The lone Stowaway

One should try to never upset your stomach after a good meal especially one that was prepared by good hands after eating from a cafeteria for the better part of a month. One also should know how to use the tram system in a foreign city and not miss his boat but alas I have broken that one too. I now sit in the belly of a different boat on an adventure that has bought me a day as a tourist in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. “Carpe Diem!” as they say and seize I have although I am not sure what I have by the tail. Somewhere in conversation or at a museum in the last week I heard it said that humans love abnormality and it becomes something that we prize. I hear truth in that statement and in a way missing my boat today in Helsinki is the broken schedule of time and calendars that I love so much in life. I have been learning a lot about myself in the weeks that have passed on these floating motels. I have begun to enjoy the status of an entertainer for peoples that find beauty in songs that they don’t really understand it’s kind of like a study in emotional performance. In the same way that I can pick up the meaning of Swedish words because of the inflection of the speaker and yet it’s a game that only one can play alone in a room of tongues bizarre. Like a ringmaster dealing out feats of musical acrobatics cracking whips at the folk song and heavy metal ballad with equal parts of admiration for the ears that find it pleasing and the challenge of emoting properly the correct impetus of the original muse. (That reminds me that I do really love the run on sentence and often think of how my lack of English grammar can be chalked up to the one teacher that taught us the best lesson about my native language: break all the rules because English is one messed up mish-mosh of linguistic pearls) And so now I have a night off to take in the performance of other English speakers and their performance of “pop” tunes.
I like writing this blog like this here’ why, I just spent the last 2 hours wandering the ship and checking out the differences meeting the troubadours here and playing a little video poker. I won 5 euro off of 20cents but then lost it all on a true double match of “is my card higher than the dealers”. The troubadours are a very nice couple from California although I didn’t catch the city they have been playing together for 20 years as entertainers and have been married for 31. They have a good thing going with the agent that booked us they keep an apartment in Copenhagen and play there a lot of the time. They are on board the Viking boats for 3 months and unfortunate for them they haven’t been able to get off the boat because it’s like the Amorella in terms of the quick turn around in each port. I sent an email to the booking agent informing him of my mishap not sure if the news would get to him anyway but I figure its good business to own up quickly to mistakes. The band that is playing in the fun club tonight is famous by Finnish standards and had hits in the 70’s and 80’s. They are good but it’s really funny to hear our hit songs sung in their tongue; which is in the throat.
So back to why I am on this misadventure… When I met the students that were studying in Helsinki I made friends with the girl from Spain, Nuria. She is doing a semester away from Barcelona in dentistry and missing ferries is her forte’. (see old post)
We had made plans via email for her to show me around Helsinki but hadn’t met up until today because of her course load. I should have known from the start of the day that there would be trouble as we got all crossed up on the meeting place and time but eventually figured it out. The central train and bus terminal was our starting point and from there we went to a sky bar at the top of a hotel. It was a great vantage point to get and idea of what is where it’s such a “low” city that when walking it is easy to get turned around, at least for me. I never realized how much I use tall landmarks to navigate until today and that I am much more at home in nature than in a city. We decided to head for a museum that she had been to but was not impressed by, and was not impressed again we didn’t even go in, small expensive and not very interesting material, something about animals. Next stop was a movie theater/mall/museum that was in a building resembling an aircraft hanger. The exhibit was of Robert Doisneau who all of you have seen I am sure. It was great fun to see his photographs all lined up like they were; he really had a knack for getting it right. I learned that he was an avid fisherman and used the same tactics for his art. Which was to pick a spot and wait for something to happen. He captured some amazing things around Paris that are so funny or out of the ordinary actually now that I think of it that whole abnormalities thing was him. Hah! There was a series of shots taken of people looking at the Mona Lisa what a range of facial expressions among the people viewing the masterpiece. From there we went back to her apartment and cooked a bizarre meal of steak with a blue cheese cream sauce, rice, zucchini and a Spanish dish of tomatoes, onions and garlic. Very tasty, she likes cooking up whatever she thinks of and it was good but odd. Now I don’t wear a watch and I haven’t for many years (see previous post) but I wish I had one today. I realized the time and it was a dash for the dock that started with trying to figure out the tram system. I did well on picking the right one thanks to some help from Nuria. When I got to the harbor the boat was there and I ran like the dickens and missed the boat by literally 3 minutes. So I run down to the ticket counter and they say well there’s a train going to Turrku in 25 minutes from the Central Terminal so off I was again running through the streets of Helsinki. I made that connection with 7 minutes to spare and took a nap on the train while listening to Django Reinhardt; which fit in theme with the French photographer because it was Jazz in Paris. I was awakened by a 3 or 4 year old kid running up and down the train pretending to be a motorcycle making the noise like he was changing gears and I was right there with him laughing, I believe I was the only one who was amused even his mother was horrified but still did nothing. The next connection was tight as well I walked off the train in the Turrku Harbor station and made the boat about 15 minutes before it sailed. They booked me as a standing passenger, which meant I didn’t have a room but after getting my name on a waiting list and waiting I got one. I am down in the belly of the boat on floor 2 below sea level and underneath the car decks and for 10 Euro it’s nicer than the room I had on High Street in New Brunswick.
Tomorrow will be a big day of being a tourist in Stockholm at 7am I am going to check out Swedish Mass in the morning and hopefully get some hymns that I know and try to sing them in Swedish. Then off to a gallery that Nuria visited and said was amazing and then who knows. I do eventually have to get back to the terminal and face the music but I will prolong that as long as possible. Cause hey I did it, it’s done and I am sorry but I ain’t wasting any time crying over spilt milk. This trip is much too short.
Missing every single one of you and if you think I’m not shoot me an email and then we’ll see whose thinking about whom.