Mostly true indeed Fredrik74! Although in the end I easily managed to survive the Svalbard winter weather, I have to say that it felt colder than Siberia. Except from the moment of actually standing on Lake Baikal or along the Angara River where there is just no shelter for the wind, I found the temperatures to be quite easy to deal with in Siberia. I could even take off my gloves to snap some pictures for 5-10 minute sessions at a time. In Svalbard that was much harder, and you really need to take care to dress with an additional layer of clothes.

To compare, while dog sledding and walking around Lake Baikal I had just two or three layers of clothes (pants and thermopants, plus t-shirt, sweater and winter jacket for my upper body). I was extremely happy that while riding on the snow mobile and walking through some remote areas I had an extra layer of the specially designed snow mobile suit which we got as part of the tour to put over my already quite thick winter jacket (which on its own consists out of 2 layers).

Thanks WesternCDN, I will put up more installments over the weekend!

I just checked the airport location of YFB in your profile and wow - does Iqaluit seem remote and great as well! I always thought somehow of Northern Canada to be much more of a "flyover country" (OK - that was solely judged by whatever I saw out of a plane window!), with just lots of water, endless forests and not many special other features. Reading more about it now and seeing some pictures such as for example Auyuittug NP it does however look absolutely spectacular too. I'm sure there should be plenty more out there that should be amazing to see given it is such a vast territory?

Indeed DanielW! When it comes to Scandinavia I either prefer the height of summer or deep winter to visit, while for pretty much the entire rest of Europe I would actually go out of my way to make sure I won't visit in those two seasons due to dreadful weather or being too hot and most of all too massively overcrowded. But even though I love Scandinavia in its usually nice summer weather (except for the volatile Norwegian coastal weather) it all just looks even a wee bit more picturesque and peaceful with some winter snow.

Thanks Hezu I actually didn't know that! I can only imagine how high the costs must be, especially when importing more luxury goods. I got a couple of beers in town from Svalbard Bryggeri (the northernmost brewery in the world if I'm not mistaken - they make some good brews!) and I can only imagine how high the costs are for some imports. To put into perspective, I know some Romanian craft beer brewers in person and at times they already complain about some import costs such as those of hops and special bottles suitable for bottling (which they get from Belgium and Germany respectively).

I did find however the supermarket in town to be extremely well-stocked and prices indeed not necessarily higher than in the rest of Norway, which I did kind of expect.