Пирамида

This weekend me and a few of my friends decided to head out to Pyramiden (Пирамида) on one of the last tourist boats heading there. Felt a bit strange acting as a tourist around Svalbard :S

Pyramiden was once a Russian settlement and coal mining community of over 1000 people in Svalbard. It was founded in 1910 by the Swedish, sold to the Soviet Union in 1927 and abandoned in 1998. This was two years after a plane heading towards Pyramiden carrying mostly wives and children crashed, killing over 100 people. The settlement was abandoned almost overnight; with people leaving behind a lot of their personal belongings. Till today this sudden abandonment remains a mystery.

Pyramiden is a 4 hour boat ride away 

We set off quite early in the morning, around 8.30-9. Because the days are getting shorter though, the sun was only just beginning to rise in the sky:

As it was our last boat trip, we were all pretttyyy excited 😀

Here is the little tourist boat we left on: this boat also visits another Russian settlement: Barentsburg. 

Here are Ane and Hannah looking happy as we set off 

More excited faces: Mads & Hannah- As you can see, the sun took a while to rise and stayed very low in the sky all day

Some more pretty sunrise 🙂

As part of the package we got to go see a glacier hanging around the back from Pyramiden- It is the second largest glacier in Europe:

Here I am, in front of the glacier. As you can see it was pretty cold, around -11. Felt even colder on the boat with all the wind.

More crazy glacier 🙂 The boat had to stay 200m away, in case of calving events.

We also got served a meal of Minke whale and salmon as part of our package deal. This was barbecued for us in front of the glacier:

Here is our guide multi-tasking 🙂

Mads enjoying whale- it tasted a lot like beef with a hint of sea saltiness- Not something I would order again I think though.

Annnddd finally, we were on our way to Pyramiden! 😀

Alex was over-excited while Hannah had to take a little snooze to recover from her emotions

So the name Pyramiden comes from the pyramid-shaped mountain that the settlement is built around

As the place was practically abandoned overnight, buildings were just left standing, with all their supplies lying around inside.

This statue commemorates the last ton of coal that was mined in Pyramiden

All the buildings are very grey and sad-looking

But decorations inside were pretty cool- This is the entrance-way to the cantina

And there is this crazy Arctic mural upstairs

Another soviet monument in the middle of the “town”

Here is the most northernmost statue of Lenin, in front of the “culture house”. 

Inside the culture house was where the town joined to play sports, play music, paint, draw, throw plays…

The Pyramiden sports hall 🙂 They also had a salt-water swimming pool

Alex loving the music room

…And swinging on the most Northernmost swing in the world

 

Here you can just about see the glacier behind the settlement- It must have been a pretty impressive view to live next to

We got to look around the town for about two hours before getting on the boat again. A lot of people usually come over on a boat and camp out for a few days, so to look around the town a bit more and get some hiking in. On our way out we were visited by a very cute friend:

Mr Arctic fox was a bit of a poser

He stayed around for a good ten minutes so the tourists could all get nice pictures 🙂 Sadly we did not get to hear what sound he makes…