Rusyn Christmas Tree

The Comfort Suites in Bethlehem PA has an exhibit of Christmas trees decorated to represent ethnic groups who have settled in and influenced the city.  After hearing that there was a Rusyn tree on display, I decided that a visit was in order.

Given Rusyns' history of being absorbed into larger ethnic and/or political groups, I somewhat was nervous that it would be a Ukrainian or Slovak or even Russian (gasp!) tree, with a mention of "oh yeah, some of these people identify as Rusyns".  I was thrilled to find an entire tree dedicated to Carpatho-Rusyn culture!

Me + Rusyn Christmas tree.  I look even shorter than usual!  

That's what you get when a tall person takes your photo!

The tree had a variety of ornaments on it, ranging from cookies to pysanky to religious icons to golden walnuts.  It was beautiful!

Cookies & pysanky

Icons, candles, gold-painted walnuts, a cool bird, and the Rusyn flag

Carpatho-Rusyn American!

Another pysanka

Straw angel!

Description of Rusyn Christmas traditions

If you're anywhere near Bethlehem, you should definitely check out this display.  There are trees representing a variety of ethnic groups, not just Eastern Europeans.  While you're in town you can visit Christkindlemarkt at Steel Stacks (former Bethlehem Steel).

Outside of Christkindlemarkt

Here's a bonus photo of another tree that really impressed me:

The Lithuanian tree was beautiful, with most ornaments made of straw.

Longyearbyen: My Northernmost Experience

I visited the Arctic town of Longyearbyen back in August.  Though I've been a blog slacker, I really wanted to write about my visit and some things I learned while in Longyearbyen.  So here's a brain dump!

At 78° North, Longyearbyen is well above the Arctic Circle.  Destined for the land of the midnight sun, Longyearbyen was about a 3hr plane ride due north from Oslo, Norway.  We took off in the dark around 10:30pm and landed in daylight around 2:30am.

Northernmost

As the northernmost city (there are more northern permanent settlements), Longyearbyen is home to the world's northernmost:

• ATM

With the northernmost ATM fees.  
Photo by Jimmy.
• Airport with scheduled public flights (Svalbard Airport, Longyear)

Outside the airport at 3am.
• Bar (Barentz Pub, more on that shortly!)
• Bridge (Wikipedia cites the northernmost bridge as Havøysund Bridge, but there is a small bridge over the Longyearbyen River.  It is much further north, and it totally counts!)

Bridge over the Longyearbyen River.
• Church (Svalbard Church)
• Probably some other things; it's REALLY far north.

Food

There's no shortage of interesting food in the Arctic.  We didn't get to try everything, but here are the places we did check out.

→Huset
After a long day of hiking with a newly injured knee, I walked another mile+ from our Hotel to Huset, and back.  In the rain.  Did I mention the injured knee?  Despite my mood by the time I arrived, Huset was a nice dining experience.  Food choices had a Norwegian flair, including their delicious reindeer stew.

Reindeer stew with lingonberries.

Outside of Huset at 9pm; it finally stopped raining.

→Barentz Pub (northernmost bar in the world!)
How could I visit Longyearbyen and not have a beer at the northernmost bar in the world?!  I chose wisely, and ordered a beer from the northernmost brewery in the world (Macks Bryggeri in Tromsø).

Approaching Barentz Pub and the Radisson.

The beer I had from the northernmost brewery in the world.

Another northernmost beer.

So tired I can't even smile. 

For more information:

• Spitsbergen Travel - Barentz Pub
• Knut Goes To The World's Northernmost Bar

→Kroa
For our second dinner in Longyearbyen, we ate at Kroa.  Kroa is in the center of town, which meant I could finally buy postcards ($$$) and souvenirs ($$$$) - yay!  For dinner the table shared appetizers of smoked minke whale*, which tasted more smokey than like anything else.  The day's dinner special was one no one could resist: Arctic char said to be caught yesterday by our waitress' boss.  Everyone in our group ordered it!

Inside Kroa!

Smoked minke whale.

Fresh-caught Arctic char. 

*Not to rain on Longyearbyen's parade, but I had a minke whale steak in Oslo that was AMAZING.  The smoked whale just didn't let the whale's flavor shine through.

Accommodations

We stayed at Mary-Ann's Polariggen.  The former company housing for coal miners has been converted into a basic but pleasant hotel.  Bathrooms and showers are shared with your hallway, the breakfast is delicious, and the staff is very friendly and helpful.  I was a big fan of the artwork in my room:

Polar bears are messy eaters.
Sweet dreams!

Exterior of Mary-Ann's Polariggen.

Photo by Jimmy.

Miscellaneous 

• Despite what every online article about Longyearbyen says, it is not "against the law" to leave the city limits without a shotgun.  It is, however, a stupid idea to leave the city limits without being prepared, which includes bringing a shotgun for protection.
• If you see something you'd like to buy, buy it!  It will not be cheaper on the mainland!  I should have purchased that thermos I liked so much... 
• The average time most people live in Longyearbyen is 2 years, but there are some people who have made it their permanent home.  Our boat's captain has lived there for about 8 years, and his brother has lived there for nearly 20 years.
• Sewer and water pipes are above ground, and have several sources of heat to keep the pipes from freezing.
• Survival suits may keep you from freezing to death for 45 minutes in the Arctic waters, but they may not keep you dry, even if you're just sitting in a boat, rather than floating in the ocean.  
• If the boat's captain asks if anyone has a back injury, and your back injury over a year ago, still TELL HIM.  Your back WILL hurt after that boat ride, even if you sit in the "least ouchy" seat and brace yourself.
• It was quite rainy during the day.  Locals told us that so much precipitation at that point in the year was very unusual, but the entire summer had been that way.  It would rain/flurry all day, then around 10PM the sun would come out.  Of course, this made it much harder to go to sleep, because we all wanted to explore while the weather was nice. :)
• Take your shoes off when you enter someone's home, hotel, and sometimes restaurant.  It's actually pretty pleasant.  You feel at home right away!
• I need to visit again.  There's so much I still want to do!  Plus, the dark season seems like an interesting time to visit.

More On My Adventures

To read more about the group's adventures in Norway, check out our blog: DU Geography - Norway 2013. There are two articles about Longyearbyen:

• Getting Our Feet Wet - Glacier Hike
• When The (Weather) Odds Are Not in Your Favor... - Arctic Boat Ride

Airmail Beacons

If you've been on the internet in the past week or so, you've probably seen one of the following stories:

• Dead Media Beat: US Mail airmail arrows (Wired)
• These concrete arrows point the way across America (io9)
• This Really Exists: Giant Concrete Arrows That Point Your Way Across America (CN Traveler)
• The 80-year-old concrete arrows hat helped deliver the mail (The Verge)
• The Forgotten Giant Arrows That Guide You Across America (Messy Nessy Chic)

My first thought?  Road trip!  Fortunately, there is a great website that catalogs the locations (and former locations) of these beacons.  Since I live in Denver, I looked at nearby counties in Colorado and Wyoming, and was pretty happy to find two arrows that still exist nearby, according to Google's satellite view!  Here's the map (red = gone, blue planes = still visible):

View Air Beacons Near Denver in a larger map

A comment on PlanetZhanna said that MO1218 is on private land, so I figured I'd give MO1245 a try.  Not too far off of I-80, and not too far from Denver.  Let's go!

Airmail Beacon MO1245

About 1 mile down a dirt road (W Pilot Peak Rd) and a little further down USFS Road 703B (not 703A!) we found the site.

W Pilot Peak Rd

Where's the arrow?!

Look closely!

Oh, there it is!

Generator building

What a view!!

The site itself was beautiful!  The beacon arrow was still there, and though the tower was gone, the generator building was also still standing.  Definitely one of the better remaining sites!  Very cool!

More Beacons?  More Arrows?
Of course since I'm from PA, I had to see if there were any of these concrete arrows still around there.  I went back to PlanetZhanna's site and mapped all of the locations in PA.  Here's the map (red = gone, yellow = couldn't tell from satellite view):



View Air Beacons - PA in a larger map

Sadly, it appears as though there are no remaining beacon arrows in PA.  Several were on roads named "Beacon Rd" or similar.  I always wondered where these roads got their names!  One of my favorites was KX2026, located on "Old Airport Rd" with no airport nearby.  It's fascinating to see how much the landscape can change in 50 years, when many of these were still visible!

Cloudberries!

I first heard of cloudberries on my recent trip to Norway.  What are cloudberries?  Let me tell you!

Photo from Wikipedia.

Cloudberries (also known as bakeapples in Canada) are a raspberry-like berry.  Unlike raspberries, they're only red before they're ripe, and lighten to an orange/yellow color when they ripen.  They primarily grow in colder climates, and are hearty enough plants to survive up to 78°N.

Wikipedia's map of where couldberries grow.

I'd love to tell you what cloudberries taste like, but, as you're about to read,  I'm having a hard time finding any.

For more information on cloudberries, including photos and a picking guide, check out My Little Norway's Guide to Cloudberries.

Close Encounters with Cloudberries

My first encounter with this mysterious berry was in a grocery store in Longyearbyen.  I came across Arctic Candies while browsing the candy aisle for something cheap.  They come in many flavors, one of which is cloudberry.  As I said, I was looking for something cheap.  At about $6 per tin, I opted for just the cloudberry flavor rather than the 4-pack.  They got lost in the bottom of my luggage for the remainder of the trip, and I didn't think much of it.  Maybe if I had tried them right then and there I would have bought the 4-pack, but alas I tried them when I got home.  They're delicious and sugar free.  If you find them somewhere, try them!

Photo from LovelyPackage.com

Later, while we were near Jotunheimen National Park, we pulled off the road to do a little exploring.  There was a small gravel parking area... good enough for us!  After stretching and looking at some cool rocks, a few sheep came by.  They definitely wanted food, and as luck would have it, someone had left a PILE of couldberries on the ground.  So of course we tried to see if the sheep would eat them.  (They did, and seemed to want more.)  I wish I had thought, 'maybe this pile of berries in a parking lot means that someone was picking them nearby!'.  But I didn't.  :(

Mmmm, cloudberries.

I looked in a few grocery stores to see if I could find actual cloudberries, but they were nowhere to be found.  Apparently cloudberries are mostly uncultivated.  So if you want cloudberries, go cloudberry picking.  Since cloudberries almost definitely won't grow in Colorado (As one website put it, they like mild sun for 22hrs/day.  Colorado is intense sun for many fewer hours/day.), what are my options to try this elusive berry?

Cloudberry Products

Cloudberry Jam is available at Ikea.  I can pick up some lingonberry jam while I'm there.  Cool!  You can bet this is on my To Do list.  I went to Ikea today and found NO CLOUDBERRY JAM. :(  I spoke to an employee who said they sold out extremely quickly and aren't planning on getting anymore at this point.  :( :( :(  I even ran into another guy who was looking for it.  And there wasn't any lingonberry jam either!  I did pick up some Gooseberry Jam, so I'm looking forward to trying that.  Not the same.

Cloudberry Liquor.  It goes by a number of names: Lakka,  Lakkalikööri, Chicoutai.  This one may be a bit of a challenge, but I'm up for it.  Do you remember how I went to the ends of the earth* to find Kvint a few years ago?  Psh, this should be easy!  All of the countries (plural!) that produce this stuff are totally "real" countries!  And one even borders the country I live in!  Easy, right?  We'll see.  A few forums say that Astor Wines & Spirits in NYC may carry one of the Canadian varieties.  For now, here are some varieties I found online.  Let the search begin!

• Chicoutai Liqueur
• Lapponia Lakka by Pernod Ricard Finland Oy
• Lacenu 
• Alternate link: http://www.balticspirit.com.au/BottlePages/CloudberryLiqueur.html

*"Ends of the earth" != Transnistria.   "Ends of the earth" = many liquor stores in PA, NJ, and CO, and many more emails to the company themselves to find out where on earth they sell it in the US.  Sadly, I didn't actually go to Transnistria.

Alternatively, I could try making my own liqueur from the jam.  Hmm...

Longyearbyen

This blog isn't quite dead yet!  There are new travel posts coming!  Travel posts about what/where?  Well, Longyearbyen! 

In the mean time, check out this article: 12 Facts ... About Longyearbyen: The World's Northernmost City!