I had one last full day in Stockholm following Waves of Darkness. From 10:30 when the ferry arrived until 20:00 when I departed for Finland. I spent this time relaxing, writing my blog posts, and wandering around an area of the city I hadn’t explored previously.
I chose the least expensive ferry option for my trip to Turku. Rather than Tallink Silja which I took to Riga, I went with Viking Line. I guess the vikings probably didn’t sail in the lap of luxury themselves. My bunk was deep in the bowels of the ship, beneath even where they keep the cars. It was so cheap that I didn’t even have an electrical outlet in my room. But that was totally fine because all I wanted to do on the ferry was get as much sleep as possible before we arrived in Turku bright and early at 07:30. My neighbour in this out of the way part of the ship was a cool young guy from South Africa, so I did get the chance to socialize and go for a drink at the on board bar before bed.
This ferry ride made for the third night in a row of sleeping on the ocean and I definitely recommend it. The rocking of the sea and the thrum of the engines really lulls one into a pleasant sleep. So I arrived in Turku well rested to meet an old friend who I hadn’t seen in six whole years.
Erik was an exchange student in Finland at the same time as me in 2012/2013, and we became very good friends during that time. He put in the effort to learn Finnish while he was here, and it paid off since he was able to come back for university, so he’s been living in Turku for over four years now. It was lovely to see him and reminisce about the old days. Plus, I had a local guide to the city and a place to stay.
Turku is a very pleasant little city. I had visited it a couple of times during exchange, but my memory of it was pretty darn foggy. The whole city seems to be under construction at the moment, but I really liked what they were doing with the place. They’re revitalizing old buildings, rather than tearing them down, and the new buildings they’re putting up have been designed to fit nicely with the old. Turku has quite a few old wooden houses, which are absolutely idyllic and very pretty (Erik is lucky enough to have his apartment in one such building). So the new apartments that they are putting up near these old houses have been built with wooden siding, and painted in the same colours as the old buildings. Even more interesting is that they have turned the long abandoned prison/mental hospital into swanky apartments, although I feel as if they may need to give them away in order to get anyone to live in such an obviously haunted location.
I visited Turku castle, which was well worth the entrance fee, cause it’s absolutely packed with stuff. Not only do you get to walk through the entire castle, some of which is medieval and some of which has renaissance and more modern interiors, but you also get museum exhibits on everything from women in the 16th century to Finnish military medals and coins. I was honestly not prepared to spend such a long time in there, but I wanted to see it all.
Though that was nice, I’m not really interested in doing much ‘tourism’ while in Finland. Having lived here for a time, I just want to rediscover and re-experience some of my favourite things from my time here, so simply wandering the city and eating Finnish foods (there is a picture and description at the bottom), and of course sauna is all I need.
But that’s enough rambling. What I really came to Finland for was Helsinki, paras kaupunki maailmassa! Which is where I currently am, but you’ll have to wait until I’ve spent some time here before you get your blog post you greedy little thing you.
And whither then? 