Silja Ship
Getting to Helsinki can be a normal train ride or airplane flight… or you can take the overnight cruise!
I would never go so far as to think that I would even step near a cruise ship like the one that I stepped onto that day. This fear is caused by three things: The Titanic. Motion sickness. Small rooms. Nothing – I repeat, nothing – made me want to take a journey by ship (the fact that we had just visited the Vasa Museum, and spent a chunk of our visit in Stockholm thinking about a shipwreck didn’t help either!).
But I was game. Or, at least, I had no choice…
When we got onto the ship, a Silja Line ship, we walked through a huge open hall with shops and restaurants, it was like a floating mall! Then we took the elevator (it’s so big it has several elevators!) up to find the room where we were to spend the night. 
The room was small, about the size of a small terrace or patio. Not a room you want to 
squish yourself into, let alone want to share it with three other people. It was a little room with an even smaller bathroom. It also looked like it had not been cleaned very thoroughly. But, as my parents would say, “Lean in!” In that situation, however, I would much rather have leaned out!
Once we stashed our bags in the room, we headed out to explore the ship some more. The boat itself is very nice but crowded. There is the main hall and shops lining it. Above the shops, it is all rooms. Then, there’s also a top deck where you can get drinks and enjoy the view. There’s even a pool, and jacuzzi (ick!).
We found a good spot on the top deck and watched the boat pull away from the dock in Stockholm. We could see the ropes and the captain maneuvering the ship. It was pretty cool.
Then we headed back to a little alcove in the hallway to eat a good dinner of cheese, bread, olives, and tomatoes that we 
had brought with us from ashore. We also browsed the shops and got some Pringles, tic-tacs, and wine- for my parents, not me. The kids had soda instead. It’s a tax-free boat, but not a law-free one! It turns out that this cruise ship is basically a floating mall that some people use to travel between Stockholm and Helsinki and others, locals, use to ride and have fun and watch shows while they do some duty-free (tax-free) shopping. The boat has a Moomin theme. Moomin is apparently a very famous Swedish cartoon character. It looks a bit like a white hippo. There was Moomin everywhere. In the stairs. In the mall. In the wallpaper of the family suite, the same room that we had, but it had Moomin wallpaper. Everywhere. Moomin’s cute, but not so cute that I would want him to be watching my every move! The views from our little alcove where we ate dinner were lovely. We could see Millesgarden as the ship pulled away from Stockholm
Then, it was back to our little room. When we went to bed, the bed was uncomfortable and there was a minuscule bug in the sheets. Even though the bug was tiny, it wasn’t nonexistent like it should be. I was so disgusted. I don’t want to know what was on that bed that I couldn’t see. I finally fell asleep to the rocking of the boat.
The next morning, we went to the grande buffet breakfast, which was… horrible. The food was bad, the people used their fingers in serving bowls, and the tables were dirty and gross. Also, the floor was super sticky. That’s about all I have to say for you to picture it.
On the plus side, the boat offers great views of Helsinki Cathedral when it pulls in to Helsinki. Even if the boat ride wasn’t my favorite, it evolved from me being somewhat pushed into leaning in, an important lesson to learn.
GET READY FOR MY NEXT STOP IN HELSINKI!
