Up early and off to the ferry terminal via 15A bus to join hundreds of mostly Finnish tourists for a day on the Baltic cruising to Tallinn in Estonia and back. What an experience!
We found a comfortable place to sit in what turned out to be the dance bar. First surprise was the stampede to the bar which opened on the dot of 8 am as we sailed from Helsinki-even for Helen pints of beer and spirits for breakfast is a little excessive. Then to our astonishment the curtains were drawn back at 8.45am and a dance band struck up lively tunes and before our eyes dozens of mainly middle aged Finns were unselfconsciously and cheerfully waltzing around the dance floor, perhaps fueled by their breakfast drinks. This continued all the way across the Baltic for 3 hours and kept us well entertained, especially as many were expert dancers.
Then there was breakfast (10 euros each) which was a huge buffet affair, similar to that we had had in our hotel, but much bigger selections. Everything from organic porridge (organic, gluten, lactose free seems to be very big here –everything is labeled), muesli, fruit, yoghurt , berries ( cloudberry jam is big here) etc to bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes etc to meats, fish, gerkins, cucumber, tomatoes etc plus a whole variety of different breads. Could feed yourself for a whole day from here.
After the day in Tallinn (see next post) the party continued on the return journey which left at 5 pm, tho more dancers, including more younger people, and faster music, including “Elvis” with lots of rock and roll twirling. We will never need to go on an ocean cruise again, no entertainment could be as good as this. Joined the throngs downstairs in the duty free shop for a modest amount of shopping but could not compete with the suitcases mainly full of alcohol carried ashore by the Finns.
We found a comfortable place to sit in what turned out to be the dance bar. First surprise was the stampede to the bar which opened on the dot of 8 am as we sailed from Helsinki-even for Helen pints of beer and spirits for breakfast is a little excessive. Then to our astonishment the curtains were drawn back at 8.45am and a dance band struck up lively tunes and before our eyes dozens of mainly middle aged Finns were unselfconsciously and cheerfully waltzing around the dance floor, perhaps fueled by their breakfast drinks. This continued all the way across the Baltic for 3 hours and kept us well entertained, especially as many were expert dancers.
Then there was breakfast (10 euros each) which was a huge buffet affair, similar to that we had had in our hotel, but much bigger selections. Everything from organic porridge (organic, gluten, lactose free seems to be very big here –everything is labeled), muesli, fruit, yoghurt , berries ( cloudberry jam is big here) etc to bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes etc to meats, fish, gerkins, cucumber, tomatoes etc plus a whole variety of different breads. Could feed yourself for a whole day from here.
After the day in Tallinn (see next post) the party continued on the return journey which left at 5 pm, tho more dancers, including more younger people, and faster music, including “Elvis” with lots of rock and roll twirling. We will never need to go on an ocean cruise again, no entertainment could be as good as this. Joined the throngs downstairs in the duty free shop for a modest amount of shopping but could not compete with the suitcases mainly full of alcohol carried ashore by the Finns.
No comments:
Post a Comment