March 2018 – Page 2

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On this day at least, there was no doubt the world’s northernmost town had one of the world’s sunniest dispositions.

After an absence of nearly four months, the sun peeked over the horizon and shone on the historic wooden steps of a hospital destroyed in World War II, the traditional gathering point for hundreds of Longyearbyen residents and others participating in the biggest local celebration of the year.

The sun’s appearance on the southern horizon at about 12:50 p.m. occurred on a cloudless and windless day – one of maybe four or five such days longtime residents can recall in nearly 50 years of celebrations – allowing one of the two student emcees to make an exceeding rare declaration.

“The sun is clearly back,” she said over the loud cheers of the crowd.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.

marksabbatini@yahoo.com

http://icepeople.net