Day 13: Stockholm

Monday, August 26

Not gonna lie, was kind of excited to get out of that hostel. Got up, got breakfast, took a shower, ordered my tickets for the Berlin Fantastic Film Festival (and was very happy to get all seven films on my wishlist), packed my bag, and out the door i went.
    I didn't really have anything left on my list to do while i was in Stockholm. Time wasn't exactly tight, but it wasn't exactly open ended today, either. I walked directly over to the Viking Lines ferry terminal.
    It was already almost 11am by the time i was doing this. It was a two-mile walk to the ferry terminal. I went past the Museum of Photography on the way, which i had considered going to a few times during my stay, but never quite made it.
    Viking has two terminals in their port. Just after the Museum of Photography, i encountered the first one, and saw an enormous cruise ship docked there. I saw "Viking" on its bow, and the red Viking Lines banner across the gates, and i said, oh shit. Surely this is not my ferry. I had not pictured such an enormous vessel. But then i checked the map, and nah, i still had half a mile to go.
    I knew the name of the ship i'd be sailing on tonight was Gabriella, so when i approached the second terminal and saw an almost-as-large monstrosity of a boat waiting there, with GABRIELLA emblazoned proudly across her hull, i realized that, yes, my ferry basically is a cruise ship.
    Now that i'd scouted out my ship and knew where it was and where to enter, I walked back toward the first terminal. We didn't actually depart until 4:30, and i couldn't check in until 3. But i had some friends to meet!
    Jon & Wendy Heise have been friends of my family for longer than i have been alive. i consider their sons, Zack and Josh, to be my oldest friends. Jon & Wendy are both happily retired now, and were heading out on a Viking cruise around Scandinavia, coincidentally starting in Stockholm during my last day in town. I couldn't believe it when i found out we were even leaving from the same port.
    The Museum of Photography is right by the entry to the cruise ship terminal. I thought i'd walk around a bit and check it out while i waited. I knew they'd landed safely, and had worked their way through customs, they were just wrangling some luggage and would be headed over.
    I didn't feel that it was worth paying the entry fee to the museum with the limited amount of time i had, but i walked around the gift shop a bit, which was...a little kitschier than i expected. Lotta kitsch on this trip. That's what i get for going to touristy places.
    The museum's actual café is inside and can't be accessed without admission, but they have a veranda outside, which was serving drinks and food. I got a table and a Swedish cider and took a load off while i waited. By which i mean, "got the bag of bricks off my shoulders and cracked the concrete with it."
    It was so good to see Jon & Wendy! Very happy to see some friendly faces on this tour, even for just a little bit. We swapped travel stories, talked about their cruise & my destinations coming up, and had a pretty good visit. Wendy has been reading my blog (hi Wendy!), which is how they knew i'd be in Stockholm, and how we ended up connecting. Inspired by what i've written, they got the fika.

    They were able to get on their ship at 2, and since they'd just flown in from Chicago, they thought they'd board right away and get a nap in, to combat the jet lag. With at least an hour, possibly two, to burn yet before i had to be on the boat, i thought about taking the time to go through the museum, and even headed into the gift shop, but ultimately decided against it. I browsed a corner of the shop that i'd missed before, which had a few prints of some of the photos i assume are on display inside, and then i left.
    I headed back to my ferry terminal. There wasn't really much else to see in this corner of Stockholm, and i didn't want to get too far away, so i thought i'd just hang out in the building until boarding time.
    There were self-check-in kiosks as soon as i entered the building, so i went ahead and did that. The kiosk then printed me a boarding pass and pointed me toward security, which was unmanned, but my pass opened the door, so i just went through. I followed the signs to the boat, and ended up boarding well before 3.
    So i hunted down my cabin, room 2050, which i found on the very lowest level of the boat. I'm pretty sure i'm underwater. The two levels above me are vehicle parking. There's no windows, the ship's wifi doesn't reach down there, and my phone gets no signal. Lovely.
    However! I do have my own private toilet and shower!
    There are four beds that flip down from the walls. I was concerned about this for a minute; i know i picked the cheapest options on everything, but i thought i was getting a private cabin? Was i about to have roommates? In this tiny space? It's only a 16 hour trip so it wouldn't be that big of a deal, i just had hoped to spread out, do some data management, repack my bag, that sort of thing. It would just be nice to have a little privacy again, if only for one night.
    Plus there's no safe or anywhere to lock up my belongings.
    I didn't want to carry my bag around while i explored the ship, though, so i left it in the room anyway. This ship has a thousand rooms. There's no way there's so many people traveling between Stockholm and Helsinki every day that they'd need to stack us in there like pancakes on a Monday, right?
    Once i was upstairs and able to get signal, i checked my confirmation email, and it does look like i've paid for a cabin. I was paranoid and i went back to check the room a couple of times over the next few hours, but no one else had moved in. I think i'm safe. With four beds to spread out on.
    I explored the ship for a bit. Restaurants, game rooms for kids (including a ball pit), gambling rooms for adults, duty free shop, everything you'd expect. I found a bar out on the deck at the back of the ship with live entertainment. They were playing bingo when i got back there. With this many people already on board, i guess i could've gotten in even earlier if i needed to.
    From the bar on the back, i found a staircase leading up to the top of the ship. The whole roof is wide open, so you can just meander about and see everything around you.
    I decided to get some food. I grabbed a shrimp croissant and ordered a chai latte from the smallest, cafeteria-style restaurant. They were out of the chai, unfortunately, so the barista asked if pumpkin spice was okay. Sure. I'm a statistical outlier, i have no strong feelings about pumpkin spice. Then he brought it to my table in a tall glass with a paper straw, which i thought was a strange presentation. But it was good!
    It was a little past 4 at that point, so i headed back up to the roof. I pulled out the 360 camera and just let it run for a while as the ship unmoored and set sail, ten minutes early. I stood up there for over an hour, watching all the islands in the Swedish archipelago pass by. It's serene. And, as has characterized much of my time in Stockholm, windy, but not cold.
    I grabbed a Helsinki Spritz at the bar at the back of the ship, relaxed, and watched the islands go by as i sipped for a bit. That thing must've been hella strong though, because i definitely felt tipsy as i was leaving, and not because the boat was rocking.
    Had dinner at Club Mar, was seated at a small table with a view out the window. I got the vegan burger and "Dirty Fries," which come with sriracha mayo and bacon. So. That's a combo. Also i didn't realize that the burger already came with fries, and the waitress did not inform me when i ordered the combo...sooo... i ate way more fries than the FDA recommends in one sitting, because at that point, i couldn't not, that would be suspicious.
    None of the alcohol options at Club Mar really appealed to me, so i just ordered a Coke Zero, but the place is super fancy, so the waitress brought the can to the table, opened it, and poured half into the wine glass on the table, leaving the other half for me to finish later. This is the fanciest a Coca-Cola has ever made me feel. A real pinky-out situation.
    The burger was really good, but honestly, the bun was doing most of the heavy lifting. It must have been garlic buttered and grilled, the top and bottom had the parallel char marks you'd expect from that. It reminded me of going to the Prime Quarter when i was younger, a grill-your-own steakhouse that my family would visit on very special occasions. They had Texas Toast available to butter and grill right alongside your steak. The building burned down about ten years ago. There's a Kwik Trip there now.
    And that's about it for today! I grabbed my laptop and found a spot in a corridor to sit by a window and watch the boat progress and write out my log. It's dark out now, i think we've passed into Finland's time zone, so all i can really see is the boat's wake churning in the faint light of the lower portholes below, and only if i look down. So maybe i'll just go belowdecks and get naked, because i can.