A Strange Journey to a Familiar Place

To get to Sweden I took the ferry. At first it sounded kind of pleasing what with the water, a cruise liner filled with people, a sundeck. The reality was much different, however. Let me preface this by the story of how I finally arrived at the ferry. My day started at 4 in the morning when I got up to catch my 6 o'clock train. I walked through Krakow with my back pack, made it to the train station, and got into my train cabin with a punk rocker guy from Warsaw. This was all no problem. Except that the punk rocker was incredibly popular so his phone rang every five minutes, which meant that I woke up from my train nap to the sound of this guys ringer. His phone ringer was hilarious. It was an english speaking death metal band and it wasn't until a few times through hearing it that I realized the lyrics were saying "I would F*** the ground, I would F*** the sky, I would F*** a lion but I won't F*** you." It was an inviting ringer and a comical way to come out of a train nap.

Upon my arrival to Gdansk I stepped off of the train, out of the train station, and into a completely alien world. Since Seth has gone I no longer have the aid of the inimitable Rick Steves, so I was mapless and clueless as to where I needed to go to catch this ferry. As I stepped out of the train station I saw water, so I just started walking to the water. Sometimes my body works independently of my brain and this was one of those times. My brain thought, "hey, maybe we should find out where we are going before we just wast our time galloping around a city we have never even heard of." My feet just plowed away. After I got to the water I realized what a ridiculous idea walking there was so I headed back to the train station. At the train station there was this handy kiosk with a sign that said "Tourist Informatin."

The gentleman there informed me that the ferry port was 6 kilometers away, or roughly 3.5 miles. Walking was no longer an option. I took the tram to the stop that mister information told me to get off at and got off. The tram stop let me off smack dab in the middle of a residential district. No port. My window of catching the ferry was closing as well. The ferry leaves at 6pm and there is one every two days, so if I missed this one I was screwed. I walked around the houses for an hour, which took me up to 4:30pm. Finally I thought to get back on the tram thinking that maybe I just got off on the wrong stop and that there must be a tram stop that lets you off right at the port. Common sense would have one believe this. No dice. I rode the tram for twenty minutes and saw the same neighborhood twice (the tram goes in a circle that is about half a mile long, it is the most assinine public transportation design I have ever seen). Finally I got back off at the stop mister information gave to me and began to get a bit frantic. It was now 5 o'clock and I didn't even have a clue as to where to catch this damn boat. As I walked through

the neighborhood that I have now become quite familiar with I saw a human being (rare in these parts) and I ran up to him and bombarded him with English. Luckily he spoke enough to tell me that I was near where I needed to go, just needed to go around a couple of corners and I would see a huge cruise liner that said "Ferry" on the side. I thanked him immensly while cursing mister crappy information and speed walked toward my destination. The other thing that I did not have in my favor was that the trees in this particular neighborhood are all thirty feet high and overgrown. This is great for shade and nature and all that, but terrible for lost Ameicans looking for a huge boat.

Finally I found my way through this industrial port via a dirt trail that led to the ticket booth for the ferry. I tell no lies when I say that this is the only way to get to the ticket booth. I literally had to traverse the wilderness through an industrial park to get to the ticket booth. The whole time I felt as if I was trespassing. What the F? I would not take my family through there. Anyway, I made it with 9 minutes left to spare.

Once on the boat I walked around to get my bearings. I quickly realized that it was going to be a long boat ride. I was the only person on the entire boat who spoke English. Awesome. The crew only spoke a few words as well. Please note that I am not saying this as a dig against non-English speaking countries not speaking English. If anything I have been embarassed going to countries where I can only say "hello" in the native tongue. I was just lonely not having a single person to talk to. It is difficult walking around a place and not understanding a single word and no one being able to understand you. I tried to have a couple of gesticulated conversations, but to no avail. Eventually I gave up and went to my seat to sleep.

After all of that I ended up back in Stockholm and my cousin Tina was waiting at the docks for me. It was great to see a familiar face after feeling so unbelievably anonymous for the past day. It was an experience, though, and I am glad that I took a ferry instead of the plane because sitting on the deck watching the sunset on the Baltic Sea was a beautiful sight. It was the only time on the boat that I felt small in a good way. Here is a picture of my new baby cousin as well. She was one of the reasons I came back to Stockholm. What can I say, I am a sucker for babies.