Turku

see all photos »

Wednesday, June 20

We had breakfast aboard the ship and debarked around 7:30 am. The day was bright and sunny and it was nice being awake and walking around the city at that hour when everything was quiet and peaceful. After talking to a lady on the street, we learned that our reservation for a cabin was in another town about 15 kilometers away. We did not have any Euro left so we had to walk towards the city center to get to an ATM and to the bus stops. Instead of going to the other city, we tried calling a campground that had cabins that was a bit closer (only 6 km away). I had tried calling before without any luck, buy I thought it was worth a try. Luckily, they did have a room we could rent in a house.

see all photos »

We took local bus no. 8 to Ruissalo Island, home of Ruissalo Campground where we would stay for the night. The Island and campground were beautiful. Water, woods, and the fresh air surrounded us. The house had several rooms for rent, two common sitting areas, and a kitchen. They let us check-in and go to our room at around 10 am and at that hour, we were the only people there.

In typical Finnish style, the campground had saunas you could rent by the hour for 10 Euros. At noon, after a short hike through the woods and around the beach, we headed for the sauna. The sauna area consisted of three rooms, one leading to the next. The first room was a lounging room that had a fireplace to keep the place cozy in winter; the next room was a shower room; and the final room was the sauna. We both fell asleep for a bit in the sauna and felt very clean and content after the sauna and a shower. Afterwards, we took a well-deserved nap listening to the sounds of nature through the open window in our room.

see all photos »

Later that evening, we headed to town on the local bus and dined at a restaurant on the river. Here we listened to a twelve-member Dixieland jazz band from St. Petersburg, Russia while we dined on a shrimp salad and chorizo and mussel pizza.