Related:<p><i>Svalbard – where the sun don’t shine (for 5 months)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33577717" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33577717</a> - Nov 2022 (1 comment)<p><i>Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago that anyone can call home</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29865861" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29865861</a> - Jan 2022 (5 comments)<p><i>Bearing Witness to Svalbard’s Fragile Splendor</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29463405" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29463405</a> - Dec 2021 (3 comments)<p><i>Editor of world's northernmost English-language newspaper expelled from Svalbard</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28154838" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28154838</a> - Aug 2021 (1 comment)<p><i>Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26670465" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26670465</a> - April 2021 (158 comments)<p><i>Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20642156" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20642156</a> - Aug 2019 (253 comments)<p><i>Running the Arctic’s Alt-Weekly Newspaper</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20626734" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20626734</a> - Aug 2019 (5 comments)<p>Pretty sure there are other threads - anyone? (I left out the ones about the seed vault and other topics that mention Svalbard but aren't related to residency)
One thing I didn't see in here that is absolutely relevant to life (but perhaps considered a foregone conclusion by the Norwegian government) is the concept of midnight sun and polar night, where the sun is periodically either above or below the horizon for 24 hours a day for months on end. It's a real mind-bender and can be very tough on the spirit in the winter. Quoting the 'time in Svalbard' Wikipedia article:<p>> As Svalbard is located north of the Arctic Circle, it experiences midnight sun during summer and polar night during winter. At the 74° parallel north, the midnight sun lasts 99 days and polar night 84 days, while the respective figures at the 81° parallel north are 141 and 128 days.[11] In Longyearbyen, midnight sun lasts from 20 April until 23 August, and polar night lasts from 26 October until 15 February.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Svalbard#Geography_and_solar_time" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Svalbard#Geography_and...</a><p>If you desire to experience such polar wackiness in a less isolated location, one place I can definitely recommend is the mainland Norwegian city of Tromsø.
> <i>The use of all violence is prohibited in Norway. You are not allowed to abuse children or use any other kind of corporeal punishment when bringing up children. Severe penalties may be applied to anyone who has physically abused a child.</i><p>Never saw that before. This should be standard everywhere.
The notion of being covered by the social insurance system for only <i>four weeks after unemployment</i> is quite fascinating. I guess it's a compromise between having to completely exempt Svalbard from Norway's social insurance system (and thus having to find some replacement for it) and completely including it (and thus having to raise taxes).<p>This might seem almost libertarian in design, but it's important to remember that Svalbard is not meant to be a self-sufficient place where people can live their entire lives. You literally are not allowed to die there, and I assume the solution to unemployment is to simply return where you came from. No normal place has this luxury.
Basically the same info in a more digestible format: <a href="https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Svalbard" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Svalbard</a><p>I find the ex-Soviet colonies particularly fascinating. One, Barentsburg, is still operating, and living there as a coal miner sounds absolutely hellish. Soviet era tech and safety standards, extreme climate, nearly entirely male population, living off cabbage and canned food -- it's like the gulag, only at least you get paid for it.
Amazingly, streetview is available for Longyearbyen in Google Maps. You can see from the silhouette that it was done by a guy on a bicycle with some sort of backpack mounted camera -- the results look just as good as regular Google streetview. I assume it was some sort of volunteer effort rather than a Google employee or contractor.<p>EDIT: It looks like it's a German company that's doing it:
<a href="https://www.mapyourtown.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mapyourtown.com/</a>
They don't skimp on raising children even up in Svalbard. Clubs for kids and pool open every day and strict anti-abuse laws were what popped out to me as I read it.
As well as being a stunningly surreal environment, there’s a really, really good whisky bar there too: <a href="https://www.karlsbergerpub.no/" rel="nofollow">https://www.karlsbergerpub.no/</a>. The walk there in -30C is worth it.
Interesting – I was just looking into visiting/living in Svalbard for a couple of months for the unique experience of it. Unfortunately, I could only find one apartment building [1] and the price for an apartment was $6,000 USD.<p>I've read that most of the apartments are owned by companies, and you have to work for the company to have access to the apartment. Does anyone know of any other alternatives for a short stay there?<p>[1] <a href="https://en.visitsvalbard.com/where-to-stay/svalbard-hotell-lodge-p2520763" rel="nofollow">https://en.visitsvalbard.com/where-to-stay/svalbard-hotell-l...</a>
For those interested in experiencing Svalbard quite thoroughly in the summer, I'll vouch for this [1] expedition. It will probably remain one of the highlights of my life (though we ended up monitoring a polar bear via binoculars for ~24h to make sure it doesn't come our way...)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.wildlife.no/activities/summer-activities/wilderness-camp/wilderness-camp-4-days-with-hiking-glacier-walk-and-kayaking/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wildlife.no/activities/summer-activities/wildern...</a>
When I was there in the winter, the locals still brought their children to kindergarten by bicycle with -30C! So much for weather as an excuse not to cycle!
The show Fortitude is basically set in Svalbard. Technically, the island is called Fortitude but basically just for artistic freedom; it's basically Svalbard. Even though the show is fiction I learned from it that you're essentially <i>required</i> to carry firearms whenever you leave town so that you don't get eaten by polar bears.
Hah! I was just there. It’s very fascinating, I found where GitHubs Arctic Code Vault is, and saw the Soviet mines!<p><a href="https://twitter.com/elamje/status/1575524944506605573?s=20&t=UvlaTcKzdntMNvDzlkE19w" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/elamje/status/1575524944506605573?s=20&t...</a>
I find these extreme enviroments fascinating, in this case polar days and nights (months long each). May I introduce you to Cecilia Blomdahl [1] who documents her life on Svalbard.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sejsejlija?lang=en" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@sejsejlija?lang=en</a>
What's the typical cloud coverage in Svalbard? Is it typically cloudy? I've always been interested in the polar night strictly from an astronomy viewing perspective. Does the convenience of 24 hour night sky become moot from near constant cloud cover?
Long winter-night and extreme cold accounted for, I bet that living there is far more enjoyable than living in certain "tropical paradises," like Cuba. In that regard, the Governor of Svalbard has more power than planetary weather.
It looks like an interesting place to visit (in the summer), but I don't think I'd want to live there.<p>I watched a pretty terrible horror movie that was filmed there. Don't remember the name.