It was another bright beautiful day in Turku, Finland when I arrived at the port in time for the 0815 Silja Galaxy ferry to Stockholm. This should get me to Stockholm around 7pm. The deck class ticket is only 17 Euros, which I ordered online.
www.tallink.com
When you arrive you can go to the self service kiosk and scan the QR code to print your boarding pass. Then just go upstairs, and wait for the ferry to board.
These ferries have numerous restaurants, duty free stores, bars, and even nightclubs. You can pay more, and get your own cabin, which is particularly good if your on the night ferry.
I’m a big fan of the all you can eat buffet on level 7, which includes beer, coffee, and dessert. I must admit I did get more than my money’s worth, and at the end I wished I upgraded to a cabin to have an afternoon nap.
After lunch we arrive at the port of Mariehamn, the capital of Aland. This is an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty, which speak Finnish. Its about halfway between Finland and Sweden. Some people get on and off, but the majority stay on to continue to Stockholm.
The last part of the journey involves following the Swedish coastline down to Stockholm. Some of the Mokki’s are a bit more elaborate. Sweden’s economy, and population is about double the size of Finland. Also Sweden has gone down the high immigration route to boost economic growth with about a quarter of its residents born overseas. There have been some social problems as you have probably read about in parts of Stockholm, and especially in Malmo.
I had plenty of time to use the free WiFi onboard to plan the next stage of my travels. After two nights in Stockholm I will be catching the train to Oslo then a ferry to Nesoddtangen in the Oslo Fjord for three nights. All accomodation with AirBnB. I'll say it again you really don't need to pay a travel agent or plan your holidays down to the last detail. All you need is a smartphone or a laptop, and you can do it literally on the fly, anywhere in the world. AirBnB has dramatically dropped the cost of accomodation, and expanded the supply of places to stay.
I am staying in student accomodation about fifteen minutes walk from the ferry terminal. However, its only three train stations from the centre of town.
Tomorrow, I'll head down to the old town, and see the main sites.
