This Trip is Off to a Bad Start… (24H on a Ferry with my Dog)

- Today I finally set off on my next expedition to the northernmost point in Europe, in the dead of winter. The first step is getting to Sweden, and that involves crossing the cold Baltic sea on a ferry, seasickness, and my dog Vilk not really knowing what to make of it all, but first I still need to finish packing. (intense music) (Eva sighs in exhaustion) I think I'm done, I think I'm all packed and ready to go. This all took so much longer than it needed to, than it should have, as always. An

d I'm now quite tired, but I really do need to leave tonight because I have a long way to go to the ferry tomorrow. So I need to leave tonight, stay somewhere in the middle of the way there. In a hotel probably 'cause the weather is awful. But before I set off, I'm just gonna take a little moment to just recalibrate, rest, meditate, chill. (exhales) I really wanna leave here with, in a good state of mind. I wanna be mindful of that, because all too often I just rush into things, and I rush out o

f the house, and I rush into trips, and I don't even think about it. Not now. (Eva exhales heavily) Mindful. (chuckles) (pensive music) (keys clattering) (Eva exhales heavily) - Okay, this is it. Two and a half hours of driving, hotel, wake up in the morning, three hours of driving, ferry to Sweden. (chuckles) That's the plan. (Eva exhales heavily) (door bangs shut) Wow, and so it begins. (pensive music) You wanna go? (blows kisses) Kisses, give Betty kisses. (blows kisses) Thank you, thank you,

thank you. (keys clatter) (car engine whirs) (intense music) I have this rule; when over landing, I don't drive after dark. If I break that rule, like now, then I get to have Haribos, they're the best. So I'm gonna go get some Haribos now. (cheerful music) Ah, no luck, they only had the ones with gelatin. They're not vegetarian. (sighs) Okay, I guess we keep going, buddy, mhm. But you know what, that's fine 'cause I've got something better, sandwiches from grandma. Oh, it's heavenly. How do gra

ndmas always make the best sandwiches? I could make the same sandwich, with the same ingredients, and it would not taste this good. Oh-oh. (car engine idling) It's a magic touch. Okay, let's go. (intense music) We made it. Home sweet home. I paid 120s worth for this, which is about 30 bucks. Hey, Vilk, want your bone? Yes, there you go, everybody's happy. Hey buddy, good morning. Good morning, buddy. Hello, hi. Mmh, good boy, hello, good morning. Good morning, buddy. (uplifting music) Yesterday

and today, I'm just driving from my hometown in southern Poland to Gdansk, which is the big port city way up north on the coast. That's where I'll be catching a ferry to Stockholm in Sweden, which saves me two entire days of driving. And that's where expedition north, I feel, will truly begin. Oh-oh, someone just flashed their lights at me and pointed at my roof, which suggests that there might be a problem with maybe the sled or the bag on the roof rack. Maybe they're falling off. I mean there'

s, it's really, really windy today, and I'm driving on a highway, so a bit of speed. There's nowhere to stop so I can't check what's going on. I don't wanna stop in the middle of the highway. But it got me a little bit worried. I just hope that whatever it is, it stays on until I find a safe spot to stop. Ugh. (ominous music) Oh yeah, it is a little bit wonky, so I need to go up there and fix it. I mean, there is no way it would fall off 'cause it's pretty locked in here, but it looks precarious

, and I don't wanna freak people out, so So windy, so windy. (ominous music) Okay, I think we're good. (ominous music) Distance and time, it really do make the heart grow fonder, because I had completely forgotten just how terribly uncomfortable this car is to drive, to sit in, to change gears in, to press the clutch in. I mean, Defenders are great and all, but they're also terrible. Don't get one, please don't get one. For the sake of your bones and your health and your sanity, don't get one. M

y coach isn't letting me forget that Vilk and I are running a 100 mile ultra next month, so I squeezed in a cheeky two hour run in the forest. (cheerful music) So I just got a message from the ferry operator saying that my ferry to Sweden has been delayed by a few hours due to the high winds. Which makes me think about two things, first of all, I probably should get some like seasickness bills because I'm sure the waves are gonna be huge and I get really, really motion sick. And then the second

thing is that even a small delay like this actually puts me about a day behind on my trip. Which isn't great, but it is what it is and I'll just have to adjust. Okay, I'm gonna head to the port and wait around for a little bit, I guess. (pensive music) (car engine revving) Okay, I guess we've started moving. (pensive music) So we were supposed to leave at 6:00 p.m, it is now almost 11:00 p.m and we're still not on board. So big delay, big delay, buddy. (pensive music) I think I'm maybe one of th

e last cars to get on board, even though I was one of the first to get here tonight. I don't know how I ended up last, but. (pensive music) Okay, we are finally on board. (Vilk barks) Vilk is being very restless. No wonder when we've been in the car for a little while. We had a big two hour run, but it's still been a very long day and apparently, I have so much stuff for me and for the dog, but apparently I have to take it all at once, I can't come back down, so I'm gonna see how this goes. It's

three bags and a hyper dog. (sighs) I can do it, I can do it. (pensive music) Whoo, oh my God, this is absolute chaos, absolute chaos. Vilk, wait. We are looking for 7104. Okay, 7104, I'm so ready for this. Come on, please work, no. No. I would really, really, really love to be sleeping right now. It's way after midnight, my ring key isn't working. (Eva chuckles) This is the dark side of travel, you're tired, you're exhausted, you're annoyed. You have no idea what you're doing. You're with your

dog's, who's hyper. This is the life. (suspense music) No. Yes, yeah. Oh, this is our cabin. Oh, we're alive, we made it. Oh, oh yes. Oh my God, I'm so tired, I'm so tired. Ugh. Hello, hello, yes, hello. Oh my God, I am exhausted. Free, free, yes, you're free. We are not going anywhere, this is it. Yeah, this is our home. There you go, place, yeah. A little bit too late for this, but go on. Here you go. Check it out. Uh-uh. Oh. Okay you guys, I'm gonna do a tour of this place tomorrow, but for

now, I think I just need some sleep. But before I go to sleep, there is one more thing I really need to do, and that is pay a bunch of invoices, because today is invoice day. But there's only one problem, I'm on public wifi here on the ferry, and that's where Surfshark VPN, the sponsor of today's video, comes in really handy. In case you've never used a VPN before, picture it being like a shield that protects all of your online activities and all the information that you access or upload online.

I would never ever access my online banking without a VPN on public wifi or even mobile data. I also recently learned about Surfshark One, which is a kind of comprehensive package with some really, really cool features, including an alert feature where you can check whether your emails have been breached, you can see whether your ID info or credit card info has been leaked. It's really, really fascinating. And I had a look at my own email to see if it had been breached at any point, and it had,

twice, without me knowing about it. And it's kind of wild. Hey buddy, did you know that someone tried to breach our inbox? It's crazy, right? So it's really great to have this tool that actually works to protect you and your identity online. And now you can get three months free with my special code. More info in the description box. Okay, back to the video. Good morning. I was hoping to do a tour of this cabin and this boat, but I feel so seasick. I'm feeling so awful. On a scale of one to 10,

with five being medium bad and 10 being puking my guts out, I'm at a almost seven, I would say. I did take some medication, but it's not doing much. Can someone just explain to me, please, why do people go on cruises? Why would you ever go on a cruise if you feel like this? I promise if I feel better, I'll give you a tour. I swear, ugh. I think Vilk is also not loving it because every few minutes he comes over to my bed and he lays down at my feet, which he never does, never. That's just not a

thing that Vilk does. But now he's glued to me basically most of the time, so. Okay, I'm feeling marginally better, which means that I need to go get a grip. Hey Vilk, you wanna go? Yes, you wanna go? You wanna go outside? Wanna go for a walksy, yes, let's go. There's something about getting on a ship that makes you feel like you're setting off on a massive voyage. I don't mean that in the horrible colonial way, I just mean that your sense of distance gets fuzzy the minute you set sail. Here we

are, this is the main open deck, and this is apparently the only place where dogs can go to relieve themselves. You become a little floating island in the middle of a vast and unforgiving body of water, and you have to rely on the ship making it safely to a foreign shore. The more I think about it, the less I wanna think about it. Yay, okay, go potty, Vilk, go potty. Vilk was not so sure about this ferry either. It definitely freaked him out at first to be on a rolling open deck, but eventually,

eventually he got used to it. (transcendental music) I mean, this isn't really the ideal way of traveling with your dog, but it's nice that the option is there to travel by ship and that they actually allow dogs. And Vilk is kind of getting used to it a little bit, I think. Yeah, you're getting used to it? Yes, you're getting used to it, you like it? (wind blowing strongly) It never ceases to amaze me how different the world looks when you're feeling sick versus when you're feeling good and hea

lthy. It's like when you're sick, it's just like you have no power to do anything, you have no energy to do anything, and then everything changes the minute you get better. It's wild. So that's basically the outside, tour of the outside. And then if you kind of go back in here, this entrance leads you back inside into the cafe. (soft cafe music) So I've decided to have a seat and have some tea in the bar. And I wanna just show you one more thing. Oops, camera's falling. This is the packaging of

my cup of tea, and it's so aligned with this whole entire trip that I really need to show you. "Life is about moments, don't wait for them, create them. Perfect. (pensive music) As the ship draws closer to Sweden, this whole journey is starting to feel more and more real. I still have some logistics I need to arrange in Sweden, like getting a new set of tires and figuring out where I'm gonna spend the first couple of nights. Expedition logistics isn't the most exciting thing, but it's what makes

the dream happen. (pensive music) Okay, I wanna show you around a bit more of the ship, but I think I need to do that without Vilk. Because I wanna get some food, and managing the dog and the food and the camera is just a little bit too much. So he's got a little treat in here and we'll come back to the cabin in a few minutes. Okay, buddy. Okay, free. Freedom. So the vast majority of this entire deck that I'm staying on is just cabins left and right. So it's just small cabins mostly, two beds,

four beds. It's not a luxury cruise, right? It's just a pretty utilitarian kind of ferry. Having said that, I think they might have some kind of, I dunno, some aspirations, because there is a disco on board, and it's right here. I haven't gone inside and I'm not planning on going inside, but maybe we should go take a look. (hip music) Well, it looks more like an arcade than a discord to me. Yeah, I guess if you're here with your family, this could be quite a lot of fun. Well, I'm currently tryin

g to find my way to the restaurant because I'm getting a little bit peckish. I'm so, so happy that I'm not feeling as seasick as I was before. I'm still feeling a little bit iffy, but nowhere near as bad. I'm actually able to stand and walk around and talk right now. Restaurant, restaurant, there we go. So this is a restaurant for the truck drivers. I don't think I look like a truck driver. Definitely not a truck driver, so I'm just gonna go to the restaurant for all the rest of us, which is rig

ht here. Once again, not a luxury cruise. This ship has one small restaurant, one slightly dodgy bar, and one cafeteria with, as it turned out, kind of one choice of dish. Gonna get some cutlery and a tray, let's see what they have. Okay, so this here looks really, really good. This is a little salad bar. White cabbage, and this is probably sauerkraut, and red cabbage. My favorite thing about Poland are these called surowka. Literally that means raw things, but it's just mix of raw veggies. Very

simple, really delicious. Usually cabbage, our national vegetable. Well, in addition to the potato, of course. I made a miss, made a miss. (Eva speaks foreign language) (cheerful music) Okay. I was just eating here and I realized that I hesitated before pressing record on the camera because I got a little bit shy all of a sudden 'cause there's a lot of people here. And it's kind of interesting, because after six years of doing this, of vlogging, full time, in very public places often, I still g

et a little bit shy. And I don't really know how to, I don't know if that will ever fully, completely change. I get that question a lot, how do you not be shy talking to the camera in public places? And I don't really have an answer. I think you just have to block it out consciously. Anyway, but it's pretty good, I'm loving this. (cheerful music) Hey, hello. (chuckles) Hello, hey, did you have a nice little nap? Yes, did you have a nice nap? Good boy. Now, let me show you around this cabin, alth

ough there really isn't that much to see. It is just a few bunk beds. So there's these two and then there's two more folded ones up there. So it's actually, I think a full person cabin. But because I'm traveling with Vilk, with a dog, I had to book an entire cabin to ourselves, which I guess makes sense. There's also a little desk here with a nice mirror. There is a night table, there is a coat rack, a little bit of space, and of course, a toilet and a shower, which is quite nice. Again, nothing

special, no luxuries here, just it's all very utilitarian. It's all you need, it's just one night and one day. And that's how I spent my almost 24 hours on a ferry from Poland to Sweden. Truly the calm before the storm. We have finally arrived in Stockholm only with a 10 hour delay, no biggie. Anyway, I'm gonna go get to Odyssey, and we are getting out of here. (guitar music) All right, apparently we can get going. That was quick and stressful. (guitar music) Welcome to Sweden. (laughs excitedl

y) Welcome to Sweden, buddy. Which country is this for you? Country number 10, probably. Good boy. Well, one step closer to the Arctic Circle. In the next episode, I experience my first 48 hours on the road in Sweden and get my first taste of just how tough the winters are out here. Ice covered with snow, apparently some of the worst conditions you can drive in. I gotta say I don't have any experience driving in the snow and ice. (laughs) And I'm going to the North Cape, where it's just snow and

ice. Subscribe to follow along, or join my Patreon for exclusive updates and early bird specials. See you in the next one. (guitar music)