Page 16 - 2003 SVALBARD, NORWAY

The town has a hospital with 3 surgeons, a post office, hotels, a
school, a church, a branch of the University of Norway, a sports

facility, several stores, and many kinds of housing from large
“apartment” houses to individually owned places (becoming more

prevalent in recently years). An architectural board determines
the colors that all dwellings and other buildings are to be painted--
all to relieve the relative colorlessness of this area, particularly in

winter; therefore we saw houses of yellow, pink, brick red, blue,
brown, green, and lots of other shades and this array of colors

certainly does much to improve the rather stark appearing town
built on gravelly sand permafrost with elevated pipes running

everywhere.