Experience: A Megastar was born!

Two years have flown by quickly; I remember when Tallink announced a newbuild for their Shuttle service in early 2015, and it feels like yesterday. Yet, somehow, a whole ship was designed, built and fine-tuned in that time. And she wasn't even rushed at all, which I saw first-hand when I embarked on her maiden voyage on the 29th of January. And I did not only do the first crossing; in fact, I was on board during her entire first day in service, a total of four crossings. In addition to Sverre, with whom I did the entire trip, I met tens of other ship enthusiasts as they also did her first sailings either from Tallinn or Helsinki, or both. In addition to the arrival of the Megastar, there was plenty of other things happening on the Tallinn-Helsinki route to be excited about, as well, such as the thoroughly refit Silja Europa, and the Rosella filling in for the Viking XPRS.

Experience: New Year on Stavangerfjord

Although 2017 has barely started, one thing is for sure - I will remember it as a year I got to welcome on a wonderful cruise. This time it was a special New Year cruise organized by Fjord Line; both the Bergensfjord and the Stavangerfjord were put to do these special cruises, and our choice ended up being the Stavangerfjord from Bergen to Copenhagen via Stavanger, and back. For practical reasons we decided to disembark in Stavanger instead of Bergen, which gave me an additional city to discover.

But before I got to embark on the Stavangerfjord, I had to get to Norway.

Experience: Crown & Pearl Seaways, Bohus & Oslofjord, and best birthday ever!

After disembarking from the Finnsun, I did not actually head home - instead, I flew straight to Norway again and spent a few peaceful days there with Sverre before he had to head back to work on his ship. Nonetheless, already before the end of August I was back in Norway again, this time for a remarkably longer and more adventurous stay, which also included a worthy celebration of my 20th birthday. It also marked the first time I chose to travel to Norway without flying; I started the journey by taking my old favourite Viking Grace to Stockholm.

Experience: No(r)way!? Part 3 - Stena Saga and other fun places

 This is the 3rd part of a trip report. Part 1  Part 2

Following the amazing experience, it was right to take a few days off and chill and enjoy life in Fredrikstad (as well as grow a new jawbone to replace the one I lost in Flåm), though those few days did include a quick trip to nearby Sarpsborg with a visit to Inspiria Science Center and Badeland waterpark.

In my spare time I like to hang out in space

 As we sailed towards Oslo on the Color Magic a few days earlier, I told Sverre that of the ferries sailing from Oslo, Stena Saga is definitely next on my list. And once again, I had no idea that we were already booked for the sailing on the 29th of April.

Experience: No(r)way!? Part 1 - Color Fantasy

Now I've finally come to the point where I can write down one of my absolute highlights of this year so far - my first trip to Norway to visit Sverre, from the 21st of April until the 2nd of May. It was a rather unusual one for me as prior to the trip I didn't know anything except my arrival and departure dates and times, and what to pack. Sverre was the one doing the plans for my stay and he was very keen on keeping it all a secret, so I had no idea what to expect and didn't really fully believe anything was happening at all until I sat on the plane.

How to kill time before a trip, the my way.

I'm quite certain I already have shared this "Five stages of travel" graph once, at some point, somewhere; afterall, if I had to choose any picture to describe my life, this would most certainly be it, because while there is a lot more to my life, this is what occupies the largest space in my brain. Though one rather important part missing from the picture would be waiting. Of course, having daily duties to attend to, such as school, helps a lot with making time fly faster. But nonetheless, more than once I've found myself anxiously waiting for a trip with a few too many completely free and unplanned days to get over with first. And how would a travel addict solve such a situation? Of course, by booking a quick mini-trip.

Experience: A wave of Baltic Sea ferry madness

In Mid-March, I took another Baltic trip with Sverre, with the two main purposes being to catch the first voyages of the returned Silja Europa, and to celebrate his birthday. We met up in Tallinn; I took a bus from Turku and then Tallink's Superstar to Tallinn. During the two hour crossing I didn't have time for much more than to watch the departure, have a breakfast, and finally, upon arrival to Tallinn, have a nice close first look at the Silja Europa for the first time since 2014, when she left for Australia to serve as floating accommodation for a bit more than a year. In the terminal I was greeted by Sverre and we checked in the nearby hotel Euroopa. The same evening we had a nice dinner in Olde Hansa, my old workplace.

Experience: Cruising with style, part 3 (Gabriella)

 Part 1 here  Part 2 here

Upon arrival to Turku we split up with Sverre for a brief time and I headed home to unpack some extra stuff I had got from Tallinn and Stockholm, that had become a burden to carry along. Later on we met up again in the center, had a relatively modest lunch in Burger King and headed to Best Western hotel to check in and discover that our room was located right across the entrance to the Viking Line terminal, which was particularly nice later on when the Viking Grace came in.

Experience: Cruising with style, part 2 (Mariella)

Part 1 here

Mariella coming to get us

We reached the Katajanokka terminal just in time to check-in and board the Mariella. For me, it was the first "proper" sailing on her, as I had only crossed on her once from Tallinn to Helsinki in August 2014. She has since been refreshed a bit and now I got to do a full cruise on her. It was here that the amazing cabin luck that followed us for the rest of the trip started - we had booked a suite, and of the six suites on board, we were given the only one that has a total of 8 windows on the port side, giving a wonderful view and allowing us to keep an eye out for other ships at almost all times.

Experience: Cruising with style, part 1 (Finlandia, Superstar)

Not long ago, starting on the 30th of January, I took a trip involving several cruiseferries of the sweet home Baltic Sea; or should I say my best friend Sverre took the trip and kindly invited me to join. For me it started with taking a bus to Helsinki to meet up with him; we spent the first day walking and sightseeing in and near central Helsinki. In the evening we met up with some more people (Timo Selkälä, Kalle Id, Mikko Pätäri) from our solid group of friends to have a dinner in Domo, a small, and quiet Japanese restaurant. The same cannot be said about our group as we were clearly the jolliest and loudest ones that night, however that's really not easy to avoid with such great people around.

Kiss My Turku

It has now been well over a month since the beautiful sunny day when I packed my boxes, loaded them on a truck, took the Baltic Queen to Helsinki and continued to Turku.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 7 - Midnight Sun

The first half of the 7th day was quite the usual, except for the fact that our usual 8:40 ferry departure was served by Tor instead of the usual Suokki; to me it was the first and so far the last time on board. I was working in Töölö once again, however since every single corner of all the areas was in tip top condition it meant there really wasn't anything at all to do.

Gymnaestrada camp Day 1 - Arrival and settling down

Recently I had the honour to volunteer at the World Gymnaestrada, which is a major gymnastics event organized every 4 years. This time it was in Helsinki. To be more precise, I participated in a special international camp organized by the Finnish Summer High School Association (Kesälukioseura), which included volunteering at the event, among many other fun activities.

The 10 days at the camp were most likely the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. Considering that I got there because I came 2nd at the Finnish olympiad for Estonian high school students in spring and a Kesälukioseura scholarship was one of the prizes, I felt quite over-rewarded. We lived in Suomenlinna the entire time, which means that during the camp I got a nice dose of everything I love - international and lively environment, ships, Helsinki, busy schedules, gymnastics and so on. I will be publishing one post per day for every day spent there for the next 11 days, adding one song for each day.

Day 1, 09. July

Experience: Nightwish-cruise on the Baltic Princess (8-9.06.2015)

Nearly a month ago the ticker I had on the side of the blog ticked to zero as we packed our stuff, drove to Turku, met up with two more friends and cabinmates and headed to the Silja Line terminal. Arriving there well before the boarding time, we did the check-in and went to a nearby bar to wait.

We returned to the terminal and boarded as soon as it was possible and right after boarding headed to the buffet to claim our booked dinner. While we were standing in the line the ship departed, giving me a wonderful view of the Viking Grace.

Boarding a sold out cruise

Boarding II

These Nightwish & Silja Line balloons were all over the place

Leaving the Viking Grace behind

Bye Bye Beautiful

The selection was huge at the buffet and we spent hours eating all we could. I remember especially enjoying the sushi and the ice cream and having a hard time fitting everything I wanted into me.

After the dinner the men went to the cabin while Riikka and I went to grab spots at the Starlight palace for the gig. As the palace got crowded, I had to sneak out a few times to poke the men to come along, because otherwise they would have never squeezed through to get to us. Fortunately in the end I succeeded and soon enough after they joined us, the gig started. I can't complain about the setlist, it had everything I wanted. Afterall, the moment I was most looking forward to of the whole cruise was screaming "WE WERE HERE" at the end of The Greatest Show On Earth. At some point I tried to snap some photos of the band members and when nearing the good part of the mentioned song, I climbed on Matti's shoulders. It was a minute of almost constant eye contact with Marco Hietala, until I was put down again - apparently because a security guard told Matti to put me down.

And since I mentioned my own photos, here's the very best I got - it really wasn't easy to get a clear photo. 

If my memory's not failing me, this one was taken by Matti using my camera.

After the gig the party went on until very late hours when the Starlight palace was closed. Us girls then went to sleep, the men carried on partying in others' cabin parties. Subsequently we girls woke up for the Nightwish-quiz and Bingo the next morning. Alas, we didn't win a meet and greet for our cabin (The quiz was so easy, but there was a few tricky questions such as the amount of words in Ever Dream, and a question about the original singer of Over the Hills and Far Away caused a minor conflict), so we chose to have some fun at the Karaoke instead, after some hard but successful attempts to wake up the men. To my great disappointment there was only 8 Nightwish songs available in the karaoke list, as I had wanted to sing either Ever Dream of the Phantom of the Opera, yet neither were available. So I sang I wish I had an Angel instead. I also remember an outstanding performance of Slaying the Dreamer by a young girl. She did the screaming so well that it's a pity I can't find it on Youtube. 

Later on Marco, Troy and Floor performed an acoustic gig including the first ever live performance of Edema Ruh. Of our gang only Riikka attended it, the rest of us discouraged by the big crowds. Instead, we went shopping, rested some more and chilled in the Piano Bar. 

Afterwards, before our arrival to Turku I took a few photos of the ship and we went to chill on the sundeck, where I bumped into my friend Kalle Id (http://kships.blogspot.com/) who greeted me with the words "So, we did end up on the same cruise!".

Mandatory staircase photo

Quite a pleasant sight on a sold-out cruise

Finnclipper in the Turku archipelago

Mandatory funnel photo

After disembarking I was a bit bummed to discover that I still did not have a single one of those Tallinksilja & Nightwish balloons in my possession. Finally after asking some random people of the whereabouts of the balloon giver, they offered to give me one of theirs. You'll probably never read this, random strangers, but thanks a lot, you made me very happy!

Yay!
Coincidentally, the cruise marked exactly two years since my previous Nightwish gig in Tampere, where I got the bag signed.

Experience: Sailing to Stockholm on the Aurelia + Galaxy to Turku

It has now been two weeks since I last left my Tallinn home. My final destination being once again Tervakoski, and the way I got here being once again somewhat adventurous. It started with a 36-hour non-stop sailing to Stockholm on Aurelia, the largest Estonian sailing yacht. We departed in the evening and the sail out of Tallinn was quite enjoyable, with people telling stories and enjoying the view and the calm weather; on the other hand, it wasn't windy enough to use sails and we lagged a bit behind the schedule. Alas for me, the next time I could just sit outside and enjoy the environment was after we reached the Stockholm archipelago; as we got farther from the coast the boat started rolling quite badly and I failed to prevent myself from getting seasick. On the 2nd day I managed to climb out on the deck a couple of times; the weather was actually wonderful. Soon afterwards we were hit by even stronger winds and higher waves, so I had to resort to curling up in the cabin bed (which, fortunately, was surrounded by walls on three sides), trying not to roll along and crawling to the bathroom every now and then. As we progressed the rolling got so bad that nothing would keep me in place on the bed and I had to lie across the bed and hope to keep myself in place with my legs. Early  in the morning on the 3rd day we finally reached the archipelago, the sea got calm and after some actual sleep I went on the deck to look and steer. That's when I found out we had gained up during  the windy hours and eventually we reached Stockholm only a few hours behind schedule. The weather was lovely and the best part of the whole experience was the fact I lost quite a bit of weight. At this point I would most likely even agree to do it again.

Outbound

Superstar near Tallinn, making impressive waves. Later on we also saw her outbound.

View from the cabin window on a good day

A day and a half later

Baltic Princess in the archipelago

Viking Grace, shiny and beautiful as ever, also outbound. 

As I mentioned, the weather in Stockholm was gorgeous. We parked the boat near Gröna Lund, I went to the center and met up with a friend, later on I chose to buy a transport day ticket and take the most out of it, so I ended up walking around a little in almost every corner of central Stockholm. At one point I took the ferry from Gamla Stan back to Djurgården and picked up my suitcase. I'm not quite sure what exactly was happening, but the entire city was full of old vehicles, both cars and public transport. I also witnessed some kind of a parade thingy at the Royal Palace, which included seeing both the King and the Queen.

Mariella and Cinderella

I was just wandering around thinking of heading to the harbour when I passed the royal palace and saw a bunch of guards, so I chose to stick around and see what's happening...

... when His Majesty passed by.

Quite an impressive escort

As I walked on, some more marching squads passed.

Soon afterwards it was time to head to the harbour. As I arrived, Galaxy was just coming in and Silja Symphony was surprisingly still in. 

Fishies at the crowded terminal

Seems like Silja Symphony was in to stay; when I checked Marinetraffic the following day though, she had made it to Helsinki.

The Galaxy was surprisingly full for a Sunday evening; the Symphony next to us on the other hand seemed empty. For some reason I thought that the huge crowds in the terminal were waiting to board the latter, but unfortunately for me, all were boarding Galaxy. I had an E-class cabin, which is right above the nightclub. The only thing I chose to do that night was participate in the ship's karaoke, which had an unusually low attendance rate and quality of performances. Fortunately I didn't stand out in those terms, since I somehow managed to choose all the wrong songs. Due to it being Sunday, the free cabin party from down below didn't last for too long and I got about as much sleep as possible with the time zone change and early arrival in Turku. 

Mandatory funnel photo

Experience: Merilin on stormy seas

A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to try out the last of the Tallinn-Helsinki ship crossing options I hadn't tried yet. While I've always been curious about crossing on a Linda Line catamaran (my previous experience with fast craft was during the SuperSeaCat era when I was quite young) I have still been somewhat cautious because the risk of having my trip postponed or cancelled seemed too big. And I can't say it didn't affect me this time; after I made my booking, the smaller white catamaran Karolin got some technical issues and schedules had to be redone for the whole month. My booked return trip disappeared entirely from the new schedules, thus I had to change the booking; but besides that, everything went quite smoothly. The booking, check in and boarding process wasn't too different from the large ferries, just on a smaller scale. The catamaran carries no cars, just bikes. There was a lot less people and to board I only had to scan a barcode. While the fact I received no boarding card was a great disappointment for me, I can see how the boarding system is very convenient for frequent travellers or those in a hurry - the customers Linda Line caters for.

Merilin

Karolin; due to technical issues her crossing lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes and the same reason prevented me from trying her out too. 

Merilin in Helsinki

The inside of the catamaran mostly consists of sitting areas; there was one bar and a rather small store, plus a nice staircase midships. To make a purchase it wasn't even necessary to leave the seat.
Considering the crossing only lasted an hour and 40 minutes I didn't really feel like anything was missing. Looking out of the window and feeling the catamaran roll a bit more easily than a large ferry gave a nice feeling of actually being at sea. 

Mandatory staircase photo

And since there is no funnel to photograph for the mandatory photo, here's another staircase

The nice feeling especially hit the spot during the return trip, which is the main reason why I'm writing this. The weather was gorgeous, just a little windy. As soon as we got out from between the islands of Helsinki and slammed the gas, the catamaran started rolling very heavily. It was difficult to even stand, not to mention walk. Had the trip lasted longer I would probably be writing this down as a negative experience, but the intense part probably didn't last longer than 40 minutes. Nonetheless, that 40 minutes was enough for me to get a few bruises while walking or by missing the seat while trying to sit. Most of the passengers seemed quite badly sea sick, but fortunately I was not the only "enthusiast" who found it the perfect occasion to hang around on the sundeck. I actually dare to say that the fresh air and view there kept me from getting very seasick and trying to hold on and not fly away was quite a lot of fun. I also enjoyed the fact that at one point I saw the islands of Helsinki as well as the coastline of Estonia at the same time, not to mention the evening ships that had departed from both ports.

Silja Symphony departing

Mariella showing off her beautifully done new stripes as she departs

Not the usual Kustaanmiekka route

The best photo I got of Viking XPRS with all the rolling...

.. and Norwegian Star, outbound from Tallinn

Quite an impressive trail, creating rainbows and all

Me enjoying the rolling, the wind and the splashes. Leaning was the only way to stay safe and still for a bit. 

As the catamaran arrived in Tallinn, we had a very nice view of the cruise area.

Experience: Romantika + Rosella + Galaxy (+Star)

I haven't given any music to accompany my posts for a while, so here goes:

A bit over a week ago I chose to do a little trip before getting to my vacation destination. Briefly - if a normal person was to go from Tallinn to Tervakoski, they would take a boat from Tallinn to Helsinki and ask the driver to pick them up from there. Now, here's what I did.

In the evening of Saturday the 14th I met up with Anneli and Taavi at terminal D in port of Tallinn. We boarded the Romantika and set sail to Stockholm. We all booked a cruise, but for me it was just a one way journey. Before departure Anneli and I went to the sundeck to look at Sea Wind depart (which she did not, since it was Saturday), Viking XPRS depart and Finlandia come in. Since it was freezing, I chose not to wait for the Superstar to come in, instead I went to rest in the cabin for a bit. Some hours after the departure I went to explore and shop. The weather was nice with almost no wind at all, so it felt like in the middle of the archipelago - slow, still, almost boring. Alas, I had no luck in the raffle that took place in the Starlight Palace. I chose to go to sleep early, knowing that I was about to get no sleep for 36 hours, but since our cabin was far aft, it was easier said than done. The constant low frequency sound and the insane vibration once we reached Mariehamn kept me half awake through the night.

Approaching

Mandatory funnel picture

Sea Wind just standing there and totally not departing

Viking XPRS freeing her spot for Finlandia

Finlandia taking the spot

Nope, still not departing

Calm seas

The next morning I got off the ship and immediately headed for the center where I spent my day walking around and shopping a bit.

Beautiful morning in Stockholm

Bye~

Crowded street

Bridge to Skeppsholmen

Teaterskeppet

af Chapman

Arctic Sunrise

Cinderella arriving, Gabriella hiding behind her and Djurgården 10 passing by

Birka coming in

Gröna Lund!

Royal Opera House & St. Jacob's Church

Riddarholmen

Klara Church

Stockholm City Hall and some other houses

After a nice long day in Stockholm, when Romantika had already started her return journey, I sat on a bus in the center of Stockholm and headed for Kapellskär to board Rosella with my friend Nelly on board. The time on board was mostly spent eating in the Bistro Buffet, which offered delicious meat and wine.

Yum 

Mandatory staircase photo

Infamous hull stripes

Just as we got off the Rosella, Gabriella had come in as well. After taking a few photos, Nelly, Mikael and I headed a bit south to do some shipspotting.

Rosella

Gabriella

Silja Serenade, Gabriella, Rosella

Gabriella leaving

Romantika coming in. According to my ticket, I was supposed to be on board.

Romantika backing into Mariehamn, with my friend Anneli apparently somewhere in this picture

Romantika opening her ramp, ...

... letting in exactly two and a half cars, ...

And closing the ramp.

Bye bye! 

After the shipspotting I was dropped off in the center (if you can say so) of Mariehamn in front of the Tallink office about an hour before the taxi. The following hour consisted of trying to remain sane, trying not to freeze and overstressing about the taxi. Fortunately there was wifi and some silent music was playing at the entrance of what seemed to be a small shoping center right next to the office. Nevertheless, mostly due to the cold and the fact I was very tired and the city was dead, it was possibly the longest hour of my life. Finally, about one minute after the right time when I had already gone insane about five times, the taxi came. Turned out I was the only one taking the transport that day. It was a service taxi provided by Tallink to get me to Långnäs. The ride took about 30 minutes - just enough for me to unfreeze - and when I made it to the terminal, it turned out I was the only one boarding Galaxy from Långnäs that night. I did the check-in, waited for about 10 minutes and then the check-in guy gestured, meaning that my ship was arriving and it was time to board. He accompanied me the whole walk down the gangway and connected it to the ship with assistance from the ship's crew. I walked on board feeling like a princess and the moment I stepped on board they started to dismantle the whole thing again. I highly doubt there was any cars boarding that night, so the whole experience made me feel unusually important.

Långnäs terminal at around 2:35 at night

Galaxy's livery details

Waiting as they pave my way to the ship

Now before I carry on to what happened on board and the rest of my journey, I would like to take a minute to appreciate the taxi driver, the check-in guy and every one of those people who go to work in the middle  of nowhere in the dead of the night so lunatics like me could majestically board their night ferries.

And now, when it comes to what happened on the Galaxy - briefly, absolutely nothing. The other 372 people on board were nicely tucked in their cabins, everything on board was closed and the ship was dead except for one kind crew member at the information desk. I found my happy place in being able to take photos of the ship's interior without fearing to invade anyone's privacy. 

Deck plans

Even Starlight palace was closed

Windows on the Romantika (above) and Galaxy (below)

I looked...

...far and wide...

... for signs of life, ..

... Alas, ...

... I did not find any.

Not even Joe would keep his doors open for me.

When the doors are open, it's so easy to just walk though without noticing the name of the place you're going.

That was not the case here.

Fortunately, it was not all closed doors everywhere.

What I liked about the Galaxy was the simple three colour layout. Not quite sure if her two sisters have the same - didn't notice anything on the Baltic Queen, not that I was looking. Feel free to enlighten me.

Blue bow area staircase

Green staircase midships

And red aft staircase. Notice the works of the Estonian artist Navitrolla in the staircases; he also did the livery art. 

 After looking around on board I chose to curl up near the information desk and have a little "power nap", which was probably not such a great idea considering I was feeling much worse afterwards. After about an hour of napping I noticed some people appearing and by the time the sun rose and we started nearing Turku, the ship started to look like almost 400 passengers on board. After recovering from the shivers I got up and went out to take photos.

Sunrise

Mandatory funnel photo

Turku lights

The ship in morning sun

At last. 

The earliest morning hours I spent mostly trying to kill some time near the harbour and later in the center. Afterwards it got a bit warmer and I finally met up with Matti who came to pick me up. We met up in the train station and went for a walk, had a lunch on board the Bore where I stayed in August, and headed home to Tervakoski where I spent the following week watching the northern lights, the solar eclipse and having a full time vacation.

That wonderful flower sculpture again

The rusty object in the foreground is a crushed bulbous bow removed from a ship after it ran aground. Thanks to Micke Asklander for refreshing my memory - the bulbous bow belonged to Transgermania who was later known as Eckerö Line's Translandia.  

After a wonderful vacation it was time to return home. This time I opted for the normal way and took the Star home. I would probably not even mention this but the sea was nice and stormy, nothing like it was during my journey a week earlier. In fact, we were told over the speakers to avoid going outside and be careful while moving around the ship three times. The spray easily splashed up to 8th deck windows and I felt like on board a ship at last.