Copenhagen-Stockhom-Viking Line
ferry-Turku-Helsinki
Today was a long day of all travel.
Train ride to Stockholm was relatively
uneventful. I got booked into second class which meant i missed out
on free tea/coffee and wifi but was made ok by the cool people in my
carriage. There was beautiful Swedish scenery the whole way –
mainly forests, lakes and meadows which made the 4-5 hours pretty
much fly by.
Stockholm is a pretty big city but my
life was made heaps easier by the bus station being right across from
the train station with a viking line sign in the window – sweet as
– was able to board a shuttle that took me right to the ferry
terminal (beats having to figure out yet another city's metro
system).
At 7pm i boarded the Viking Line ferry
– a big ship she was (though not quite as big as the luxery cruise
liners we passed). I had a cabin booked with 3 random females. The
cabin was tiny – basically just 2 sets of bunks a couple of tiny
chairs and a very cute sized ensuite. Luckily i managed to force my
pack under the seat cos there was really nowhere else to put it.
Typical me went to the wrong bed (didn't see the label on the bunk)
and had to change it which was cool by me but when the rightful
occupant of the bed came in there was a heck of a fracas (in
Swedish). Apparently there was no way she could sleep in a bed that
was unmade (i'd had to unfold the sheets in order to unfold the bed)
and she went off to inform the crew. So i was thinking great i get
stuck with some ladida lady (don't know why she booked a shared
cabin) – but later on she turned out to be quite nice.
The ferry ride was absolutely
spectacular. At about 11pm i was sprawled on a deck chair watching
the story-book island vistas go by – complete with a background of
perpetual sunset. Small villages were tucked away on the
archipelago, all with sailing boats parked in their docks and once
it got dark(ish) their lights made it all the more magical. Heaven,
apart from the stiff breeze. I was outside with only a handful of
other people (the smokers, the camera tauters and the kids) – all
the rest were inside frantically duty-free shopping. You've never
seen such a sight. Pretty much everyone came out with bags laden
with booze, cigarettes and candy. Then there was all the cosmetics
and clothes. Sheesh!
After getting rudely awoken (someone
literally went round banging on everyone's doors) at about 5am (we
had just arrived in Finland which is an hour ahead, something i had
blocked out of my mind) and having just enough time to get dressed
and gobble a banana – we arrived in Turku. You could tell straight
away that you weren't in mainstream Western Europe anymore – mainly
cos everyone has bigger cars (normal sized ones), and a large
percentage of the population are blond – oh, and there are many
more boats everywhere. Scandinavia just has a different feel to it.
I had a couple of hours to see Turku
before heading to Helsinki. Basically just checked out the market
square. One interesting thing – in Finland they sell veges and
fruit by the litre and they have their own metal jars of various
sizes that they dish the fruit out in. Weird, and hard if you only
want a couple of tomatoes or 100g of something. All i did after that
was head out along the river to Turku's castle. Castle was pretty
cool but otherwise Turku didn't impress me that much.
On the train to Helsinki i had pretty
much a whole business class compartment to myself (after the lady at
the train station insisted it would be full and i had better reserve
a seat). This time round it came with free tea/coffee and biscuits.
Choice! it was another pretty trip through forested villages, though
this time there were some bigger towns as well (some with very very
neat architecture – there is a lot of that in Finland).
I arrived in Helsinki, and thanks to
the most helpful lady in the world at the bus ticket office, made my
way confidently to the Euro Hostel on the tram. The Eurohostel was a
nice enough place – had a cafe and a kitchen on every floor. Well,
a kitchen of sorts – no sharp knives (had to use a butter knife to
hack up my cucumber), hardly any dishes and there was a fridge made
up of small fridge safes for which you had to get a key – just so
you can feel secure that your food is safe! My room was nice (just 2
beds) and i had a really sweet roommate called Katya who was from St
Petersburg and had just come off a 7 hour bus trip from there (where
you are not allowed any food on board!).
