Aby-a-Day – 17 Augusti: Dash on the Silja Line

At long last we boarded the Silja Symphony ferry to Stockholm. First we rode the elevator to our cabin to put our luggage away and set up Dashiell’s food and litter.

Dash really seemed to enjoy the windowed lift.

This is kind of a dark photo, but you can see the shopping promenade and the cabins with overlooking windows. We stayed in one of those cabins on the way to Helsinki and it was kind of fun do have that view. They don’t have pet rooms in that block of cabins, though.

After we got our room set up, we went up to the deck to say goodbye to Helsinki.

This is what the ferry looks like from Helsinki. We happened to be at the waterfront the day before when the ferry was leaving for Sweden.

Here is me with Dash.

I posed almost the exact same way with Jacoby in 2016.

Björn posed with Dash as well.

On the aft deck, there is a little sandbox for dog owners to let their dogs go to the toilet.

I have to say, it was pretty amusingly decorated. I have seen dog toilet areas on other ferries, but none decorated like this.

Dash was not impressed.

He was more interesting in people-watching from the vantage of a deck chair.

Just then, a dog passed by on his way to the toilet. I guess we took a look at it in the nick of time.

Despite what it says on the website, the crew staff assured us that cats were allowed anywhere onboard the ship. We thought a nice refreshing beer would be nice before taking Dash back to the cabin and checking the duty-free store.

Dash was happy to sit in his carrier and watch Björn pour his beer.

Dash never even tried to get out of his carrier.

After our drinks, we took the elevator back to our cabin.

I think Dash was happy to go back to the cabin and take a nap after all the excitement of the cat show and boarding the ferry.

Ferry rides are a lot of fun. They go overnight, and some people treat it as a party. On this trip, there was what looked like a stag do going on. Not sure which guy was the groom, but my money’s on the guy in the bell bottoms.

We had seen them in the bar earlier. They were going around to people in the bar with a straw, asking if they could have a sip of their drink, taking photos of it. It was pretty funny.

There was also a new machine in the ferry’s casino – Diamond Cats! It’s a bit like Kitty Glitter except with no Somali. It was not a bad game; at least the Siamese have blue eyes on this game. But it was fun to play and I ended up winning a little, which is always nice.