Stockholm to Helsinki - On board a luxury liner

Sunday the 7th, we got up early, showered, packed, and cleaned up the apartment. Roland arrived at precisely 9:30. He was a super-nice guy, I gave him the keys, and he very kindly offered to drive us into the city. It was a short cruise in his spiffy Saab, and we made some nice small talk along the way. We thanked him for the ride when he dropped us off, and then we went inside the station and locked our main packs inside a big locker and headed out to explore the city. I wanted to finish walking the main thoroughfare where all the shops were, and just take it until it ended, and that's what we did. It was still pretty early for a Sunday morning, so almost everything was closed. All we really needed was a coffee. We walked to the end, and then turned around, and came back on a parallel street for most of the way before coming back onto the main drag again where we found a cafe that was open. We had some delicious coffees and pastries and sat out for a while, enjoying the warm sun and listening to the myriad conversations around us. Once we felt rejuvenated, we walked over to a little square where a trolley line runs regularly over to the island of Djurgarden. We climbed aboard, bought our tickets, and waited just a few minutes before pulling away. We were very happy to have taken the trolley, as the ride was long enough where it would have been quite tiring to do it on foot, in addition to all the walking we planned to do once we got there. We took the trolley to the end, and then walked all the way to the opposite side of the island and then meandered back just in time to catch it again for a return trip. We had some difficulty finding our way around the island on our return but eventually made it. We walked quickly back to the train station, got our bags out of the locker, and took the metro up to the Silja Line terminal. We were soooo excited!! We wanted to be there by the 3:30pm boarding time, and we actually had a few minutes to spare. We relaxed in the waiting area for a little bit, and then boarded, and WOW were we surprised. It was nothing like what we had expected. We honestly thought that we'd be lucky to have wooden planks to sleep on for the overnight voyage to Helsinki, but it turned out, this was a luxury liner! Never having done a luxury cruise before, this turned out to be quite an experience. Since our tickets were covered by our Eurail pass, we splurged on a buffet dinner on board, and it was awesome! Having a few free hours before our dinner seating, we walked all over the ship, discovering a casino, a pub, a dance club, a night club, a media center, whirlpools, a water slide, hair dresser, all kinds of shopping, etc. Elvis, and Dolly Parton were even on board! We were alotted an 8pm seating, and were allowed to eat for up to 2 hours. We were there for the entire allotted time. They gave us each our own bottle of wine. We could have had all the beer, sodas, juices, coffees, etc. that we wanted, in addition to more wine, if we wanted. We ate breads, cheeses, crackers, salads, shrimp, all different kinds of salmon, fishes, chicken, beef, pasta, nachos, vegetables, desserts, ice cream, etc. It was unbelievable, and I was determined to eat more than my fair share. After stuffing oursleves silly, and enjoying a spectacular sunset during dinner, we walked around the ship some more, and ended up in the night club for a while to recuperate. Then, we tried out the pub, where we we had a nightcap before finally turning in around 1am. Vee had a bunk in a cabin of 2 other women, and I slid into my bunk in a cabin with 3 other men. We could have arranged for our own cabin together, but then our ride aboard the ship wouldn't have been free. Though somewhat awkward, it worked out just fine and we both slept pretty well.