Viekko

Viekko is a good mate. I think we might be the only Finn/non-Finn pairing of cabin mates.

He’s neat, clean, quiet. He doesn’t spend a lot of time in the cabin, and has traveled much lighter than I have. In my defense, I’ve got a large suitcase dedicated mostly to polar kayaking gear. On principle, I use only have of the storage space available in the cabin. Viekko doesn’t use all of the other half, and I could spread out and take up more space, but I don’t.

Neither one of us takes many showers in the tiny bathroom, because the times that are available for showering (outside the daytime activities) are usually when the ship is moving. And when the ship moving, you risk falling down in the shower. So, the bathroom stays clean and dry. That’s good, because it’s one of those bathrooms in which taking a shower means the toilet, sink, door, floor and walls all take a shower with you. The flyweight shower curtain flutters and waves colorfully during a shower, but it doesn’t seem designed to keep water in the shower area. I find that to be the most important feature of shower curtains.

Viekko spends a lot of time fussing with some kind of GPS device, punching in numbers. I think he is carefully tracking everywhere we go. He spends a lot of time charging camera batteries, swapping memory cards and otherwise digitally recording the experience. I’m at the other end of the recording experience, writing, (pre-)blogging and reading. What we have in common is a continuous need to use the lone receptacle in the cabin to charge our electronics.

It has been strange sleeping in the same small room with someone with whom I almost can’t communicate - he speaks little English, and I speak no Finnish. Towards the end now, we often don’t speak at all in the cabin. Not because we find each other disagreeable – it’s just that we have little to say to each other, and it’s very hard to say it.