Concerning Winter

On Monday I attended a very fascinating lecture about winter. We had a guest lecturer from Montréal – and he specializes in the images of north, winter and arctic! I had very high expectations and I’m glad to say they were exceeded. I was thrilled about the topic and the new points of view professor Chartier introduced. He discussed winter and nordicity as cultural, social and aesthetic phenomena instead of merely defining them as something climate-related. What struck me the most was the way Chartier talked about winter as something we adapt to, something exceptional, something that disturbs our routines and everyday life – especially since winter and north are often defined by people to whom they seem exotic.

There’s one particular thing about the presentation that keeps bothering me: winter is seen as an inconvenience, something socially and practically troublesome. From my perspective it’s always been the other way around. Summer is the time of year I need to adapt to, winter and autumn feel normal and natural to me. I do like all of our four seasons but the cold ones suit me best. The only inconvenience I see is the excessive effort I must put my poor car through when it’s -25C° and the road both looks and feels like a glacier.

Be it as it may, I’m really enjoying this time of year and looking forward to the long dark of polar night.

P.S. The lecture made me think about Svalbard and the wonderful trip there last year. Man, it was great...

Silence

Silence.

Oh how I love it. One doesn’t even notice all the noises when surrounded by them all the time. The same goes for lights as well; again I got so used to the town’s light pollution I nearly wept last night, seeing the sky clearly after such a long time. Gloomy or not, I love polar nights. And it’s finally cold again. Cold is good (not when it comes to vehicles, of course, poor old car).

P.S. I took our (‘our’ meaning my parents’ to be exact) cat to the vet today. I came back alone. What a shitty way to start a holiday.

Svalbard

I’ve always been fascinated by H.C. Andersen’s story Snow Queen – the story is enchanting and the Snow Queen herself is a very puzzling character. One Saturday morning in January I was searching information about the story (I don’t even quite remember what it was I wanted to know) when I ran into an article according to which Snow Queen lived in Svalbard; this is what Andersen himself claimed. I googled Svalbard to see some pictures and half an hour later I booked flights. That’s where I was earlier this week, in a settlement called Longyearbyen, 78°13’ parallel north.

At the moment I’m slightly too confused to say anything about the days I spent there. The place was simply surreal, very plain and barren but uncommonly beautiful and dreamlike. Perhaps I’ll write more about that later, now I’m still trying to organize my thoughts about that otherworldly place.

A couple of things most on my mind right now:

1) Nature. It’s unbelievable. The temperature was -7°C and the sun was ridiculously bright. The light blue Greenland Sea seemed magical being surrounded by white mountains; the plane’s windows were covered in ice crystals when we were landing; the landscapes made me run out of words the first minute I saw them and still do. And no, I didn't see polar bears. It was still worth it.

2) Norwegians are nice. One thing that makes travelling alone so cool is that it’s much easier to start conversations with strangers. I chatted with a really nice Norwegian family (and the wonderful thing is that they kept on being nice after they heard I was Finnish which is quite surprising after the hockey game on Monday). Also, one night when I went to the lobby of the hostel I was staying in to have a cup of tea the kind receptionist told me I could have it for free if I didn’t tell anyone. How nice is that? Then again at Oslo airport I was trying to get rid of my Norwegian coins and went to a café. However, I had one crown too little and the wonderful waitress took the missing coin from their tip box. I really hope we here in Finland will be able to give travelers and tourists as nice experiences as the ones I got in Norway. I want to believe it’s possible if we just step up and stop being so grumpy.

3) Safety. In Svalbard people really respect each other’s space and property. In a place like that it’s easy to trust which is something I really value.

4) Library. It’s probably odd that I spent some time in Longyearbyen Library since I don’t know Norwegian (written Norwegian is surprisingly understandable if you speak Swedish, though). As I’ve brought up several times I love books and feel at home when I’m surrounded by them. To me visiting the library was more than natural. The Norwegian editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s and C.S. Lewis’ books seem very beautiful.