Tuesday August 27, Cruise from Stockholm
I took a nice walk to get to the cruise ship and did not have to show any ID as I told them my confirmation number. I found the boat to be like a compact hotel with low ceilings. I found my cabin in the lowest deck which was below the car storage deck! I thought that was funny. Our cabin had no windows. A tall, skinny balder than me guy was in there settling in. He is Sylvain from Paris. We talked quite a bit aboard the ship. His English isn't as good as the guy from Paris that I met in Oslo. But it's funny when he says "yesyesyes" when he is following you. And he also has a very distinctive single "yes" when it's like a "you bet" or a "definitely". He's an architect that was able to become independent after working for smaller firms. He studied in Montreal, Canada during his bachelor's degree. Real good guy who is always up to explore and has perhaps more walking around stamina than I do.
The boat itself was slightly more ghetto in aspects than I thought. For instance, the deck had no chairs on the very top. There where some high benches which were just life vest storage on lower outdoor decks. People would just chain smoke out there, it was nasty. I'm still surprised at how many people smoke here. It's crazy. It's bad for you.
Despite some shortcomings of the deck, the Viking Buffet that I paid 33 euros for was pretty good. It wasn't worth what I paid mostly because I only had one glass of wine. If I was boozing, I'm sure I could have got my money's worth. It was really nice to eat dinner at my own table and my own pace with a view of all the islands going by. I took a bunch of pictures, but they mostly look like this.
I met up with Sylvain again, and we got a few drinks as we watched this cover band called Radio City play a bunch of American songs. They were a lot of fun. Not super high energy, but fun. They had two pretty singers: a shorter blonde and a taller brunette. The blonde I liked better because of her whole package I guess. She played the saxophone and had standout black glasses on. Sounded like maybe she was from the UK. They played lots and lots of stuff I knew. Bad moon on the rise, It's a quarter after 1 I'm a little drunk and I need you now, Billy Jean, Call Me (Blondie). My favorite was probably Get ready cause here I come that appears in Dumb and Dumber. It was so funny to hear all these American songs on a cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki. They did play some ABBA, too.
Wednesday August 27, Cruise and first day in Helsinki
We checked out the night club and it looked like people were dancing with friends, so we went back to the cabin. The beds fold down and the third guy in the cabin had TONS of stuff. A giant roller suitcase and a backpack. And when I got in (earlier to get a sweater), it seemed like he was rearranging everything. He was asleep when we got in and got ready. After a few hours, possibly when we got to open sea, you could actually tell we were in a boat. At other times, the only way you could tell was by a gentle rumbling under your feet. Anyway, went to bed and at 2:00, I wake up to this blaring Muslim chant from the 3rd guy's phone. It reminded me of a call to prayer or something. But it kept going, verse after verse. And of course, he didn't wake up remotely. So I just mashed buttons on his phone until it went off. I guess I'm a bit of a light sleeper. It was funny and annoying.
The cabin had no windows due to its lowest position on the ship, so 9:30 looked like 2:00. I got up and went to the exit deck. Some guy with long scraggly hair in a hippy hemp like sweater missing at least his front two teeth (might have been front four) came up to me and said "hey, man!" I said hi. He said, "let me hug you, man!" I think he had some accent. I reeled back and said why? He just said because. So, I brought it in and hugged me hard. It was weird. But welcoming.. I guess?
Walked with Sylvain to the tourist center and then ate at a Lebanese buffet for 9.8 euros. It was only one trip, but we made it count since I had no breakfast. Talked for a bit (he has traveled a lot, doing volunteer work in Cambodia, too) and then went back to our respective hostels. Mine is much closer than his. I'm staying at Help Hostel and he was at Cheap Sleep. Kinda funny names, but I appreciate that they are in English.
The hostel is funny. I'm in the male dormitory but there is only a curtain to close it off from the hallway. And the curtains are held up by wimpy little clips and keep falling down. Oh well, you gotta put some of your social norms on the shelf when you sleep 3 feet away from people you don't know. My bed is definitely bowed in the center from a cheap mattress being slept in a lot. The pillow is very thin and I have to put clothes under it just so it feels like my head is elevated. The bathrooms are very small. If I sit down to use the toilet, my head is about 3 inches from the wall in my normal stance. There is only one shower for all probably 20 beds. There's a sauna that I'm planning on trying today (Sunday Sept 1). But all that aside, it is a very tidy hostel. It gets a bit loud in the morning with everyone using the bathrooms and only a curtain and 15 feet of hallway between us. But the nights are quiet (except for Thursday night, more on that later) and it's easy to sleep.
I went to the Music Hall after that. It's a modern building with a few good sculptures and a park out back. People meet their friends and drink beer on the benches of each level or tier. There is this one African dude who goes around collecting cans pretty aggressively from people. He told these guys next to me he'd be back in 5 minutes to check on their cans and then said "by my watch and warrant" and I was like, holy crap, this guy is serious about collecting cans! He came back twice and the guys weren't finished yet. They told them "we are just chilling, man" in a Finnish accent. One guy was black and said his family was from Ghana I think. I liked that building. Here are a few pictures.
The silver sculpture is inside the foyer (spelling?) where the blue carpet was covered to avoid getting dirty for the night's event. I went back later to use the restroom there and was totally out of place. All the men where in suits, the women in nice evening dresses. I strolled in wearing my white hiking shirt, hiking pants, converse and a Dodgers hat. I was careful to not cross the blue carpet too much where everyone was waiting to get in.
Sylvain and I met up for dinner at this weird kinda tourist place my guidebook recommended. I had a very dry piece of chicken topped with cheese and bacon on a bed of delicious lightly fried potato coins. Sylvain had cut up marinated reindeer atop mashed potatoes and possibly some lingenberries. He said if you told him it was beef he wouldn't have known otherwise. It was overpriced. The decor was wacky. It was like hokey western, but no bull skulls or vultures. The bathroom wallpaper was older pictures of topless and naked women. It was odd. The pie for dessert was good, though.
Sylvain's English isn't top notch and he's a fairly quiet person, so it did feel a bit like a date where I had to keep asking questions to keep the conversation going. It was nice to retire and get a good night's sleep after the call to prayer jolted me awake earlier that morning.
I took a nice walk to get to the cruise ship and did not have to show any ID as I told them my confirmation number. I found the boat to be like a compact hotel with low ceilings. I found my cabin in the lowest deck which was below the car storage deck! I thought that was funny. Our cabin had no windows. A tall, skinny balder than me guy was in there settling in. He is Sylvain from Paris. We talked quite a bit aboard the ship. His English isn't as good as the guy from Paris that I met in Oslo. But it's funny when he says "yesyesyes" when he is following you. And he also has a very distinctive single "yes" when it's like a "you bet" or a "definitely". He's an architect that was able to become independent after working for smaller firms. He studied in Montreal, Canada during his bachelor's degree. Real good guy who is always up to explore and has perhaps more walking around stamina than I do.
The boat itself was slightly more ghetto in aspects than I thought. For instance, the deck had no chairs on the very top. There where some high benches which were just life vest storage on lower outdoor decks. People would just chain smoke out there, it was nasty. I'm still surprised at how many people smoke here. It's crazy. It's bad for you.
Despite some shortcomings of the deck, the Viking Buffet that I paid 33 euros for was pretty good. It wasn't worth what I paid mostly because I only had one glass of wine. If I was boozing, I'm sure I could have got my money's worth. It was really nice to eat dinner at my own table and my own pace with a view of all the islands going by. I took a bunch of pictures, but they mostly look like this.
I met up with Sylvain again, and we got a few drinks as we watched this cover band called Radio City play a bunch of American songs. They were a lot of fun. Not super high energy, but fun. They had two pretty singers: a shorter blonde and a taller brunette. The blonde I liked better because of her whole package I guess. She played the saxophone and had standout black glasses on. Sounded like maybe she was from the UK. They played lots and lots of stuff I knew. Bad moon on the rise, It's a quarter after 1 I'm a little drunk and I need you now, Billy Jean, Call Me (Blondie). My favorite was probably Get ready cause here I come that appears in Dumb and Dumber. It was so funny to hear all these American songs on a cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki. They did play some ABBA, too.
Wednesday August 27, Cruise and first day in Helsinki
We checked out the night club and it looked like people were dancing with friends, so we went back to the cabin. The beds fold down and the third guy in the cabin had TONS of stuff. A giant roller suitcase and a backpack. And when I got in (earlier to get a sweater), it seemed like he was rearranging everything. He was asleep when we got in and got ready. After a few hours, possibly when we got to open sea, you could actually tell we were in a boat. At other times, the only way you could tell was by a gentle rumbling under your feet. Anyway, went to bed and at 2:00, I wake up to this blaring Muslim chant from the 3rd guy's phone. It reminded me of a call to prayer or something. But it kept going, verse after verse. And of course, he didn't wake up remotely. So I just mashed buttons on his phone until it went off. I guess I'm a bit of a light sleeper. It was funny and annoying.
The cabin had no windows due to its lowest position on the ship, so 9:30 looked like 2:00. I got up and went to the exit deck. Some guy with long scraggly hair in a hippy hemp like sweater missing at least his front two teeth (might have been front four) came up to me and said "hey, man!" I said hi. He said, "let me hug you, man!" I think he had some accent. I reeled back and said why? He just said because. So, I brought it in and hugged me hard. It was weird. But welcoming.. I guess?
Walked with Sylvain to the tourist center and then ate at a Lebanese buffet for 9.8 euros. It was only one trip, but we made it count since I had no breakfast. Talked for a bit (he has traveled a lot, doing volunteer work in Cambodia, too) and then went back to our respective hostels. Mine is much closer than his. I'm staying at Help Hostel and he was at Cheap Sleep. Kinda funny names, but I appreciate that they are in English.
The hostel is funny. I'm in the male dormitory but there is only a curtain to close it off from the hallway. And the curtains are held up by wimpy little clips and keep falling down. Oh well, you gotta put some of your social norms on the shelf when you sleep 3 feet away from people you don't know. My bed is definitely bowed in the center from a cheap mattress being slept in a lot. The pillow is very thin and I have to put clothes under it just so it feels like my head is elevated. The bathrooms are very small. If I sit down to use the toilet, my head is about 3 inches from the wall in my normal stance. There is only one shower for all probably 20 beds. There's a sauna that I'm planning on trying today (Sunday Sept 1). But all that aside, it is a very tidy hostel. It gets a bit loud in the morning with everyone using the bathrooms and only a curtain and 15 feet of hallway between us. But the nights are quiet (except for Thursday night, more on that later) and it's easy to sleep.
I went to the Music Hall after that. It's a modern building with a few good sculptures and a park out back. People meet their friends and drink beer on the benches of each level or tier. There is this one African dude who goes around collecting cans pretty aggressively from people. He told these guys next to me he'd be back in 5 minutes to check on their cans and then said "by my watch and warrant" and I was like, holy crap, this guy is serious about collecting cans! He came back twice and the guys weren't finished yet. They told them "we are just chilling, man" in a Finnish accent. One guy was black and said his family was from Ghana I think. I liked that building. Here are a few pictures.
The silver sculpture is inside the foyer (spelling?) where the blue carpet was covered to avoid getting dirty for the night's event. I went back later to use the restroom there and was totally out of place. All the men where in suits, the women in nice evening dresses. I strolled in wearing my white hiking shirt, hiking pants, converse and a Dodgers hat. I was careful to not cross the blue carpet too much where everyone was waiting to get in.
Sylvain and I met up for dinner at this weird kinda tourist place my guidebook recommended. I had a very dry piece of chicken topped with cheese and bacon on a bed of delicious lightly fried potato coins. Sylvain had cut up marinated reindeer atop mashed potatoes and possibly some lingenberries. He said if you told him it was beef he wouldn't have known otherwise. It was overpriced. The decor was wacky. It was like hokey western, but no bull skulls or vultures. The bathroom wallpaper was older pictures of topless and naked women. It was odd. The pie for dessert was good, though.
Sylvain's English isn't top notch and he's a fairly quiet person, so it did feel a bit like a date where I had to keep asking questions to keep the conversation going. It was nice to retire and get a good night's sleep after the call to prayer jolted me awake earlier that morning.
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