We Are Finally Here!
We are in Longyearbyen! We will stay through Monday before heading to the science station in Ny Alesund.
Our journey
I flew from San Diego to Boston on Monday where I met up with the team. We all spent the night at Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette's house before leaving for Europe on Tuesday.
The team in Boston just before taking off
We flew on Lufthansa Airlines from Boston to Munich, then from Munich to Oslo. We had long layovers in both cities and it was still about 80 degrees in Oslo- toasty warm! By this time we had been traveling for almost 24 hours and we were all dragging. On the leg from Oslo to Svalbard I fell asleep face down on the tray table only to be woken by one of those horrible cramps you get from falling asleep in an awkward position. I raised the window shade to see where we were and this is what I saw:
My first sight of Svalbard out of the airplane
Svalbard!
Wow!!!! What an amazing place. From my seat in the airplane, just about everything I have learned about glaciers from any geology textbook lay before my eyes- cirques, horns, medial moraines and braided streams. (For non-geo types check out the diagram below.) Not to mention the jaw-dropping beauty! We all had eyes glued to the windows and felt like little kids the night before a Disneyland trip.
Glacial Landforms
Here are some pictures from inside and outside the airport. Note that it was just before midnight!
After landing in Svalbard. There is a polar bear on the baggage carousal!
View from the airport at midnight
Finally here!
We checked into the Spitsbergen Guest House well after midnight. In the morning there was a complimentary breakfast of fresh bread and jam, soft boiled eggs, yogurt, cheese and lunch meat. Delicious! There were other things I couldn't identify. Maybe I'll try them tomorrow.
Some of the team at breakfast
Today (Thursday) is a pretty relaxing day with some introductory lectures at UNIS (The University Center in Svalbard) to prepare us for the research. On the walk to UNIS we saw three reindeer! I've told many of you about the Svalbard reindeer and how it is the smallest reindeer species in the world. The small size is the result of its adaptation to life on this island chain and evolution separate from the rest of the European reindeer population. Now I've seen one! It didn't look particularly small to me, but then again I haven't seen many reindeer.
A Svalbard reindeer
Special treat! We joined the Kraft family for dinner. Larry Kraft found me online as a result of this journal. His family (wife, Lauri and kids Jamie and Jason, ages 9 and 7) have spent the last year traveling the world with an environmental focus and blogging about it. So Larry contacted me because their travel to Svalbard coincided with ours. They were delightful and we enjoyed swapping stories and hearing about their adventures. Check out their blog at: http://krafttrip.blogspot.com/
Dinner with the Kraft family. Check out their blog; it's neat!
Now- a question about our travels. Check out the picture below that I got from the Lufthansa Airlines magazine. Notice how all of the flights from the west coast to Europe follow a very curved path. What's up with that? Isn't the shortest distance between two points a straight line? Type your answer in the comment section on the right. That's all for now, but more coming soon! Stay tuned!
Is the shortest distance between two points a straight line?
Please make sure to type your first name in the comment section on the right if you want me to know who you are.
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