The remote visa-free island at the top of the world - BBC REEL

we're literally at the edge of the world and everyone here is a guest places outside are ruled by men here is ruled by Nature [Music] I'll be here for eight years in Svalbard I come from south of Brazil and I'll be working as a photographer videographer we had a friend which was living in Svalbard and working here and she told me you have to come and you also don't have a visa to work here and it's easier to work in Svalbard for you I think after six months I realized that I was in love with the place the first six months I was too scared [Music] so this is longer than visits or the capital of Svalbard you and a half thousand people 51 nationalities some polar bears try to come into town sometime actually we're all here squeezed in this little space here because of the nature yeah I'm the manager of the northernmost sporting store in the world I have been up in swabber for 24 years at a pretty settled life in Germany and I wanted to change and I thought about traveling again and so I was playing a little lottery writing down all the state's names on little piece of papers I had one in my hand and I opened it and it was a small part my first emotion it was oh my god what I'm doing here this is not my place and then after like three four months I get to know people and I get to see the beauty of spar board [Music] [Laughter] you're not meant to be born here that's for sure we don't have a maternity ward and even if you are unlucky enough to die here you're going to be shipped off so that means only one comes up for some time a period of time some people stay six months some people stay a year some people stay considerably longer and new people arriving get welcomed in it was a free lands and open land it was belong to anyone well it does it belongs to the Bears I mean this place belongs to the Bears it belongs to the Bears the reindeer the seals and the whales that's it under foxes you know I mean that is if they're placed we're guests this is a full community of real community and people check on each other because up here if you don't do it no one else will we do sell all of guns because we need guns to protect yourself against the polar bear so as for us going out of the town you should bring a gun because you never know where it is this is a tent that a polar bear came in as you can see here has many holes yeah also the inner tent got damaged so I will try to fix these ones here but I've gotten many tents in that they're too damaged [Music] your human instinct flourish in Svalbard much more than the other places because here it's cold you feel in your skin here it's dangerous you have polar bears so you need to be awake you need to be aware what's happening around you we have four months of darkness we have four months of Sun all the time so if nature wants nature keeps you inside your house locked there I was having dream to travel I was not expecting to be here on the top of the world the first time I see the Northern Lights it's like I'm on another universe I say oh my god that's so beautiful that's really really really beautiful when I post video or photo on the Facebook and they see most of my friends they're quite surprised I like this place I'd like to see the water the mounting that totally gave me positive energy [Music] regarding climate I've seen a lot of changes there yeah in 2002 was the last time I was on the ice driving my snowmobile to Berlin spoke with a Russian settlement and that took me about 10 minutes no it's one and a half hour drive by land I love this place I love it it's changing fast ten years is enough for me to say I've seen the effects of climate change here it's not it's not just a random weather pattern for couple of years this place as I know it I'm not sure if I've got to show my grandchildren and that's that's a shame [Music] when you get driven to the live here your life in a place like slobber as pure as well buries people that live here they like the real life they don't accept the model how the world is down there if you don't fit in the world out there maybe here is your place [Music] you you

Channel: BBC Reel

Views: 1,688,504

Rating: 4.9372969 out of 5

Keywords: bbc, bbcreel, bbcnews, factual, features

Id: FPbZZ1qIozk

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020