Norway is NOT the capital of Sweden

[Major Nikon]

Who knew?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. I've always wondered what it would be like to live in the Svalbard archipelago

To me Svalbard is one of the coolest place names in the world and it's supposedly the northernmost region in the world with a permanent population.

[Major Nikon]

2. I've been almost that far north

I spent a little time in Thule, Greenland while I was in the military. Life is not that great. Permafrost means nothing can be built with a foundation. All utilities have to be above ground and the water supply has to be insulated and heated. In June it was just barely getting above freezing and the ocean was still frozen solid. They could only get ships in and out of the harbor for 6 weeks out of the year and even then they had to bring in an icebreaker to do it. The cold in the winter takes on a whole new dimension. For a couple of months in the summer the sun never sets, and doesn't even come close. In June the sun remained at about the 10 am position and just rotated around the horizon. So you could get up at 2am and it would be just as light as 2pm. Conversely in the winter you get 2 months with no sun at all and not even twilight. There is very little vegetation. There are no trees and all you get in the summer is just a little weed like growth. There are generally no roads beyond the local community so travel most of the time is limited to helicopter or dog sled. What I found interesting is that wood does not rot. Lumber that was at least 50 years old that was unpainted and left outside looked brand new.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. My dad spent a year at Thule

back in the 1950s when he was an officer in the Air Force. He brought back photos of polar bears that came right up to the barracks. He found a clay bank with thousands of fossils of prehistoric fish and brought some back, some of which were of interest to paleontolgists. It made for great show-and-tell material at school when I was a little kid.

[Major Nikon]

4. I didn't see any polar bear

But I didn't spend much time there. There were plenty of arctic fox and arctic hares. The Danish contractors on the base at the chow hall used to feed the fox.

At the base dump there were seagulls and crow of all things which I would have never imagined would be able to make it that far north.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. That is so cool

Or cold, as the case may be

At a latitude of between 75 and 80 degrees North, Svalbard can lay claim to the world's northernmost permanent settlement. However, there are a couple of tiny settlements on Canada's Ellesmere Island that are more northerly than even Svalbard.

[Brother Buzz]

5. Pack your lederhosen, boys. You're going to Norway

[TheMightyFavog]

6. I had a professor from Finland.

You should have seen her go off on one of her students when he made the mistake of saying that Helsinki was in Russia. That student got a very stern warning to never say that if he was ever in Finland.