Encounter(s) at Farpoint

I admired the Arctic since I was just a kid. To me, unfortunately, it was absolutely unreachable. Watching all those documentaries by Sir David Attenborough and other lucky naturalists was nothing but a distant yet amazing feast for my eyes. Ships gliding slowly among the icebergs shyly peeking on the sea surface, gigantic glaciers and ice walls calving and effortlessly causing tsunamis, seemingly never ending pitch black polar nights, and wildlife depending on extremely low amounts of resources were completely fascinating to me. They still are and probably will be, forever.

We tend to continue the traditions of people around us and in many cases do not even consider the options lying outside of our tiny little backyards. For someone from a tiny city in continental region of Croatia the main summer vacation goal is usually going to the Adriatic sea, lying down on the beach for two weeks and burning yourself beyond recognition while complaining about the heat and noisy people around you. I had a huge issue with this – I was terribly bored there. When Husbo and I started doing our vacations the way we wanted to and started enjoying them immensely, I realized how wrong I was before to even think that I could have some fun on the coast. Suddenly, when we shifted to mountainous region beyond croatian borders, I started caring about where we are going, and invested a lot of time in planning it. When you visit a completely unknown place such as Iceland or Siberia, you want to see everything. You don’t want to accidentally miss an interesting activity and then later when you come home realize that you won’t be able to return any time soon to it. Also, I realized how much I appreciate my own peace and space and realized I do not want to be surrounded by crowds in urban areas. It became obvious that I don’t have a tiny smidge of a beach goer in me, so prioritizing visiting different places worked great for me.

I love who I am becoming – the course of my life events seems to be made of reaching a lot of “I never thought I will ever be here” places and “I never expected that this will happen, ever” events, and I just keep surprising myself by ending up there. Regularly.

A few years ago I gave birth to a shiny piece of rare Earth metal. Expectedly, I’ve spent a lot of time at home lately, helping her to get used to the world around her and surprising myself by unearthing a plethora of motherly instincts and behaviors on a daily basis. So, when the circumstances allowed me a few days which I could spend only on myself, I decided to visit Svalbard, a desolate archipelago in the middle of High Arctic, and have a lot of fun in it by visiting a series of places related to this unusual wilderness supreme, and being a part of activities which would bring me closer to this rawesome arctic nature. I tailored all those activities in such a way that I won’t be able to stop thinking of them for a long time after I return home, and I can say that I did one hell of a job. Before I came to Svalbard I had never met anyone who went there, and had no reference point for anything. Now I am “she who went there, ask her, she has the answer” person and the questions are coming like an avalanche.

This arctic trip is going to be covered by a stream of stories due to the fact that I have spent two weeks in and around the city of Longyearbyen, and it will be filled to the brim with exciting activities, experiences and encounters I considered so unreachable that I even have not “dared” to consider them to be a serious option.