It was like a déjà vu. Everything works exactly the same way as 8 months ago. Start in Oslo, leave the plane in Tromsø, through passport control and back over the apron, landing in Longyearbyen.

You leave the plane and the cold, dry air beats you. Not this soggy-wet snow weather that winter usually starts with. No, really cold air and crunching snow. Every contact with metal ends with an electrostatic lightning.

We bring the bags to the guest house and see the passengers from the plane in the supermarket. It is off-season, no other aircraft on the apron, the bus almost empty.

And it is dark. The sun disappeared half an hour before landing. The city lights are reflected on the mountains a little, the moon barely manages it through the clouds. With an LED lamp you can illuminate some LEGO, nothing more.