Blogs from Gdansk, Pomerania, Poland, Europe - page 8

Gdansk will be among the venues when Poland and Ukraine host football’s 2012 European Championship. A charming city it may be, but there is much work to do before it is ready for an influx of foreign visitors on such a huge scale. The first thing you notice on arrival in Gdansk, which along with its smaller neighbours Gdynia and Sopot makes up the Tri-City area on Poland’s Baltic coast, is the lack of infrastructure. There is no rail service to take passengers from the small airport to the city centre and the only road is a single lane, potholed strip which twice a day fails to cope with the rush hour traffic. I visited with three friends, including two brothers whose grandparents fled to England when the Poles re-took what was then the German city ... read more

Dus. Het weekend. Vrijdag, zaterdag en zondag ben ik samen met Jule met een bus vol erasmussers naar Gdańsk gegaan, een havenstad aan de Baltische zee in het Noorden van Polen. Eindelijk heb ik voor het eerst Frans volk ontmoet, die komen niet voor aan mijn universiteit. En dan was er een Nederlander, Osama, van Marokkaanse origine maar oh zo heerlijk op en top Hollands, hoe hij Jus d'Orange bij zijn Wodka deed en van dat. De hoofdmoot bestond uit Italianen, precies zo luidruchtig en macho als het hoort. We vertrokken vrijdagochtend om 8u aan het Palace of Culture and Science in Warschau en tegen half 4 kwamen we aan in Sopot, het Knokke van Polen. Moet je weten dat men over Gdańsk spreekt als de driestad Sopot - Gdańsk - Gdynia. Gdynia is niet veel ... read more

We've been back in the UK for 6 months now and it would be an understatement to say it has been an eventful time. We both obtained temporary jobs and then were hit with a bombshell when Miranda was diagnosed with breast cancer. The original plan was tentatively to keep blogging with our future travels, but obviously with above news we aren't going to be making too many forays for the foreseeable. We will get there, but obviously not in the near future! As a result we've decided to post some of the last 20 years of travels, in a form of "retroblog". As another blogger whom we've read over the months when we were away stated... "regret what you do, not what you don't"......... so if you are out there reading and thinking you just ... read more

When you check into your hostel and meet your fellow travellers, there are the usual conversation starters such as - name, country of origin, where have you been, how long been travelling for, etc etc etc. For something different, some random dude (from Melbourne of all places) told me that if I smelled something funny it was likely to be the new shampoo he was using as he had contracted some fungus infection. Whoaaa man, too much information; I was totally speechless. Anyway, onto the blog. Left lovely Krakow and headed to Warsaw for a day. A lot of Poles I've met do not rate their capital at all and told me to bypass it. I figured it couldn't be that bad. Now I have visited it, I have to agree with their observation. Only highlight ... read more

The title of this journal is in honor of Tomek. When we arrived in Gdansk, the Dizzy Daisy Hostel was full, but they directed us to another one, the Baltic Hostel, which was "3 minutes away from the train station." That was their motto on the brochure. Well, the directions were really bad and we wandered into what seemed like the Polish projects- tough guys sitting on porches, either pointing in a helpful manner, but still unwelcomely, the proper direction. When we finally came there, our friend Tomek, a pot-bellied middle aged Pole, showed us around. I think he was slightly drunk, this was about 9:00. Our tour was like this: (In Polish accent) Here is shower. Man... Woman... No Problem... (wink) Here is toilet. Here is toilet. Here is room. Man, here. You, here. This- ... read more