We spontaneously booked tickets via Internet and sailed to Helsinki for one day. We had to pay using a credit card, but with a discount of a quarter of the normal price. Neither visas nor other papers were required, only a personal document. It took us 30 minutes to reach D-terminal by bus, and then it all began … The crowd of drunken Finns with boxes of beer on the barrow, one tripped on the escalator, so that the ambulance had to arrive for that unfortunate. Well, we calmly registered, received our boarding cards and went to the nearest store for drinking water – there was enough time for that. There were shops on board too, but the prices were higher respectively. The ship had nine decks. We entered it by walking through a very long corridor where all passengers were sniffed by a dog with the guards. Before entering the corridor, we passed through a turnstile type of thing that usually appears in the cinema. There were hell lot of people – about 1500, Finns mostly. Those who recently had a good time in our price worthy (at least in their opinion) drinking facilities or pubs.
We took the deck tickets, in total the two-way trip for two cost us around €80. Another €15 was spent on public transport of Helsinki. For comparison, here the same tickets are twice as cheap. But there is this kertalippu (single ticket) valid for an hour, so that switching from a bus to a tram can be done without problems and they even let you take the subway with the same ticket.
We took very decent places, on vast soft armchairs next to large windows with a view… on the sea, of course. Almost no one went passing by, so we shot some photos inside the ship, and a few more on the open deck. Suddenly a curtain of clouds covered the sky and the setting sun appeared. There were still two liners near us, brightly lit. Great feeling …
Inside, all was very decent. We didn’t feel seasick from the waves, it was no worse than in public transport. There was a restaurant, a pub, a shop, a cafe, something like McDonald’s with a playground for children and all these areas were vast. An impression that you are in multi-storey hypermarket. During the two hours that the trip lasted, we did not get to look in all corners. But on the way back, Lars found a deck with cabins and the upper deck, he did’t go there. It was full of masts, which buzzed very loud; you could feel their vibration of radio or magnetic waves. Most fun was the bow compartment: just to look at the course, while sitting in a comfortable chair and watching TV. The audience was pluralistic, at some moments this place seemed to be like the Kursky station in Moscow. Some aunts in long skirts, preoccupied guys, merchants of cheap beer sat right there on the floor to eat and directly under the “no eating” sign. So we have given away our cosy seat to a girl (see picture) and went to the children’s compartment. The chairs were harder there, but the people were calmer. Food on board is five times more expensive than on land, but we had our own sandwiches and juice.
Finnish port to the sea looked boring – the view from to ship as well as from the city. Inside the port – a simple, but comfortable lobby (see snapshot), the same long corridors to the ship, but with window glass from floor to ceiling, unlike the D-terminal (there were just corrugated tin walls) and it was warm and pleasant to stomp and look at Tallink. We could see the ships at close range only in the corridor, there were no closer approaches and we had to make shots through the windows.
When the ship landed it was dark even though it was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
We didn’t dive in with the flow of the crowd, but instead looked from the stern deck how the cars drove from the lower deck onto the dock. And there were an endless number of cars, also trucks and buses. The Länsisatama building was small and dirty. The street was way littered, cigarette butts lying around and a thick crowd of people. Found the bus stop in no time. While waiting, we saw some decent passengers in long black coats with travelling bags on wheels. They looked with sadness on both sides. Then we saw them loading their stuff on a reserved bus. We also caught ours and arrived at the Ruoholahti subway station in 10 minutes. Before the trip I specially looked on the Internet how to proceed through city, but the first fiasco was right in the subway. We went there with fear at the expense of tickets. Lars fell into a stupor instead starting to ask for directions in Finnish language. But then we realized that people are entering straight with the same tickets that we bought in the bus. So in short, entrance is free, but the fine for travelling without a ticket is € 56. We had two tickets, but no one to show them to. Only two guards were keeping warm by the radiator. We already saw on the photos how the station looks like and rejoiced to have seen it in real. But then it turned out that the station necessary to us does not exist in the subway, Linnamäki turned out to be a tram stop. So in short, we wasted an hour longer than planned, but therefore had a “sightseeing tour” in the city, we wouldn’t get that chance in the subway.
By the way I love the tram to get to new places – clearly visible and the routes are long. Helsinki subway, from the design point of view, is similar to a storage room of a Soviet grocery store (it seemed that it would start to smell of cats or onions any moment now): glazed tiles on walls and floor, the ceiling arc along the escalators was left in its natural roughness, just painted in white. Billboards were fastened on it. Slopes are shallow and wide, and the stations themselves are spacious. There were almost no people in the subway and on the streets, basically quiet all around. The city was not so pompous as our town centre, for example. Modest but tall buildings – Nokia and others. We saw the opera house, typically in a Scandinavian style, and it stands out with a fair amount of nearby buildings and its white facade. Basically pacification and calmness around. So we got to Kulttuuritalo – the purpose of our trip (see pictures). Note that there was no poster hanging. Not a hint about the concert except for litter in front of the entering. It became clear that here has been a huge crowd of fans. Though it was five minutes until the start, the lobby was almost empty, only from concert hall we could hear a hum of voices. The concert hall itself was packed with students and they were constantly screaming, during the execution of songs too. Such was the impression that you are on recess at a school, where students have gathered from all over the city and that only here they are allowed to sream for the whole year in advance. No words to describe the concert, it must be seen for oneself. On YouTube there are a few high-quality videos in which you even feel the joyously reckless mood, which was in the concert hall. I knew the program by heart, and tried to enjoy his live performance. Because of the uproar of the public I found it hard to do. We went out into the hallway and continued to listen and watch from there. Surprisingly, the sounds from the concert hall there were muffled, but the music from the stage could be heard very well. The guards even brought us chairs, which was very kind of them. After performing Fairytale some spectators had already started to go downstairs and queue up for autographs. They had everything organized, and there was “a million” fans. We realized that for us waiting is useless and time was pushing, we had to catch the last ship home. So I went to the main guard Heli and asked her to convey our present to Alexander. She quickly understood and told us how to get from Kulttuuritalo to the port. I do not know why it was such a grace, but everything turned out well. I must say that the Finns are not slow as some think, at least at work. Very indicative in this sense, the movie Za Spitchkami.
Epilogue
We did not go there for the concert. Frankly I love listening to studio recordings more. But Lars liked it, and we are both very happy now to remember this trip. Moreover, two days later we got confirmed that he received the gift. And one more thing: Alex will be comming to Estonia. I am sure.
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5 Comments
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Knowing me I would have been an American who would fall down the esculator …or up it and NOT be drinking. lol
Спасибо! Интересно))))
cruel reality!…..but this is it!……..
Thanks for the comment, Camelia… It was all very wonderful on that terrific concert and the journey itself, and the rest – just little things that do happen in life :)
Agree with you,…Nataly!