August 28, 2013
A long boat trip and a lot of islands: And a familiar face
It was a good job that I had found the ferry port the evening before, because actually finding the right place to go was rather difficult. I couldn't go into the foot passenger doors, so I went to the terminal and tried to check in automatically there but the machine told me I had to go to the car check-in so I went out and followed the only signs which said Finland and they took me to the cargo check-in, there was even a bike sign so I continued, surrounded by big trucks. I went in to a check-in building and was told I was again in the wrong place and to go back a kilometre up the road to the car check-in which was in no way signposted for Finland. When I eventually did all that, I arrived just in time to see my ferry, which looked more like a cruise ship, still docked up and ready for boarding. The queue of cars was very short and I was allowed to board the ship first.
The journey from Stockholm to Turku took about eleven hours and for almost all of that time we were navigating past countless small islands. It is actually quite incredible how many islands there are and even more incredible how these big cruise ships manage to navigate between them. There were lots of these boats, coming from and going to ports all over the Baltics, and sometimes passing just a few metres from the islands and finding a way through.
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The ship arrived into the port of Turku, Finland at around seven in the evening, but this time I was the last one off the boat. When I was finally allowed to leave I cycled off to see a familiar face, and a very welcome one. Karin had a couple of weeks of holiday and she had travelled from Germany by train and boat to Helsinki and over the last couple of days by bicycle from Helsinki to Turku. She met me off the boat and we now had nine days together for a relaxed cycle through Finland and back to Helsinki.
More immediately we had to find a place to sleep. Karin had managed to organise us a place to stay through couchsurfing and it was a ten kilometre cycle to the edge of the town where we found our host Sammi. He was a very pleasant Finnish man who made us feel very welcome. The most curious thing about his apartment were the two turtles he kept in his living room. I felt like they were eyeing Karin and I suspiciously. Rather more curiously, Sammi took the turtles out of their big plastic tank at night and put them in a bucket, covered them in a towel, and left them in the bathroom. He said they preferred to sleep there. I wondered how they let him know this.
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 4,347 km (2,699 miles)
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