After our nice cabin weekend I had just enough time to by some more wool Monday morning before we left at noon. We drove our scooters to Barentsburg, the Russian settlement first. As most of the trip the weather was amazing.
During the stops along the way it turned out that our new lecturer who came from the mainland just for the field trip was a very good teacher. He knows the whole island by heart and is very clear in everything he says.
Barentsburg welcomes its visitors the soviet way: Abandoned ruins of industrial buildings on the edge of town and a statue of Lenin in the very centre. I've got to admit it is pretty cool atmosphere. At least as a visitor. We stayed in the hotel which was very nice and made at least from the inside a quite western appearance. Just the amount of (the good) food was very little after an exhausting day in the field.
That was about to change when we arrived in Svea two days later. In Norway's mining outpost the amount of food is adapted to the hunger of hardworking miners. In other words: All you can eat all day long.
We got the rare opportunity to visit the mine. It was impressive to see how the coal is extracted. Big machines scrape the coal from the walls and conveyor belts transport it outside. Huge trucks drive coal to the harbour. To work in the mine has got to be very hard: Twelve hour shifts in an dark, cold, wet and loud environment.
Luckily our trip to the east coast made a high contrast. We got to ride our snow mobile for one more day and even saw the tracks of a polarbear.
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