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Published: July 30th 2008
Gdansk, Port
Imagine living on this!The Tri Cities - Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot
I travelled from the farm in Mazuria on Sunday 22nd of June. About a 5 hour trip with a nasty vodka hangover from the night before at the tacky disco with the sleazy manager, giving me lots of vodka shots. Needless to say I spent most of the trip sleeping and drinking water! Initially I had planned on staying in Gdansk, though I had no accomodation booked. But when i arrived I decided I wanted to stay in Sopot, which is a beach town, though alot smaller. What a great decision! After walking around for a while with all my luggage and also my hangover I found a room. People advertised vacant rooms in private houses in they're windows.
A nice small room and this way I can make my own healthy breakfast! Usually you have to share bathrooms in these places. You feel just like at home when you have to wait for you turn! Poles usually have small homes/apartments and are used to living inside each others pockets. I recall my friend in Warsaw saying, i am looking my a new place, probably smaller as we don't need all
Streets of Gdansk
I get never tire of these views, and also taking these pics this room. And his place was small, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room and very small, 2 people were living there, but the longer i am here the more i agree with him!
Sopot if definately a very popular holiday with the Poles and other tourists. It has a 2 levelled pier and on this pier is a very long bench which measures to be 80 metres long, the longest in Europe. There is icecream and gofry at every glance. Gofry is a waffle with whipped cream and whatever sauce you want. I seemed to have develloped a weakness and a slight addiction to icecream. So Sopot was to be my home the next 9 days, a good base for travel within the region. Eventhough with all the people, I felt at home and very relaxed. It has a promenade along the beach either side of Sopot, right to Gdansk and left to Gdynia, a great spot for running!
It was always my dream to come to the north of Poland, to the coast. I also learnt the Baltic Coast doesn't have tides. It's always the same. I didn't know beaches could be like this, naive little me!
Castle on the water
I never tire from these views This part of Poland has a very important history. The Solidarity movement took place in the Gdansk shipyards, eventually assisted in the fall of communism in 1991 and with the union leader, Lech Walesa becoming President of Poland. Gdansk, my dream city. Gdansk, like alot of Poland was heavily damaged during WWII. It has been reconstructed very well. It has a big port, many ferries to Sweden, Russia and Finland leave from here. And this area is also very famous for it's Amber (Bursztyn). It's mined near by. There are many Amber jewellery stores, etc all through the Tri City. Yes, Gdansk yes beautiful but as not grand as big as I expected. I really only needed 1 day to see what I wanted. Gdynia has a strong maritime history and shipwards (like Gdansk). Some nice ship museums docked on the pier, I visited and took pics for the boys. A little bit of a different breed of people o the coast compared to other parts of Poland. In summary I suppose you could say Gdynia is the new, modern city, Gdansk has the grand beauty and Sopot is the relaxed beach town. So it's easy to spend alot of
Sopot
Sopot, a beautiful city of the beach time in the area. Which also leads me to my 2nd dream place in Poland, Malbork. Malbork is the home of a great old Teutonic Knights Castle. I'm a sucker for Palaces and castles, especially really old ones. Yes, Malbork has seen some rough times, Esp after WWII. Sometimes I feel so sad at the destruction Poland suffered. I don't know how much other countries faired during WWII but so much of Poland was damaged, I know it's been over 60 years but they have done so well in such a poor country bringing they're country back to life. I sometimes wonder how things would be like and the people if things had been different. So yes I can tick those two places off my list. Now I have 1 week to kill waiting for my Russian visa and my friend in Kaliningrad to return from Turkey, what will I do……..
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Sarah
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Yay!!!! An update. Thanks bridget!!!!! Sounds like you are having a ball... Looks beautiful . Stay away from that Vokda..lol Take care miss you Sarah, James, Beks and Harry