North Pole Expedition Museum — Attraction in Spitsbergen

Gerald’s way of communication feeds into my traumatic reactions. He didn’t communicate well if he was going to see me tonight, but instead he made it super late and came smelling of alcohol crawling into my bed. I couldn’t sleep all night because when I am angry at him unconscious my body refuses his physical presence next to me. What makes me feel even worse is that he doesn’t get my anger even tho I show it very obviously. I can even say that “I am disappointed”, but he doesn’t know how to deal with it and just ignores it, which makes me even more sad.

When I talk to him that I am still angry he doesn’t get it and instead answers “I love you and I think you are the greatest.” Which leaves me even more misunderstood and seems to me that he just says it to stop the conflict instead of resolving it. My ego also plays a big role in this. I can hardly accept my own mistakes in this, because then my traumatic brain thinks I am the loser here, but at the end I got my inner strength together and could say that I apologise if it comes across that I demand his attention, which is not what I intend.

Eventually I had to hang up the phone because I still don’t feel understood and even more like a failure and even worse in general, because what I want from him is to treat me like an adult, but instead I have to ask for that which makes me feel like a spoiled kid that can’t get what it wants, which is absolutely against my nature to act that way so I can not communicate what I really want him to do, because saying what he should do is to direct him, which is to have demands, which is something my person can’t except so I get even more angry at him that he doesn’t just get it out of himself.

This is for sure because of my troubled relationship...

The North Pole Expedition Museum is located just behind the University building (UNIS), near the fjord.

Watch the entire video on my YouTube channel.

The museum is open daily from 09:00 to 17:00, except from November 1st to January 20th when it is closed for the dark season. The museum occupies two floors and is one of Norway’s few independent museums, receiving no local or national funding. The museum tells the story of expeditions to the North Pole by airship, ski, dog sledge, boat, and on foot. Its exhibitions feature original documents, newspapers, photographs, expedition films, ship and plane models, letters, and other historical artifacts. The museum highlights expeditions from Norway, Russia, Italy, the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, and Finland. Notable expeditions featured include “Nansen” and the ship Fram (1893–1896), “Andrée” and the balloon Örnen (1896–1897), “The Duke of Abruzzi” and the ship Stella Polare (1899), “Cook and Peary” (1906–1907), “Wellman” and the airship America (1907/1909), “Amundsen, Ellsworth, and Nobile” (Norge expedition 1926), and the “Italia” expedition 1928. The museum emphasizes the personal stories of expedition participants, with many texts written by relatives and international historians. Guided tours are available on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 17:00 to 18:30 and must be booked in advance. The museum shop sells polar-related items, including maps, books, postcards, clothing, and fossils. Entry tickets are valid for three days, and Poli Arctici customers receive a...

The museum tells the story of unprepared, egotistical men who were at each others' throats to find the North Pole, and seemed to mostly fail at reaching it. This museum feels more like an archive of the polar expeditions: it presents a lot of information, mostly as newspapers, letters, photos, and digital placards scrolling through PDFs. There are 180-minute unedited reels of polar expeditions which would be truly fascinating were I a researcher of polar history; alas, as a museum visitor I would cut out the 10 minutes of an airship launch because 5 seconds is all I need to understand. The digital PDFs could be summarised, and they could select a few choice photos and newspapers to demonstrate the importance of each featured explorer. A timeline would also help, with signage carried throughout the museum to anchor me into the story. It was all interesting to read about, but I did feel like I was overwhelmed with information and lacked a...