Wed, 13 Aug 2003

author Tim	location St. Pauli, Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 16:20 CEST 18/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Finland ( all photos )

Goodbye Helsinki ( 12 photos )
Having both run out of our three day tourist ticket and things that we really wanted to do, we spent the morning lazing in for the first time in a while.
Around 3pm we got organised, packed up the bus and drove into town to locate the Viking Line terminal.
During our wait in the queue, where we were kept for a long while as they found a space our unique-height van could best occupy, we took some photos showing the size of our vessel - the Mariella. This was something quite different to all other ferries we have caught, and I was constantly reminded of a trip on the now-defunct Fairstar the Funship I took with my family many years ago.
Eventually aboard, we set out to explore the ship. Numerous bars, several restaurants and cafés, obligatory duty free and our cosy little cabin were all highlights. We were up on one of the higher decks and to our suprise had our own toilet and shower - the girl had certainly done the right thing by us when she couldn't book exactly what we wanted.
We were up on deck in the fantastic weather as the ship pulled away from the docks, staying there for quite a while just taking in the fabulous vistas, including the Zoo and Suomenlinna where we had visited - we almost felt like locals.
In fact, it felt like we were going somewhere for months, not permanently! There were people waiving and everything, and this was only a sixteen hour ferry ride. There was some on-deck entertainment for a while, but the wind eventually got the better of us, so we headed inside.
We settled on a Grill House for dinner, which was a little more expensive than we would have liked, but the fun of dining in a moving restaurant made up for it.
We had a look through the duty free shop, not wanting to buy anything major after our huge stock-up on the Estonia trip, but instead found some everyday items very cheap - coffee, olives, etc.
The night was spent watching some entertaining (in a laugh-at-them-not-with-them way) Swedish or Finish karaoke - no idea which, it didn't really matter. The sight of people singing along horribly to songs you have never heard with backing videos shot out of someone's car as they drove through a city will stay with me for a while, whether I want it or not.
Declining to join in, even though we would have done better than some of the participants despite not having a clue what we would have been singing about, we headed back to our little cabin, and enjoyed a great night's sleep.
Somewhere during the night, our clocks changed an hour and we crossed back into Swedish waters.

(customised)