Date: 28th June, 2022
Latitude & longitude: 60.20°N, 11.10°E
Wind speed: 19km/h
Barometer: 1016 hPa
Air temperature: 21°C
Sea temperature: 18.5°C

Hello and welcome to everyone reading this! I’m Tanya Natalie and I’ll be documenting our adventures in the Arctic on the ‘Svalbard Odyssey’ sponsored by Aurora Expeditions! Our team consists of Gavin McCormack, teacher and content creator, Graeme Myburgh, photographer and researcher, Richard Mills, film producer and director, and myself, Tanya Natalie, writer and editor.

It took us 19&1/2 hours but we finally made it from the airport in Singapore to the streets of Oslo! Along the way we had to;
a) spend 3&1/2 hours in Singapore airport just to get on the flight
b) spend 3 hours in Doha airport on the stopover — though, we had lounge access, so, free food for the win!
c) line up for 1&1/2 hours just to get out of Oslo airport
d) go get a rapid PCR test, a requirement before boarding the Aurora Expeditions ship (we’re all negative!!)
e) spend $120aud on a taxi to our hotel!! Prices here in Norway are crazy high!!

After a quick hour-long nap, we decided we couldn’t miss an opportunity to explore Oslo a bit so we headed to a part of town called Grunerlokka. The streets were filled with cute little bars and restaurants that all have outdoor seating and the place was alive with people laughing, chatting and drinking. In Oslo the sunset is not till 10:45! And then the sun rises again at 4am! So I think people have collectively decided to make the most of the day and stay out all night. We had an Indian dinner and some drinks, walked down to the river for a bit of sightseeing, and then decided we needed an early night so went back to the hotel for a 10:30pm bed time. That long transit from Singapore really took it out of us!

Tomorrow we’ll be on a short flight to Svalbard and the real Arctic Adventure will begin!! See you tomorrow and thanks for reading!

Love from the A Team
Tanya, Gavin, Richard & Graeme