After my quick tour of “town,” I joined a pre-booked tour to see some of the more interesting parts of the island just outside of Longyearbyen.This is our guide, who, yes, has a rifle. This is because anywhere outside Longyearbyen, you must have a rifle or be with someone with a rifle, due to the presence of polar bears all over the islands. People have been attacked by them. Fun times! Our guide was quite good (from the Netherlands), and has lived on Svalbard for over 10 years. Our first target: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The protection of global food diversity in the case of world apocalypse.This is it. An entrance into a former mine shaft, completely closed to the public, 130 meters deep in the permafrost.You may have seen it movies or news articles. There is always 1 person inside the vault, which rotates on a regular basis. Noone else is allowed inside for security.Countries can freely deposit and withdraw seeds, but only from the outside. Our guide told us a story of a government delegation from Asia who was excited to travel to Svalbard to put their seeds in the vault; they thought they would get a huge welcome, ceremony, tour, etc. They came up to the vault and notified the person inside. He opened the door, took the seeds, gave them a receipt, said thank you, and closed the door. Security!The shards of glass on the top is an art installation that apparently glows and shines in the polar night. We weren’t there at the right time to see it unfortunately.They are watching!
Below is a gallery of the “informational signs” just near the entrance to the Seed Vault. You can see more on the website linked above. It’s a really cool service of the Norwegian government. It doesn’t cost countries anything to submit their seeds, and they are kept safe for future events like global warming or nuclear war in case we need to rediscover our food roots. It was something I’d wanted to see for a long time in person, even if I couldn’t go inside.
After the Seed Vault, we started a hike to a nearby mountain. The guide promised a “leisurely evening stroll,” but boy oh boy were we in for a surprise..
SSS Method 
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