Blogs from Pomerania, Poland, Europe - page 10

Gdansk, 11-07-2001. Getting in and out of big cities on a bicycle always is a major hassle, not to speak of the effect the hectic admosphere of big cities has on my poor brain after seven days of natural tranquility. Hoping to protect my alraedy hopelessly chaotic and traumatised Dutch raised brain from further damage I take a small cabin on a camp ground just outside town. My cabin is even furnished with what looks like an antiquated mini refridgerator - the lettering on the side telling me it is Russian manufracture. Whatever, I can drink ice-cold beer again during the evening on the small balcony of my cabin. No more polish Pivo - aka catpiss when drunk lukewarm - which the shopowners keep telling me is best drunk when warm... Armed with my aquarelics and ... read more

E..'s nephew took us on a tour of Old Gdansk Town, Gdynia and Sopot. He had the day off, so he brought his daughter. His wife joined us later in Gdynia. Gdynia is a pretty little town with the requisite Catholic church in the town centre. This one had a big pipe organ that was being played expertly when we visited. We just sat on the pews and listened to the lovely music. After Gdynia, we went to the beach at Sopot. E.. has been on this beach as an infant and also in her young teens. We then had dinner in the form of waffles loaded with whipped creame, berries and powdered sugar. It's the berries that makes this a healthy meal.... read more

Gdansk is a very beautiful city with a storied history. Being on the Baltic, this was often where the latter day Vikings and Swedes invaded Poland. As for current affairs, it's got lots of those too. For example, this is where the first shots of the 2nd European war of the 20th century were fired by the German Battleship Schleswig Holstein and also where the Cold War ended, when the solidarity trade union of the Gdansk shipyards started their campaign against the Warsaw Pact government of Poland. Ok ... the beginning of the end of the Cold War. I guess the Cold War ended the day the Berlin Wall came down eh? E..'s family is from this area, and her dad specializes in collecting stamps, notes and coins related to Gdansk, Danzig and Pomerania. The whole ... read more

Stowinski National Park, at Lake Dolgie, 08-07-2001. I'm cycling through essentially rural land, sparsely polpulated with tiny hamlets that have a centuries old feel to it where small eateries were filled with hard bare breaking working class farmers quickly finish off tasteless looking food and whose hapless and crude clothes and often dull look in sometimes young but already wrinkled faces due to much time outside on the land, tells me all there's to know about their harsh excistence, about their meagre incomes. I now cycled along the Baltic coast, through a lake area set in massive and age old fine forests. This being a sunday means I get overtaken by old trabants and dented German Volkswagen cars covered in thick layers of dust that make me wonder just how ancient they really are. Big blueish ... read more

Inside Wolin National Park, 06-07-2001. My legs look like bloody stumps full with swellings and scratches, little bloody bites and lots of red spots. I have got to give it to them...Polish mozzies aren't anything but persistent...up and down my uncomfortable legs go on the pedals of my bicycle. I'm well on the way now to the Baltic Sea cycling through fields full with crops, the air heavy with the odour of ripe corn ready to be harvested. Small patches of temperate forest that seems to become more prominent the further north I cycle, and temperate forest slowly giving in to pine, small and bigger lakes with white swans, ducks and coots, blue colored king fishers diving into the water and emerging in mere seconds with a fat catch. The religious catholic nature of the Polish ... read more