Operation Aurora - The Weird Night

The ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm was not quite what I was expecting on so many levels. I made pretty good time Jyväskylä to Helsinki and had a couple hours to kill, but not enough to really do much in Helsinki so I just hung out at the terminal's coffee shop until it was time to load the car into the ferry.

Once on board I realized it was much less of a typical ferry and more of a small cruise ship. The main promenade deck had several shops touting tax free fashion, electronics, and souvenirs. The main shopping attraction was a large duty free "superstore" full of liquor, tobacco stuffs, and perfume. Aside from the shopping there were also a small variety of restaurants (a fine dining place, a sushi spot, some cafeteria fare, a buffet, and a few others), a small casino, a pub, a night club, and a discotheque(a very European thing to have). The cabins on the upper decks were like more compact versions of cruise ship cabins with views that either overlooked the promenade or had ocean views. The cabins in the steerage where I was sleeping ranged from tiny to fucking tiny---mine was fucking tiny. Possibly the smallest room I've slept in. Being down at the bottom of the ship it also got the full motion of the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, and the full sound of metal creaking and waves slapping the hull. I could already tell I wasn't going to get much sleep. It was small, too warm, and had no wifi so I ventured out to the promenade.

The night started pretty simple. I had dinner at the fine dining restaurant where I had a pretty good dinner of seafood, beetroots, and a very small but tasty desert. I was going to try and get some photos uploaded (the upper decks had wifi) and have a beer or two in the little pub. I got very little work done when I realized that my steerage ticket only got me access to slow, to the point of being useless, throttled wifi with a relatively small data limit. At one point I made some sort of impatient gesture when pictures kept failing to upload and this guy at a table across from me made a comment. We shouted back and forth for a minute before he slid over to my table and introduced himself a Pedro.

Pedro was born in Colombia but adopted at a very young age into a Swedish family and grew up in Stockholm. He seemed to have an eccentric personality and a bit of a bohemian lifestyle---kinda drifting from one job to another until he got bored or he got fired. He had a few stories about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and spending a night here or there in jail or getting stuck in Hungary without a passport and having a hard time getting back to Sweden. He described himself as a "rock and roller" and had the personality and dress to go with it. He was very high energy and fed off of social interactions.

Pedro disappeared for a little while and I tried futilely to get some work done with my pictures. He finally came back and we resumed talking about life and enjoying a pretty decent British guy playing pop rock songs on his acoustic guitar. Pedro's personality ended up pulling in another solo traveler, Niina, and once the singer---Grant, I believe---finished his last set he ended up gravitating to the table as well. It became an international court of contrast and comparisons---of life, politics, why Americans like guns so much, and everything between. Grant was from Birmingham, Niina was from near Lahti, Finland but had lived in Stockholm for the last 20 years, me the American, and Pedro the born Colombian but raised Swede. Eventually the pub was closing down and we were all going to relocate to the dance club on the other end of the ship. In the process we lost Grant, he was taking his gear back to his room and never resurface, but Pedro and Niina ended up making it there with me.

The dance club had a small dance floor about the size of the average living room and there was a band that played a lot of soul, r&b, and standards. It was headlined by an African who spoke English with what sounded to me like a Johannesburg accent. You could tell by the way he schmoozed and interacted with the audience he had played many cruises, but they were pretty good nonetheless. Pedro, the flamboyant social butterfly, couldn't resist the call of the dance floor and kept disappearing to dance his awkward dance with a variety of older women. That left Niina and I to talk on and off for several hours. I learned that she was a drug rehab nurse, her husband was ex-Russian military and a former Tae Kwan Do champion and his photo intimidated the hell out of me (and I never felt it was a ruse to make sure I didn't hit on Niina). She grew up in what seemed like a very traditional Finnish family but moved to Stockholm because the work opportunities were better, much to the annoyance of her mother. He father had passed away sometime in the last 10 years and her mothers health was up and down (this was the reason she had been in Finland).

Me and Niina got along great, and even though my Swedish was nonexistent and her English was heavily accented and she sometimes searched for words she was always willing to answer any kind of questions I had about Swedish or Finnish life. During the few hours that we were at the night club, Pedro would drift in and out of conversation as his social energy waxed and waned, but over time it seemed like he was getting jealous that me and Niina had connected better than me and him. He was getting a little dramatic at times, making odd comments like "You know Adam, you are very beautiful for an American." I would smile and say thanks, but never indulge in his attempts to get me out to dance. As the night went along, he was dancing with more men (all about my build and age) and less of the older women. Niina and I had long since come to the conclusion that Pedro wasn't just flamboyant, he was gay or bisexual. It didn't really matter so we didn't pay much attention to it beyond the awkward comments.

It was getting pretty late, around 2am by this point, and the dance floor was starting to get desolate. The energetic, crowd-pleasing band had given way to a weird 80s costumed band that played mostly 70s songs, including a selection of Swedish songs. With the crowd thinned out, Pedro was at our table more and his energy was getting less and less. Niina had mentioned she thought he was on more than just a social high, but I had brushed it off as just Pedro's...Pedro-ness. He disappeared to the bathroom for a few minutes and Niina said she bet he comes back a brand new man. And boom...the upbeat Pedro was indeed back. Niina just gave me a knowing, I told you so smile and all I could do was nod. At one point I needed to use the bathroom and had no idea where it was, so I asked Niina if she knew. She said she was going out to smoke so she'd show me. Pedro must have sensed we were leaving because he suddenly popped up and raised his eyebrows suggestively, asking where we were off to. When I told him he made a kind of smirk like he didn't really believe me, but shrugged. A few minutes later I was back, and then Niina was. Pedro again looked at me like he was slightly disappointed. It was also about this time that the night club was shutting down and we were told the discotheque stayed open until 6am, so we made for the next change of scenery.

On our way out of the night club, we came across a bald, broad-shouldered guy with a long goatee that was very drunk and had managed to fall out of his chair. The South African singer from the band was helping him up and Pedro suddenly became interested in the drunk man and we lost him on the way to the all-night dance party. But it wasn't really all night, and after about 30 minutes of obnoxiously loud euro-dance beats that club too was closing. The only thing left open at 4am was the small restaurant that served cafeteria style food. Both Niina and I were hungry so we ended up getting some shitty convection oven pizza and sat down as the night was finally starting to wind down. Only it wasn't quite ready to end, it seemed.

While we were in line for food Pedro popped back up, disappeared, and then popped back up again once we were sitting and eating our shitty pizza (Niina actually liked it, but considering the options for take-out in Sweden I can't really say I'm surprised). At this point Pedro was a little...abrasive. He was now obviously annoyed that he wasn't the center of attention and kept getting louder and more dramatic. Suddenly the conversation shifts solely between Pedro and Niina and they are talking exclusive in Swedish (something that rarely happened the whole night, solely out of courtesy to me). Niina was calm but stern, while Pedro was getting agitated and mock-offended. They kept gesturing to me, making me more uncomfortable than Pedro's harmless attempts to hit on me, and then Niina was grabbing her purse and leaving. I was trying to find out what was happened and all she said was that she was getting security. I looked to Pedro and in a very dramatic, Latin soap opera fashion he explained "I have nothing to hide." I kept asking what they had been arguing about, but all it came back to was that he had nothing to hide.

A few minutes later Niina was back, and then a few more minutes later two ship's security were there. They first talked to Niina, in Swedish, and then talked to Pedro, all while we were sitting at the table. Then they asked Pedro to come with them while they talked some more. Niina went right back to eating her pizza, not the least bit fazed by events. When I asked her what all that was about, she shrugged and said he was on drugs. I had a feeling it was more than that, and it had more to do with me than either of them were letting on. I have a feeling she was trying to protect me in the same way a sibling protects their younger, obviously more naive sibling. But it still wasn't over.

After 10 or so minutes Pedro was back and standing next to the table. He was again claiming he had nothing to hide, adding that he was clean, and that he had much respect for me and for women. I told Pedro it was probably time to call it a night. He dramatically acted offended and stomped off, only to stomp back up at the other side of the table. This went round and round for a few minutes before I told him to just go. The night was over and he should quit while he's ahead. I thought he was about to walk off when instead he sat down at the table behind us where two older women who were completely uninvolved in any of the night's events were sitting and Pedro began to profess to them that he was a good person, he was clean, and he had nothing to hide. At this point I'd had enough and I got up and told Pedro to leave the women alone---they had no idea who he was or what he was talking about so just leave them be. He stood up and puffed out his chest, not in a threatening way but in a mix of defensive and peacockish showboating. He was getting louder and louder, telling everyone he was an open book, he was clean, he had nothing to hide.

I was done being diplomatic and finally grabbed him by the arm and told him if he wouldn't leave then I would take him back to his room. His eyes grew big momentarily and then he gave me a look I can only describe as sort of seductive.

In a melodramatic voice he asked "Are you sure, Adam? Do not tease me."

He was choosing to take things the wrong way.

"No, no, no, Pedro. Not like that," I said, more defensively than I had intended.

He gave me a hurt look and then his eyes brightened and he said, "But it could be."

"Listen Pedro. Me and you are not having sex. We aren't fucking. We aren't getting it on. Our dicks are never going to be any closer to each other than they are now. You can be gracious and let me escort you to your room, or we can get security to do it."

"You do not talking to me in such a crude manner," he said, again being theatrical.

"Fine, security it is," and I walked over to the front desk where Niina had gone earlier. I told the lady there was a guy that had probably had a little too much to drink and needed an escort to his room.

"You mean that guy behind you?" she asked, and I turned to see Pedro pouting, lips pooched out like a child.

"Yeah, that guy."

The lady asked if it was the same guy that had been a problem earlier and I said yes, so she get on the phone and called security. Pedro vanished. I didn't actually see or hear him leave...he just disappeared.

After I sat back down with Niina we both agreed we were pretty much done for the night. It was after 4am and breakfast was early and we would be in Stockholm shortly after 9. I told Niina I would be more comfortable if she let me walk her to her room and she was fine with that, but needed to smoke first. We made our way down the promenade to one of the doors to the outer decks. Niina was already outside and Pedro popped up from the stairs nearby. He pointed an accusing finger out the door to Niina, who just rolled her eyes, and said "It is because of that girl, isn't it."

"Dude, she's married to a terrifying looking Russian dude. None of us are getting laid tonight."

"But you could."

"Fuck off, Pedro," I said as I went outside with Niina.

Pedro dramatically walked off up the stairs, but a minute later came back down, and then went down another floor. He kept popping up and down the decks, and I kept catching him glancing at us from a distance, through the rails of the stairs, and then disappearing when he saw that I could see him. He popped up at the door and opened it, but I had my foot in the way so he could only open it so far.

"You will never have another friend like me" he said, and slammed the door, only to open it again. "You will never have another friend like me!"

Then he was gone.

I joked with Niina about being cursed by a Colombian as she finished her cigarette, saying she knew how to get rid of cursed, and then I walked her to her room. I was constantly looking around for Pedro as we made our way to on one of the upper decks and agreed to meet her for breakfast before telling her goodnight. I made my way back to my room, but I was still feeling paranoid so I took a long, complicated route using both stairs and elevators. When I got to my floor, a maze of narrow hallways with short dead-ends that branched off every 10 or 15 feet, I peeked around every corner before committing to my move. I had a vision of a little, flamboyant Colombian man with a rag soaked in chloroform and was not going to end up a Lifetime movie. Even though I never saw him on my way to my room, I kept feeling like I was being watched, but finally I got there (and checked the bathroom and the shower just in case) and locked the door and the night behind me.

The next morning, aka 3 hours later, I woke and met Niina for breakfast. Finland is an hour ahead of Sweden, so when we left all the boat's events were in Finnish time, but somewhere around 4am when we briefly docked at the small island of Mariehamn the boat switched over to Swedish time. As a result I screwed up and set my alarm an hour early than I needed, and then she was 30 minutes late so I waited a while. We both knew this was the end of our brief friendship so it was mostly small talk and laughing about the Pedro bullshit of the night before. I had intended to exchange emails or something to keep in touch, but while she was getting a refill of coffee I realized we were pulling into the Stockholm terminal and I still needed to pack. Just then they announced our arrival and stated that the doors for unloading vehicles would be open in 10 minutes and I was 2nd in line and didn't want to be the reason nobody could leave so I hunted her down and rushed an awkward goodbye and ran off to stuff all my crap in my bag. I got into my car just as the car in front of me was pulling away, the guy behind me shaking his head at his near-inconvenience, and pulled out of the ferry and away from Pedro and Niina.

From the ferry I drove straight to the airport where I dropped off my rental car, killed a few hours, and began the long flight home. I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 9pm and spent the night in a cheap motel nearby since my connecting flight wasn't until 9am. Then I took the short flight to Atlanta, and my friend picked me up and I was home. Operation Aurora, although a success, was sadly over. I have some thoughts and pictures and lessons learned to think about and will post those in a few days. But other than that, another vacation is in the books.