Would you like to live where reindeer roam the streets, you have an entire month of slow-motion sunset, and it’s illegal to die? Then come on up to Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost city. Located at 78.2232-degree latitude, the biggest settlement in the Norwegian Arctic’s Svalbard archipelago is just 650 miles from the North Pole.
I gleaned this info while visiting the area with Quark Expeditions. Quark guide Gerardo “Gordo” Stern shared many of these fun facts with passengers on our Arctic cruise. Stern, originally from Buenos Aires, spent a year in the unusual town of Longyearbyen. Here’s how the city’s approximately 2,200 inhabitants live.