I woke up
to a cloud-heavy sky threatening to rain, which made it a perfect day for
travelling to Turku, a quick 2 hour train ride on the other side of the
country. Which was made more exciting by a clothing malfunction when my coke
decided to explode as I opened it. Luckily my bag was handy enough for me to be
able to get another shirt!
I arrived in Turku to find the rain well and truly
set in, and weatherproofed my gear in the train station for the 30 minute walk
to yet another hotel, this time not as flash as the first one but conveniently
located at the ferry terminal where I would be catching my next ferry to
Stockholm. Nothing like a long walk in the rain carrying a heavy backpack to
make you appreciate a good hotel bed! After a wee nap I undertook the 3km walk back into town via the waterfront, checking out all the
beautiful old rigged ships and a random giant daisy. Unfortunately all the
museums are closed on a Monday so I planned to hit them the following day. Tip
of the day: When staying in a slightly old hotel on the waterfront in a quiet
town, don’t watch “The Red Dragon” on your own!
One good thing about the hotel was the massive buffet breakfast, so after
stuffing myself I walked down to Turku Castle, where I spent a couple of hours
wandering through the rooms of the rebuilt castle. After a much-needed coffee I
walked down to the Maritime Museum, which didn’t take too long to check out as
not much of the information was in English, though the model ships were great
(if that’s your kind of thing). Since the weather was hideous and there wasn’t
much else to do in town, I decided to try to find a hairdressers to deal with
my mop of hair. Thank goodness they spoke English well as that could have been
a disaster!
