2 months, 62 days, 1488 hours, 89280 minutes, 5356800 seconds. This is the amount of time that I…
Times visited: 1 (6 days in 2015)
Cities visited: Longyearbyen
Villages visited: Barentsburg
I have always been intrigued by isolated destinations and thus, Svalbard was always high on my travel wishlist. So of course I had to include this Arctic archipelago on my first ever solo journey that went through northern Europe. It was without a doubt the most expensive place I visited on my journey, in fact I spent half of my two-month budget just on those six days in Svalbard, but every penny spent was worth it.
I based myself in Longyearbyen, the largest city, where I was lucky to find a couchsurfing host who charged me half of what the cheapest hotel room would’ve cost (although cs is supposed to be free 😅). I only spent one full day in the city where the highlight was visiting the very interesting local museum and discovering abandoned mines. The rest of the days were spent on day trips. I went dog sledding in Bolterdalen (that was before I realized how unethical it is 😢). I sailed amongst icebergs to a glacier, past the abandoned settlement of Grumantbyen and to the Russian settlement of Barentsburg. I explored an ice cave in a glacier. I met Arctic reindeer. And I went snowshoeing to the top of a mountain. On my last day, the Midnight Sun began so I stayed up past midnight to see the sun set and rise within seconds of each other. Everything about Svalbard was a great adventure.
