September 6, 2013
I Am Sailing: Ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn.
I had been expecting the ferry to cost something like a hundred and sixty Euros, so Had withdrawn two thousand Swedish crones at the ATM. It was a nice surprise then when the man at the ticket desk said the price one way with a bike, economy cabin, was four-hundred and ninety-five Swedish crones, or fifty-six Euros; meaning, I'd some spare cash to spend during the sailing.
This would be the most relaxing ferry of this journey, as all the Summer-holidaymakers with their screaming kids had gone. There were plenty of places to sit. I had had a really big lunch at a vegetarian buffet restaurant before boarding so settled for a chicken rap for supper in the "Tango Cafeteria", which had a retro feel what with brown veneer panelled walls. I had a half litre of beer with my sandwich. There was only one other person in the place, a man sat with a computer open on the table in front of him. Then a burly guy, one of the crue came in, browsed and ordered a hamburger, conversing with the woman behind the counter loudly in what I think was Estonian; it was totally uncomprehendible.
I was on my third glass of beer. I felt the need to celibrate, as leaving Sweden meant, beer would be affordable in the countries ahead of me. Then the evening's entertainment began. A group of six young Swedish guys came in; to the fore, a boisterous one with shoulder-length dark hair swept back and tied in a small pony-tail. He was clearly drunk as he staggered from side to side and his friends behind him were in stitches laughing. "Pizza!" he shouted out to the woman behind the counter. "Would you like..." but before the woman could finish, he shouted "Swedish half Russian chick!", which set his friends off in roars of laughter. I felt sorry for the woman, but he was harmless. He got his pizza. Then they all came with their drinks and sat at the table across from me. When he saw me still laughing he waved and shouted over "okay!"
I slept well in the cabin bunk and was awakened by the ship's tannoy announcing in Swedish, then Estonian, and finally in English "Good morning. We will be arriving in Tallinn in one and a half hours". I rolled out of bed quickly, as did the guy in the other bunk. He complained that he'd slept badly as his bed was very hard, "it was like a stone".
The buffet breakfast was different: a lot of pate and bowls of salads swimming in maionaise. I expect Estonian fare. I had a bit of a headache and so nothing much appealed to me, so I had some cake and coffee with plenty more coffee.
The disembarking was the usually opening the car-deck door to the din of trucks ticking over and forgetting which side of the ship I'd left the bike. Then the ride off following the long slow moving line of traffic out of the port, onto a busy road. There were no signs for the centre, none which I'd understand, so I headed towards church spires.
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