Nonfiction
My First Time on a Ferry
I’m on a boat aaand, it’s going fast aaand…
At the end of September 2022, my husband and I relocated for six weeks from Aarhus, Denmark to Gothenburg, Sweden. As part of my husband’s Ph.D. program, he had to opportunity to spend six weeks abroad interning in a lab there. This short-term trip later led to his postdoc in that same lab, but at the time, we treated it a bit like a vacation; we didn’t know we’d be moving to Sweden two years later!
The most direct route from Aarhus to Gothenburg (without flying) was to catch a train north to Frederikshavn in northern Jutland and from there take a ferry to Gothenburg.
Traveling by ferry is very different than flying. Our ferry took three and a half hours, and cost less than dinner for two — even after paying extra for ‘reclining seats.’ Not knowing what to expect, my husband assumed there would be assigned seating and wanted us to be comfortable.
Turns out, it is nothing like a train or plane but is instead like a floating strip mall or airport concourse. We checked our luggage when we boarded and began to explore the ship while we were moored.
