Ok so getting the ferry from Umea to Vaasa was turning into a right chore. went through several booking sites but for some reason couldn't confirm time of travel, needed the later boat, so had to decide ride up for two days to get told no, ride back down, or do stockholm to helsinki, then Tallinn?
Got near Stockholm, no difference on the booking front so did the mini cruise. Stockholm was very busy, loads of traffic and all shifting lanes and making life quite interesting. I had to stop to check my mail to make sure I was heading to the right side of the port, good guess I was only 2 miles away. Went from Stockholm on the overnighter, no cabins so slept on deck. source world travel like
Was an eventful crossing as when I got there they moved the bikes up the front, its like normal for us, but then left us till almost last to load. If that wasn't bad enough, they parked us up and sort of just walked away . This is slightly unusual as bikes get strapped down normally. Being the quiet unassuming guy I am I pointed this out and sort of got a shrug, there's the straps. Well luckily, of the 6 bikes needing to be tied down, two ladies had low cruisers and we managed to squeeze them under a lorry into some space and then there were 4. We shuffled about for a while then managed to find hooking points for all of us. We may have damaged some of the company straps during this but our bikes, and especially we, were happy.
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| Stockholm, Sweden My Mini cruise |
By the time we had done this we were already 30 minutes into the cruise, fell like asking for a job. Got upstairs and it was party time, well not for me, but there were by the end of the evening some very drunk men and women of varying ages. As it got later it obviously got worse, the singer was murdering some beatles songs with some drunken accompaniment from some guys, that got louder and louder. I was talking to various other floor sleepers. The funniest part was when an older gentleman came along with a slightly large younger, like 40 years, lady. That was her size, and the age difference! They sat down near me and were obviously getting ready to hit the sack.
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| Stockholm, Sweden My Mini cruise |
Thats when her friends, lets call them the rescue party, turned up to call the whole thing off. Well that was until she ran off, in a sort of weaving fashion, with lots of moving parts after oldie. Luckily by 5am it had quietened down just enough to get 40 winks. Got back to the bikes and all was fine, I was a Royal Engineer, and we all waved goodbye and got off the boat. I was knackered, so looked for a cafe so I could get some coffee and sort the next bit out.