It’s About Mindset
A guest post by Green Christian member, Edward Gildea
I was determined to get to my holiday without flying. I was going kayaking in the Finnish archipelago and needed to get to Helsinki.
I allowed 4 days for the journey; made all the bookings, but disaster struck immediately! Before I had gone 20 miles my train stopped. A fatality on the line.
Despite a mad dash on Uber, District and Circles line I missed my Eurostar and my thread of connections collapsed. Despair!
90 minutes later was off, but Cologne’s scheduled 1 hour wait increased to two and as we journeyed towards Hamburg, the delay got even longer. I arrived 4 hours late, tip-toeing to my dormitory bunk and fell asleep.
At breakfast I received a text to say that my sleeper train to Stockholm had been cancelled, to be by replacement bus service! Uggh! So much for falling blissfully asleep to the click of the rails and waking up in Stockholm!
I enjoyed Hamburg though: old city, the docks, the clubs the Beatles played in and Art Gallery.
That night at the bus stop no one was surprised. German railways are far from being ‘Forsprung durch Technik’! We were philosophical and I managed to get some sleep on the ferry to Malmo.
Stockholm was great! I enjoyed the museums; hopped onto city ferries to nearby islands; saw the changing of the guard playing ABBA on horseback; savoured cinnamon buns in an ancient cellar and crammed 36 hours with sightseeing before catching my overnight ferry to Helsinki.
I was in awe of the way our ferry navigated the Stockholm archipelago. With the sun setting over the city behind us, I celebrated with a beer. Suddenly the anguish of the train and bus journeys faded. I was alive, healthy and on schedule! As we headed into the open sea, I treated myself to a very civilized dinner. I had earned it!
I awoke to the most lavish buffet breakfast and enjoyed it with views of the approaching coast of Finland. The restaurant buzzed with families on their own adventures.
Would I do it again? Absolutely! This is Travel. I saw 2 great cities, connected with strangers, and learned that it is about Mindset. There will be set-backs just as Phineas Fogg faced. But by building in an extra day or two I saw more of the world as I travelled.
Was it expensive? Yes. Staying in hostels made it less so, and if you add in the costs of two city breaks it could even be cheaper!
I reached my holiday destination while others in my kayaking group were still struggling through Baggage Reclaim and I have to confess… I felt smug!
Edward Gildea writes magazine articles for his local church, St Mary’s, Saffron Walden in north west Essex.
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