Winter at the end of the world neighbors far away and the days are short. Its eleven in the morning and its just getting light its the shortest day of the. Employee lighthouse men novick is as far north and west as its possible to get on the european mainland. Lapland is the most remote corner right at the top of europe a region of extremes above the arctic circle. First thing each morning eleana hands and so on and looks towards the small harbor to see if a boat is still there its their only link to the mainland its low tide so she has to wind the gangway down to the pontoon she lives more or less alone on the island in the sea shes been here for five years. At first glance it doesnt look like anyone could be selfsufficient here but first appearances can be deceiving elena is checking on todays dinner. That echo ive caught crabs today its always Something Different sometimes its crab sometimes fish potatoes or carrots from my garden. Just watching you on the gangway i wonder isnt this a little bit uncomfortable it all but. I dont i moved here because i wanted to lead a good. And exciting life and challenges like this a part of that life there are forces that are stronger than me once i cant keep up with get it now. Its still much too early for dinner so elaina keeps a catch in the water into later. Her small realm is a manageable size the island has a jetty a lighthouse a well rocky fields and a sandy beach. Elena regularly gets helpers on her island who perform hard physical labor in exchange for room and board here she and rocco from side denia walk past the potato fields to the beach. They want to harvest freshly washed up seaweed to fertilize her vegetables maintaining an old island tradition c wade is full of potassium magnesium and even calcium. Would be a good deal potatoes taste of potatoes or of see when i read. This look at occultism from the podium and they dont taste of seaweed they taste completely normal a little bit of c oh yeah yeah i mean. How do we let the seaweed and dry the salt and sand are washed away by the rain so they get more and then it instead of that i call that. Sometimes its hard work reviving old traditions like when the wheelbarrow almost gets stuck in the sand eleanor isnt a fan of tractors. At least its light out and thanks to the gulf stream its not that cold either the sun stays below the horizon and wont be seen directly again for a few weeks. The soil in the potato field is accustomed to the mix of seaweed and ill be. This was of the most fertile spot on the small rocky island which had one hundred inhabitants in its heyday but that was a long time ago. By two oclock its already getting down. But theres almost no better place to see the rugged peaks of the low foton will come from the lighthouse on the Little Island that lawyer as its called in the region. Demand was limited when the state put a number of light houses along the coast up for sale that lawyer is too far north and too far out to sea. To commemorate its great history alain or occasionally donates one hundred candles to the lighthouse because it was built one hundred years ago the big light has gone out but a small halogen lamp now does the job elena is often alone in the town but shes not lonely. And so full of them i feel part of a big welled up here i see the sky and the ocean three hundred sixty degrees around me. Him due to her that it gives me a strong feeling of connection with the wild i can also see the stars at night and it all that stood about and assist that in. Every now and then she even sees the northern lights. The big. Its saturday half past six in the morning elena is the first to get up the hours when everyone else is still asleep is her time. There didnt. Some of you i always wanted to work with my hands when i worked as a journalist and in the administration i longed for this thats why i moved to the white house but you can let me know. I want to do things like baked bread every morning. And the minute pulled out of pocket. At lunch time the next day eleanor takes us back to the mainland a journey of five nautical miles across the open ocean back to civilization. Lapland is a place of wide open spaces and freezing temperatures we experience our coldest day in the swedish town of kiruna its minus thirty five degrees celsius. We take a helicopter tour around karuna across a desolate expanse rivers and lakes are frozen over with a layer of ice half a metre thick. The snow is so cold that it barely crunches anymore and so light even a semi wild reindeer sink into. The river below us the torn a river provides the best ice in lapland its clear and blue so its no surprise that people who love the cold have settled on its banks. Even turned it into a business in this remote region which was once believed to be the end of the world it cant get cold enough for them with the best raw material all around. Elsewhere in the world snow gets cleared away but in the warehouse of the hotel on the torn a river its been piling up for twenty years now. Sophie rootsy line is a sculptor shes creating a bedroom for paying guests. The merest saga the us at their wrecked what ive called these blocks for myself that theyll be the base for that bed the bin up im going to create three beds. The rest to create slow release and this could become an arctic fox catching draft. No two rooms are alike each is unique with its own expiring date at some point everything will flow back into the river. As a material ice is perfect it adapts one that is out there to snuff the for some. The next day the thermometer drops to minus thirty eight degrees celsius theres no wind no fresh snow just the icy cold. The iron or railway line between kirana and novick continues operating between trains the tracks become a place of refuge. And reindeer wonder along the Railway Tracks and the streets the buses drive slowly behind. The reindeer have trouble finding food under the deep snow they make slow progress. And. Its so cold that victoria highness going to sun neela have to go out every morning and night to prevent their small herd from starving were in poor yes two hundred kilometers south of corona. The reindeer spend the rest of the year living outside in the fells but to get through the winter they need looking after with daily feeding for a few months the reindeer a generally good natured but victoria neela have to watch out for their antlers nevertheless. I dont take care of them every day but when i do i stroke and feed them neela tells. Explains that the reindeer ataman says he likes them all. To look closely at not. Victorias father is a reindeer breeder she started in stockholm for a few semesters commuting between the city and lapland. Neela has a favorite reindeer its called apple and his harnessed for shorter trips its an arduous task because victoria can only put on a harness without gloves. Or you come after you after my fingers are freezing and going on a sleigh ride has fallen out of fashion these days in fact that. Was the only one that even a sammy woman like me thinks its cold now if you spend too much time outside without a loss on having to touch on a wood so your face will be a bit cold nanina lets get going and look for food for the reindeer. Reindeer apo is quickly drawn to a tree. Really the one i get love had these branches are covered in lichen a real treat for random people can eat i can too but it doesnt taste very nice you can make tea with it and this is even more of that image of me only had a few reindeer we were able to get in through the winter with the like on that but now that we have ten its not enough and i mean you know the boredom that will formally that are going on my feel we collect a sled for once a week if someone on board gave a demo should i now get down upon. The trip ends after half an hour neither one is like he wants to go home. So. That the songs of the sun me are about reindeer a pristine environment silver lakes and golden mountainous the seasons being on the move. Were heading farther north a thousand kilometers across the ocean. Spitzbergen is situated halfway between the north cape in the north pole an island group in the arctic ocean cold and beautiful the average and your temperature is minus five degrees celsius. By only february the some peeks out behind the mountains sending a soft light across the horizon. The days are getting lighter again the contours of the mountain landscape visible to. The east fjord which despite its name hasnt frozen over for a long time now is steaming because warm sea water from the gulf stream meets freezing cold polar air here when theres a High Pressure system in the wind drops its time for small trips the capital of we can call it that is situated in the valley itll be weeks yet before the first rays of sunlight reach it but its a tradition among young people in the town to walk towards the sun a few weeks earlier on the sixteenth of february healthcare and malaga to german expats making their way towards the sun together with some friends i will see the sun today i hope if we dont get more clout woods use of chemical. How long has it been going in the valley. And weve not seen it in the valley since the end of october since mid october really hot since mid october. So for three own most four months i want to. Molest the summit stunned five hundred metres along the ridge at that. Will we see the some. Its not looking good we have this band of clouds thats come in from the west but maybe well be lucky and therell be a break in the clouds. If you can just. The final stretch a ridge. Its not looking something good you know unfortunately not its even started snowing flight arc. Geologist immediately starts uncovering the rock on top of the trolls behind. Whereas the some there behind the clouds it to show you that. Theres the one mountain heres the other and its right here. Through her head. But the suns not visible. But its there you know its. This heinous thing you. Get. In the. The polar night lasts from mid november to mid january during that time its always dark thats when the residents of long aboon are on their own. On spitsbergen its so dark that the reindeer switch off their internal clock day and night become one it doesnt matter when they sleep awake. People need to maintain their sleep patterns but cope well monitor the geologist anelka and avalanche expert have lived on spitsbergen for ten years and are old hands we visit them at ten at night its strange to think that its just as dark in the afternoon do you have different strategies for coping with the darkness. Yet i swear by Fish Oil Like all norwegians a spoonful of fish oil every morning. Our use of wine. Most of us yes doesnt need it coffee in the morning to get going and then a lot of light during the day and then early to bed you have to be active the dark time is a very social time theres a lot of guns on the south side that pass it off. Its the eighth of march the official day that the sun returns to the valley the moon is bright in the morning sky it looks like it will be a clear day like every morning mother gets on his racing bike with studded tires and judges into the valley. The sun has been shining on the hillside opposite for a few weeks but a part is a party and a dates a date at noon schoolchildren come to the village a Gathering Place to welcome the sun it would be nice if it showed its face for the celebration and its owner but since two thousand and five the sun has always hidden on this day. The. I find his or her that was. Hitlers terror to her hit her head her parents want silver star mother to lose a limb for her sister laura was headed to the scene round the bend it was her movie you know that there are the. This plain wooden staircase on which ten year old syria accept a prize the best son sticker plays a special role the sun is visible from there if you crane your neck. There you know and this is the old hospital stairway. We used to say that the people who survived the darkness and sold the sun on the steps would get healthy again. Soon its an old superstition that says everything will be fine when the sun returns to the valley and it is all i am all for of. But no matter how much they clamor for the sun it refuses the show itself in the valley. Someone has clearly miscalculated the time the children the younger ones in particular want to go home again but then it doesnt arrive a quarter of an hour late suddenly the adults are is excited as the little children about the start of spring at minus twenty eight degrees celsius now its really coming. Im. But its fantastic. Whats fantastic. This sun weve been without it for so long you know people often think that its dark it during the winter and that we cant do anything as a result but thats not true we have the full moon and thats our sun in the winter we take advantage of every beam of light when theres snow to see the landscape as soon as you leave town you can see very well. Always get sick move on to if you. Have. Winter in the arctic has an undeservedly bad reputation. There are people who say that even long you have been with this population of two thousand people and the same number of snowmobiles is too lively for them there are even people who let themselves be iced in. After around two hours we reached temple fjord which is covered in a thick layer of ice in early march. Stuck in the ice is an old ship frozen and immovable and deliberately so. The norden nation is a hotel ship with a captain helms woman and a cook visitors a welcome and a greeted with coffee and raisin buns. Mica is the helms woman she never gauges the ship here in early winter she makes sure every day that the ice is stable enough for the crew and visitors in the past anyone spending the winter on a ship was worried most of all that ice floes would crush it but those ships were made of wood not of robust steel like the nautilus. The ice has to be hc if a storm what a break out in the open ocean we could start to drift thats why we need the ice to be stable. Its hard to imagine that ice this thick could break. It off after forty eight centimeters. What made you want to come here its profitable moment it is nice to show this to other people come here to spend the night we recently had minus twenty five degrees celsius it was cold and windy so it was good we could welcome visitors with hot soup and if it is going to find. That number that. Was the way it was going to feel jack is in charge below day here in the arctic shes baking an apple cake with apples imported from the netherlands she spent twenty years cooking for film crews in amsterdam she now appreciates the solitude. Even told that india i love reindeer and theyre really tasty too i saw polar bears here two years ago and last year as well but not yet this year i hope i will. Seem the coolest in the bill because. Jack is guests traveled here by snow below from the main town a journey that took two hours after coffee and cake they heading straight back out again a sunday out in the arctic. The dutch flag hangs proudly from the mosque it commemorates navigate a villain barons who lent to the area and the sea his name four hundred years ago micah was happy to follow in his footsteps. I love the quiet and im amazed such a monotonous landscape with its three colors of black white tank grey. Fascinating or linton the inside you can you can you dave in the life of bosh and. We continue west woods across the sea to a small place at the edge of the world. Were heading to greenland the old whaling town of road a bay is a destination. Of a in the winter at first glance everything is still buried under snow and ice forty houses fifty people with no cars and no Running Water the sea is covered in a layer of ice several meters thick a Perfect Little village with a church a school under its ideal even the cemetery has see views. This spring sun has brought a little bit of a foal with it its the perfect time for short trips out on the ice. Dog sleds are the only mode of transport here it takes three hours to pick us up from the airport first across the ice then through the mountains. On the way back the dogs have to take regular breaks. Steyn and the others take good care of their dogs but they do always have a whip with the dogs are so hardy that they sleep outside in all kinds of weather even on the frozen sea. When the terrain gets too difficult the passengers have to get off this is a dangerous spot the in a way to call it the broken nose. Suddenly some of the dogs boat with an unmanned sled. One of the dog handlers and tells us about a detour. Is this roadway that yes why dont we go across the ice the ice is very thin its much bigger around the shore if you. Buy. It. Two of us get on a sled the dog handlers a relaxed confident that the bolted dogs will come back the remaining dogs race at high speed for an hour sweating through their tongues. At the school the teachers and students switch back and forth between danish and greenlandic the language with so many cues and the fifty words for snow. The teacher harold is from denmark hes teaching the first graders how to write their names greenland was a danish colony for a long time its only had self rule since two thousand and nine since then they have been more greenlandic names again these two boys are called in on quack little person and. Damaging or for a long time the indigenous language was frowned upon it wasnt even on the curriculum for some years during the one nine hundred seventy s. Thats changing now what will become of damage in and little person one day we ask mayor Lars Fleischer on change here i see a great future but yes there are few of us. And its such a big country with so many opportunities to. Sort of you know its kind the children stay here or do they have to leave for a bigger town. And either way theyll have a great future. And. Even if they want to become a pilot or a doctor they can be anything they like will. Nuke other cats the transforms the school into a place of worship with just a few small changes hes a Public Sector worker like almost all of the adult inhabitants of road. Its the eighth of april Easter Sunday only one person is outside running the east about for a full hour switching hands every five minutes nearly everyone else is hiding away indoors except the tireless newcomer. Says the community is pastor he himself got married in this church and hes witnessed forty five weddings and more than twenty baptisms here or in a village thats really had a population of more than fifty the people here were converted to lutheranism by missionaries in seventeen thirty three. Hundred one or here or here i started here in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven twenty five years in order bay this year do you know if. So youre celebrating an anniversary. Youre sorry i didnt understand youre celebrating an anniversary. Year so on the twenty seventh of july you. Few people go outside in this weather despite the tireless bell ringing. And i marry them as wife her daughter mia. The man lars. And steen one of the sled dog handlers they preferred to be among themselves during the easter service. The. But thats not the case during the traditional cafe mc gathering with coffee cake and herring everyone is welcome at the home of the two teaches. Most teachers leave again after a year how the lane i have stayed. Totally through very well here coddled. Steams we moved here in two thousand and seven staying tuckey and hans was so nice they invited us to a docs let race in but nobody told us how far to go in the end it was thirty forty kilometers the others had ten twelve even fourteen dogs when we only had five and theyd crossed the finish line long before i arrived an hour later. So had they had had several cups of coffee by than they were going to. When we use seven dogs and the others he is seven we can compete but if they have double the number things get tight for us. But even after five years in right of way harold still loses against the local man in the races among the women almost always wins theres not as much competition. To. Be. Found in the buy in go from germany is chopping small icebergs into transportable chunks after german reunification and ingo and his wife emigrated to redebate the sea ice is unpalatable because its salt water but the icebergs of fresh water. Heaven right here three people estimate this ice flows between a thousand and ten thousand years ago it doesnt have a smell except in the summer when it melts i think because of the oxygen thats been trapped so our stuff there are useless. I think its pure ozone and its very good very pure Drinking Water to go through a probability thats another human has drunk this water before him and is relatively lot like appalled by the thought that hes going. Through. The world. World. Annamarie is the mayors wife in the village Kindergarten Teacher here shes working on a traditional garment this beaded colorways one point three kilograms its almost a lifes work. So when i was american at the switch over into my artist. Mr perry but we were noticing this collar should last my daughter mia her whole life thats why i make sure to mix colors she likes with those i like right im nowhere near done she can wear it when she has a child at the baptism and during other festivities than it would have been so good for her to see along that mark oh no she isnt mchenry our word for show is coming up this one is made from seal skin just like the soul were not were not only dont have a thought but when we dont have any were. Seeing it the fact that the looking at the time that you know. We create this pattern and then we die it different colors but its difficult to make it very beautiful and its mind on the inside. Look up with an address. That particular we call the trousers tacky suit theres another word for them in the north sea. This is the skin of a dog and we dive the buttons the minute we go into that city on the farm but the party. And. The greenlandic village of road a bay also has an entrepreneur. The fish factory had gone bankrupt when lars the mayor took it over. So hang over it if we hung the halibut up to dry for around a month of it was extremely cold this year so one month wont be enough con the fact hasnt dripped down yet so hard you can try your morning. Lars took over the factory ten years ago his business idea with the dried halibut was brilliant at first but then he got competition controlled two factories from the royal greenland and how about greenland came along shore in ilesa the big town near here. The price of fish started going up. Much to the joy of the fishermen of course fish but its hard for us to keep up with those prices. Producing here is expensive fish. One of the most important facilities in rather bay which has no Running Water is the shower house it was closed over easter now the washing machines in the towns only show is a busy in rather bay that means that six people are coming and going at the same time mariana signs in while waiting for her husband tuckey whom he met during the dog sled ride because the family dont want to have it costs fifteen krone around to nearest pub passing do you think thats a lot you know you can shop for forty five minutes a minute. As chairman to twenty minutes. Everythings written down correctly. Oh. When lainer and harold feel a bit claustrophobic harold takes the dogs out for a run they know joins him for a stretch and then walks home alone for a few hours. When because thats where like im living here can be difficult if you had a stressful life before some go crazy after just a week and just want to leave because its too small for them but if you live here for a longer period you almost become addicted to why how. Do you feel small in the face of nature we are small if you go for a walk in this landscape and fall comes in and its cold then you wont survive if you cant find your way home. And we have very small. That. Its not so easy to get used to life in the arctic with the graves spend half a year covered in a blanket of snow a most of the flowers on the made of plastic. Where the washing hangs on the line in all kinds of weather and has to drive there no matter how long it takes and where there are still prophecies. And when chips appear again between the icebergs in mid may that means the long winter is finally over. They live to surf but. Danger lurks in the water and we were the only alone surfing into waste and polluted water was not only being the witness but at the time being victims i mean was it you troubles or guster troubles. Basically in this case as well as moments in backup of the nation feel i was on a shelf. Jaffee human sewage completely untreated and stone walls are coming out of these rights considering that an absence of want to call most most crime yet so spots. Is going to have to go somewhere every day and sees more and more probably sheets tiny of us in the sea gives me everything i suppose waves the wind i have to give Something Back i feel obliged and dont im ok with the stream you seem to me on the reverse of just. One quick eaves surfers fighting against unseen pollution in the city starting in january seventh on w. This is the news live from berlin catalonia heads to the polls today in a new bed to break away from spain all the regions parliamentary seats are up for grabs after madrid declared the last vote no and void will catalonia once again
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