Conference room on the Superfast VII, 10:32 AM Finland Time, 22 hours left.

Sleeping in a chair in a room full of snoring old dudes is awesome. I managed to sleep pretty well, actually. I think I missed breakfast, but it was something like 12.50€, anyways, so screw it. I’m gonna go stare at the ocean for 12 hours. Maybe I’ll put on my fancy shirt and try to find a single lady with a cabin and see if I can get out of sleeping in a chair tonight as well…

Lounge, 13:49, Baltic Sea, 19 hours left

I just read about 50 pages in my book on 924 Gilman. It’s a tedious read, but still pretty inspirational. I listened to music on the train yesterday and, after so long without good music, I was losing my mind a little bit. I’ve been sort of joking about music being my religion, but it is really the only thing that I believe in, the only thing that still gives me hope in my darkest times, the only thing that stays when everything else I love is gone forever. When I get back from Europe, I need to get a band or my solo project going before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.

But right now, I need to find out about this free wireless that I heard someone mention, the Helsinki maps I see everyone with and how the Baltic Sea wind feels on my face.

Passenger Deck, 14:42, Baltic Sea, 17ish hours left.

Awesome, that’s how it feels. Like the pure joy if the start of Fishing the Sky by The Appleseed Cast. Like the reassurance of “We all have what it takes to make it home” in Driving Home by Hot Water Music. Like the calm of the end of track 9 on the Texas is the Reason record. I’m going to get sunburned sitting out here, but I don’t want to get up to go back in. When I grow old and tired and can’t get up the strength to do whatever inane hobby I choose to while away my retired life with, I want this to be my front yard, a giant rolling blue ocean and a cool breeze in the warm sun. I think I’m going to like Finland.

Lounge, 18:57, Still on the Baltic Sea, 13 hours left.

After thoroughly enjoying my afternoon lounging around reading and internetting, it was time for dinner. I already ate the rest of my bread and cheese, so it was up to the ship to feed me. I started at the buffet. The 28€ (roughly $42) price tag informed me I’d be eatin elsewhere. The a la carte restaurant had pasta for 13€, but apparently you need to make a reservation before it opens. I tried the cheap cafe place… No vegetarian food. So, the snack shop it was. My dinner is the classic can of cashews and bag of M & M’s. That’ll teach me to not plan ahead. Probably not. And now they’re torturing me with Lionel Richie and that horrible, exploitative Katy Perry song. But I’ll be in Finland in 14 hours! And in a couple days my brother will come visit and we’ll go watch the best rally in the world! Adventure!

Passenger deck, 21:59, you know where, 10 hours left.

We’re definitely going north because it is still light. I want to ride the train as far north as possible, but might not have time to do so. I spent some time looking at maps, but my schedule is incomplete, so it’ll have to wait until I can get to the train station and check the schedules there. I’m also half-tempted to go back in after watching the sunset and see if the girl playing solitaire wants a card-playing partner. I mean, how hard can this sort of thing be? (heh, hard.) I mean, it’s not like she speaks Finnish or German or Russian or some language other than English, right?

Lounge, 22:30, yeah yeah.
Well, the sunset was nice, I sent a picture of it to my mom. The solitaire girl is not here anymore, however. Sorry to let you down, mom, maybe I can adopt you a grandkid or something. I didn’t want to bring any more lives into this ecosystem anyways.

Lounge, 23:18, 9 hours left
I’ve finished my 400 page book of stories and articles about Gilman, I’m tired of playing the role playing game I bought for my phone, there are no single women about, and the Brits are at the bar hitting on the bartender. I can’t decide if I’m jealous of their outgoing nature or sickened by 50 year olds flirting with a 24 year old. She’s dealing pretty well with it, I guess. Maybe I should just head down to my chair or carve out a place on the floor and sleep for the last 9 hours. Or maybe I should eat another fistful of candy covered peanuts and chocolate from a major American manufacturer. It has been a good enough day, right? By the way, even now there’s still twilight going on at this late hour. We are definitely north of Seattle by a ways. I’m pretty stoked on it. I wanted to wait for the stars to come out, but it might be another hour or so!! Okay, I’ll do it, but I’m going to post this first. It’s what, noon there?