4. Stockholm to Helsinki: June 11, 2024

On the Baltic to Helsinki and Oulu from Stockholm

Terve Terve….

Hope all is well.
Just a reminder: Feel free to delete these daily travel blogs; I know sometimes they are long. Frankly, I mostly write them so I can remember where I’ve been and what I saw and did when traveling out of the country. I started doing them in 2005 (I think) and I believe the collection includes more than 35 countries and an untold number of cities. Some of you have been reading them for nearly 20 years. While I had traveled a lot before 2005 (I think total countries visited by now is 75 or so), it was in 2005, when I was heading to Romania with a friend, I was asked by someone who grew up in Romania and hadn’t been back since the 1950s to send comments about what I was seeing. I did that daily for the whole trip and sent the notes without photos to him and about 5 other people. Those people passed the notes around to others who then asked to get these travel notes. Thus began an almost 20-year (and counting) travel diary. And I have put about 80% of them on a blog, but I have never had time to get the photos onto the site, so I have not publicly ‘launched” the blog; a project for me once I retire! – but you can find many of them on fernstravelnotes.wordpress.com.

Today (Tuesday, June 11) began leisurely with breakfast at the Bank Hotel; finally, a bright sunny day (or at least at the onset). We had planned to head to Victoriahuset, the botanical garden which supposedly has the largest water lilies in the world. It sounded like a good plan. But we had to pack carefully so that we wouldn’t really need to repack while on the ferry from Stockholm to Finland. So once packed, we just strolled the neighborhood near the hotel, focusing mostly on the waterfront and the blocks that lead up to it. We strolled past wonderful art nouveau-era apartment buildings and cafes and lots of people taking advantage of the crisp, sunny day. Then suddenly, open-air truckloads of teenagers passed by— screaming and jumping and waving. They had all just graduated from high school; some were wearing their “white hats.” There are a lot of traditions surrounding high school graduation in Sweden—beginning with a champagne brunch at home with family. Also, I’m told, that after the graduation ceremony as students branch out to find their families, families hold up large photos of the graduate as an infant! How embarrassing is that! And then with flowers in hand and more champagne, students go onto these big open trucks—all standing—that have banners and signs (given my lack of Swedish I have no idea what the signs said). The trucks drive around town playing loud (very loud) music and the grads drink (and pour champagne on one another’s head) and sing, and honk horns and I suppose have a good time. Other drivers honk and people on the street (including me) wave.

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor café and then headed to get our bags and get to the “ferry.”

We have a lot of memories taking this ferry when we first went to live in Finland decades ago. We had arrived in Europe (first time for both Mike and me)—first in Hamburg, Germany to buy a Volkswagen which we used for the year in Finland and then for a few more years in the states, having brought it back with us on the SS France. From Hamburg we drove to Lubeck and then through Denmark and then a short ferry to Stockholm to visit Mike’s brother who was living in Sweden at the time. And from Stockholm we drove onto the overnight ferry in our VW and arrived in Helsinki the next morning. In all the years and all the trips, we’ve made back to Helsinki we never again took the ferry because it just seemed like it was a bit too leisurely and we’d lose an entire day and night from our travels. But we remembered the ferry fondly—especially the extraordinary smorgasbord dinner. So, for this trip we decided to relive that part of our journey.

So here we are, and here I am typing in our cabin on the “ferry.” I’m using the word “ferry” very loosely, because I always think of a ferry as a casual vehicle that moves passengers and goods on a regular basis. The ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki is now sort of an overnight cruise ship (or at least my sense of what a cruise ship must be like, never having experienced it). It’s huge—at least twice as high and twice as long as the ferry of our past. There are 12 floors; our cabin is on the 11th floor. On the 6th level is the “grand buffet” which is like the smorgasbord we remembered but on steroids… with cutesy names at each food “station” letting you know if it’s Italian or French or whatever. When we took the ferry years ago, it was just a very typical Swedish/Finnish smorgasbord. In those days, many people (especially Finns) took the ferry back and forth because booze was really cheap… so by evening you had a lot of drunks on the ferry. Now, there are literally more than 70 items at the buffet. They have two seatings, with the latest being at 7:30. We opted out of this buffet in favor of one of the two small “restaurants” on the ship. So, we will eat late (as opposed to the buffet whose last seating is at 7:30.)

Our cabin is sweet, with a large window to watch the passing countryside filled with forests and little weekend cabins. That is a big step up from the first crossing where we must have been somewhere in the bowels of the ferry with a little porthole for a window. A few other new additions that were difficult to take in… there is now a karaoke club, other entertainment (somewhere if you can find it), a swimming pool, several jacuzzis, of course saunas, and a small casino with legalized gambling. And while years ago, there was a little liquor store on the ferry which was always crowded as I recall because passengers could purchase liquor tax free…. Now there is an entire level of the ferry (7th floor) that has what I would call a “mall.” There are shops galore lining two sides of a walkway that goes the entire length of the ferry—complete with Tommy Hilfilger and Marimekko and assorted chain stores. There’s even a MacDonald’s here (in case you cannot live without a Big Mac for one night). The view from the interior rooms is of the mall. Glad we didn’t go that route.

And because of the time of the year (almost midnight sun) it’s fascinating to watch the sun go down (at about 11:00pm!

Ah how the times have changed. Anyway, it’s a nice smooth crossing with just one stop in Mariehamn (which was always the case). Mariehamn is the capital of Åland which is an autonomous territory somehow under Finnish control (I think), although the residents use Swedish as their primary language (long story). Population of Mariehamn is about 12,000. Åland, which is situated in a Finnish archipelago, is comprised of about 6,000 islands; most people live on Fasta. Population of Åland is about 30,000. The term “autonomous” refers to the fact that the kind of decisions that are generally made by representatives of the Finnish government on provincial matters are actually made by Åland’s own government. Åland has its own flag and postage stamps and runs its own police department. Åland has a seat in the Finnish Parliament.

I always wanted to visit, but somehow, we never did. Maybe next time.

OK… signing off for now. If you receive this on Tuesday afternoon NY time (early afternoon California time), you’ll know the wi-fi on the ferry works.

Best..
Nakemiin (Good bye) and Hyvää yötä (Good night).
Fern

PS: Mike says that I should have described the train stations as having a Fred Flintstone quality.