In a word, Norway’s capital is vibrant. In other words, it is beautiful, stunning, eclectic, clean, and now sits near the top of my list of favorite European capitals. Despite fighting the grip of jetlag after crossing the Atlantic, Molly and I took the train from the airport into the city, made several wrong turns but eventually found our …

Mankind has long been captivated with the notion of firsts. Our history books are riddled with tales of adventure, perseverance and discovery. Accompanying them are a long line of firsts: the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the first man to step on the moon, the first outsider to marvel in the ruins of Machu Picchu. The desire …

For me, learning the seven continents was easy. Learning the countries that reside within their borders was more difficult. Learning the landmasses which are neither continent nor country, however, was often downright impossible. So was the case with Svalbard – an Arctic archipelago halfway between Norway and the North Pole. If you’re …

Fact: Regardless of what Coca-Cola would like us to believe, penguins and polar bears do not co-exist. As I child, I believed the commercials which depicted the two species meeting up and sharing icy bottles of soda at Christmastime. In my adult years, I learned that Coca-Cola lied to me. Penguins and polar bears live as far away from one another …

I’m a bit of a history nerd. I devour biographies and historical miniseries and have been known to spend hours pouring over museum exhibits. While I knew that much of the Arctic’s early years were rooted in the whaling industry, I was surprised to learn that whaling was just the tip of a long and fascinating history of Svalbard. I was …

On the morning of our seventh day in Svalbard, I peeled back the curtains to see what playground awaited me and gasped out loud when I saw it. Monacobreen: A glacier so stunningly blue-hued that I thought my eyes had deceived me. Quickly turning around to tell Molly that it was the most beautiful sight I had ever beheld, I pulled back the curtains …

When it comes to wildlife, the Arctic has its own Big Five: Polar Bear, Walrus, Whale, Fox, and Seals. I’m pleased to report that we saw them all.

**Our first sighting of Svalbardic wildlife (not part of the Big Five) came in the form of three reindeer who watched us carefully as the enjoyed their mid-morning snack of moss and …

Our Circumnavigation of Svalbard being a cruise, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that we spent much of our time around water. The two weeks we spent abroad exposed us to a new Ocean (the Arctic) and three new seas (the Norwegian, Barents, and Greenland Seas). Large bodies of water aside, however, it surprised me to see just …

One of our last stops brought us to Ny Alesund: the world’s northernmost community. Boasting a permanent population between 30-35 people (and up to 120 in the summer months), visiting Ny Alesund was strikingly different from the rest of our cruise. The first time in two weeks that we’d walked off the ship rather than taking a zodiac to …