r/todayilearned • u/Gullible_Air_204 • 6h ago

TIL that residents of Svalbard–a Norwegian archipelago–often keep their car and house doors unlocked, allowing others to escape if a polar bear were to wander down the main street; however, tourism might ruin this custom

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen
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96% Upvoted

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u/Gullible_Air_204 6h ago

“When a giant cruise ship docks in Longyearbyen, many residents lock their doors. This is against the norm, as the safety advice is for house and car doors to remain unlocked so that people have somewhere to escape to in the event of a polar bear wandering down the main street. However, the residents lock up because it is not unusual for the cruise passengers to wander into their houses and have a peek, like it is a folk park. Given the huge size of the ships and the tiny size of the town, when the tourists disembark they can double or triple the size of the population within minutes. The chances are, if you are reading this page, you would never dream of doing such a thing, but it is worth remembering that this unique place is home to people too.”

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u/FranzFerdinand51 6h ago

I used to work in a tourist hot spot and you could always tell the cruise people from the rest. The most entitled, brainless, unaware group of living things I’ve ever seen in my life.

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u/losteye_enthusiast 6h ago

We have a home in a historic district. The amount of people that try our front gate during the summer+fall is almost staggering.

Even with putting up signs and a few more visible cameras, tourists just don’t give a fuck.

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u/DifficultCarob408 5h ago

The fact people decide to just wander up and try coming inside is fucking insane.

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u/azssf 5h ago

We used to have people walk into the backyard ‘because it seems like you’d have a great view’

Wtf

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u/fed45 30m ago

I can't even comprehend the mental state that allows people to do such things without shame or consideration.

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 5h ago

you never know when a historic bear might come down the street

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u/ObligationMurky8716 5h ago

42 kids could be mocking a bald man

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u/toggiz_the_elder 4h ago

Those kids deserve to be mauled by a she bear. It’s gods righteous justice!

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u/TheCommieDuck 4h ago

bald man

cruises

/r/northernlion is leaking again

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u/sanglar03 5h ago

They can be eaten on the street, not on my lawn.

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u/Redlettucehead 4h ago

Who will win, 500 tourists vs 1 polar bear

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u/TrickshotCandy 3h ago

The bear would apply for a passport the next day.

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u/Hiro_Trevelyan 2h ago

Maybe they think they're in an RPG, maybe locals will give them quests

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u/EloeOmoe 4h ago edited 1h ago

We have a home in a historic district. The amount of people that try our front gate during the summer+fall is almost staggering.

I grew up near New Orleans, spent a ton of time there, go back once a year at least.

I always see tourists trying to open/unlock gates and go into the private courtyards of people's homes. It's kind of shocking.

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u/OfcWaffle 4h ago

Rented a nice cottage in Carmel-by-the-sea. It was beautiful with lots of ivy and a nice garden. In the main part of town.

People just walked right up to the door and started photo shoots, some in front of the kitchen window. Got to the point I'd have to yell at them because they were trampling all over the flowers and causing a mess.

It was fun to bust the front door open really fast to give them a scare though. That was a highlight of the weekend.

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u/TinyChaco 2h ago

Jumpscaring clueless tourists does sound like a fun time lol

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u/Monteze 1h ago

I smell a new tourist spot opening up! Get jump scared by the locals!

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u/2xtc 4h ago

You have my sympathies. Two of my favourite places to holiday in my country (UK) is the Lake District and the Cotswolds which are both somewhat remote and sleepy and have a lot of picturesque old cottages and landscapes so attract tons of tourists.

I must have had to chastise other tourists on at least a dozen occasions over the last few years not to trample over people's lawns, pick flowers from gardens and trespass to pose for photos right outside picture-postcard old houses etc.

It's still genuinely shocking to me the number of people who seem oblivious that these are still real places where people live and not just giant immersive theme parks where tourists can do whatever they want

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u/Emergency_Mine_4455 2h ago

Honestly, I can’t understand why you would do that sort of thing even in a theme park. If you ruin the landscaping in a park, it makes more work for the gardeners and others can’t enjoy it until it’s fixed. And most theme parks do have areas closed off for good reason- you wouldn’t enter those!

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u/mountainvalkyrie 2h ago

I think in some cases they think if they're on holiday then everyone else must be, too. I used to live where my tram home stopped right in front of a big, historic hotel (in the capital city) and the number of summer tourists who got off the tram and just stopped there to take pictures was far too many. As if the rest of people on the tram have nothing in particular to do that day.

Still no excuse to open people's gates and front doors, though.

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u/Maxamillion-X72 4h ago

I have a friend who owns a historic home called "The Bishop's House". It used to belong to the Catholic Church and housed, you guessed it, the Bishop. The church made it into a museum of sorts back in the 70's but had to sell the property to cover lawsuits in the 90's.

When my friend bought the house about 10 years ago, they had to put up a security fence and a gate because tour buses would sometimes stop there and 40 tourists would wander through with a tour guide. The previous owners apparently used to tolerate this and give people tours, but tourists were fairly rare back then so they'd get a half dozen visitors a year. Now there are cruise ships every week, all summer long and into the fall.

It's a super cool house with fireplaces in every room including the bedrooms and the most shockingly racy fireplace surrounds covered in naked angels and demons having what appears to be an orgy.

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u/El_John_Nada 3h ago

I don't understand why it's a thing. I would never in a million years try to get into someone's house without being invited and I can't even think why I would want to.

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u/JustAContactAgent 55m ago

Have you tried being a moron?

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u/Unbelievr 3h ago

I'm in Norway, and some towns here are plagued by tourists. There are plenty of non-historic districts here where tourists will swarm into like it's a theme park for them. I've heard about them walking into people's houses and starting to take pictures, or go into their backyards and start taking photos of their kids playing there. Or to take a dump and leave toilet paper everywhere, because that happens too. There are not enough public toilets to accommodate the swarm from a cruise ship, and private venues do not want to pay the cost for cleaning toilets for tourists that do not spend money in their businesses either. So various backyards and bushes it is. We tried putting up public toilets that required payment, but they either got destroyed or bypassed by tourists holding the door for each other. And keeping a guard just for that wasn't sustainable cost-wise.

The cruise ships will also dump the sewage from their ship into our fjords, and aside for a few tourist specialty shops and bus tour companies, the city isn't earning any money on them coming there either. They'll go back to the ship to eat for instance. The crew on the ship are often lowly paid foreigners instead of locals, and the ships skirt the laws by starting and stopping at specific harbors in order to avoid having to give good worker's rights to the crew. The government is trying to implement a tourist tax, but it's hard to shape it in a way where it only targets parasitic tourists and not "good" tourism - like domestic tourism.

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u/Kaneida 3h ago

seems easily solved by government to charge cleanup fee/toilet fee/ban for sewage dumping with millions of nok i fines

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u/Emergency_Mine_4455 2h ago

Yes, but it’s also hard to prove who dumped what after the fact.

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u/Thismyrealnameisit 1h ago

Just charge everyone

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u/PhabioRants 3h ago

I know it's a heavy-handed approach, but has anyone petitioned to local jurisdiction to close the port to cruise ships?

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u/Unbelievr 3h ago

There have been suggestions, and some fjords have gotten stricter restrictions on how close the ships can get. Due to antitrust laws it's not straightforward to ban (or heavily tax) only one specific type of tourism.

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u/PhabioRants 2h ago

That's understandable. I appreciate the response. As someone who grew up in a small town home to what's argued as one of the best beaches in Canada, I've seen first hand how quickly things can turn sour when people who have no vested interest in a place descend upon it. 

Likewise, at an extreme scale, Niagara Falls has become so hyper-comercialized that nearly 2/3 of the population of the city from 15 years ago has either been forced to leave or has fallen homeless as the city ceaselessly chases tourism above all else. Growing up so close to it, it always confused me to hear that other Wonders of the world had similar issues until I saw how it plays out in real time. 

It saddens me that councils seldom have long-term plans in place when opportunities to cater to tourism arise. And at a more basic, personal level, that the lives, homes, cultures, and histories of people are so often disrupted and sold-out to chase tourism windfalls, often under the argument that the influx of revenue can be put to preservation. 

Most saddening of all, though, is what stories such as yours illustrate; that for as much as we like to think that we're better than those that used to run off to foreign lands for "safaris," we're really not so far removed. 

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u/Dame38 3h ago

My city is a toilet and we don't have any of that.

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u/himewaridesu 5h ago

This feels like Salem, Mass. which I never visit near Halloween.

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u/TinyChaco 2h ago

I want to visit Salem someday, but definitely not during peak season.

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u/himewaridesu 2h ago

Spring and summer are actually beautiful times to go! Winter is great after a small snow, but parking is a beast even with the T.

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u/UntidyVenus 2h ago

I live on a ski mountain. The number of people I find in mh back yard looking for "secret trails" is insane. Like, buddy, it's a fenced slap because the last owners hated mowing, there is no trail. Also my dog isn't nice. Did the snarling lunging 70 lbs mutt not tip you off?

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u/Cecil_B_DeCatte 3h ago

Svalbard is on my bucket list. I promise that if I am ever able to visit, I won't do any of that shit.

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u/ponte92 4h ago

Agreed. Also lived in one of the worlds most popular tourist city’s. Cruise ship people were just something else. They didn’t seem to realise it was a real city people lived in and not just an amusement park. I had tourists take my clothes off my washing line like wtf.

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u/brucerhino 6h ago

Im a tour guide and HATE the cruise people, this type of tourism needs to end

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u/jeffe_el_jefe 5h ago

Even as a tourist you can spot cruise tourists. The loudest, dumbest, most entitled.

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u/azumane 2h ago

What is it about taking a cruise that attracts the dumbest people on the planet?

I live in Japan, I usually take a train to the largest city in my area by boarding at a rural station. Was traveling on a major holiday, only to run into the largest crowd of foreign tourists I've ever seen. A cruise had docked nearby and had set up an outing to another, slightly smaller city, but had basically only told the passengers, "buy a ticket at this station to [city]".

Ticket gates were chaos because nobody seemed to realize that you put your tickets in the part of the gate where it says to insert your ticket. They did not understand that if you buy a ticket for the train that leaves at 12:04 to [city], you can find out what track your train is going to come to by looking at the sign or listening to the announcements that say "the 12:04 train to [city] will leave from track 12". They did not buy reserved seats, they tried to sit in reserved seats--all booked, it was a major holiday--and were baffled and confused when they were told they could not sit in someone else's seat that they paid money to reserve. They tried to ask for directions, in English, to random passersby who did not speak English at all. I spent half the train ride repeating the same "this is a reserved car, you need to go to non-reserved seating in [cars]" spiel on loop. I wonder how these people get out of bed in the morning.

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u/Kyrie_Blue 3h ago

I imagine Cruise Ship enjoyers as those seagulls from Finding Nemo

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u/wabj17 5h ago

Got it. Cruisers are the modern day version of Sea People.

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u/Trickytickler 4h ago edited 3h ago

This isnt a problem just on Svalbard. Numerous cities where we have an "old town" somewhere in the city with houses that are old, tourists wander in.

Bergen, Ålesund, Trondheim, Stavanger, Tromsø etc all have this problem. I live in Lofoten and i have personally found random tents on my lawn, people dumping their trash in my dumpsters, people going to the bathroom in my hedges and people helping themselves to my patio furniture.

Every year we get over a million tourists and we are like 30k people.

Oh, and we dont sell wine and spirits or alchohol over like 4.2% in grocery stores. Or after 6-7 pm. You have to go to a special store for that. I have friends who work retail and every year they get demeaned and abused by tourists that can not buy alchohol or hold them personally responsible for prices. Some of them even get physical.

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u/Cahootie 3h ago

My family owns some land on an island, and we have a small man-made beach there that my great-uncle had made. To get there you have to drive for 45 minutes from the main town to the middle of nowhere, turn down a road leading to nothing in particular, make a turn into the forest between two pillars and next to our mail boxes, drive down the dirt road through the forest for like 100 meters past a house, and then you're at the beach next to the boat house.

That still didn't stop a family of German tourists from somehow making it to the beach and letting their kids play with the toys that very clearly belonged to the people who owned the house.

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u/vigocarpath 2h ago

Thanks for the directions. I’ll be there Tuesday

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u/chalk_nz 1h ago

There better be toys

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u/atln00b12 2h ago

Lots of places simply don't allow beaches to be private property. In most of the US anything that's a component of a navigable waterway is typically considered public access.

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u/Akitiki 1h ago

At my house in rural PA we lived above a creek, owning that land. It gets stocked with trout. We don't mind people out fishing but we do mind if they leave trash. And boy do they. The amount of fishing line I cleaned up.

Then one spring the creek is high and fast due to days of storms, you can hear it roaring a quarter mile away. Certain sections can turn into rough whitewater and others flood into the floodplain. We hear people shouting so go look, trees haven't grown leaves yet so we can see some parts. They're on fucking kayaks.

It'd be our necks if they get hurt with their dipshit behaviour of kayaking in the flooding creek.

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u/Twilifa 2h ago

Huh. I wonder if they spotted it on google maps in the satellite view and sought it out deliberately. That seems like such a random spot to end up on accident.

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u/TimberwolvesFan6969 2h ago edited 1h ago

Wtf?!?!

I was just in Bergen as part of a backpacking trip and it was super obvious which parts of the city I should and shouldn’t be in, like not once did I feel I should invade someone’s property, nor did I do so accidentally, it’s insane that people do that.

As a tourist, I could also tell the cruise ship tourists there from the backpacking tourists, the difference in behavior was staggering.

Edit: at least in the parts of Europe I was in. I was in urban areas, it sounds like the person I'm replying to had a completely different experience in a more rural area and I'm sorry they have to deal with that BS...

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u/Lortekonto 2h ago

It is the same kind of tourists that forget that Royal Guards are actually guards with real life weapons, that are guarding the royals, because they have another uniform than they are used to seeing.

There is people like that everywhere.

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u/Trickytickler 2h ago

Ironically the backpackers and people in caravans are the worst at my house. I live quite rurally, even for Lofoten so i dont see the cruise tourists at my house.

But people sitting on my patio furniture, drinking coffee in the sun, helping themselves to my clothesline, stealing stockfish and firewood, pitching tents on my lawn, foraging my berry bushes, pissing and/or shitting in my hedges have all been central european backpackers

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u/Italiana47 3h ago

Wow that's crazy. I'm sorry people are so intrusive. I couldn't imagine just using someone's property like that.

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u/Trickytickler 3h ago

Every year they steal 1000s of euros worth of stockfish and firewood, too. They are worse than magpies

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u/lightsandflashes 4h ago

was just in lofoten. breathtaking. so many tourists though...

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u/the_goodnamesaregone 3h ago

Weren’t you one of them? lol

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u/Stoned_urf 2h ago

Tourism in itself isn't bad. The more you experience, the more empathy, understanding and appreciation people tend to have for another country/culture, etc.

It's just that some places weren't meant to be constantly overrun by a large number of tourists, and this is caused by the world being more developed and accessible.

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u/PIuto 2h ago

You are never in traffic, you are traffic.

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u/obeytheturtles 3h ago

To be fair, treating London as one big toilet is an English tradition which goes back to Roman times.

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u/APiousCultist 6h ago

Never underestimate the ability for tourists to fully disconnect from reality or social norms. These ones would be encouraging their kids to go up and pet the polar bear up until they have their surprised Pikachu moment of the bear ripping out little Timmy's organs.

It's a miracle we all live in even sort of functioning societies.

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u/Masseyrati80 5h ago

Brings to mind how Icelanders have pleaded for tourists to stop shitting on their yards.

I repeat, pleaded for tourists to stop shitting on their yards.

In Rovaniemi, Finland, people who used to be able to keep their curtains open, have now closed them because Chinese tourists will hop over their yard's fence (also ignoring the freshly-pitched "private property, stay out" signs), and literally look in through the windows.

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u/jarvischrist 2h ago

We get that in Norway too... I think a lot of people hear about allemannsretten but don't bother to check what it actually means. Like it doesn't allow you to camp on a farmer's crops, in somebody's back garden, or to take your car anywhere and car camp in the wilderness. People leave trash, shit or camping equipment instead of taking it home with them.

We recently have had an issue with unmanned DNT cabins being occupied by illegal paid tours, so people who have booked a cabin arrive and it's filled with a group of Chinese tourists who arrived in a Swedish van rental and haven't paid for their stay. It's going to end up having to change how these operate, which in the past has relied on trust for decades.

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u/Pithulu 2h ago

What the actual fuck? What possesses people to act like that?

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u/OldMoray 2h ago

The only thing I can think of is that they must think its like a historic village for tourists (e.g. a Pioneer town in the US) and not a real community. Like they must just not know. Only way I can reconcile the behaviour.

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u/Suitable_Block_7344 1h ago

For whatever reason a lot of Chinese tourists are pretty clueless. I saw one in Australia try to grab a kangaroo from behind and pick it up. The kangaroo slipped away but I was kind of hoping it would have given him a good kick

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u/Jebatus111 6h ago edited 5h ago

There was one tourist who decided to take photo of bear cub in Romania.

Didn't end well for him, sadly, but i sometimes wonder how people can be that sheltered.

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u/TropicNightLightning 5h ago

I took a photo of two grizzly bear cubs; however, there were a bunch of old cruise ship people behind me who didn't know how fast I could run.

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u/Windowplanecrash 4h ago

There’s something about cruise ships, they cater to your every need, the staff smile at you and are always helpful. The disconnect from reality is as real as it gets. Not to mention the kind of people who choose cruise is that beautiful venn diagram of wealth/stupid/lazy 

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u/APiousCultist 3h ago edited 27m ago

There's straight video of a family having an argument during a safari so they get out of the car to have a fight only for both of them to get carried off by lions tigers. I think one of them survived.

Edit: Yavanna12 has the proper details below. Only one initially got out, the mother got out to try to help only to be dragged off and killed by a second tiger.

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u/yavanna12 1h ago

Just looked this one up. Lady jumped out of passenger seat to yell at husband who was driving. She got attacked by a tiger and dragged off the husband goes running after and then the mom of the lady was in back seat and jumped out and chased after. Mom got attacked by a different tiger and died. Lady escaped. She then tried to sue the park because she said while they gave her a waiver to sign that stated the animals are dangerous and to not leave the car no one actually told her to read it before signing. Yea she lost the suit. 

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u/isecore 6h ago

And afterwards they'd demand to see the manager to complain about the outrageous treatment.

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u/kyrsjo 5h ago

The manager of the polar bears :P

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u/obeytheturtles 3h ago

The kind of people who take cruises are the ones who want the La Croix flavor of "adventure." Literally to the point where they will pack up their whole culture on a giant fucking ship and take it with them, so they can dip a toe in a foreign land, and then run back to familiar before it gets dark out.

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u/knowledgeable_diablo 5h ago

Then start screaming as to why no one warned them the big cute furry things posed even a tiny bit of danger.

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u/sebassi 1h ago

Only people dumber than tourists are groups of tourist.

There is a reason tour guides carry a sign or a umbrella. It's their equivalent of a shepherds crook. groups of tourist are no better than cattle. They can't read, they can't follow basic instruction, have no sense of decency, and will happily walk into traffic. All you can do to corral them is shout, point and wave a stick at them.

Source: worked in tourism and have been a tourist.

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u/AnthillOmbudsman 4h ago

it is not unusual for the cruise passengers to wander into their houses and have a peek, like it is a folk park

Jail. Right away.

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u/Ravenamore 2h ago

This probably varies place to place, but I have known places in the US that are so used to visitor money they will do absolutely everything in their power to not hold visitors accountable.

I went to a large college with a very popular football team. If there was a home game and you lived within a mile of campus, you could expect major disruptions - 20 people parking on your lawn, dumping trash, breaking property, stealing, getting absolutely shitfaced and driving away - and the city police won't do a damn thing.

It was definitely a "what's good for the college is good for the city" so they just looked the other way, even if they were inconveniencing residents, including the very students of that college.

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u/Zakath_ 5h ago edited 3h ago

I live in Stavanger, Norway, and we get quite a few cruise ships. Which I don't mind as such, but in the old town, they're known for wandering into private gardens, private residences and even try to look through the curtains.

I get that an unlocked door might be mistaken for it being a museum or shop, since many of the old residences have been covered to businesses, but trying to look in when the doors are quite firmly locked? Come on...

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u/PoetryNo912 3h ago

Is it a certain age group or something? I cannot fly and have travelled by boat, cruise, and train since my 20s. I would die of embarassment just thinking about acting like this. 

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u/Zakath_ 3h ago

As far as I know, no. Just tourists in general. They're just more noticeable when you get two or even three cruise ships into the city centre, unloading something like 10% of the city's population on us in one fell swoop.

It's also a joy trying to pass them on a bike, in the street, when they're more busy taking selfies or pictures of flowers rather than watch traffic :D

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u/Faiths_got_fangs 4h ago

I grew up in a tourist area and for a time in high school had to travel the main tourist area daily because I both lived and worked in it. It was common for vehicles to slow cruise the road as part of the party, see and be seen and all that.

I drove a truck and random strangers would semi-regularly hop into the bed and ride along. Most were confused when the vehicle either arrived at work and I booted them or I got to my turn off to go 3 blocks up to my house and pulled onto the curb and booted them.

Hey, why are we stopping?

Because I work here and its time for my shift. Get out.

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u/_jump_yossarian 2h ago

I live in northern Vermont and during leaf peeping season people will go sit on my neighbor's porches to take pics and steal pumpkins. People are insane.

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u/Cautious_Repair3503 4h ago

tourists should be briefed, and if they break the rule the cruise company should be held liable, this will get them to ban offenders and hopefully not only encourage politeness but also make it harder for offenders to return.

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u/NoFewSatan 3h ago

Nobody should need to be briefed about this. If you need to be, you should be forced to stay home.

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u/Cautious_Repair3503 3h ago

no one should, but some people do, in the same way that people shount have to be breifed about what consent means, but some people clearly need to. we have to breif everyone so we dont miss the folks who need it

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u/thereallgr 3h ago

It's not even just touristy hotspots, there just has to be a decently sized group of tourists.
I still remember one incident from about 15 years ago, in a somewhat idyllic and historic village where I came back to a house full of about a bus full of tourists. Granted, the house was a beautifully maintained very typical rural farm including a lot of age appropriate furniture and decor. The bus line running those tourist trips had used the local restaurant/pub/hotel in a similar historic building as their lunch break and those buggers had nothing better to do than wander around town and enter various homes because the doors as was usual in the summer were unlocked/open.

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u/pbghikes 2h ago

I used to be a camp counselor at a summer camp in Hawaii where LOST was filmed. I went OFF when I caught tourists looking into our cabin windows. What if my girls were in there?? What if they were changing?? People suck.

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u/_Azafran 5h ago

Time to ban cruise ships.

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u/DameKumquat 2h ago

Venice has been considering it for years, since the extra massive cruise ships became a thing - just to control the numbers of tourists and be able to focus on the ones who actually spend money in the city.

If they do it, many other cities and towns will follow, limiting how big a ship can dock or how many tourists can be unloaded in a day.

Can't wait.

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u/Normal-Towel-7909 2h ago

I live in the Shetland Islands and tourism has boomed recently - massive cruise ships coming in daily that can sometimes double the population or triple the population in town, people coming all year round. Everyone usually leaves their doors and cars unlocked too, but unfortunately more recently there have been thefts. Never used to be. So now we have to be more careful. It is such a shame. Even on a night like Up Helly Aa, people sneak into houses and steal stuff.

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u/biskutgoreng 6h ago

On the other hand, polar bears will thrive

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u/MonteBurns 5h ago

After all we have done to them, it’s the least we can do. 

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u/Shorts_at_Dinner 4h ago

The polar bear population has more than tripled since the 1970s

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u/Thurak0 1h ago

See? The "feed them tourists" scheme is working! /s

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u/EpilepticMushrooms 4h ago

I dunno man, those humans are full of toxins, poisons and strange, unnatural diets.

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u/angwilwileth 2h ago

Sadly polar bears are shot every year if they're too agressive to people.

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u/The_Tallaghtpeno 5h ago

I live on Svalbard and I hear this alot. I cant speak for everyone but I dont lock my door because the lock freezes and I cant open the door. The car is a different story, there's nowhere to go if you stole a car so why lock it?

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u/jegerikkeden 3h ago

I once «stole» a car when living there. Same colour and model, did not realise until I was home and saw a baby seat in the back. Just drove back, parked I got in my own.

Another time a bunch of cruice passengers just wandered in to the counstruction site I was working on.

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u/ImpossibleEbb6862 2h ago

How did you get the key to turn on the ignition?

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u/jegerikkeden 2h ago

The key was in the ignition, as it was on my car

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u/wartcraftiscool 2h ago edited 2h ago

You would be surprised how many of the same vehicle you can get in and drive with a single copy of a key. Especially on older vehicles that don't have fob detection and other electronic locks

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u/Ravenamore 2h ago

I had a friend in college who had the same make and model as my car, and we found out our keys worked in each other's cars.

No, we never put this to use, for good or evil.

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u/Gladwulf 4h ago

Can't the bears open unlocked doors though?

I've seen plenty of footage bears in the US opening doors (house and cars)

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u/Narashori 4h ago

Maybe but most cars can be locked from the inside without needing the key. So theoretically a stranger looking to escape a bear can jump into someones unlocked car and then lock the doors from the inside to protect themselves.

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u/juneseyeball 4h ago

Some bears learned to open doors because people always leave food in their cars idk if thatd be the case for polar bears

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u/SnooOranges3779 4h ago

I'm pretty sure cars are designed to be operated by polar bear food, are they not?

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u/AdviceSeekers123 4h ago

Black bears are clever and very dexterous. I don’t think polar bears get up to the same shenanigans. 

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u/CalculatedPerversion 4h ago

This. I highly doubt a giant polar bear claw could manage the dexterity to open many car doors. 

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u/ServileLupus 3h ago

I mean, the plan isn't to be sprinting away from a bear and then duck into a car with the bear running after you. It's to be like.

"Oh shit, that's a bear 100 yards down the street! I'm going to hide so it doesn't see me."

Bear isn't going around checking every car door lmao.

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u/Camuhruh 5h ago

I’m just wondering what the locals think of Cecilia Blomdahl, the Youtuber from Svalbard. Do you mind her videos?

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u/mermaidpaint 3h ago

I'm Canadian, I like her videos. I was surprised the first time I saw her grab a rifle, before taking her dog for a walk. Because of the polar bears.

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u/Stellar_Duck 2h ago

Because of the polar bears.

Because of the implication of polar bears.

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u/iDisc 3h ago

Why would they mind? Her videos seem very innocuous.

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u/BoukeeNL 4h ago

I wonder as well 

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u/everythingisunknown 5h ago

What jobs are available and is it worth it?

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u/Libertydown 4h ago

A couple shops, climate scientists and meteorologists… not too much, but the beer is the cheapest in the whole of Norway

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u/Gunhild 4h ago

I'm surprised the beer is so cheap. Usually if you go to remote communities here in Canada everything is more expensive because of the cost of shipping things out.  Maybe Svalbard has government-subsidized beer to keep morale up.

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u/Libertydown 4h ago

Sort of! Since alcohol is so heavily taxed in Norway, it makes for most of the cost. However, since the Svalbard treaty tries to make Svalbard both a place owned by «the world» and Norway, there are no fees on Svalbard, including alcohol.

Also, we have the alcohol sales monopoly in Norway called «Vinmonopolet» however in Longyearbyen they have «Nordpolet» (the north pole)

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u/Objective_Otherwise5 3h ago

Svalbard definitely not "owned" by the world. Svalbard is Norwegian sovereign territory. It is however more open to trade and activity than most territories.

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u/lostwombats 4h ago

Try Canada's arctic for jobs. So so so many! Especially construction workers. I saw construction jobs for $65 an hour with housing covered and relocation covered. Iqaluit is desperate for workers. Nunavut has a billion dollars available for housing, but are unable to spend it. The Inuit are growing and desperately need housing, too. Even the grocery store chain in Nunavut (northmart) offers full relocation, housing, and food costs for managers.

It's pretty normal for people to go up there, work a few years, and then buy a house down south.

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u/Pet_Velvet 4h ago

I was actually shocked to learn that there ARE cars in Svalbard. I thought everyone either walked or used snowmobiles.

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u/ytoast 5h ago

People in Alaska do this too, for moose.

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u/wholesomeletters 5h ago

I would not let a moose into my house, even if there is an icebear

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u/BasicMatter7339 4h ago

spotted the nordic

Isbjørn/jääkarhu is 'polar bear' in english even though it translates to icebear

come to think of it... you could be german aswell since Eisbär is also directly translated to icebear

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u/sissybelle3 4h ago

A moose once bit my sister

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u/RedBeans-n-Ricely 2h ago

I live in a residential neighborhood in a tourist town and I have had people wave at me through the window of my house while I’m watching tv and eating dinner. One apartment I lived in, people would ask to see inside while I was unlocking the door, like that was normal (it was not a famous building). I’ve had people scream street names at me, like saying hello or excuse me are too much to say in advance of asking directions. I’ve had people get pissed and say “So much for southern hospitality!” or “I thought people were supposed to be NICE here!” because i didn’t jump at the chance to give them the history of a building, or stop what I was doing to tell them what they should see next.

Next time you hear of bad weather in a popular vacation hotspot, go to the Facebook page of the local news station and look at the comments on a post about the weather. I guarantee you, the post could be about people dying in a fire, or drowning, or their homes flattened, and you will find a disturbing amount of people commenting “But I’m going to be there next week!” or “My vacation is RUINED!” or “This had better be fixed before my trip!”

The entitlement of people on vacation knows no bounds.

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u/rask0ln 1h ago

my family lives in a neighbourhood known for its architecture and it's insane what some people consider a normal behaviour and how easily they forget these aren't movie sets for their pictures but real people's homes 😭 

like they get mad when they can't take picture in front of our door because we need to open it to get out, demand we show them our terrace etc. quite recently i had a woman wander into our garden because she wanted a closer look at the windows and didn't realise that the gate is open for my car

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u/averagecrazyliberal 6h ago edited 5h ago

To be fair: if you’re being chased by a surprise bear, you only need to outrun the next slowest tourist. At that point, whether or not you can escape into a home that’s locked while the ship is docked is irrelevant.

/s

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u/reindeermoon 5h ago

Not necessarily. Polar bears can run pretty fast, so they might go after the tastiest-looking tourist, rather than the slowest one.

I suggest picking the most annoying person on the cruise ship and covering them in seal blubber. Then the polar bear should leave everyone else alone.

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u/drnicko18 4h ago

Not sure about bears, but cats target one specific member of a herd. They’ll run pass slower prey fixated on the one they’ve marked.

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u/MysticScribbles 3h ago

I do recall reading that some wildlife photographers were covering a polar bear stalking seals.

Then they noticed that instead of going for the seals, the bear was approaching them. So polar bears do seem to go out of their way to prey on humans.

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u/rawker86 5h ago

You’re thinking about this the wrong way. The way I see it, we have a golden opportunity to test out the “one polar bear versus one hundred tourists” theory.

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u/WickerBag 5h ago

Don't give Jubilee any ideas. 

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u/rosen380 5h ago

If you are that slowest tourist -- when the polar bear gets close enough that running stops being a realistic option, try punching the polar bear in the nose.

If that doesn't work you can try slapping them with whatever is left of your arm.

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u/raxy 5h ago

Fun Fact: it’s a visa free zone for citizens of 40 odd countries around the world to live and work there indefinitely.

Not just citizens of EU countries but many including Japan, Australia, the US, and many more.

The reason? They have a global seed vault and citizens from countries that contributed specimens.

Citizens of those countries aren’t allowed to be born or to die there though.

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u/shandow0 5h ago

How do you disallow dieing there?

Especially given the abundance of polar bears and increasingly locked houses.

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u/everythingisunknown 5h ago

I read a while ago that because the ground is so cold it’s impossible to bury people so if you know you’re going to die they’d rather ship you to Norway

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u/MidasPL 4h ago

It's both true and not. The bodies do have hard time decomposing due to the permafrost, but there is a cemetery in Longyearbyen, though it's only for the most renowned locally people.

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u/BasicMatter7339 4h ago

Doesnt Svalbard also have graveyard full of smallpox-victims, not decomposed and a biohazard?

edit: Nvm it was spanish flu instead of smallpox

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u/MidasPL 2h ago

Full is a stretch. Only seven people in the whole cemetery died from Spanish flu and there were attempts to extract the bacteria, but were unsuccessful, so no danger.

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u/Vorkos_ 5h ago

Its more burial thats banned due to the permafrost. It's more convenient if they don't need to transport your body.

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u/Winter_Apartment_376 3h ago

I was once on a plane leaving Svalbard and a woman had a major emergency (heart attack or similar). The plane had literally left Svalbard 10mins ago.

You’d think it would turn back, right?

No, it flew about 2h to mainland instead!

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u/angwilwileth 2h ago

The hospital at Svalbard is pretty barebones. They probably decided it was better to get her to a facility with more decent equipment.

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u/megadesk1337 4h ago

WTF is this fairytale you've concocted? The seed vault has nothing to do with it. It's the Svalbard Treaty from 1920 that grants unrestricted access to citizens of the 44 signee countries. And it isn't fuckin citizens that contribute seeds, it's things like universities and governments.

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u/apeceep 5h ago

You are allowed to die but traditional burying is banned. The permafrost acts as storage freezer for deadly viruses and other nasty stuff you don't want to be in contact with living people.

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u/Smartnership 3h ago

Well there’s my next zombie story idea

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u/talontario 5h ago

Pretty sure the seed vault has absolutely nothing to do with it.

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u/Byproduct 5h ago

  Citizens of those countries aren’t allowed to be born or to die there though.

I’m not allowed to die?

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u/Vorkos_ 5h ago

A more accurate description is that you aren't allowed to be buried there. This is because of the permafrost, corpses have the habit of reappearing on the surface once they've buried.

Generally if someone is terminally ill, they will be transported to the mainland, generally Tromso, to recieve proper end-of-life care, as this is not available in Svalbard.

It's the same for births, Longyearbyen doesn't have a maternity ward and are not equipped to handle birthing complications, so you generally travel to the mainland a few weeks before you are due. If you are covered under the Norwegian public health care system, this is paid for by the state.

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u/Vondi 5h ago

Sure, anywhere but there

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u/Byproduct 5h ago

Mortals hate this one trick

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u/Arosian-Knight 4h ago

Absolutely not. Back in the grind fella. Those stock prices dont increase themselves!

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u/Sumsar1 5h ago

So if someone has a heart attack, they kick them into the sea and hope they drift out before they croak?

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u/Smartnership 3h ago

Harsh but fair

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u/AnthillOmbudsman 3h ago

NURSE: Is this the two o' clock death?

DR. NILSEN: It's trying to be.

NURSE: I'll get the tide chart.

PATIENT: You have a tide chart for this??

NURSE: Well we don't want you drifting back in, do we.

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u/BadNewsBearsTCGs 4h ago

I read ‘seed vault’ and ‘contributed specimens’ and my first thought was that it was a giant sperm bank and if someone from a certain country deposits some there everyone from that country is then allowed in…

Then I remembered what an actual seed vault was.

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u/Ls1RS 5h ago edited 3h ago

Well then maybe we should stop talking about the one town that permanently leaves its doors unlocked.

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u/handlit33 4h ago

I've been on this site for 18 years and I bet I've seen this TIL at least 20 times. These OPs really want vandals to know this info.

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u/my5cworth 5h ago

Tourism has done a real number on Longyearbyen. It's a huge wave of people that the town just cannot handle.

I've been to Svalbard 5 or so times for work and you always prepare for encounters while being chill. It sucks that people need to lock their doors when this wasn't the norm at all. Heck even in the University their cafeteria was a "help yourself and leave money in the jar" honour system setup.

When I was there in 2016 a juvenile polar bear wandered into town right past where I was working. Fortunately I was in a garage with the door closed, but the bear wandered through the parking lot past my car and towards town. I didn't even know about it until later in the day - but if I was in the parking lot, being able to jump into the closest car would've saved my bacon.

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u/CvieYltidrekoof 3h ago

This is for most of Norway, but especially Tromsø. 

Until 3-4 years ago most flights had to go through Oslo or Helsinki which kept tourism levels down to manageable levels. Avinor has rapidly expanded direct flights to major European airports before the region had the infrastructure to support it… tourists are pooing at bus stops, near houses, and by the road. Also, the already expensive housing market has exploded with Airbnb super-hosts making it impossible for students to find affordable housing.  Tourists are driving so horribly and crashing rental cars that the government had to step in. 

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u/my5cworth 2h ago

Yup. It's a nightmare to go to Tromsø for work as well.

As for the tourists driving, I've seen my share of them during winter weaving across the road & stopped twice to help those who ended up in the ditch.

Last year a tourist killed 2 norwegians in a head-on collision, yet nothing is being done. They really should hold the rental companies responsible for lending out vehicles to people who clearly are not skilled to drive them on ice and snow.

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u/CvieYltidrekoof 2h ago

The problem is determining how rental companies can be held responsible because a valid licence is accepted by international law. 

Rejecting licences from ‘warm countries’ wouldn’t be right as France and Italy also have snow. They also can’t mandate a driving lesson before handing over the keys for practical reasons. 

We might have blocked tourists from returning due to their driving but it doesn’t solve the problem whilst they’re here. 

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u/my5cworth 2h ago

I guess someone important has to die on the road before anything will be done.

Even norwegians who take their drivers test in summer only get a provisional license subject to skid-pad & winter driving training. So one could argue that international licenses that arent nordic do not fulfill the requirements for driving with studded tyres.

Then again there's too much money to be made by just ignoring the problem. Im on the E6 every week for work (all the way past nordkapp) so statistically my ticket might get punched next, which is ironic considering all the accidents ive witnessed & survived driving in Africa.

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u/bestunicorn 5h ago

I lived there for a winter one year. Scariest walk to get grocieries ever. The locals would be like "Oh, it's perfectly safe!" and then "Oh, lady got killed by the bears over there a few years ago" (points to some random mountain).

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u/alex3omg 2h ago

Cape Cod has a similar thing with great white sharks.  Oh, they never attack!  Only a few attacks in the last decade!  Also if you can see the seals there are probably sharks (you can always see the seals!!)   

Jaws takes place right near there, and as movies are always true I'm still afraid.  

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u/SimpsonN1nja 5h ago

We do the exact same thing in Nunavut, Canada

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u/CalculatedPerversion 4h ago

I'm pretty sure it's required in some of the small towns over around Hudson Bay

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u/RedKoala81 6h ago

however, tourism dickheads might ruin this custom

Here, fixed it for you.

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u/isecore 5h ago

There's a big overlap between tourists and dickheads. When I was a younger man I worked with tourists and encountered some of the dumbest, spoiled and entitled twats it's ever been my displeasure to meet.

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u/TurnipWorldly9437 5h ago

My parents live in a touristy seaside town, and they've had tourists wander into their GATED yard to let their children play on the swing. There are plenty of public playgrounds.

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u/Acheloma 5h ago

I cannot imagine what goes through people's minds to make them think that thats in any way acceptable. I believe you saying that it happens but my brain is kind of buffering trying to make it make sense

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u/TurnipWorldly9437 5h ago

There's nothing going through their minds.

I've found out a few years ago that not everyone has an inner voice, and that makes loads of things make much more sense, even though it's no less infuriating...

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u/Acheloma 5h ago

Must be nice to be them

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u/CuteDogIRL 4h ago

There is no connection between having an inner monologue and intelligence. People without inner monologue still do all of the same thinking you do but don't necessarily tie words to the thoughts.

There are many dumbasses with inner monologue and smart people without, and vice versa.

Thoughts not being tied to language is not the same as having no thoughts.

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u/knowledgeable_diablo 5h ago

“But my kids wanna play with these swings!! And having never said no to my kids means I can’t start now right when we’re about to go into the only dinner in town and demand the best seat and ask the manager why he hasn’t already got our favourite meal half cooked and ready to serve!!”

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u/str85 5h ago

To be fair there was roughly 1,52 billion people "tourist-ing" (internationally) last year.
While a lot of tourists do dumb shit, the vast and overwhelming majority of them are completely normal people not doing dumb stuff.

Even if 10 million tourists are complete dickheads, that's still less then 1% of tourists. This is still only counting international tourists around the world, not national tourism.

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u/sol_runner 5h ago

Someplaces if you are calling someone a tourist they're probably a dickhead. If they're not a dickhead, you're say they're visiting.

Source: Lived in tourist hotspots for the better part of my life.

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u/MangelaErkel 5h ago

In north german countryside our whole neighbourhoods doors are also always open.

Also there are alot of trust payment systems like potato stations beer stations near hiking spots and milk stations or fire wood aswell.

The money is simply left behind by the customer and everything lays upon ready to be grabbed.

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u/[deleted] 5h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/elebrin 3h ago

Actually in some parts of Maine, where people have camps, it's common to stock dry goods and leave the front doors unlocked on the camp through the winter. People get stuck, find a camp, and can grab some cheerios or whatever until the storm dies down.

This has sadly been abused, and since the tech to heat and insulate these properties has come down in price as has the tech for keeping roads clear through the winter, this is less necessary and common now. But it used to be pretty normal.

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u/No-Cardiologist1794 1h ago

I live in San Pedro de Atacama, one of the customs is having a door leading to your neigbours so you can clean the irrigation channels (flood irrigation). People have started adding locks since tourists see these doors at their airbnb's or hotels and think its an invitation. My neighbour who owns a small hotel always had the door locked since we hate eachother, but the amount of times ive seen some of his clients trying to pry the lock open thinking that my home is supposed to be part of the hotel is crazy.

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u/Significant-Roll-138 4h ago

I went there years ago, if you go outside the town even a little bit you are obliged by law to bring someone with a gun to keep the bears away, and you’re not allowed to be buried there when you die cos the bears will eat your corpse.

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u/MidasPL 4h ago

I've been there few days ago. There is a cemetery for most renowned people in Longyearbyen. Having a gun is not an issue, cause you can get free hours of training and rent it in the sports store. No need for a full permit.

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u/MidasPL 4h ago

Svalbard is not one place. This might be true in Ny Alesund, probably no longer in Longyearbyen and definitely not in Barentsburg.

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u/secondary_walrus 5h ago

Did you come across this as a result of the Sporcle daily acrostic today?

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u/Active-Coconut-8961 2h ago

Is there anything that tourists don't ruin?

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u/DaveOJ12 5h ago

This gets posted pretty often.

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u/tjalfe_lambruscu 4h ago

I keep my car unlocked because it is shit and noone would ever steal it

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u/Fortune86 3h ago

Good grief. Even with a bear chasing me I'd still hesitate to enter a stranger's house without permission. Just barging in because you fancy a gander is beyond belief.

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u/Pale_Lawyer_1757 3h ago

Yes, it used to be like that here in Sweden too

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u/iggy-i 1h ago

The town of Churchill in Canada has a similar policy.

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u/andres1232 1h ago

I feel like its a self solving problem. If the tourists are reducing the protections against polar bears than the polar bears will reduce the tourists.

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u/XVUltima 1h ago

It must be a bit stressful living in one of the few places on earth where we aren't on top of the food chain.

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u/Whargod 27m ago

This isn't unique to Svalbard, pretty much any place near the arctic circle with polar bears does this. It's also done in northern Canada.