Crazy STORM & Shopping in Longyearbyen ︱ Polar Night on Svalbard

Good morning! Well it's 11 30 and it's the most beautiful day. We have the moon and the stars out and this actually feels like quite a bright day. Today we're gonna head into the village and we have actually a lot of things to do. We have to go food shopping, we have to go present, Christmas present shopping for all of the kids that I'm a godmother to. We have to eat, we have to go to the pharmacy, we have to do everything that one does. Yes. Should we just get going? We should. Okay. It's a little bit windy. It's very cold, minus 10 today. Oh it's so beautiful though and it's so bright. Look at this. Holy moly. It's like pink and blue. The snowstorm that we had was completely gone in the morning. How's it going? Eat your breakfast out in the storm. It's absolute chaos outside. Christopher, it is so windy. This is probably our first real winter storm this season because the winds are kind of grabbing the cabin in a way they haven't done in a while. Oh my gosh, it's roaring. Did you hear that? It's roaring outside and it's shaking the cabin so much that even like the, the curtains are like swaying. Problem is when it's this windy all of the snow that comes with it usually goes in the ocean but it does mean that it's a start to the snowstorm season which is always good. We need more snow. So I guess that's coming now. How'd you go? Release. I gave him two minutes. If he even leaves the deck. Oh he's back. Lovely snowstorm. How was it? Tell us. How was it? How was it? All of the snow that it had brought with it and that was stuck to the wall was all gone. So next day looks like nothing had happened but it was crazy during the night. It was so strong. So I think that's the start of the storms. Oh my gosh. He's in the moon. That's the moon. We have stars. I mean. It's cold. It is cold. It's probably the coldest day so far. Yeah, today it's, you definitely have to take your down vest on. How about something with sleeves? Jim, he has a lot of energy this time of year when it's starting to be cold and he get his like normal temperature what he likes best. But the thing is like he don't like the darkness. So in the beginning of the season when it's dark outside you don't want to be out alone. So he go out for a short bit and then he just barks and want to come inside again. But it gets better like December, January is like getting more used to it. So then he's out more and relaxing. But now we have to be with him all the time outside or else it would be like short like five minutes. I think it's kind of funny that he is scared of the dark in the beginning of the season. So now he is running while we are driving just so he gets some of that energy out. It's probably the best way. I mean he gets walks every single day but he needs to run as well. We're just waiting for Grim. He's right there to do his business so he can come in the car again. Have you seen this light? I was telling Christopher this is unreal. It has been so dark and stormy and then days like this comes around and it feels like we're in a little dream. Look at the light. Oh and we have the moon, stars. But from now on the sun actually doesn't come above minus six degrees. So it's always below minus six degrees. So from now on all of this light is also going to disappear. So it's like the last of the dreamy light before every day and every hour will be the dark. So this is like oh unreal is what it is. We are also having solar storms deluxe. Such strong kp index is uh I don't have any words today. It's melt what's it called. It says that it's gonna be a lot of aurora. So we're gonna go out and hunt it today and tonight and I hope we're gonna be lucky. But this is this is unreal. I'm matching. I'm matching everything. Yeah come. I know you don't want to. Ja du är så flink. Come. Don't even look back. Come now. Stop thinking. Look at you listening. Not your thing. Look at you. You're so good. Did you almost go back home? Before. I think we're gonna check check out this one and see if Grim can have it. Headlight. We need this LED light that doesn't get warm for Grim so he can use it. And also that it can have it as a color. Yeah. I'm gonna see how it is. It's a little bit too big. This is so funny. I have been talking about the previous sign here because it was spelled wrong and now she told me she's like you have to show them the new sign. It's been upgraded so they've now changed it to the right spelling. Before it didn't say worlds. It said I think just world northernmost. I don't know. It's still missing capital letters letters but this is an upgrade. I'm very proud of them. I love that she she's like you gotta show them the sign. That's so funny. And it's not circle k anymore as you've noticed. It is now. It's all about autos. So no more circle k. This is unreal. Look at this. Let's see what time it is. It's 12 30. We're gonna go leave Grim just because. Let's chill for him. We're gonna be probably here for a few hours on the town doing all of our chores and shopping. So he's gonna be happy there. It's ridiculous and they put up all of the Christmas lights. That's they just make this town so beautiful. It's crazy but it's so cold. It said minus 16 at the gas station. We're looking for wool for the kids but I think we're gonna buy that at one of the other stores. Then I'm also looking for a pair of pants like outdoor walking slash not hiking but walking pants for winter. I think might have a pair. That's gonna be next door as well. Is there anything you're looking for today darling? Yes. A band for Grim and maybe a pair of thermals for Christopher actually because his are pretty old. That was nice. We need so much wool now. It's gonna be cold and I need a buff because I lent one to Christopher and he lost it. I can't get over the light. I don't know how many times I'm gonna say it but it's so insanely gorgeous. Okay now we're gonna go in here. We're looking for pants guys. Pants. So far not very successful. I kind of know what I'm looking for so I know straight away when I walk in if it's not there but we're gonna keep going. We're gonna go to get the wool for the kids now. There's one store that I know has what I'm looking for. Are you not cold Christopher? It's a bit crispy. Just you know eye water really cold. I'm crying because of the crispy air. Maybe I should have taken a jacket today. Just maybe. It's the new one. It's Christmas 2025. So we're gonna get it. Oh yeah. Oh yes. This feels like the most unsuccessful shopping trip ever. They've stopped selling kids clothes in there and that was like the place I was gonna buy everything. So now I have to order it and I might order it to us. No. I'm gonna have to see if I can order because I know what I want and send it to the people and they will have to pack it up. Oh crazy. But now we're at the pharmacy. So we're gonna go in here and get some stuff that we need. Bottom and D. For babies like us. This is the holy grail for winter. Oil for your nose. This I tell you is the most important. God so many nice sweaters. And you're wearing the one I want. I have to try it on. Is it cozy? Yes it is. Not sticky? No. We're gonna try some sweaters here. These are pretty. Can it be big? Maybe. It's so small. It's like a really good size. Gustaf, what do you think about this sweater? It's so long. Oh my god it's so long. It's so long. This one. It's so amazing. Okay we're getting the sweater. And we're getting hand soap. And I'm gonna try a jacket. It's too poofy. But it's beautiful. I have my shopkins here so I'm fine. This is a little asymmetric. This is our new favorite lunch spot. It's been open for maybe one or two years. And the food is incredible. And it's such a nice location. In this little shopping center. Like the view. Not so bad. Okay. What do you want to have for last? I'm gonna have this. So far not the most successful shopping. We did get a few things from Frost. I love when I walk in there. Because it feels like it did when I worked there. I worked there for I'm so bad at one. Like years. But I'm gonna say one or two years. Maybe like one year full time. And then a little bit extra. I loved working there. Yes it was kind of like slow days. But it was so nice to get dressed up. And go and walk around the store. It was very relaxing. So it's nice to shop there. I try to shop there quite a bit. And generally we try to shop in the village. To support the stores here. Rather than buy something online. That's why we buy all of our Christmas presents. On the island. But now that they don't sell the children's clothing anymore. That's a bit of a bummer. I'm gonna have to order what I want to buy for. It's for my sister in America. And for my God children in Sweden. And then I'm gonna send I've already organized the presents for my older sister. That's basically the only people I buy Christmas presents for. And Christopher and Grim. I think this is one of the most beautiful days. I'm amazed at this blue. Now it's 1.30 So we've been making the rounds around town. I just said that it hasn't been very successful. No. It wasn't any good shopping today. So what I did is I also took photos and asked Christopher to take photos of the things that I want for Christmas. I realized that this is the best way to go about it. Thank you so much. I think you have like three different like not spicy, spicy or Thai style. And the Thai style is that one is quite good. Then it's more spicy and more fish sauce and more like authentic like it is when you eat in Thai. This soup has become my favorite. So there's pork in it. There are a couple of dumplings which I'm also obsessed with. That's what this is as well. This is pork and shrimp dumplings. And it's just so it's like sweet almost and so nice and so fresh in a way. When I worked for the school, there was an office here that was for the school. And now it's this. It's so good. So highly recommend if you're in town to go here for lunch. It's just really, really good food. 250 bucks. Norwegian kroners I think this was. It's like 25 bucks and you might think that's a lot but in Norway it really isn't. So it's like a decent price. Oh my god, no. I took a piece from Christopher's plate and I forgot that it's so spicy. Oh no, everything is on fire. Holy. Even he today said that it was so spicy like in a good way. That means it's not, I can't eat it. I can't feel my mouth. Thank you. I'm starting to sweat. I just got some shampoo which I also buy here. I just really try to buy everything in the village. It's so much easier. So this is our hair salon and I actually think I'm going to book a time soon because I cut my own hair and now I think it could be time for a real haircut. On to the next. We're just really going through all of the stops today that we have to do. It's now 2pm and most of the light is gone. We can definitely see a little bit more over here but now that really deep blue is setting in. Oh, we can start to see more stars as well. Imagine this is at 2pm. How crazy is this? Every year. And also on days like this when it's so beautiful it's just unreal. Like, that's the only word I can think of. Magical and unreal. Christopher is buying a coffee for me before we go food shopping. And a little chocolate piece I think. Here's your coffee. And the grease beer. Oh, it is so cold. Look, minus 16 today. Oh. Now it's time for food shopping. You ready? Oh, do you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna see if we can get my alcohol card one month before. For the entire year I haven't had my ration card. I just never picked it up. Which means I haven't once in a year bought alcohol. So let's see if we can get it. That would be nice. And then we can empty it. Oh. Christmas. Oh, look at this. Hello. Thank you. This one can take as much ---- as that one. Which one do you think is better on the floor? Thanks for the help. Can I have the same one but it's a baby? Okay. Chicken. That's good for today. There's a sale on 90% of the items in here and that is a big red flag. If they're trying to sell everything, it's not great. But we bought one 9 kroner avocado that we can eat today. So if we make some Oh, this side looks good. Here we can get some stuff. I would like to make sweet potato soup one day maybe. I actually don't know. I don't want to eat anything. Cabbage and chicken salad. Cucumber. That's the best thing. To shop on a full stomach. Yes. We bought the carpet because I have a white carpet in my bedroom or in our bedroom that we bought from here actually. And it's so dirty from Grim. Now we were looking for something exactly like that and this also was a really good price. It was 100% wool and it was 2,000 kroners which is like 200 bucks which was half of what all of the other ones cost. So I think it's going to be perfect. It's brown. So we got the carpet that was brown. Now we're going to pick up Grim. Welcome. You're good. You can walk in the stairs. I'll come again. You do it every day. That was a good boy. Hello. How are you? Best grandma and best dad. We're a family. How nice to have grandma and best dad here. How are you? We have to go through here. Are you ready to catch the world? Come here. You can see now that it's just 3 pm. It's completely pitch black. So that was the light we had. It was pretty light this morning though. I'm not going to lie. It was lighter than it has been. But it was because it was so clear. Now Grim has had a lovely time with grandma and grandpa as we call them. They are the best sitters for Grim. It's so nice to be able to leave him there during the day. Just for a few hours or something. He loves it and they love it and everybody wins. It's better than him sitting outside here on a leash or in the car. We do that when we can. Now we've done all of the chores. Less shopping than we were hoping. Now we're going to head on home. I'm very excited to put the new rug in and everything. That's going to be good. Let me show you quickly what we bought. This is basically it. I bought one sweater. We also bought a advent light. I think this is called. So you have all of the days leading up to Christmas. And you burn it every day up to that. And then... Oh my god, this is it. This is going to be a short shopping haul. Hålsveiler. Norwegian brand. I'm thinking this is wool. It felt very warm. Half wool. 30% alpaca. And then some extra. Isn't that nice? I actually don't even like stripes, but I love this one. It's pink and brown. Then we also got the candles that we have at home. Because we have our home scent. So we always make sure to stock up on these. I always get questions about it. This is Volaspa. This smell, the scent. Oh, it's so crispy. Very, very nice. And this time we also bought one more. I generally have a hard time with smells. I think that it becomes overbearing. But that one from Volaspa is so nice. And this one. So crisp. It's the lavender. So we got this carpet. It's a brown. And now Christopher is saying maybe we should have it in his room. The TV room. His TV room. But I think we should try this one. We're going to check this in your room. It's crazy how tired the start of the polar night gets you. Also, this is my Yeti sweater. I feel like I've been ravished by a beast. It's also wool, so it's insanely warm. So I had a sweat attack in the car. I need this to go into my bloodstream and wake me up. The thing is, I hate this sofa cover. I hate it so much. It's just corporate, but they didn't have any other. We had a beige one before and that was catastrophe. But I think that I'm going to order a brown one. I've said that also for like two years. I did not even check the measurements. I went for vibes with this. I was like, oh, looks right. Do we think it would be nice in here? But no. I think it will work in the bedroom a lot better than it would out here. It goes in the bedroom. You see that the hair already gets stuck on this so much. This carpet kind of hides everything. So this one is going to be better in the bedroom. I think for this room, if we're going to change... I don't think we need to change the carpet. I am going to order a new sofa cover. Because it's a great sofa. But this color is horrible. So I'm going to get one brown one maybe I actually really want. I'm a smart. Oh, Christopher. The genius. Amazing. Why we need a carpet in here, by the way, because I quite like it without is because the floors are so cold. Actually, now thinking about it, I'm wondering if that's going to look weird. It would be nice to have carpet on that side, but it would look quite strange to just have it off center. This is going to be good for Grim. This is basically also for him so he can sleep here. Why don't you put it out a little bit? Perfect. Oh, this is nice. He's going to be happy with this Grim. Look at all of the northern lights. Oh, I think today's going to be such a good day. It's just like three or four. I kind of remember. Look at that. Grim and I are going to go and walk. It's completely dark, but we're going to leave you with the northern lights. So we can see what this turns into. It looks very promising. Bye!