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.

Life in Aboa Mare

For now, I thought I'd write a bit about what's been routine since last September, when I started my maritime studies in Aboa Mare. Some may recall how I wrote about my aim to continue in Estonian Maritime Academy multiple times a few years ago, but eventually the prospect of getting my education in English with a broad and international approach made me change my mind about that, as well as my lifelong dream to move abroad, even if not so far.

I'm now in my 2nd year and I can say that the decision has had its pros and cons, but I certainly haven't had to regret it. The system fits me very well, as we usually do only one or two subjects per week, and those subjects change every week. The main downside is that one can't really afford getting sick or being away at sea during some mandatory attendance courses, but in my eyes, the variety such a system allows for is great and definitely makes up for everything.

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.

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.

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

Cruise ship calls in Tallinn & Turku 2015

It has already been some time since Port of Tallinn released their cruise schedules. Just as I did last year, I'm going to give an overview of what I'm awaiting most. Since I'm planning to move to Turku halfway through the summer, I will mention that place too. Though, to be honest, the only considerable downside about moving from Tallinn to Turku is having to switch from THIS cruise schedule to THIS one. I guess not many find it worthwhile to sail the archipelago.

Aidacara

http://www.schiffskoch.com/

The oldest of the lady-faced cruise ships has a rather interesting itinerary this season, stopping in places such as Visby, Mariehamn, Turku, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Riga among others, but skipping Helsinki and Stockholm. For Turku, she is the first, last and most frequent visitor, as well as the only one to visit more than once. Did I mention I really dig the itinerary?
First call in Tallinn 7. May & in Turku 11. May. 

Norwegian Star

She's adorbs. And visits frequently for the third season in a row. 

First call in Tallinn 14. May

Britannia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The most recent P&O newbuild, also the first one with the cruise line's new uniform livery - one cruise fleet less of boring white ships.

First call in Tallinn 6. June

Mein Schiff 4

http://www.ihsmaritime360.com/

Under construction in Turku as I write this, the 2nd newbuild to TUI Cruises will most likely still have a slight smell of construction works when she first calls in Tallinn in early June. 

First call in Tallinn 8. June. 

Louis Aura

www.fleetmon.com

I'm not as hyped about the ship as the cruise line here. Louis Cruises, now known as Celestyal Cruises, has not been seen around here much. Celestyal Cristal from the same fleet has a rather colourful history here on the Baltic Sea (which I've even written down HERE) and many would be happy to see her back in these waters. Seeing the cruise operator around here sheds a ray of hope, although some superstition may still surround the ship, considering the bad luck she had in these waters. 

First call in Tallinn 13. June. 

Disney Magic

www.cruisemates.com

Also mostly about the cruise line - Disney has not been seen here for a long time. 

First call in Tallinn 15. June.

Azores

As well as last year; I barely got the chance to see her and fortunately she will be returning this year. Yet another ship from my narrow selection of vessels with a history worthy of writing down (HERE). Now under charter to Cruise & Maritime Voyages, she's sporting a white funnel and will be renamed to Astoria after this season here. 

First & only call 10. July

Some more ships I'm looking forward to merely for the looks, such as Island Sky, Voyager, Corinthian or Horizon. I'm also looking forward to Magellan, an ex- Carnival / Ibero ship recently acquired by Cruise & Maritime Voyages with her Carnival style funnel still neatly in tact, but her only two calls are in August and September. But speaking of Turku, besides AIDAcara - 

Serenissima, 2. June

www.infoniac.com
Balmoral, 15. July. 

Saga Sapphire, 29. August - definitely a nice birthday present, thank you!

But hey- Turku gets Viking Grace every single evening and a nice shipyard letting out shiny newbuilds every now and then. Though, for some years to come those shiny newbuilds will be exact copies of the Mein Schiff 4. 

P.S. Something totally epic is coming up in about a month.

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.