Turku, Finland

I boarded the ferry and headed to my room. I double-checked my ticket as I was about to open my door because my door was on the window side of the ship. "This can't be," I thought, "Outside cabins are never the cheapest option." I opened the door, and light shone down from the heavens. One bed (and a convertible couch). Window. (Small) Flat screen TV. Everything was shiny, and new and beautiful, and there was no one else in sight. I really couldn't believe it, I had to keep checking my ticket, and the receipt from m reservation fee. I was incredulous that I could have gotten that for a measly 90 SEK (about $13.75 CAD).

My room!!

I hung around the room for a while, waiting to see if anyone else would show up, but when no one did, I decided to go explore the ship. It was swanky and really beautiful. I would have loved to be on it for longer (especially with that wonderful private room), but I was only going to be on it overnight. I didn't take many photos because it was pretty much completely dark by the time I got on board, so I just explored the ship, and then set up with my laptop in the piano lounge. I could only get free Internet access in public areas, but it worked out well because I got to hear some nice piano music while I was surfing the web.

I went to bed early because I knew we were getting into Turku at 7 am local time (6 am Sweden time), and the wake-up call was going to be at 6. I had a pretty good sleep, except it was a bit hard to get to sleep because there were some people partying a little in my hallway, and at one point, 2 people started having a big fight in a language I didn't know pretty close to my door.

I was hoping I could get some decent sunrise shots, but the sun didn't rise quickly enough to be very interesting, so I just grabbed a bit of breakfast and got ready to get off the ship.

Turku through my window at sunrise.

Since it was only 7 am, I decided I would walk into town. It took a good 40 minutes for me to get to downtown, but I was able to find a coffee shop that was open, so I grabbed a second breakfast (they were both small), and sat in the coffee shop to stay warm and look through my Turku guide to figure out what I wanted to do for the day.

There were lots of things in the book, so I made a list (keeping in mind when everything opened), and then set out at about 9.

First, I went to the cathedral. I loved it! It was incredibly beautiful, but much less decorated than a lot of the old cathedrals I've seen, which I actually really liked. It made me think of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney-style), even though it didn't really look like that (I still got "God Help the Outcasts" stuck in my head). I wanted to visit their little museum, but I figured I should get some euros first, so I headed off to do that, and ended up shopping a little as well. I found this huge store that was kind of like a fancy Zellers (think the Bay with a more diverse product line).

Cathedral from the outside.

Inside the cathedral.

I also stopped by the local library. It had some really neat architecture. Half the building was really new, and the other half was the old library, which was all really cool (plus they had comfy chairs!).

The new part of the library.

The old half of the library.

Inside the library.

I went back to the cathedral, and looked through their museum (which was in a hall that looked over the congregation area). They had lots of old things up there that were pretty neat to see. Plus, there were a couple women in the church itself singing hymns that really added to the atmosphere. It sounded so eerie and beautiful! The acoustics of the building made it sound like there were a whole bunch of people singing.

One of the things on display in the cathedral.

Next I went to the Sibelius museum. Although it did have a nice, big exhibit about the composer Jean Sibelius, the majority of the museum consisted of a massive collection of musical instruments from around the world, and there were some really cool ones, plus it explained really well how the different instrument worked. They also had a huge hall in the basement called the "Organ Hall" that was filled with pianos and organs of all kinds. (I wasn't supposed to take photos in there, but I snuck a couple.)

I don't remember what this is called!! But it's very rare, and very pretty!

In the Organ Hall.

Next I went straight across the street to the "Ett Hem" museum which was a house that was filled with belongings that a wealthy couple had willed to the university upon their deaths. The original house had been much bigger, so things were pretty jam-packed into the building, but everything was recreated very beautifully, and all the furniture was really neat to look at! The original house had to be torn down because it was sitting on swampland or something, so it was no longer safe to keep it standing. I went through all the rooms about 3 times because I enjoyed it so much. (I couldn't take any photos there, and there aren't really any photos on the Internet.)

From one of the rooms.

Next I decided to go to the Art Gallery. I stopped to get a grab bag of candy before I got there (Finland has good candy stores too). Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see at the Art Gallery at all. They were just in the process of putting up 2 new exhibits (one of which was opening only 2 days after I was there!), and the rest of their collection was pretty small (although it was pretty good). Passable, but considering it cost me 4 whole euros (each of the other 3 museums had only cost 1 euro), I didn't feel like it was really worth all that.

After the art, I went to a fancy restaurant that was right beside the art gallery for a late lunch/early dinner. Apparently no one goes to restaurants at 3 in the afternoon, so the whole place was dead empty. I decided to order a reindeer fillet with vegetables in a lingon berry sauce. It was all delicious except the potatoes with cheese on them were slightly undercooked. I was hoping that I would be able to have reindeer at some point on this trip, so I was pretty glad I got the chance to try it!

Yummy!!! (Sorry Rudolph!)

Next, I went to buy what could be the world's most awesome chocolate bar. It was mint chocolate (one of my favourites along with plain chocolate or chocolate and peanut butter), and it was made by the panda company, so it had a panda logo on it! AWESOME! But I stuck it in my bag to save for later. It was a Finnish company, so I'm not sure if I'll ever find those bars outside of Finland.

I started heading back towards the ferry so that I could go visit the castle. The castle was the most expensive thing I did that day (other than eating Rudolph), but it was only 7 euros, so it wasn't too bad. I was hoping to get a student discount, but I couldn't find my card, and she wouldn't acccept it without an ID card.

The castle was really cool. There as tons to see and do there. You got to wander around and explore the castle, and it displayed things from the medieval times all the way up until the mid 20th century. The exhibits went on and on and on. I couldn't believe that they kept going as long as they did. It was really good though, I'm glad went there.

The outside of the castle.

Dungeon!

One of the displays.

I went back to the ferry terminal to buy my ticket and wait. While I was waiting, I was thirsty, so I decided to buy myself a drink. When I saw the Smurf drink, I had to buy it even though I didn't really know what it was. It was green apple flavoured pop and although it could have been stronger, it was pretty decent.

We finally boarded the ferry, and I found my room, but I couldn't get the door unlocked, so I had to go get a plastic key from the information desk. I had a shared cabin with 4 bunks. There were 2 Russian women who didn't speak English (I believe they were mother and daughter), and a Swiss girl named Julia who was studying in Sweden.

I chatted with her (she said she was relieved that I showed up because she doesn't speak Russian), and we explored the ship together before going back to the cabin.We talked for a while and then I went to get some food. I told her some stories from my travels, and then we both went to bed because we were pretty tired, and the ship was supposed to get in at 6 am.

Next - last day in Stockholm.