And another comment from Jan Mayen!

"Theory is when you understand everything, but nothing works - practice is when all works OK but none understands why. At this station we combine theory and practice so nothing works and none understands why."

Per-Einar Dahlen writes, "I was the webmaster and constructor of the Jan Mayen website. We got internet on the island in December 2000 and a few days later the website was online. Jan Mayen was named after a Dutch sailor in early 1600's. At the peak there were more than 1000 Dutch on and around Jan Mayen. They catched whales around the island and making blubber ashore. A lot of the names on the maps are still Dutch and Beerenberg (Beeren-Bergh originally) was named by the Dutch sailors too" :-)

Thanks, Per-Einar - you are now by far the coolest guy from Jan Mayen! Thanks also for translating the sign, it is even funnier than I already thought it was! :-) And I do solemnly swear that I will never catch a whale (or hunt a polar bear) myself. Animals are cool too!

I just discovered something else. No, not an island this time, but a rock band called Jan Mayen! You see, I was right all the time: Jan Mayen really ROCKS!

You can also have a look at an old Dutch map of Jan Mayen here

(1670 by Joan Blaeu, Amsterdam, Holland: 1596-1673)