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Published: June 28th 2006
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Old Ship
An old ship crusing the harbor Well here we are for the second day in Gdańsk and its quite a nice place. Reminds me slightly of Provincetown, but not really at all lol
Yesterday morning we packed all of our stuff and headed to the trainstation around 11am. We managed to buy tickets for the 11:50 train which was a pretty sweet deal. We couldn't figure out what the ticket said and had no idea where our platform was but we managed to get on board before it left. Stepping into our compartent it smelled like kiełbasa, and there was a family of 4 (one of the ugliest i've seen in my life) getting ready to eat what looked like take-out kebabs. For the next almost five hours we put up with the obnoxious little brat of a daughter as well as the unbearable heat. We would like fall asleep and then wake up wet from sweat. Wonderful.
Getting to Gdańsk we sure as hell weren't going to walk to the hostel so we got a cab for 15 zł, which is the same price every other cab ride in Poland has cost. The hostel was non-descript, and the woman at "reception" led us downstairs
Rynek Główny...again
Yet another old square into a giant room with 16 beds. Freakin scary. We consequently just like dumped our stuff, washed our faces, and got the hell out of there. Luckily, our hostel has a great location, right at the end of a street on the water.
After getting some cash we sat down at one of the cafes on the water for dinner. Being on the water, I had to get fish so I ended up ordering fried eel with some frytki. A little fatty, but I knew that it would be ahead of time. Good stuff...We enjoyed some of the best people watching during dinner, watching people drop their ice cream, etc. Army pants are definitely the hottest item of clothing here.
After dinner we meandered down St. Mary's street, which is beautifully reconstructed after WWII damage. Shops and restaurants galore...We managed to come across St. Mary's church as well, which is the largest brick church in the world. Then it was ice cream time, so we got these twisty (and supposedly "american") soft-serve concoctions that were super good and almost buttery. We continued to explore, but after a while we sort of realized Gdańsk is a super cool place
Along the water
The street that jets off from our hostel right alongside the harbor to relax, and not much else. We decided to go see a movie and ended up with 'Failure To Launch'. It was subtitled, so we understood just fine. By the time we got back it was almost midnight so we joined our dozen or so other "friends" and hit the sack.
This morning we woke up around 9 and headed upstairs to shower. Well its a good thing I went to Honduras and learned to tolerate freezing cold showers because that's just what I did! We had a piece of bread for breakfast, checked our mail, and left. I'm sure you can imagine why we wanted to leave.
Stopping at a little shop, Kasia bought a nice piece of amber, which is what Gdańsk is known for. Then it was off to the station for a ticket to Malbork. It only cost 10 zł for the hour bus trip to the castle town, so that's what we did. We were idiots when we got there and couldn't find the freaking castle but we eventually made it. As the largest brick castle in the world, it was pretty sweet. We paid like $15 maybe to get in and take
Eel
My delicious fried eel pictures. It was beautiful but a little underwhelming to be honest. Maybe we just werent' in the mood. We at first joined a German tour group since apparently you can't tour alone and take pictures. It was about $50 US to get an English guide, so obviously we said f*** that.
We continued exploring a bit, got some chocolate for lunch (still starving!), and headed out just as it began to rain. Heading across a bridge, we got a view of the entire castle which was awesome but because of the rain and the weird sky, my pictures all looked like crap. Alas...
We managed to find our way back to the bus stop and hopped on another one back to Gdańsk. After checking out the ways to get to Warszawa tomorrow, we headed to the internet cafe, where I am now. Dinner soon!
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Mary
non-member comment
First of all, I would like to comment on how much your blog entries revolve around food. Only you, Jeff. Haha. I love it. Plus, are there eyes on that eel??? Someday I'm going to recruit your to go with me to lots of strange restaurants and make me eat a lot of strange things. I decided I need to be more cultured. :-X Miss you, love!