Helsinki; Thursday, 26 July, 2007

Another stunningly solid sleep and I was ready to face the almost certain disappointment which would follow that evening when I got the ferry, the other part of the trip that I had splashed out a bit on, getting a small cabin with a window to myself. After breakfast and checking out I caught the bus out to Seurasaai, and had a wander around the lakes area.

I spending about a hour wandering around I caught the tram back into town and realised at that point that I had no idea how early I needed to check into the ferry, As I had my reservation with me I decided to catch the tram out to the ferry terminal to check. I arrived and walked up to one of the checkin desks to ask. The answer was that I could check in now if I wanted, as it would mean I wouldn’t have to queue up closer to boarding time at 3pm.

I handed over my reservation and there was some tapping of the keyboard, then there was some more tapping of the keyboard, some checking of the reservation, some more tapping of the keyboard, a quizzical look, more tapping. By now I was convinced that something had gone very wrong, had my booking been cancelled, had I needed to reconfirm, had I booked in the wrong direction… The lady then printed out a boarding pass and a programmed a room key then explained about the delay.

She hadn’t been able to find my booking in the seaside cabin section; I’d been upgraded from Seaside class (€225) through Silja class (€400) and Silja plus (€550) to Commodore class (€700). She didn’t explain why, and I wasn’t going to complain in case they decided to put me back down again. As I left the terminal to go back into town I had one of those moments, that if it had been a film the screen would have gone hazy and a flashback would have taken place. When I had been on the sleeper the train manager had explained that I was entitled to a full refund, but that it would take a couple of days to process, how long was I staying in Helsinki for. I’d said only until Thursday as I was getting the ferry over to Stockholm, and he responded that it wouldn’t be enough time so I would have to arrange for a refund when I got back to the UK. Had he told the train company, had they contacted the ferry company, it’s the only logical explanation I could give for the equivalent of being upgraded from cattle class to first class.

I walked back the short distance to the city centre, and did the one touristy thing that I hadn’t done the two previous times I had been to Helsinki. I caught the Pub Tram.

The Pub Tram runs in a roughly (very roughly, but the marketing men just managed to make it work) beer glass shaped route around the centre of Helsinki. There is a charge for boarding, but on board it’s decked out in art deco style, making you feel as though you might be in the set of a Agatha Christy novel, with the exception of the large plasma screen which carries a live feed of “TramCam” (as I titled it in my head) from the front of the tram. You glide around the streets of Helsinki, in a London bus red tram sipping from a pint of beer. There really is no other way to travel.

Having completed a full circuit of the route I disembarked and, slightly tipsily, walked back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and go out to the ferry. I arrived back at the ferry a few minutes before boarding started, still partly convinced that it was a hoax and that I would be downgraded, but I boarded the ship normally, found my cabin, popped the key card in the lock and the door opened, onto a large cabin, with a double bed, a lounge area with a large TV complete with video player and X-Box, a balcony with more chairs and sitting underneath the TV, a minibar stocked with a large bottle of Champaign and several other drinks. I wandered down to the information desk to enquire where I needed to leave my credit card details to use the minibar and was met with the response, “no need to sir, it’s all complementary”

I spent a good hour exploring the ship, as no passenger areas were off limit, the only areas that were restricted to certain passenger groups I had a key card that opened the door to. I wandered down to the sumptuous Commodore lounge and realised what this was going to be like. It was as though I had walked into the business lounge at an airport, except you had your own private bed chamber, and there would be none of that nasty boarding, seat belt, take off, landing nonsense, the lounge would float the whole way to Stockholm.

I popped back up to my cabin, popped open the champagne, and as I poured the first glass the ship slipped it’s moorings and sailed out into the Baltic. Having gone through the channels so many times in sightseeing boats, I hadn’t really appreciated how small the channels were, now I was on a ship that put some of the cruise ships to shame because of it’s size, I realised how small those channels were. A couple of minutes later we sailed past Suomenlinna, crowds standing on the edge to waive the ferries off as they depart, the same they do every evening, I waived back, raised my glass of Champaign and toasted Helsinki. Yes, this leg of the trip had started badly, but the end was making up for it.