This is collection of thoughts I have gathered from my series of trips between Helsinki (Finland) and Hamburg (Germany) in the years 2022 and 2023. I have traveled 5 times From Helsinki to Hamburg (ferry: 4 times, train 1 time) and from Hamburg to Helsinki 4 times (Bus: 3 times, ferry: 1 time). The text is a mixture of emotional talk, practical tricks and information on timetables for traveling by land between the two locations.
bus
Preparation time: 2 days (meditational day + shopping /preparation day) Length: 3h 30min + 24–27h + 3h = 30h The bus is your most thrill-seeking and cheapest option to make the journey. I have done the bus trip three times, so I feel like I have a routine.
Blur
Something I really enjoy about the long bus ride is that it blurs my habitual weekly rhythm. Such as waking up, eating lunch at a certain time – and most importantly, maintaining focus and being productive. None of these really apply on flixbus. There is some radical sensation about just staying up in the late hours and binge watching the seventh episode of White Lotus in a row, and not being guilty about it. Might even watch another one when I wake up after two hours of sleep. From my first bus trip I can remember an emerging burst of excitement, at around 00:30, realizing that I’m in darkness in the middle of the Polish countryside. Then I experienced the liberating feeling that for the next 12 hours I would not be accountable to anyone but myself. In effect, I am tied to my seat to make myself as comfortable as possible, and at that moment there are no society's expectations of me. However, most of the time this bus travel is not smooth sailing.
Preparation
Successful catering along this journey requires some special techniques. When planning the meals, I bear in mind the following factors: I need to have enough food, it must not stress my stomach, it should fit in a compact container, it must not leak in my bag, and it should be delicious enough for me to look forward to eating it. Usually, my answer to this has been several sandwiches heavy with tofu. In addition, I have a lways had time to eat quick falafel in Berlin before the longest 24h part of the trip. For increased convenience it is nice to pack hand sanitizer and a neck pillow.
Seating and fellow passengers
The Hamburg→Berlin connection boasts with the most modern bus with air conditioning, and it starts the trip in a very comfortable way. However, you should be prepared for the fact that the inter-baltic bus is not of the same quality. It is old and stuffy. Essentially, on Flixbus everybody is on the same boat. All seating is equally comfortable, with the exception to the ones that are around the toilet in the middle of the bus. I will return to that reason later. The front seats maybe worth considering if you suffer from travel sickness (personally I don’t), but they are also not perfect. The con of sitting in the front is that other people want to do that too and you will likely have somebody sitting next to you. Also the driver’s seem like having the radio on, even at night, which sometimes annoys me. Personally, I never have the energy to chitchat with the others, but I tend to highfive everybody that has stayed around me all the way from Berlin to Tallinn.
Toilet
There are toilets on Flixbus, but according to my experience they never work. It almost feels like they are there just as a backdrop due to some EU law. The toilet usually is clogged and smelly and you should not consider it as an option for fulfilling your homeostatic motive. Instead, the bus takes toilet breaks according to the driver’s judgement. Usually you have 10 minutes, so you want to make sure that you are the first one in the gas station toilet. The benefits of this are that you get to take your time and check which booth is the cleanest. The drivers usually don’t wait for people that are late to the depart and therefore on every trip someone has been left behind at a gas station. One time when the other passengers found out that not everyone is together, a driver responded: “not my business”. I think that just might be the truth. They are probably not paid enough to make a turnover for the passengers’ convenience. Consequently, when you are going out of the bus it might be a good idea to set a timer on for less than 10 minutes.
ferry
Preparation time: 2 days (meditational day + shopping /preparation day) Length: 1h 40min + 35h = 36h 40min Out of the three means of transporting the ferry is the most meditational one. It feels like I can travel almost from door to door while sitting in a sauna with an ocean view.
Longing
On the ferry I have a lot of space for myself. The solidary sensation is concrete because for most of the journey there is no internet connection. Even if I share the cabin potentially with three other men, I don’t talk so much with anyone during the trip. Just the necessary: “Guten Morgen”, “Спокойной ночи”, “Could you close the toilet door when you pee”, for comfortable shared living. Often, we don’t share a common language. On the ferry I feel like I have the best headspace to process the transition back from home to my daily life in Germany. I’m not switching my character, but I remind myself about my local friends and their affairs. In the meantime, I’m also processing leaving my loved ones behind. It's good to simply gaze at the horizon during this.
Preparation
Unlike on the bus, on the ferry I have plenty of room to spread out my stuff and food as I please. Maybe even get hot water from the café and do a little cooking. There is also a buffet on the ship but I cannot afford it. Last time I had a cooling bag from Lidl where I had packed four meals. I always like having this on the ship: https://jalotofu.fi/reseptit/sitruunainen-toast-skagen-v-jaloskagen/ . Bringing coins is a great advantage. You will need a 2-euro coin on the locker to protect your valuables. Whereas the locker at the sauna accepts 1-euro coins. Soft drinks from the wending machine cost 2,80€ and for that you also need coins.
Seating and fellow passengers
As mentioned, there is plenty of space on the ferry because there are not many passengers. In comparison to the stuffy bus, it is feels luxurious to step outside on the deck when I need to. I usually spend my time working in the café or watching pre-loaded films on the deck 12. The cheapest cabins are windowless and there is no point in hanging out there except to sleep. I have investigated that the passengers on the ferry are either Polish or Finnish truck drivers, or German PhD students. There are others but these groups are clearly the most visible. Sometimes, however, I have trouble telling whether someone is a truck driver or a PhD researcher. Keep in mind that future doctors may also have bald caps and tribal tattoos.
Further connections
The transition from Travemünde Hafen to Hamburg via Lübeck may seem a bit shady when you look the connections from a route app. Usually after the ferry has landed, there is only a short time to catch the last bus of the evening, which leaves around half past ten. For those travelling without a car, it may be surprising that car passengers get off the ferry first and others have to wait up to half an hour longer for the port bus (this is the first bus which brings you from the ferry to the terminal and then you walk to the bus stop to wait for the regional bus). Ideally from Lübeck there are trains still running to Hamburg at night. If not, it is beneficial to know somebody from Lübeck who can host you overnight. However, I think it is not common that all the trains of the evening are cancelled.
train
Going by train via Stockholm is the option that requires the most planning beforehand because you need to switch transportation several times and most likely spend a night in Stockholm. On hand it is nice to have variation on the journey. On the other hand, it can feel like a drag to spend an extra day in Stockholm. I only did this trip once, so I cannot make a scientific assessment of the trip by comparison.
Movee-hhh project was created as a part of a workshop, with an attempt to create a leichtfüßig website. By the way, my favorite fruit is dates.