The trip to Gunilla

When everything was unpacked and all of the beds where made, we went to sleep and were happy that we finally were back on TS Gunilla.

Today we have traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to reach our beloved ship Gunilla. The journey begun by waking up around 07:00 in the morning after only sleeping about four hours because of the butterflies in my stomach. After meeting at Liseberg and saying goodbye to our families, we entered the buss that would take us to Oslo.

Although it was a long buss trip, everyone seemed to have a great time. We stopped once for a toilet break and around 14:00 we arrived in Oslo where we had to say goodbye to a great bus driver who wished us the best of luck on our trip. On the airport we had to check in our baggage, get scanned and answer a dozen of questions about why we were going to the US.

After entering the plane, that was probably 1 hour late, we sat down and listened to all safety instructions while waiting for the plane to fly and for our food to be served. While in the air, almost everyone entertained themselves either by playing solitaire, adding puzzle or by playing a guessing game on a screen in front of us. We were served food two times on the 9-hour flight which was good for being airplane food. The non-vegetarians got to choose between chicken with rice or beef with mashed potatoes while the vegetarians had mix of beans and stuff.

After 9 hours of constantly trying to sleep without effort, we finally landed on Fort Lauderdale airport in Miami. We faced even more questions and challenges on the airport such as queuing, showing passports and visa, getting our luggage and finally getting on the bus. The last bus drive took about 15 minutes and after reaching Gunilla we had to jump on pontoons to reach her since the bridge wasn’t set. After a lot of carrying and a lot of congestion, we finally started to unpack our luggage and make our beds.

It felt good to be back and according to the ones who had not sailed her before, it was exciting to finally be here. When everything was unpacked and all of the beds where made, we went to sleep and were happy that we finally were back on TS Gunilla.

Niclas J Port