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Published: August 9th 2010
I'm in Helsinki having arrived yesterday morning after a ferry ride that was incredibly relaxing and filled me with contentment.
Here, in relative brevity, are the highlights from my sea-fairing days:
- the quiet serenity of the cabin which I cohabited with a girl called Viola who I had a couple of what I thought were interesting and convivial conversations, but then she ignored me several times so I wondered if I'd somehow offended her with my jolly banter. Oh well. The other inhabitant will always remain a mystery to me. I only knew she existed due to various garments strewn on her bed and her slumbering form as I crept about the cabin preparing for my morning ablutions.
- the strange ambience of the lounge with constant europop and interesting variety of visitors. My favourites were the Women of the Broadskirts. For both days on ship this small group of ladies drifted around the ship in skirts which looked like they'd been put on over a rubber ring which they wore about their hips. No doubt these were traditional costumes of some local region but as they didn't break out in folk song or skirt-billowing quaint dance routines
their purpose was questionable. My final reasoning was that they couldn't swim and were fearful of falling overboard so constantly kept their infatables about them.
- Spending a whole afternoon playing ukulele on deck. As usual I found a spot where I thought no one could hear me and quietly ran through my repertoire, practicing a few new numbers, fiddling about with different chord inversions (that makes me sound a bit clever, doesn't it?!). A young man came and parked himself on a nearby liferaft (obviously in fear of his life but not prepared to go the way of the Broadskirts). After a while I realised I'd lulled him to sleep and felt rather motherly. However I kept playing, in particular working on the Swedish version of "Ring Ring" which I will be performing with my Swedish friends at the Stockholm Ukulele Cabaret. (after my rather shambollic drunken rendition at Hollesley I feel I should do the song justice). After a good long time caught up in the umlaut infested world of Swedish I looked up to see that the sleeping boy was awake and grinning at me. He told me I had a beautiful voice and gave me
a boiled sweet! What a lovely thing. In return I offered him a sip from my hipflask which he declined (perhaps wisely). In the brief conversation we had it turned out he was Lithuanian and had just cycled all the way from Amsterdam to Rostock (no wonder he'd fallen asleep!). We sat quietly looking out to sea, then I wondered off to find some food. It was a nice little moment. When I'm sober I'm rather shy about my singing so it was nice to appreciated, even if my audience did sleep through most of my set.
-Sunrise. At 5.30 the tannoy told everyone it was time to rub the sleep from our eyes, stretch and emerge from our cocoons ready for disembarkation. I was quick off the mark as I hate to miss out on a disembarkation. After a lovely shower (surprisingly good for a boat I thought before realising I'd never showered on a boat before) I went out and made my way on to deck where stood a few unkempt smokers in the warm breeze looking out over a flat sea towards a pink sun low in the sky, vaguely shining and rising through a sea
mist. It was a lovely way to dry my hair. As we neared Helsinki docks we followed along an archipelago (I love that word!) of little islands. No doubt each island a little family of ducks or sea rabbits who had little adventures involving umbrellas, Wellington boots and other such flotsam and jetsam.
Well there was my brief summary of my ferry journey. It was really lovely and I'm already looking forward to the next installment to Stockholm.
The ride from the dock to town was long and involved a thorough investigative tour of the docks, no alley unturned. From then on I, like the other small group of foot passengers soon identified a guy who knew his way and followed him at an unobtrusive distance. This was really helpful as the Finnish signs and station names gave me no clue. Finnish words are all at least 10 syllables long and go "akikkinakkaniikaaannakkäki" a lot. By the time I've read halfway through a word I've forgotten the beginning so I can retain no information.
Eventually in sweltering heat at 9am I found my hostel. My room is fab, I have a kitchenette with oven and fridge! This
The Storm
After a stifling humid day this storm cloud suddenly appeared outside my window.is great as food and drink here are quite expensive. The shower is brilliant- I can't believe my luck with showers on this trip and they just get better and better. There's nothing much worse than a dribbly shower in my book, and showers are very important when you're on the move in sweltering conditions.
After a morning nap I set out into town to explore and find some food. I was down by the harbour watching ferries taking people off to various islands when it occurred to me that it was Sunday and I should be meeting Juha the Finn and his fellow Finnish ukulele types! I'd totally lost track of what day it was! Fortunately I was only 20 minutes late, had my ukulele (no great coincidence) and was sitting right in front of the ferry station. It also turned out that my Tourist-Get-Lost ticket covered boat rides too! And I was away! I texted Juha to apologise for my tardiness and ask where I could find the gathering, he was in fact even later than me and instructed me to go to the Brewery Terrace. This was sounding very promising indeed. I found a table of plucking people (not pheasants) and found them to have the typical characteristics of ukulele players; friendly and rather 'individual'... Janna the bass player bantered away in a most entertaining, occasionally psychotic way, Jukka (not as in Guru Jukka of Cosmic fame - another variety) it turned out is an old chum of my boss Sean and was overjoyed when we made the connection. He's an accountant by trade but on a voluntary basis runs a music education organisation. His friend Karen was also lovely to talk to. She's from Chicago but has adopted Finland as her second home, visiting whenever she can and learning the language. It's a bit like me and my Hungarian thing. I reckon everyone should adopt another nationality.
It was a lovely afternoon of home made food, friendly chatter, ukulele playing and drinking. On the way back I was given a free guided tour by Jukka, which was very sweet of him but my brain was unable to take in the data, which was shameful, but it had been a long day.
I struck home by foot, in time to do my shopping before the shop closed (nearly buying a carton of yoghurt disguised as a carton of milk). Then in my kitchenette I got busy cooking up a pasta. I even got to use my Swiss Army knife to cut up the onions- it always excites me when I get to use my Swiss Army knife, though maybe I shouldn't be disclosing that information publicly... However I will add that I only use it for good: whittling sticks in parks, slicing cakes, opening bottles, gathering berries, hunting wooly mammoths and chopping onions.
As I cooked I looked out of the window and there was a huge diabolical stormcloud fuming outside the window flickering with lightening. I was very excited, but in a moment of careful deliberation put on my crocs as I knew that should the building be shattered by lightening I would remain standing as rubber does not conduct electricity.
This morning I've done my handwashing, cut my nails, cleaned the kitchenette and caught you up on all proceedings. I'm shortly heading out for lunch now it's brightned up outside.
I'll let you know my thoughts on Helsinki later once I've had a chance to take things in - yesterday was all a bit of a haze...
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Mub
non-member comment
Thank goodness the trauma of your non-ICE train saga is blotted out by lovely boat trip and even lovelier Finn-ukes meeting. lots of love from H and I xxxxxxx