Part 1
Before I get started I need to give a big shoutout to my dear friend
@Something Fishy. Thanks for arranging this amazing adventure, thanks for convincing me to come along (3 months into a new job) and at last thanks for being an amazing friend... Now let's started.
This was an adventure that words and pictures can't even start to describe it so I'm not going to try (I'm going to let
@Something Fishy try - if he ever gets to it
) All I'll do is post some pictures and try to give some context.
We started the week as 12 individuals. 5 DDF Members: me,
@Something Fishy,
@Joe4007,
@Moishebatchy, He Who Must Not Be Named, and 7 Muggles, but by the end of this trip, we were one big (dysfunctional) family.
As one of the Muggles described it:
In total, I covered 9 countries, 12 flights, flown over 13,000 miles.
Saturday, March 10th, 2018.Motzei Shabbos, 2 hours after the zman we boarded our first flight from SWF to DUB.
Melaveh Malkah.
Sunday, March 11th, 2018.The Executive Lounge at the Dublin Airport.
@Something Fishy playing with his STD. (Satellite Texting Device - name credit
@Moishebatchy )
We had a few hours to spare so we decided to visit the Malahide Castle, nine miles north of Dublin.
The Malahide Castle, parts of which date back to the 12th century.
Cool taxi meter embedded in the mirror.
Boarding flight #2, DUB - CPH.
The Primeclass Lounge at the Copenhagen Airport.
Cool fountain
Boarding flight #3, CPH - OSL.
Our hotel for the night.
We got to the hotel tired and hungry, and there was
@Moishebatchy with a load of sandwiches he brought along from Israel, that sandwich tasted better than the best meal I had at Tierra Sur.
Our room, (and by "our" I mean me and
@Joe4007, my roommate, my snowmobile-mate, my tent-mate, my soul..... and my best friend going back almost 14 years.)
Monday, March 12th, 2018.The 5 minute walkway between the hotel and the airport.
The SAS Lounge at the Oslo Airport.
Waiting to board flight #4, OSL - TOS.
Somewhere above Norway.
The beautiful approach to Tromsų, Norway.
Tromsų, Norway, from above.
Boarding Flight #5, TOS - LYR
The beautiful approach to Longyearbyen, svalbard,
A glacier from above.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the world's northernmost settlement.
5 flights and we are finally here.
Welcome to polar bear land.
The smallest airport I have been to.
The town.
Main Street, and no the road is not asphalt - it's ice covered by gravel.
Sub zero temperatures doesn't mean that the kids have to be locked indoors.
Our hotel for the night.
Hotel doorman. (you find taxidermied polar bears all over town, as it's illegal to take them out of Svalbard)
Finely eating something normal.
To my knowledge the first minyan on Svalbard.
And it was time to get a good night sleep before the Expedition starts,
Stay tuned.....