Day 19: Helsinki
As luck would have it, I did not get the sleeper compartment to myself again. Instead, I was stranded outside the room for a good 10 minutes as my fellow bunker had gone wandering somewhere along the other carriages. I just badly wanted to lay down as my headache was not getting any better.
I was just glad to be able to plonk all my stuff down and go straight to bed when my fellow bunker finally showed up. He looked to be in his 50s, and sigh, he went smoking and the whole compartment was soon filled with the smell of smoke. Mr Smoker, with his limited English and my zero Finnish wanted to know when I will get off the train. Funny, that was my question to him too! ;)
But the worst thing is, Mr Smoker seemed to prefer to leave the lights one while sleeping. As I was on the upper deck, I can only cover myself with the duvet. Still, with the lights and the smoke smell (I really hate the smell) I managed to sleep as I was completely tired out with a heavy head.
After 8 hours or so of sleep, I felt more refreshed and a bit better, so I went off to the restaurant car for breakfast. A simple fare of sandwich, pastry, orange juice, and coffee set me back by 10 euro, which was really quite costly!
The train finally pulled in at Helsinki train station at 9am. As I made my way to Hotel Finn to collect my luggage, there was some sort of parade going on but I did not find out what it was about. After collecting my luggage, I made my way around the corner to check in at Scandic Marski Hotel. This was supposed to be a better hotel but I must say the staff all seemed to be sour-faced. Service was present, but there was no smile and no warmth. I should have just stayed back at Hotel Finn afterall. The smaller hotel was so much more friendly and the room was nice too.
The check-in time wasn't until 2pm and I debated whether to take a day trip to Porvoo. I finally decided against it as I was ill and did not want to aggravate my health further. So poor me had to go off wandering or rather loitering around the area for a couple of hours until 2pm. Did more window shopping and stopped by Wayne's again for more coffee time.
The room I had at Scandic Marski was spacious enough, but the furnishings were very old. Oddly, they provided coffee and tea bags but there was no kettle to boil hot water. I called the reception and was told that we can get hot water at the coffee machine besides the reception. Funny!
I took some medicine and spent the day in the room resting and hopefully I will be well enough again tomorrow to continue my sojourn to the Baltic countries.
I was just glad to be able to plonk all my stuff down and go straight to bed when my fellow bunker finally showed up. He looked to be in his 50s, and sigh, he went smoking and the whole compartment was soon filled with the smell of smoke. Mr Smoker, with his limited English and my zero Finnish wanted to know when I will get off the train. Funny, that was my question to him too! ;)
But the worst thing is, Mr Smoker seemed to prefer to leave the lights one while sleeping. As I was on the upper deck, I can only cover myself with the duvet. Still, with the lights and the smoke smell (I really hate the smell) I managed to sleep as I was completely tired out with a heavy head.
After 8 hours or so of sleep, I felt more refreshed and a bit better, so I went off to the restaurant car for breakfast. A simple fare of sandwich, pastry, orange juice, and coffee set me back by 10 euro, which was really quite costly!
The train finally pulled in at Helsinki train station at 9am. As I made my way to Hotel Finn to collect my luggage, there was some sort of parade going on but I did not find out what it was about. After collecting my luggage, I made my way around the corner to check in at Scandic Marski Hotel. This was supposed to be a better hotel but I must say the staff all seemed to be sour-faced. Service was present, but there was no smile and no warmth. I should have just stayed back at Hotel Finn afterall. The smaller hotel was so much more friendly and the room was nice too.
The check-in time wasn't until 2pm and I debated whether to take a day trip to Porvoo. I finally decided against it as I was ill and did not want to aggravate my health further. So poor me had to go off wandering or rather loitering around the area for a couple of hours until 2pm. Did more window shopping and stopped by Wayne's again for more coffee time.
The room I had at Scandic Marski was spacious enough, but the furnishings were very old. Oddly, they provided coffee and tea bags but there was no kettle to boil hot water. I called the reception and was told that we can get hot water at the coffee machine besides the reception. Funny!
I took some medicine and spent the day in the room resting and hopefully I will be well enough again tomorrow to continue my sojourn to the Baltic countries.
posted by Lonoxon at 9:41 am
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