I booked the ferry from Turku for28 GBP which was very nice, but sadly because I couldn't remember how to get to the bus stop I ended up getting a taxi to the ferry terminal, which cost of course more than I would have liked than the ferry itself. On the ferry I got some food, which wasn't too bad in price, as well as a couple o f drinks (tea or pepsi orr something of the sort). Oh now I remember, the food was a fallafal wrap with pitta bread and some sweet potato fries. Sadly and rather annoyingly the ferry had absolutely nothing in braille in terms of signage, not even anything tactile at all actually. So I was wondering around waiting for random people to show up. The people working on the Viking Line ship for the most part were very helpful, but I still thought to mention it to everyone from the people in the restaurants to the cleaner to the guard, or whatever you call those people who go round and make sure everything is fine on board the ship. The only thing apart from not being able to navigate the boat myself even if Ihadd wanted to, was the fact that the staff member who showed me off the boat and out of the terminal at Stockholm decided to tell me that I should tell them in advance or bring someone with me next time. Um no. I have just as much right to ask for asistance as anyone else who doesn't know where to go thank you very much.
So I arive in Stockholm Sweden and meet the bus driver who will take those who want to the city terminal where the buses and trains are. I ask the very helpfuul driver how much the ticket is and surprisingly, he tells me the price not only in chrona, but also in euros and informs me that he takes card payments. Fantastic! I got to the city terminal and sat talking to a lady who got there with me. She was waiting for her daughter and I for the flixbus I had previously booked to go to Malmo then to Berlin. We separated when that lady's daughter arrived and some people were also hanging around waiting for the same bus as me, so we boarded together. I might addd here that the buses were the cheapest part of the journey. I really wanted to go an a direct flixbus from Stockholm to Berlin, but that was full so I had to take a couple of separrate buses. The driver of the bus from Stockholm spoke German and little to no English and my first language is English with the odd half-fogotten bit of German, but the driver was lovely. More about him in a minute. The jjourney took all night and into the morning since it was a night bus. I really wish night buses would have beds, because the seats are not exactly comfortable on flixbuses. We got to Mamo Sweden at something after 7 in the morning and I had a 3 hour or more wait in the bus station. The driver decided to wait with me as he had nothing to do until he left for his plane a couple of hours later. It was bloody cold, so we went to sit in the bus station and he bought me a cup of tea ( gave him my travel mug to not have to bother with the disposable ones) then he asks if i want something to eat. I tell him that would be nice but I didn't know what was around or something to that effect, so he sys he will buy me a sweet roll. Next thing I know, he comes back with some sort of pretty sasty local pastry thing with nuts etc on. Although we spoke little of each other's languages, we managed to get the messages across and have something of a conversation. I knew the German for the numbers when he was asking how many sugars I wanted in the tea and I know the German for "speak", so after we got that figured out we were good! He would say whatever he was wanting to say and have google translate say the English, and I would do likewise and have google translate say the German.. As I say, this lovely bus driver whose name I can't remember stayed with me until he had to leave for his aeroplane, at which point he had the police at the bus station show me where my bus was. Sweden has so many more police than Finland. In Finland you barely notice them, but in Sweden in the bus stations you see them walking around. Anyway I noticed some lines on the ground and upon asking the police person, discovered that they were to lead blind people to the exits. If I remember right they were also present in Stockholm station.
So off I go on another bus to Berlin. I had tried to book a cheap place on air bnb because I was tired, but they only accepted if it was for 2or more people, so I bookedd a more expensive place in the centre of Berlin. This meant getting a taxi to and from the place and the bus station. I stayed in a pretty big house run by Andreas. He's lovely and I would totally stay there again. The room was big but then it was a 5 person room. I got talking to him as well as some of the other guests over the 2 days I stayed there. Andreas loves his gramaphones and there's a lovely one in the kitchen/dinin-room. It lookl something like a cupboard, but you open the lid at the top and there is the turntable for the record to go on with the needle and everything. The winder is on the sde. There are a couple of doors which are actually cupboard doors lower down, but at the top are 2 smaller doors which at first I thought were cupboard doors with oddly-shaped shelves, but it's really a speaker. From what he told me it was a total pain getting it to Germany since he bought it at an auction in England. I stayed there from Friday to Sunday mainly resting. On Sunday me and Andreas went for lunch at an Asian restaurant. I can't remember its name off the top of my head, but I had some vegetables with some tofu and rice and probably some kind of sauce. Andreas had duck. I took a taxi back to the bus terminal and on the way got into a discussion with the driver about the rather stupid taxi laws in and around Berlin. To cut a long story short, he's a Berlin driver and he can pick people up from Schonefeld Airport which is 1 km outside the city, but he can't go back and join the queue with passengers. He has to carry no passengers. The Schonefeld drivers can pick people up and take them to Schonefeld, but they have to go back to Berlin with no passengers. He also said that the uber drivers in Germany don't have to have actual taxi licences or be familiar with the area. He as a fully registered tax driver has to carry his personal licence, taxi licence and documents relating to the car, but the uber drivers only have to have their own licence and car documents. Also he had to go through an exam to make sure he knew all the popular tourist sites and how to get to them, the hotels and an other similar places as well as having a good knowledge of the streets around the city. Apparently the book he had to read with all this information was around a thousand pages long, but again the uber drivers have to do none of that, just rely on the GPS. We all know that this is flawed, because one day the battery will go flat or the technology in the said GPS will malfunction, so while it's a good tool to have perhaps, it shouldn't be the only tool I think.
Anyway I find the staff at Berlin bus sttion amazingly helpful. Despite the fact there was only 1 person dealing with enquiries where I was, he sent for someone to help me get to the bus. Not 1 but 2 peole came and introduced themselves as being from Flixbus. There are lines at that particular bus station to indicate where people should wait for the bus at each stand. On I get to a cold and annoyingly uncomfortable bus heading towards Collone. Oh I forgot to add, on the way from Malmo to Berlin, my bus ticket included a ferry crossing at some stage to Copenhagen. I payed 22 euros on the ferry and got 2 plates of salad and pasta stuff and 2 lots of bread as well as some tea. It was actually an all inclusive buffet, so I could probably have got more.
The journey to Collone was uncomfortable, especially as I was tryingto sleep but couldn't. The wifi on flixbus buses is irritating as well, because it never actually connected for me, or if it did it wouldn't stay. I didn't know whether I was meant to connect my phone to the network called flixbus or the one called flixbus wifi. I changed buses at Collone and got the one to London. I don't know what I think of that bit of the journey in terms of how environmentally friendly it was or otherwise. When you get done with passport control in Paris, you have to get back on the bus, which then gets on a train with a load of other vehicles to carry everyone from Paris to Folkstone England. Then the bus has to drive off the train. I had some passport issues at the French border control. To cut a long story short, they decided that the world passport was a fantasist passport. They weren't having any of it when I told them I'm a world citizen and answered their questions and presented them with the universal declaration of human rights, a copy of which I carry around. They only way they would let me through was if I presented the British passport.
Well that's my story of getting back to the UK. I got back late on Monday evening. If I had been staying closer to Turku than Rymattyla in Finland, and carrying less stuff, I would have probably been able to get a single bus either to the ferry terminal or to Turku, but from where I had been staying I would have altogether had to take 3 buses - 1 to Naatali, then 1 to Turku and finally one to the ferry terminal itself. Also I could have not stayed the couple of nights in Berlin, but then I would have probably been more worn out. Speaking of cheap travel, I find the Express coaches in the UK to be more comfortable than Flixbus. I wonder how much the ferry to France from Dover England costs these days. Maybe I should look on ferry savers. At least you can alk around and do things on the ferry and perhaps go outside or sleep if it's a longer journey.
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