Arctic Towns

Map of Svalbard

Homes in Longyearbyen

One of my favorite new pastimes is floating around Google maps and "discovering" tiny arctic towns.  I don't know what it is, but I find it endlessly exciting to imagine living in a small northern village.  A while back, my dad and I were looking at an atlas and came across Svalbard, Norway.  Svalbard is a group of islands halfway between Norway and the North Pole.  Home of the Svalbard global seed vault, Longyearbyen is the largest village in Svalbard.  It is actually a requirement for those who are outside of settlements to carry rifles, as polar bears stalk the landscape. The glacial landscape towers over this beautifully colorful town.

Tromso in 1900

Tromso of the past

Another town I'd very much like to visit is Tromso, Norway.  Once touted as the "Paris of the North", Tromso is home to 58,486 people.  Much of the town is actually an island, but is very close to mainland Norway.  Because of the Gulf Stream, the climate is quite temperate.  It is the big city of Northern Norway.

A great Sweden-based  artist/designer/blogger to check out is Klara Bothén over at Bergslagsgatan. She makes beautiful mittens and has a very lovely blog.