With my first weekend in Svalbard came a lot more time to explore the town and the valley of Longyearbyen. The first thing I would like to share is the popular sign and slogan of the town.

This is a local bar located in the center of town, the slogan reads Longyearbyen 78 degrees North which is a slogan that is seen throughout the town and rightly so. Next I took a walk farther up into the valley and on my way I went past an old mining establishment perched on the side of the mountain.

There are multiple of these abandoned sights located on the sides of the mountains. Back when these were in operation they also had a bucket system that would carry the coal from the mines down the mountains. The towers that carried these buckets can be seen across the valley and make for quite the rustic scenery.

Then a little further up I had another encounter with the wildlife of Svalbard, I believe this is a type of fox although I could not get close enough for a good look before he took off.

Then as I began to walk back it started to snow and although this made it very cloudy, there is nothing quiet like a good snow storm in the summer. I'm sure for up here this would barely even considered a storm, and after being up here during the summer it certainly makes you want to see what it is like in the winter.

I also wanted to share a common sight from here in Longyearbyen, this picture helps to describe how much the people here love snowmobiling. This is just but one of the probably 10 or more snowmobile "parking lots".

As I was walking back home I realized I have yet to share where I am working and living, so here it is.

Although it is very cloudy out from the snow, you can see here UNIS (The University Centre in Svalbard), which is where I have my office and work during the day. I should be going back up to the observatory this week and due to the fact that I will remember my camera I will be able to share some pictures of KHO. Then this next picture is of the UNIS guest house where I get to stay, the building is essentially directly behind me when I was taking the above picture of UNIS.

Finally the sun came out today and so I will leave you with pictures from the beautiful day that we are having here today in Longyearbyen.

-This Picture is looking down the valley towards the town.

-This picture is from the same location as the one where I try to show the "light" snow storm, but simply now with a beautiful blue sky.