island, at 80°30´N). So, these passengers got to experience a rather weird and long Zodiac drive (there should have been someone filming this debut of mine!) that however was quite harmless; except for some cold hands and dripping noses, everyone got away in good health. Physical, that is. This Italian couple who was sitting in the stern (uh, am even learning seaman’s language, port and starboard and all that!) got absolutely hysterical when the boat approached the ship, they started jumping up and covering their heads in their arms and god knows what. Sometimes I can make no sense of tourists. Whatsoever.
The best thing, however, was to get around Spitzbergen Island for the first time. For me, that is. Now I’ve set my foot on islands I didn’t know existed and visited places that earlier seemed like a whole world away. And in a sense they still do. You don’t really get to know a place by dropping by for 2-3 hours. At least I don’t feel I do. The best landing we made was, in my opinion, the one at Barents Island; it was a calm day with low clouds and some drizzling rain every now and then. Jørn and I took a small group on a “less demanding” walk; while the other 70 guests walked to a small lake approx. 2 km from the shore (and were attacked by killer mosquitoes just arrived from man-eating in Ekmanfjorden) we took our ten guests for a 300 m stroll to a small pond where we saw a long-tailed duck and some barnacle geese, a million flowers and no mosquitoes. Then we had our guests sit down and listen to the silence, and these wonderful people actually managed to stay silent for 10 minutes. I have to quote Barry Lopez here:
“…quiteted, I sensed here the outlines of the oldest mysteries: the nature and extent of space, the fall of light from the heavens, the pooling of time in the present, as if it were water.”
It was Sigmund, another guide, who taught me to let people listen to silence. We were in fantastic weather up in Raudfjorden in the summer of 2000. It was late evening, we had the midnight sun high in the sky and about 30 people strolling behind us. On top of a small hill with view to imposing calving glaciers and steep mountains Sigmund asked us all to sit down, he had something he wanted us to hear. It would take a while, so we should just make ourselves comfortable. So we did, and waited for him to speak. He didn’t. And still he didn’t. And one after the other, our guests realized what it was all about. It was so good. It was the best experience I had that summer.
Anyway. I’ve copied for you the log of the cruise, the one our tourists get from us as a souvenir when they go home. That means you can read, day by day, what life on these cruise boats is like. It’s Helga and Merete who have written the log, and it’s excellent!
So, here it begins:
SPITSBERGEN EXPEDITION CRUISE
20th-26th July 2002
Aboard the POLAR STAR
Saturday, July 20
WELCOME aboard! We hope you have had a good night’s sleep – to some of us a very short one. Today is the first day of a lifetime experience, which we are very happy to share with you. We left the dock in Longyearbyen at 2:00 a.m. and during the night we steamed north towards Ny-Ålesund. The Polar Star drafts approximately 6.8 m so the route had to be on the outside of the Prins Karls Forland. In this dry area, we had the exclusive experience of rain. And to those of us nervous for rough sea, we had a pleasant and calm nigth.
After breakfast the second welcome ceremony was held with presentation of the guides and the captain. All of us participated in the mandatory emergency drill. With low cloud layers we were aiming for Kongsfjorden, King’s Bay. Here we had our first landing in Ny-Ålesund, a very special settlement and our last contact with civilization for a while - where almost everything is “the northernmost in the world”!
Ny-Ålesund is situated on the southern shore of one of the many beautiful fjords at Svalbard. At the head of the bay the mighty Kongsbreen, King’s Glacier, flows down between the mountains. The former coalmine community, which has been turned into the most technologically advanced research center in the High Arctic, was certainly worth a visit. It has also been the starting point for North Pole expeditions: e.g. Amundsen and Nobile. Walking in the settlement we saw some nesting birds, especially the Artic tern, nesting on the road, not paying much attention to people passing. This year they are only 13 couples nesting, compared to a few years ago when they were 300. The Arctic tern is one of the migratory birds which travel the longest distance between summer and winter residences. Some of them even go as long as to the Antarctic. Another beautiful sight were the Barnacle geese walking with their chicks.
Before dinner we had a lecture by professor Yngvar Gjessing. Yngvar Gjessing is a professor in geo-physics at UNIS (University of Svalbard) and has stayed at Svalbard for 6 years. In addition he has been 7 seasons in Antarctica. The title of his lecture today was “Antarctica & the Arctic – a comparison”, and based on a slideshow.
After dinner we cruised into the Magdalenafjord, one of the most beautiful and visited fjords at Svalbard. On our way in we had a lecture on the front deck about William Barentz discovery of Spitsbergen in 1596. We also heard about the whalers in 17th and
18th century and their rough life were many lost their lives and some are buried at Gravneset in the Magdalenafjord. Cruising in front of the Waggonway-glacier we could admire the beautiful colours of the ice, especially the strong Turkish little iceberg. Kittywakes and a seal were resting peacefully on the floating ice.
Sunday, July 21
We woke up to a refreshing morning with some wind and plus 2 degrees Celsius. After breakfast Jørn gave us information about today’s happenings.
The first event was a lecture by Yngvar. He talked about “Glaciers as climate indicator”. We heard how the temperature affects the increase or decrease in glaciers, both in Norway and other countries in Europe. He also told us that if all the ice on earth melted, the sea level would rise by 80 meters. For those easy questions Yngvar could answer he offered drinks in the bar. That gave the courage to four drinks.
When we looked out of the windows, we could see the edge of the pack-ice in a distance. Everyone went on front deck where we enjoyed the ship cracking its way though the ice. Puffins did several “low passes” and Brünnich’s guillemots dived rapidly when the ship came too close. Because of the clear sea we could follow their movement down in the water. On the horizon we saw some huge ice bergs.
After lunch we had information about zodiac operations and landings. Followed by our first landing to the southern point of Chermsideøya. In a windy wet afternoon we had our first experience in the zodiac. The distance between the ship and the beach was 1,5 nautical miles. This coastal landscape outside the island of Nordaustlandet is generally much more barren than on Spitsbergen, as this region is much less rich in fauna and flora. Even though we saw some Saxifraga and one Svalbard poppy and granite-rocks with very big crystals. And one of the groups saw a seal by the beach.
The cultural remains with rocks letter formations gave us hints about the history of the area. In 1898 Jäderin was here with the reconnaissance expedition before the “Arch of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. In addition we could read following: 1928 Krassin, USSR, Red Bear. Krassin was an icebreaker that rescued the crew of Umberto Nobile, the Italian airship expedition that failed to reach the North Pole. Blåsel 1937 is still a mystery.
In the end of our landing it started snowing and that made the return back to the ship a little bit cold.
By the way this was the first landing at Chermsideøya this year!
Before dinner we headed north towards the Sjuøyene. Halfway we were stopped by the pack-ice. The captain stopped the engine, and we could enjoy the peacefulness while we were spotting for animals.
In the evening we were invited to the front deck to celebrate 80o32“N 20o19”E. The northern most point of this journey, and also the furthest north the Polar Star has visited this summer! In the light rain, surrounded by pack-ice, we toasted in Linie Aquavit – the strong Norwegian national drink that has passed the Equator by ship.
Monday, July 22
Through the night we left the pack-ice and sailed in a southerly direction into the Hinlopenstredet. In the early morning we stopped at the birdcliff Alkefjellet, where 150 000 couples of Brünnich’s Guillemots were nesting. The sky was full of birds flying around in different heights all around us. It is amazing that they are able to find their way back in the chaos to their partner waiting for them with the egg. The cliff was also home for kittiwakes and the hungry Glaucous gull. The bedrock that formed the bird cliff was a dark intrusion of dolerite looking like towers in the limestone surrounding it.
Just before lunch we planned a landing in Augustabukta, but reaching the area we saw The King of the Arctic walking on the beach, so that place was occupied by the locals. Instead we got all seven zodiacs on the water and went for a zodiac-cruise in the bay and in front of the glacier Vegafonna. Not far from land we had the very exiting experience of meeting 4-5 walrus playing around in the water in front of us. You never know when they want to try their enormous ivory teeth in rubber-boats, so we had to keep the engines running. On our way back we stopped and had a look at the polar bear that had been swimming over to the other beach on the other side of the glacier.
Augustabukta is named after Marie Louise Augusta Catharine (1811-90). She was married to Friedrich William I, German Emperor 1871-88.
In the afternoon we cruised into Bjørnsundet where we had a stop in the ice - there were two seals having their afternoon rest. A little bit further on someone else also were resting - a polar bear mother with her two teenage children. One of them playing around and coming pretty close to our ship. But he lost interest in us and went to hunt for seals instead. In the bay on the port side of the ship some of us saw another polar bear resting. This day gave us a total of five bears.
After pushing through the bay we sailed over to the eastern side of the Hinlopenstredet again. This time we cruised with Polar Star in front of the largest glacier on Svalbard, Austfonna. The unbroken glacier front is 130 km long and the total of glacier front is 200 km. The meltwater followed small rivers on the surface and ended in the sea as waterfalls. Some places the meltwater came out from big tunnel systems. Huge icebergs were visible on the impressive colourful horizon.
Tuesday, July 23 (Polar bear-morning)
“Good morning, all passengers on Polar Star - by the way, there is a Polarbear outside!” our Expeditionleader Jørn announced half past seven in the morning. A young, curious Polarbear was laying on the ice in Freemansundet, and for 1 hour we could watch him walking around.
After a delayed breakfast we made a landing on the 4th biggest islands of Svalbard, Barentsøya. Named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who was a leader of the three Dutch expeditions to the Arctic in the late 1500. We went by zodiacs to a bay called Sundbukta on the southwest end of Barentsøya. The sea was calm and we had fairly good weather with +10 degrees celcius. We were divided into one flora and bird group and one walking group. On the way to Andedammen, the duck lake, we saw many colourful flowers as e.g. Svalbard poppy, Mountain Avens and different sorts of saxifraga. We could also study 8 ooo years old whalebones, droppings from reindeer and suddenly someone discovered footprints of a polarbear.
This was the right place to enjoy the silence of the Arctic.
Quoting Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez:
Lying flat on your back … on rolling tundra without animals, without human
trace, you can feel the silence stretching all the way to Asia.
The next goal for the day was the 3rd biggest island of Svalbard, Edgeøya. The island is named after Thomas Edge (d. 1624), English merchant and whaler. We steamed for 3 hours to reach Diskobukta, the Disco Bay. The name “Probably the English Duckes Cove became Dusko in Dutch mouths… Scoresby (1820) is the first to misspell it Disco”. A trappers cabin met us at the beach, Villa Disco. Whalebones and walrusbones were spread all over the terrain. In a canyon the Kittiwakes were nesting on the shelves and the Glaucous gull, which is 4 times greater, sat with hungry eyes waiting for a delicate snack. The Svalbard poppy and Scurvy grass covered the mountainside and made the landscape look rich. On the way into the canyon we saw two reindeers resting, and two frightless Arctic foxes were drifting around looking for food.
The Discobukta had extremely shallow water, and we had to walk with the zodiacs along the beach to find a more suitable way out. Finally we made it, and Chris could announce that a late dinner was ready to be served ! Bon appétit!
Wednesday, July 24
During the night we rounded Sørkapp, the Cape South, and that was our southern most position ... Before entering the Hornsund, Yngvar gave us his lecture: “Drift-ice”. After lunch we cruised in front of the big glaciersystem of Storbreen and Hornbreen. The Hornsund is an interesting area from a geological point of view. In the east we have the sedimentary rocks from Tertiary “just” 60 million years old, and moving west the rocks get older and older, ending with an age of 1200 millions years at the entrance to the fjord. The magnificent mountain of Hornsundtind with its 1431 meters above sea level is an astonishing natural monument.
The afternoon landing was at Gåshamna, a wide bay on the southern side of Hornsund with steep colourful mountains around. It was a beautiful afternoon with no wind and sunny weather. Before we started walking we got a demonstration of how to use a foxtrap. The area had many beautiful green and purple Compass-roses – Mountain campions. 2-3 Arctic scuas were watching the area, and we could also feel the attacks from the Arctic terns.
There were also the remains of an observatory from the Russian reconnaissance expedition “Arc of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. It is exiting to know that this is the same expedition we saw remains of at Chermsideøya earlier at this cruise! We also had a look inside the “five star” trapper-hut. It was interesting to see how well it was equipped with saucepans. Maybe the trapper was expecting a lot of guests?!
Flat sea and a beautiful coloured sky – a perfect evening for an unbelievable zodiac-cruise. A polar bear eating his freshly caught seal in front of the heavily crevassed Torellbreen, whose front rises about 50 meters from the sea surface. BANG - a tremendous calving that made the sea go up and down for a long time. A seal in the water and a bearded seal resting on one of the many turkish-blue icebergs.
Afterwards we visited the bar and had drinks served with glacier ice. Herdís and Anja and their zodiac “crew” picked up this ice from the sea in front of Torellbreen.
Thursday, July 25
The morning landing in Barentsburg was an interesting experience to see a piece of Russia in Norway! Our two guides Anna and Tamara gave us a nice idea of the life in Barentsburg. They helped us to visit the chapel and told us afterwards that we had been the best group till now! Some even visited the pig farm and the greenhouses.
During the afternoon we settled our accounts with Chris and Angela. Our last landing was in Skansbukta below Skansen, the Fortress. There was no doubt why it got its name. In 1911-1912 a Swedish company prospected the area and found gypsum, but it was not until 1918 that the Norwegian company Dalen Portland started the open mine. The first summer they did not build any houses except one cantina, the workers lived in tents. The ship “Sirius” with 200 tons of gypsum taken out her, never reached Norway. In the 1930’s the mine was reactivated and the railway was build. The houses are gone but the fundament is still there. Maybe the materials have been used for other buildings e.g. the cabin for the Hunters and Fish association in Longyearbyen. The boat is not stranded but left on shore, most likely it have been just to take gypsum to the bigger ship. Since they left the boat they probably planned to come back.
We finally found a flower with a smell: the nice blue Jacob’s Ladder. It is very seldom to find it on Svalbard but below the Skansen bird cliff we saw a lot. The other flowers there are much bigger than those we have found before most likely due to good conditions with both light and nutrition.
This was the only place where the bossy guides let you be a bit on your own just to have the possibility to feel some of the nature at Svalbard…
This last evening on board we were invited to Captains cocktail in the lounge and had a Captains barbeque on the aft deck.
The best thing, however, was to get around Spitzbergen Island for the first time. For me, that is. Now I’ve set my foot on islands I didn’t know existed and visited places that earlier seemed like a whole world away. And in a sense they still do. You don’t really get to know a place by dropping by for 2-3 hours. At least I don’t feel I do. The best landing we made was, in my opinion, the one at Barents Island; it was a calm day with low clouds and some drizzling rain every now and then. Jørn and I took a small group on a “less demanding” walk; while the other 70 guests walked to a small lake approx. 2 km from the shore (and were attacked by killer mosquitoes just arrived from man-eating in Ekmanfjorden) we took our ten guests for a 300 m stroll to a small pond where we saw a long-tailed duck and some barnacle geese, a million flowers and no mosquitoes. Then we had our guests sit down and listen to the silence, and these wonderful people actually managed to stay silent for 10 minutes. I have to quote Barry Lopez here:
“…quiteted, I sensed here the outlines of the oldest mysteries: the nature and extent of space, the fall of light from the heavens, the pooling of time in the present, as if it were water.”
It was Sigmund, another guide, who taught me to let people listen to silence. We were in fantastic weather up in Raudfjorden in the summer of 2000. It was late evening, we had the midnight sun high in the sky and about 30 people strolling behind us. On top of a small hill with view to imposing calving glaciers and steep mountains Sigmund asked us all to sit down, he had something he wanted us to hear. It would take a while, so we should just make ourselves comfortable. So we did, and waited for him to speak. He didn’t. And still he didn’t. And one after the other, our guests realized what it was all about. It was so good. It was the best experience I had that summer.
Anyway. I’ve copied for you the log of the cruise, the one our tourists get from us as a souvenir when they go home. That means you can read, day by day, what life on these cruise boats is like. It’s Helga and Merete who have written the log, and it’s excellent!
So, here it begins:
SPITSBERGEN EXPEDITION CRUISE
20th-26th July 2002
Aboard the POLAR STAR
Saturday, July 20
WELCOME aboard! We hope you have had a good night’s sleep – to some of us a very short one. Today is the first day of a lifetime experience, which we are very happy to share with you. We left the dock in Longyearbyen at 2:00 a.m. and during the night we steamed north towards Ny-Ålesund. The Polar Star drafts approximately 6.8 m so the route had to be on the outside of the Prins Karls Forland. In this dry area, we had the exclusive experience of rain. And to those of us nervous for rough sea, we had a pleasant and calm nigth.
After breakfast the second welcome ceremony was held with presentation of the guides and the captain. All of us participated in the mandatory emergency drill. With low cloud layers we were aiming for Kongsfjorden, King’s Bay. Here we had our first landing in Ny-Ålesund, a very special settlement and our last contact with civilization for a while - where almost everything is “the northernmost in the world”!
Ny-Ålesund is situated on the southern shore of one of the many beautiful fjords at Svalbard. At the head of the bay the mighty Kongsbreen, King’s Glacier, flows down between the mountains. The former coalmine community, which has been turned into the most technologically advanced research center in the High Arctic, was certainly worth a visit. It has also been the starting point for North Pole expeditions: e.g. Amundsen and Nobile. Walking in the settlement we saw some nesting birds, especially the Artic tern, nesting on the road, not paying much attention to people passing. This year they are only 13 couples nesting, compared to a few years ago when they were 300. The Arctic tern is one of the migratory birds which travel the longest distance between summer and winter residences. Some of them even go as long as to the Antarctic. Another beautiful sight were the Barnacle geese walking with their chicks.
Before dinner we had a lecture by professor Yngvar Gjessing. Yngvar Gjessing is a professor in geo-physics at UNIS (University of Svalbard) and has stayed at Svalbard for 6 years. In addition he has been 7 seasons in Antarctica. The title of his lecture today was “Antarctica & the Arctic – a comparison”, and based on a slideshow.
After dinner we cruised into the Magdalenafjord, one of the most beautiful and visited fjords at Svalbard. On our way in we had a lecture on the front deck about William Barentz discovery of Spitsbergen in 1596. We also heard about the whalers in 17th and
18th century and their rough life were many lost their lives and some are buried at Gravneset in the Magdalenafjord. Cruising in front of the Waggonway-glacier we could admire the beautiful colours of the ice, especially the strong Turkish little iceberg. Kittywakes and a seal were resting peacefully on the floating ice.
Sunday, July 21
We woke up to a refreshing morning with some wind and plus 2 degrees Celsius. After breakfast Jørn gave us information about today’s happenings.
The first event was a lecture by Yngvar. He talked about “Glaciers as climate indicator”. We heard how the temperature affects the increase or decrease in glaciers, both in Norway and other countries in Europe. He also told us that if all the ice on earth melted, the sea level would rise by 80 meters. For those easy questions Yngvar could answer he offered drinks in the bar. That gave the courage to four drinks.
When we looked out of the windows, we could see the edge of the pack-ice in a distance. Everyone went on front deck where we enjoyed the ship cracking its way though the ice. Puffins did several “low passes” and Brünnich’s guillemots dived rapidly when the ship came too close. Because of the clear sea we could follow their movement down in the water. On the horizon we saw some huge ice bergs.
After lunch we had information about zodiac operations and landings. Followed by our first landing to the southern point of Chermsideøya. In a windy wet afternoon we had our first experience in the zodiac. The distance between the ship and the beach was 1,5 nautical miles. This coastal landscape outside the island of Nordaustlandet is generally much more barren than on Spitsbergen, as this region is much less rich in fauna and flora. Even though we saw some Saxifraga and one Svalbard poppy and granite-rocks with very big crystals. And one of the groups saw a seal by the beach.
The cultural remains with rocks letter formations gave us hints about the history of the area. In 1898 Jäderin was here with the reconnaissance expedition before the “Arch of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. In addition we could read following: 1928 Krassin, USSR, Red Bear. Krassin was an icebreaker that rescued the crew of Umberto Nobile, the Italian airship expedition that failed to reach the North Pole. Blåsel 1937 is still a mystery.
In the end of our landing it started snowing and that made the return back to the ship a little bit cold.
By the way this was the first landing at Chermsideøya this year!
Before dinner we headed north towards the Sjuøyene. Halfway we were stopped by the pack-ice. The captain stopped the engine, and we could enjoy the peacefulness while we were spotting for animals.
In the evening we were invited to the front deck to celebrate 80o32“N 20o19”E. The northern most point of this journey, and also the furthest north the Polar Star has visited this summer! In the light rain, surrounded by pack-ice, we toasted in Linie Aquavit – the strong Norwegian national drink that has passed the Equator by ship.
Monday, July 22
Through the night we left the pack-ice and sailed in a southerly direction into the Hinlopenstredet. In the early morning we stopped at the birdcliff Alkefjellet, where 150 000 couples of Brünnich’s Guillemots were nesting. The sky was full of birds flying around in different heights all around us. It is amazing that they are able to find their way back in the chaos to their partner waiting for them with the egg. The cliff was also home for kittiwakes and the hungry Glaucous gull. The bedrock that formed the bird cliff was a dark intrusion of dolerite looking like towers in the limestone surrounding it.
Just before lunch we planned a landing in Augustabukta, but reaching the area we saw The King of the Arctic walking on the beach, so that place was occupied by the locals. Instead we got all seven zodiacs on the water and went for a zodiac-cruise in the bay and in front of the glacier Vegafonna. Not far from land we had the very exiting experience of meeting 4-5 walrus playing around in the water in front of us. You never know when they want to try their enormous ivory teeth in rubber-boats, so we had to keep the engines running. On our way back we stopped and had a look at the polar bear that had been swimming over to the other beach on the other side of the glacier.
Augustabukta is named after Marie Louise Augusta Catharine (1811-90). She was married to Friedrich William I, German Emperor 1871-88.
In the afternoon we cruised into Bjørnsundet where we had a stop in the ice - there were two seals having their afternoon rest. A little bit further on someone else also were resting - a polar bear mother with her two teenage children. One of them playing around and coming pretty close to our ship. But he lost interest in us and went to hunt for seals instead. In the bay on the port side of the ship some of us saw another polar bear resting. This day gave us a total of five bears.
After pushing through the bay we sailed over to the eastern side of the Hinlopenstredet again. This time we cruised with Polar Star in front of the largest glacier on Svalbard, Austfonna. The unbroken glacier front is 130 km long and the total of glacier front is 200 km. The meltwater followed small rivers on the surface and ended in the sea as waterfalls. Some places the meltwater came out from big tunnel systems. Huge icebergs were visible on the impressive colourful horizon.
Tuesday, July 23 (Polar bear-morning)
“Good morning, all passengers on Polar Star - by the way, there is a Polarbear outside!” our Expeditionleader Jørn announced half past seven in the morning. A young, curious Polarbear was laying on the ice in Freemansundet, and for 1 hour we could watch him walking around.
After a delayed breakfast we made a landing on the 4th biggest islands of Svalbard, Barentsøya. Named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who was a leader of the three Dutch expeditions to the Arctic in the late 1500. We went by zodiacs to a bay called Sundbukta on the southwest end of Barentsøya. The sea was calm and we had fairly good weather with +10 degrees celcius. We were divided into one flora and bird group and one walking group. On the way to Andedammen, the duck lake, we saw many colourful flowers as e.g. Svalbard poppy, Mountain Avens and different sorts of saxifraga. We could also study 8 ooo years old whalebones, droppings from reindeer and suddenly someone discovered footprints of a polarbear.
This was the right place to enjoy the silence of the Arctic.
Quoting Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez:
Lying flat on your back … on rolling tundra without animals, without human
trace, you can feel the silence stretching all the way to Asia.
The next goal for the day was the 3rd biggest island of Svalbard, Edgeøya. The island is named after Thomas Edge (d. 1624), English merchant and whaler. We steamed for 3 hours to reach Diskobukta, the Disco Bay. The name “Probably the English Duckes Cove became Dusko in Dutch mouths… Scoresby (1820) is the first to misspell it Disco”. A trappers cabin met us at the beach, Villa Disco. Whalebones and walrusbones were spread all over the terrain. In a canyon the Kittiwakes were nesting on the shelves and the Glaucous gull, which is 4 times greater, sat with hungry eyes waiting for a delicate snack. The Svalbard poppy and Scurvy grass covered the mountainside and made the landscape look rich. On the way into the canyon we saw two reindeers resting, and two frightless Arctic foxes were drifting around looking for food.
The Discobukta had extremely shallow water, and we had to walk with the zodiacs along the beach to find a more suitable way out. Finally we made it, and Chris could announce that a late dinner was ready to be served ! Bon appétit!
Wednesday, July 24
During the night we rounded Sørkapp, the Cape South, and that was our southern most position ... Before entering the Hornsund, Yngvar gave us his lecture: “Drift-ice”. After lunch we cruised in front of the big glaciersystem of Storbreen and Hornbreen. The Hornsund is an interesting area from a geological point of view. In the east we have the sedimentary rocks from Tertiary “just” 60 million years old, and moving west the rocks get older and older, ending with an age of 1200 millions years at the entrance to the fjord. The magnificent mountain of Hornsundtind with its 1431 meters above sea level is an astonishing natural monument.
The afternoon landing was at Gåshamna, a wide bay on the southern side of Hornsund with steep colourful mountains around. It was a beautiful afternoon with no wind and sunny weather. Before we started walking we got a demonstration of how to use a foxtrap. The area had many beautiful green and purple Compass-roses – Mountain campions. 2-3 Arctic scuas were watching the area, and we could also feel the attacks from the Arctic terns.
There were also the remains of an observatory from the Russian reconnaissance expedition “Arc of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. It is exiting to know that this is the same expedition we saw remains of at Chermsideøya earlier at this cruise! We also had a look inside the “five star” trapper-hut. It was interesting to see how well it was equipped with saucepans. Maybe the trapper was expecting a lot of guests?!
Flat sea and a beautiful coloured sky – a perfect evening for an unbelievable zodiac-cruise. A polar bear eating his freshly caught seal in front of the heavily crevassed Torellbreen, whose front rises about 50 meters from the sea surface. BANG - a tremendous calving that made the sea go up and down for a long time. A seal in the water and a bearded seal resting on one of the many turkish-blue icebergs.
Afterwards we visited the bar and had drinks served with glacier ice. Herdís and Anja and their zodiac “crew” picked up this ice from the sea in front of Torellbreen.
Thursday, July 25
The morning landing in Barentsburg was an interesting experience to see a piece of Russia in Norway! Our two guides Anna and Tamara gave us a nice idea of the life in Barentsburg. They helped us to visit the chapel and told us afterwards that we had been the best group till now! Some even visited the pig farm and the greenhouses.
During the afternoon we settled our accounts with Chris and Angela. Our last landing was in Skansbukta below Skansen, the Fortress. There was no doubt why it got its name. In 1911-1912 a Swedish company prospected the area and found gypsum, but it was not until 1918 that the Norwegian company Dalen Portland started the open mine. The first summer they did not build any houses except one cantina, the workers lived in tents. The ship “Sirius” with 200 tons of gypsum taken out her, never reached Norway. In the 1930’s the mine was reactivated and the railway was build. The houses are gone but the fundament is still there. Maybe the materials have been used for other buildings e.g. the cabin for the Hunters and Fish association in Longyearbyen. The boat is not stranded but left on shore, most likely it have been just to take gypsum to the bigger ship. Since they left the boat they probably planned to come back.
We finally found a flower with a smell: the nice blue Jacob’s Ladder. It is very seldom to find it on Svalbard but below the Skansen bird cliff we saw a lot. The other flowers there are much bigger than those we have found before most likely due to good conditions with both light and nutrition.
This was the only place where the bossy guides let you be a bit on your own just to have the possibility to feel some of the nature at Svalbard…
This last evening on board we were invited to Captains cocktail in the lounge and had a Captains barbeque on the aft deck.
föstudagur, júlí 19, 2002
Have had a most wonderful and needed holiday, living life like a savage with some friends in a fjord two-hour Zodiac-drive away from town. We all thoroughly enjoyed the company of a billion zillion mosquitoes, some of them managed to commit suicide on the barbeque (I was peeling them off the salmon, believe it or not) while most of them fed on our blood instead. I look gorgeous, after counting 20+ bites and not making it to below my eyebrows I quit counting. One sonofabitch stuck me in the left eyelid and it got so swollen I hardly could keep the eye open for one whole day, and another indecent bastard sneaked up on me as I was peeing and now my buttock itches uncontrollably. Peeing on Svalbard is always a risky business :( If I were in charge I'd be sykemeldt until I look like a human again.
mánudagur, júlí 15, 2002
Now this trip that is just about to end now must be the second best cruise I’ve had up here in Spitzbergen. I mean, nothing will ever outdo the cruise on Viktor Bunitskiy (Russian names, am I supposed to remember how to spell them??!!) in summer 2000, when my friend Tine Borgen form Oslo and I cruised in Svalbard waters for 6 days with 15 or 17 passengers, had two hilarious Russian sailors like BREIMAKETTIR around us all the time, saw a polar bear mommy and her two two-year old cubs (who were so curious about us that they ignored their mom nagging in the distance and came so close to the ship we almost could touch them) and had a swim in the ocean next to a walrus colony where a walrus actually stuck its head and a good portion of its 2 ton body out of the water where we had been 10 seconds earlier. I got a small adrenaline kick there, as you might imagine.
This time we didn’t actually see any animals, apart from the birds that we find all over, but we had the most fantastic weather a person can ask for up by nearly 80°N. It was 16-20°C yesterday and we made a landing in the morning with our T-shirts on, not the usual thermal underwear, fleece jacket and Gore-tex jacket and pants. I was even able to sport my Bolivian sunhat instead of my windproof fleece hat and actually looked so much like a tourist, with my camera on my belly and my pants rolled up to the knees, that Håkon, the Expedition Leader, didn’t find me in the crowd! That sort of sums up how the day felt for me, it wasn’t work yesterday but rather pure enjoying and relaxing. The first day ever on the boats that I don’t feel like I’m at work but actually just travelling with a bunch of nice people.
After this trip I have five days off, until I go on the Polar Star for a 6-day cruise that will hopefully take us all around Spitzbergen Island. I’ve never been around and I’m dying to do it, actually in my wildest fantasies I’m hoping that we can make it all the way around the archipelago, including around the island of Nordaustlandet. On that island the glacier Austfonna reigns supreme, a glacier pretty much the size of Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland. It calves into the Barents Sea along a front 110 km long, by far the longest glacier front on the northern hemisphere. Now that would be something for me, to cruise along that wall of ice.
I really can’t understand what you guys are doing down there in temperate climates. You have no idea what you are missing.
This time we didn’t actually see any animals, apart from the birds that we find all over, but we had the most fantastic weather a person can ask for up by nearly 80°N. It was 16-20°C yesterday and we made a landing in the morning with our T-shirts on, not the usual thermal underwear, fleece jacket and Gore-tex jacket and pants. I was even able to sport my Bolivian sunhat instead of my windproof fleece hat and actually looked so much like a tourist, with my camera on my belly and my pants rolled up to the knees, that Håkon, the Expedition Leader, didn’t find me in the crowd! That sort of sums up how the day felt for me, it wasn’t work yesterday but rather pure enjoying and relaxing. The first day ever on the boats that I don’t feel like I’m at work but actually just travelling with a bunch of nice people.
After this trip I have five days off, until I go on the Polar Star for a 6-day cruise that will hopefully take us all around Spitzbergen Island. I’ve never been around and I’m dying to do it, actually in my wildest fantasies I’m hoping that we can make it all the way around the archipelago, including around the island of Nordaustlandet. On that island the glacier Austfonna reigns supreme, a glacier pretty much the size of Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland. It calves into the Barents Sea along a front 110 km long, by far the longest glacier front on the northern hemisphere. Now that would be something for me, to cruise along that wall of ice.
I really can’t understand what you guys are doing down there in temperate climates. You have no idea what you are missing.
fimmtudagur, júlí 11, 2002
Just some few words before I go down to my cabin and collapse into bed. It’s already yesterday by the time you see this, we are in Kongsfjorden on our way to Blomstrand to switch trekking groups. The weather is soooo beautiful, the midnight sun shining through this incredibly varied cloud cover down on the ocean and the glaciers.
It’s been a good cruise. We haven’t come across any polar bears but we made it over 80° N for the 8th time this summer, this time by Moffen island where we were greeted by the walrus lying like oversized Havana cigars on the beach. Walrus is always good to see!
Then it’s the passengers. No Mr. India, or Mr. Curry as the waitresses call him, this time. Amazing how the smell of spices always lingered in the air wherever he went. No hiding away for him. This time we’ve had a lot of German people and the trip’s oddity: Four Catalanes, from Catalonia in Spain. Not much of an oddity that… We also have a journalist on board, she writes a travel column in the Sunday Telegraph; you might find something interesting about Svalbard there in coming weeks. I sat next to her at dinner tonight and we chatted away about travelling and writing, travel litterature and garbage, it was the most interesting conversation I’ve had with a passenger for a long time. You know, it’s company policy to have us mingle with the guests at all meals and quite often I hate it, when working 16 hrs. a day and sometimes more I consider it ridiculous not being allowed to breathe freely if you want during meals. I, and some others on board, have had quite a few heated talks about this topic with various bosses in the company so that now we are allowed our own guide-table at breakfast (i.e. for our start-of-the-day meeting) and dinner. What generosity!!! Then according to Murphy’s law some grumpy tourists whose life seems to depend on them being able to sit with 5 other grumpy tourists at the same table have two cruises in a row gotten our table. And it’s only two cruises ago that we got the generous permission from our generous employer. Sometimes, life sucks a bit.
But tonight it didn’t. Usually it doesn’t. But I can’t help sometimes feeling utterly sorry for the poor people who are trying to enjoy the fabulous view and their hard-earned holiday dinner, and find themselves having to politely try to entertain an exhausted, momentarily braindead tour guide who just wants to shut up, close her ears and eat. Nothing more. Absolutely nothing more.
It’s been a good cruise. We haven’t come across any polar bears but we made it over 80° N for the 8th time this summer, this time by Moffen island where we were greeted by the walrus lying like oversized Havana cigars on the beach. Walrus is always good to see!
Then it’s the passengers. No Mr. India, or Mr. Curry as the waitresses call him, this time. Amazing how the smell of spices always lingered in the air wherever he went. No hiding away for him. This time we’ve had a lot of German people and the trip’s oddity: Four Catalanes, from Catalonia in Spain. Not much of an oddity that… We also have a journalist on board, she writes a travel column in the Sunday Telegraph; you might find something interesting about Svalbard there in coming weeks. I sat next to her at dinner tonight and we chatted away about travelling and writing, travel litterature and garbage, it was the most interesting conversation I’ve had with a passenger for a long time. You know, it’s company policy to have us mingle with the guests at all meals and quite often I hate it, when working 16 hrs. a day and sometimes more I consider it ridiculous not being allowed to breathe freely if you want during meals. I, and some others on board, have had quite a few heated talks about this topic with various bosses in the company so that now we are allowed our own guide-table at breakfast (i.e. for our start-of-the-day meeting) and dinner. What generosity!!! Then according to Murphy’s law some grumpy tourists whose life seems to depend on them being able to sit with 5 other grumpy tourists at the same table have two cruises in a row gotten our table. And it’s only two cruises ago that we got the generous permission from our generous employer. Sometimes, life sucks a bit.
But tonight it didn’t. Usually it doesn’t. But I can’t help sometimes feeling utterly sorry for the poor people who are trying to enjoy the fabulous view and their hard-earned holiday dinner, and find themselves having to politely try to entertain an exhausted, momentarily braindead tour guide who just wants to shut up, close her ears and eat. Nothing more. Absolutely nothing more.
mánudagur, júlí 08, 2002
saw walrus and a polar bear and made the most fantastic landing in Bockfjorden, site of recent volcanism with "hot" springs. Great!!!! We had 85 passengers on board, a slight change from the 26 of last cruise. Everything went very smoothly however, but I'm kind of tired now. Am setting off on the next cruise now at 1300, hope it'll be as good as this last one!!
fimmtudagur, júlí 04, 2002
This one was a hectic cruise! Started as one big mess due to the fog; the planes couldn’t land in Longyearbyen. Because of that, we had to wait quite a while for starting and then, as we had finally set off, we had to return in the evening in the hope that some more of our passangers would be on the evening flight. Fortunately they were, so we could run the tour with only one passenger missing.
When we finally had left town and the Isfjorden area, things calmed down a bit. Although it was only my third cruise this summer I have almost completely forgotten what we did, where we went on shore etc., but it was good! We the guides and leaders had a great time and I think we passed that over to the guests quite well… On the third day the fog finally lifted and we sailed between the icebergs in brilliant sunshine, something that sent some of the guests up to the seventh sky!!
Then, in the afternoon of that day (which was yesterday…), we went ashore on an island in Kongsfjorden called Blomstrandhalvøya. That means B. Peninsula, because people took it for one such while it was still partially covered by the glacier with the same name. In the last fifty years or so the glacier has retreated enormously, turning the peninsula into an island with a navigable sound where the glacier earlier lay. This island is made of lime- and dolostones and even some marble and it has been my dream and ambition to go there since I first came to Svalbard. You can imagine I was happy to finally set foot there!
But why would I want to go to this Gods forsaken little island? Well, the landscape is beautiful, the flowers in full bloom are pretty (and enormous for Svalbard standards, the Purple Saxifrage flowers measure 1.5 cm across!) and the birds nesting in the cliffs and on the flatland are fun to watch. However, it is this bloke called Ernest Mansfield, and his New-London, that fascinate me; the ”marble” quarry he operated there (actually, when the wooden boxes containing the ”marble” were opened in England they were found to contain only sand and gravel, and some water; upon being taken from the permafrost of Svalbard the marble crumbled together. In this adventure Mansfield managed to let many people invest huge sums of money!) and his apparent megalomania as someone who at one time claimed more than 10.000 km2 of Svalbard land as his. I still don’t know if he was simply naive, or a wicked crook, or extremely optimistic, but I like to think of him as the Felix Krull of Svalbard: An incredibly charming "Hochstapler". Or maybe even similar to Hannes Hafstein, one of Iceland’s most famous poets and politicians, who once sold the Northern Lights to an American millionaire. If I ever sit down to write a biography, it will be Mansfield’s.
Then there’s Mr. India. Mind you, we’re not used to people from that far side of the world joining us on our cruises here in the high north, so having someone from India on board was fun! He is a herbalist and also reads palms, so as you can imagine we guides besieged him in the bar one evening and had him read our fortune. That was interesting! Sigurd, who is a petroleum geologist (and doesn’t shave or cut his hair unless he really really has to, thus looking quite like a cave man), was told that he should refrain from anything involving too much thinking and concentrate on hard labour instead (prejudice, anyone?!?!). The rest of us he got pretty well, the most common reaction to a new palm being: ”Oh, this is a very good hand!”, with wonderful Indian accent. Then we all got an offer to have our Indian horoscopes made, and complete palm reading as well, straight from India: Put our hands on the photocopy machine, cover with a towel and press the green button, send the copy to him and receive in turn a 30-page book with everything about us! I’ve got his e-mail, if you’re interested ;)
Now it’s a few hours of meetings and relaxing in town before we set off again. I’m the Expedition Leader’s assistant now, that’s a good change from being a guide. Better paid, too J Means that I stay on the boat the whole time and don’t go off to follow up the group as the guides do. It also means that I have access to a computer on board the boat and can write these ramblings of mine there, not having to use too much of my precious time in town in front of the Blogger ”edit your blog” page. Now that’s a real benefit from changing jobs!
When we finally had left town and the Isfjorden area, things calmed down a bit. Although it was only my third cruise this summer I have almost completely forgotten what we did, where we went on shore etc., but it was good! We the guides and leaders had a great time and I think we passed that over to the guests quite well… On the third day the fog finally lifted and we sailed between the icebergs in brilliant sunshine, something that sent some of the guests up to the seventh sky!!
Then, in the afternoon of that day (which was yesterday…), we went ashore on an island in Kongsfjorden called Blomstrandhalvøya. That means B. Peninsula, because people took it for one such while it was still partially covered by the glacier with the same name. In the last fifty years or so the glacier has retreated enormously, turning the peninsula into an island with a navigable sound where the glacier earlier lay. This island is made of lime- and dolostones and even some marble and it has been my dream and ambition to go there since I first came to Svalbard. You can imagine I was happy to finally set foot there!
But why would I want to go to this Gods forsaken little island? Well, the landscape is beautiful, the flowers in full bloom are pretty (and enormous for Svalbard standards, the Purple Saxifrage flowers measure 1.5 cm across!) and the birds nesting in the cliffs and on the flatland are fun to watch. However, it is this bloke called Ernest Mansfield, and his New-London, that fascinate me; the ”marble” quarry he operated there (actually, when the wooden boxes containing the ”marble” were opened in England they were found to contain only sand and gravel, and some water; upon being taken from the permafrost of Svalbard the marble crumbled together. In this adventure Mansfield managed to let many people invest huge sums of money!) and his apparent megalomania as someone who at one time claimed more than 10.000 km2 of Svalbard land as his. I still don’t know if he was simply naive, or a wicked crook, or extremely optimistic, but I like to think of him as the Felix Krull of Svalbard: An incredibly charming "Hochstapler". Or maybe even similar to Hannes Hafstein, one of Iceland’s most famous poets and politicians, who once sold the Northern Lights to an American millionaire. If I ever sit down to write a biography, it will be Mansfield’s.
Then there’s Mr. India. Mind you, we’re not used to people from that far side of the world joining us on our cruises here in the high north, so having someone from India on board was fun! He is a herbalist and also reads palms, so as you can imagine we guides besieged him in the bar one evening and had him read our fortune. That was interesting! Sigurd, who is a petroleum geologist (and doesn’t shave or cut his hair unless he really really has to, thus looking quite like a cave man), was told that he should refrain from anything involving too much thinking and concentrate on hard labour instead (prejudice, anyone?!?!). The rest of us he got pretty well, the most common reaction to a new palm being: ”Oh, this is a very good hand!”, with wonderful Indian accent. Then we all got an offer to have our Indian horoscopes made, and complete palm reading as well, straight from India: Put our hands on the photocopy machine, cover with a towel and press the green button, send the copy to him and receive in turn a 30-page book with everything about us! I’ve got his e-mail, if you’re interested ;)
Now it’s a few hours of meetings and relaxing in town before we set off again. I’m the Expedition Leader’s assistant now, that’s a good change from being a guide. Better paid, too J Means that I stay on the boat the whole time and don’t go off to follow up the group as the guides do. It also means that I have access to a computer on board the boat and can write these ramblings of mine there, not having to use too much of my precious time in town in front of the Blogger ”edit your blog” page. Now that’s a real benefit from changing jobs!
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