How I Missed Boarding Cruise Ship Towards Tallinn

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From Finland to The Baltics – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania! That sounds like a plan, and this is just a part of my summer holiday. It’s incredible how easy it is to just cross the Baltic sea from Helsinki to Tallinn in only 2-3 hours by ferry. Important to know and not repeat my mistake (I wonder why you read my posts with how many stupid ideas I sometimes have) – so let me tell you the story of how I missed my ferry to Tallinn.

You see, before the day in question, I left Tallinn by ferry to go to Aland islands, and from there, I went (still by boat) to Turku, so I felt like a ferry expert already. I woke up in the morning and checked the departure time, and it said 10.30 the ferry leaves Helsinki with destination – Tallinn. Great! I checked out of the hotel, and I was looking for a beautiful place to have breakfast - my boyfriend, Vlad, really wanted a coffee, and I just wanted another Instagram picture, in the end, how can a girl survive nowadays if not from #foodpics on Instagram?

Great, so I found this cute little place, near the harbor, literally 3 minutes’ drive. It’s 9.30 am, we have one hour till the ferry leaves, so I order my breakfast that the lady told me it’s around 15 minutes to get it prepared. I took my pictures, ate my food, and it’s 10.10 am, and you can’t see how happy I was that I managed to get ready. One thing I forgot to mention is that for all the other ferries, we needed to be there 15 minutes before, so we can park the car, but didn’t bother to check this time. We went on, and at the gate, it was written that we could only go to the 1.30 pm ferry, to which I say to Vlad: “it’s a glitch in their system, and they don’t have many cars probably, so they only put the next ferry!”

 

When finally, someone explains to me that, well, for Helsinki, things are a bit different, and I should have actually been there ONE HOUR before, I freak out, ask four times if he is sure about this and how I can get us to the next ferry. Vlad is all red and furious! “Well, I told you so, you always push the limit, and you finally got us on trouble.” Of course, this is not what I wanted to hear, even though he is right, I can’t say a thing; otherwise, this situation will be brought up every single time I get us in trouble, just because I want to do and see more than a normal human being. Running away from the conversation, seemed the smarter thing to do at the moment.

But of course, my stress level gets higher compared when I am in the office; therefore I run and rush to the counter (not sure why I had two more hours until I was supposed to be at the gate again), and the lady explains that I need to figure out what I want and need, because, the car spots are limited – not to mention that suddenly there is a bunch of people coming in and all cashiers are occupied. “This is nothing compared to my previous day stupidity when I entered the prison gates, just because it didn’t look like one.” I am thinking, and at the same time, I am smiling politely to the cashier lady. She is on the phone and also typing to check how we can manage to get on the next ferry. She seems very friendly and willing to help, but I don’t understand a word of the conversation.

“You will need to pay some extra fee, but you can board at 1.30 pm!” she says. Of course, I accept and pay the penalty. Even though I did all the stupid and touristic steps to screw up this, the personnel from Tallink Silja Line was accommodating. Once I get back to our car, I see Vlad worried, and with a big smile on my face, I told him: “They got us in, with the car on the next ferry – so, relax! Ok, what can I do now for another 2 hours!?!”

I decided to go back to the city and get more photos and let Vlad worry about everything!

We finally arrived in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, with a small and superb old town area a few hours later than expected, but the trip itself it’s a story to tell.