Welcome to Barentsburg
Barentsburg looking from the east across the bay.
Barentsburg looking from the east across the bay.
Barentsburg, known locally as simply "The Burg" is a small city with less than 20,000 inhabitants so not your biggest city is located in the north of the country a short distance above the Arctic Circle so far from the warmest city in the country. The nearest international airport being Peace Valley International which is just a couple of hours away by train. To the west of the city is the 3 volcanoes national park and an area of outstanding scenic beauty, from here hiking trails take you deep into the heart of the Auroran wilderness where Reindeer, Polar bears and wild foxes as well and during the summer months birds of prey can be found. The national park which also borders Valeria Port Aurora, Peace Valley and Valkyrie City got its name from the 3 volcanoes that are in the park, all 3 of which are very much active, these being Mount Halvaar, who's most recent eruption was 2014, but also Mount Su'ala'mburu which last erupted in 2000 in a double eruption with Mount Halvaar, this eruption wiped the original Valkyrie City clean off the map and lasted for 14 days before subsiding. Mount Su'ala'mburu is named after the first person to climb the mountain in the 1800s in his honour, The third mountain is Mount Diablo which last erupted in biblical times but even now continues to bubble gas from its crater lake from which 3 rivers flow. Due to heat rising from the depths of the earth the lake at the summit never freezes over, remaining at around 60c all year round so it is too hot to swim in.
So what is there to offer here in Barentsburg?
The Northern Cross
The Northern Cross is one of the best known clubs in all of Barentsburg, run by Ryan Halvaarsson, the club is famed for good beer friendly bar staff and live music from up and coming bands. want your break in music then go to the Northern Cross and you may get that gig! Open from around 0900 and closing late at night, sometimes as early as 3am though on some nights the bar has been open from 9am friday until 3am monday without closing its doors. How Ryan got away with that one is anyones guess but he did! The hotel across the road has occasionally poached acts after they have finished at the northern cross! A conveniently located transit stop on the promenade tramway means a steady stream of patrons. Due to the popularity of the club with up and coming acts record label talent seekers have started to spend time there so if you are an up and coming band the Northern Cross is the place to be.
"Der Panzer Klub", run by Klaus Khol and brother, Ludwig, Der Panzer club is a popular venue for live rock music, beer is moderatly priced and the music is heavy and loud. Panzer was chosen because of its rough translation to Tank, and Tanks are made of Heavy Metal, so as cheasy as it sounds, "Der Panzer Klub" became the city's and in fact the areas best known heavy metal music club. Klaus Khol is also the owner of a record lable "Panzer Tanz" whilst Ludwig is a local radio DJ for a local radio station Rockcity 252, broadcasting on 252 Longwave, playing a mix of classic heavy metal to modern metal. If its Heavy, its here.
At the far end of the city in contrast to Der Panzer Klub is "Dixie's", an Americana themed bar, run by Algernon Mc.Laren, here live country music can be found and during the summer on friday nights the carpark can be found full of "Americana", from classic cars to cruiser V-Twin motorcycles to pimped out 4x4s and in a couple of cases similarly styled trucks and even a couple of 1960s and 1970s ex service police cars, one of which was used in a music video. The style of the bar is very much made to look like an old hillbilly barn on the outside, on the overhanging part of the roof where the gable end meets the roof, there are speakers so music that goes on inside can be heard outside.
Music like this is popular at Dixie's Thursday night is also open mic night so you can come and perform kareoke.
Barentsburg University
A high class university that is well funded with courses to cover all areas of study
The national parks of the locality, with excellent hiking trails and fishing, and with clear night skies it's good for astronomy both for the professional and amateur alike.
For business there are new industrial sites available for lease and with excellent links to the Aurora Confederacy's rail and road networks including the Terra Link network, these pose plenty of possibility for new businesses to come and grow. Barentsburg is, like the rest of the nation a city where there are more jobs than people who are of workable age due to the strong Auroran economy as such the city is looking for people to move in and fill these employment positions.
Notable places to stay:
The Haven
3 star hotel right alongside the old waterfront, good food, good service,
Saunas and swiming pools on site.
Pool tables in the bar
Weekend kareoke
Midnight Rendezvous Hotel
- 4 stars, moderately expensive but good service
Bayview Guesthouse
- local bed and breakfast hotel, cheap as they come but warm atmosphere
The Cube
- Missed the last train home then there's the cube, "rooms" 3ft x 4ft x 7ft, you climb in one end and close a small hatch, just like being in a coffin, only these coffins have cable TV and are based on a Japanese idea. To stay in one of the capsules at The Cube, the fee is $10 per night and it certainly beats sleeping on a cold railway station platform when the temperature can get to 20c below!
Places to visit in Barentsburg
The snowdome situated in the heart of Barentsburg is a popular recreational area complete with an indoor ski and snowboard run, swimming pool, 4 saunas and a gymnasium. A 2 hour session costing 10 Dinars for non members, or you can pay for annual membership which costs 100 Dinars but gives you additional bonuses such as 50% session discounts. The main attraction is a ski run, this S-shaped run is 300m in length and 30m in width with an average incline of 1 in 7. a smaller, straighter run is also available, these two runs give perfect ski and snowboard conditions year round. There is also a bar in the complex called "The Aspen" and is modelled on an alpine lodge.
Where to live
Situated in the south of the city, close to the South Barentsburg railway station, the smaller of Barentsburg's two railway stations are several tower blocks situated quite litterally a stones throw from the nuclear power station, a good golfer standing on the roof of one the apartment blocks will in fact be able to tee off the roof and put the golf ball on the roof of the fuel processing building which is adjacent to one of the 2 reactor buildings, these single bedroom apartments are cosy, well insulated and despite being small, featuring just a bathroom, kitchen, dining room and a bedroom with the kitchen being a mere 2m x 2m in size, they are well equipped. $100 per month rent for a property.
The north of the city has standalone houses, these wooden buildings are very Scandinavian in style with steep apexed walls and gable ends, these houses are warm as they have 24" of insulation in the walls and 12" of insulation in the floors, making them easy to heat and once warm they stay warm with little in the way of heating use making them cheap to run and quite desirable. These houses generally have two floors with 5 rooms or 6 rooms if its a 3-bedroom house.
Midtown is a mix of rows of apartments in 2-floor high strips and A-frame housing with apartment buildings having lockup garages. Midtown is also close to the heart of the shopping centre and so command high prices, a typical standalone house will cost $120,000 and if you want to buy an apartment, some can fetch $80,000, though there are also rentable properties available.
Getting around
Barentsburg has an excellent public transport system ranging from modern buses that serve most areas of the city, then there's the bone a standard gauge tramway system that runs from the main railway junction in the north to the power station in the south with its route being along the sea front. The tramway was originally built to allow nuclear transport trains access to the power station. Trams are every 15 minutes, nuclear flask trains used to be every 2 weeks. The Bone is also free to ride hop on at one and hop off at your leisure as many times as you wish during the day and it wont cost you a single cent.
Taxis, usually Toyota Landcruiser 4x4s are a convenient way of getting around and cabbies always have things to talk about.
And if all else fails, you can always choose to walk everywhere, and most Barentsburgians do like to walk the city, after all with crisp, clean air walking is always good.
To get to and from Barentsburg, the city is well connected thanks the Auroran Terra-Link network of surface and subterranean motorways, here with a 100km/hr speed limit that is strictly enforced you can get to most major cities in the nation, other roads include gravel roads which form the bulk of the transport connections in the north of the Aurora confederacy, here the roads are simply graded gravel roads and do not have tarmac, asphalt or concrete surfacing.
Dont want to drive, then there is also the railway network. Barentsburg is a major stop on the highspeed Orbis line that runs to Valeria Port Aurora all the way down to the capital city of Lake Hai'lu'kai. Barentsburg is also a major stop on the regular network with high speed TGX and low speed commuter trains operated by both VIPER and Trans Polar as well as some Astyrail companies, thereby giving international rail connections to destinations across Astyria. Travelling even on the high speed ORBIS at speed in excess of 320km/h is a good 18 hour trip.
Railway stations and other public buildings have a full inter-linked public address system, this usually plays soft classical music to sooth people as they wait for trains or be seen to in city hall, its primary purpose is for emergency message transmission however it spends most of its time playing music on a loop which on the railway stations is only interrupted for train announcements.
Barentsburg Cathedral
Such is the accoustics of the building that it has been used for some music events with the Lake Hai'lu'kai Symphony Orchestra playing there for a concert in the late 1990s to a sell out crowd. Father Sten Hansen has his rectory building a short walk from the cathedral.
Economy
The economy of Barentsburg once depended on fishing, and to a large part, fishing still plays an important role within the economy as such there is a large fishing port in the city located to the north of the city close to where the new power station is being built, other sources of revenue have been through the nuclear industry with the building of the original power station but also now, the new station with its twin gas cooled reactor design. Tourism is also especially strong and with the national park just a short drive away, Tourism and tourist revenue is seen as vital.
Barentsburg is also home to a large port complex though now not many cargo ships use it though vehicle carriers do use it as a vehicle export location in which to load up Diamond Star cars and trucks for export, it is also a port in which to get a cruise ship to go to Romberg and its arctic islands, Employment prospects can be found here. In addition to this, cruise liners can be boarded for cruises up to the Romberg Arctic Islands.
Communications
Barentsburg has excellent 4g mobile phone service inside the city, however once you are outside the city then mobile phone service fades away to non existant and so it is advisable that if you wish to explore the outlying areas then you get a satellite phone or a two-way radio. Inside the city, all public buildings have free internet with excellent high speed connectivity. An internet service is also carried on the trains so those who need or want to surf the internet can do so as they travel on the train to or from the city and ALL hotels have cable TV as standard. With Barentsburg, like all of the Aurora Confederacy using a voltage of 110v direct current, you will also need to get new chargers for your devices.
Crime & Punishment, Law and Order
The city is like any other city but here, the police keep crime down and as unemployment is a generator of crime and thanks to the low unemployment of the city there isn't much violent crime though the city also has an extencive CCTV system so what ever you do, the police and security forces know what you have done, where you have done it and when you did it.
Guns, unless they are bolt action rifles are illegal unless you are a serving member of the self-defence forces of the nation or the police, and even then you can't simply pull out your service pistol and use it as there are significant amounts of paperwork to fill out for such events and the average Barentsburg citizen is not the type to walk around toting guns, mass shootings are rare in the Aurora Confederacy. Police in the Aurora Confederacy are however routinely armed but trained rather than to use the pistol first, to talk down the situation so it can be resolved peacefully however if things get hot they can and do use their firearms.
About a kilometer outside the city, there is Barentsburg Prison, known locally as "The penetentiary" or "the pent", housing 500 inmates with a capacity of 600, Barentsburg prison is one of 4 in the north of the country and houses a mix of petty criminals and hardened criminals doing time for murder. There is no death row in the Aurora Confederacy but as prison terms follow each other, prison sentences can be long. (Get arrested for a triple murder, thats a minimum term of 75 years). Trials in Barentsburg are carried out at the city courthouse, its also where you can choose to pay fines for misdemeanours such as parking violations, speeding tickets and other offences that carry a fine to pay as punishment rather than a prison term.
It is advisabale to be kind to the judge!
Climate
Barentsburg, being slightly north of the arctic circle has a polar climate, from October 26 until feb 16 there is no daylight at all and from April 19 until August 24 the sun doesn't set. As a result of the long polar nights Barentsburg is a good place for viewing the northern lights and with snow on the ground for most days of the year especially at night, the city isn't all that dark either during "daytime" which is indicated by all the streetlights being on. During the "night time" of the polar winter days, the streetlights dim down and between midnight and 0500 they are actually turned off in some areas allowing the beauty of the northern lights to be seen.
Climate graph
A few locals:
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