After my second work of week completed I can only say that I enjoy it more every day. The only issue that I have found with they're work environment is the no remove shoes at door policy. Although I am a fan of walking around in my socks I have come to find that walking everywhere in your socks and then opening doors with metal door handles is a bad combination. I believe I get shocked when I open every door, and this has put me on the hunt for some slipper to solve my dilemma. I can say that if I was to ever get sleepy I would just walk down the hall and then come back to get a nice shock from opening my office door.
With my second weekend here in Longyearbyen cam a little more time to do some exploring. This time I had my sights set on finding the Global seed vault that is located just outside of town. This vault is a secure seed bank that preserves a wide variety of seed species. The main purpose of this vault is to ensure against the loss of any seed species through any natural or unnatural events. The main vault is deep within the mountain side, and this vault is kept at a temperature of about 0 degrees F to preserve the seeds. On my walk out of town I saw a common sign here in Longyearbyen.

This sign is simply warning of the possible polar bear presence in the area, although the likeness of seeing a polar bear is very small unless you are much further out from town. This was my first sight of the seed vault.

It is slightly hard to see but the odd triangle shape pointing out of the mountain side is the seed vault. Not much is in the location to signify such an important landmark and I guess this is simply because it is all within the mountain. Finally after hiking up the mountain I got a good look at the vault. This was the sign marking the site.

Then finally the vault itself.

It is certainly an oddly designed building and without the knowledge of what it is, it would be very hard to understand its purpose. It simply looks like some doorway into...... anywhere. It also is artistic in a strange way, because it is very simple but the top of the building had a strange artistic flair to it from randomly shaped metal. Also the side of the building has this marking on it.

Which is the signature of the building and of the project as a whole. Overall I would this is a very subtle yet impressive building. I can only hope that we have no need for the seeds that are stored within but it is reassuring to know someone has thought ahead. On my climb down I got a nice view of the airport for Longyearbyen.

Back on the road back into Longyearbyen I found myself in the middle of a marathon.

 To my surprise I had apparently picked the day of the spitsbergen marathon which is run throughout the town of longyearbyen and then they make several loops on extending roads. Although is was a relatively nice day out 2 degrees C, it still looked like a challenging course. Most of the course was on dirt and it was anything but flat, so I was impressed with the runners. I guess if you were running it you at least had some nice scenery.

This was the view from the road that led our of town and down towards the airport and the seed vault.