Well this is certainly a remarkable “some (dis)assembly required” last-minute Christmas gift possibility for those in Svalbard.
The two bowling lanes at Svea that for many years have been the relatively little-known World’s Northernmost Bowling Ally are being offered for free to anyone willing to come to the now-closed mining settlement and dismantle them after New Year’s.
Ragnhild Utne Bekkeheien, a Store Norske employee, posted a message on a Longyearbyen buy/sell/trade Facebook page on Thursday announcing the now-defunct Svea Recreation Club is making the long wooden lanes, massive mechanical system, hefty bowling balls and everything else available to whoever is willing to haul them and provide them a proper home.
“The computers are starting to wear out after all these the years, but are the only thing that needs to be replaced to get a couple of working bowling alleys,” she wrote.
Flights and accommodation at Svea, which is in the process of being dismantled due to the government-ordered shutdown of the mine, will be arranged in connection with the acquisition of the lanes, Bekkeheien wrote. Those interested can contact her by e-mail at ragnhild.utne@snsk.no if it is of interest.
While lots of names and suggestions were thrown out in jocular fashion quickly after her post, a suggestion that got more than 30 “likes” within the first hour came from Per Ivar Velve who suggested “there should be room made for this at the new premises the youth club will get (in the expanded Svalbardbutikken building).”