Pupletts in Sweden: Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm - Part 1 Introduction and ferry

Our next trip was with some friends to take in a few more capital cities - Stockholm (capital of Sweden), Helsinki (capital of Finland) and Tallinn (capital of Estonia).

Considering the face that Kristine had also been to Copenhagen recently it meant that we had hit 4 capital cities within a couple of weeks.

Our plan was to take the Snabbtåg (quick-train / bullet train) from Malmo to Stockholm, head straight from the train station to the ferry terminal and board our ferry (Viking Lines, MS Gabriella). The ferry was an overnight trip from Stockholm to Helsinki (leaving at 4pm and arriving in Helsinki at 9:15am).

We then had one night and two days in Helsinki before catching our next ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. The cruise is only about 2 hours, but we decided to do an overnight cruise so we didn't need to pay for a hotel and were ready to start early in the morning in Tallinn. The cruise left about 8pm and arrived in Tallinn about 6:30am.

We then had three days and two nights in Tallinn. From Tallinn we caught a ferry back to Stockholm and spent two nights there before catching the train home.

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Starting our trip
In order to arrive in Stockholm in time to catch our ferry we needed to leave Malmo quite early on the Snabbtåg. The train ride is 4.5 hours and 600km. We spent most of the trip playing our IPads and reading. The scenery out the window was pretty cool as we traveled through Sweden, but Alana ended up shutting the blinds as she was feeling a little motion sick.

We arrived in Stockholm around 2pm and dragged our luggage (luckily we packed light) 3.5km through Gamla Stan (Old Town) and along the shorefront to the ferry. We hung around for a couple of hours until we could board the MS Gabriella.

Unfortunately I had aimed for cheap rooms and our cabin was on deck 2, which was right at the bottom of the ferry. While the cabins were small, they were fairly comfortable on later trips, but this cabin didnt seem to have functioning air conditioning and it got hot and stuffy - especially as it was made for 4 people and we had five. The room was 8.5m2 and had two sets of fold up bunks and a small bathroom with a shower and toilet. We folded up one one the bottom bunks and Kris and I slept on the floor while the kids had the bunks.

The scenery leaving Stockholm was awesome, but it was a little cold so the kids didn't let us stay out too long. We met up with our friends and had a drink on the decks before retiring to the cabin to get the kids to bed. Apparently our friends came to see if we wanted to go out for a drink about 10pm, but we were all snoring...