Gdynia or not Gdynia, that is Gdansk!

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Our bags arrived at our cabin within 10 minutes. I heard a noise outside and went to check it out. Looking left and the right, there was no-one there except our bags.

'How did they get here?', I thought. ‘Surely they didn't walk here themselves! They would have never found the cabin for one thing without being directed by the crew!!

Maybe they did. After all we are still in the land of fairytales although I don't recall any tales of walking suitcases!!

It didn't take long to unpack and then it was time for exploration. We took the lift to the sun deck, deck 15 to see what all the fuss was about. Wow! As we didn't have a benchmark to compare this sight to, the vastness of it all seemed mesmerising. To this day I still can't comprehend how something so huge can stay afloat. I understand it's about water displacement but my brain keeps telling me that if you threw a 59,000 tonne weight in to water it will sure enough displace the water…right down to the bottom!!!

As is customary on cruises, there was a sail away party aptly titled ‘Ciao, ciao Copenhagen' at 16:30 in the Cotton Club on deck 6 – Otello. We didn't actually attend this sail away party because a) we didn't know about sail away parties; b) the Cotton Club is tucked away on one of the lower decks and c) we were quite happy to munch on our slice of pizza from Ristorante all'aperto whilst watching the ship slip away from it's moorings at 18:00hrs destination Gdynia, Poland.

Speaking of food, Roisin and I decided to elect the late sitting for dinner. On most cruise ships, late sitting equates to 19:30hrs (early sitting being 17:30hrs). However, as MSC is a Mediterranean company, everything moves forward. The early sitting on the Opera is 18:45hrs and the late sitting is 21:00hrs. I wonder if this is something to do with ‘daylight saving' or the hour difference when you're on the Continent??! Whatever the reason it meant we weren't getting our tea until 9 o'clock!! Due to the length of time between lunch and tea, Roisin and I invented another mealtime called ‘wee snackette time'. This usually consisted of a slice of pizza and a cup of tea or anything else that was on offer at about 17:30!!

Pandemonium!! At 10 to 9 Roisin and I arrived at the L'Approdo restaurant and were met by about 500 other hungry guests. When I say met by hungry guests, we weren't individually greeted by each and every passenger waiting to enter the restaurant, we just pushed with the flow despite the restaurant doors remaining tightly shut.

At about 10 past 9 the doors finally opened and slowly, the passengers in front of us (about 498!!) started to filter in. Soon it came to our turn we were lead by a waiter through a narrow section of the restaurant with booths for 4 persons on one side and tables for 4 and 2 on the other. ‘This looks a bit cosy', I thought. ‘Not many passengers being lead here'. This narrow passage in the restaurant opened up in to a very ornate dining area where the tables were mainly circular for 6-8 persons. It didn't stop there. We continued to follow the waiter who weaved his way through the myriad of tables and down a similar passage on the far side of the restaurant. This in fact was the other entrance to L'Approdo.

‘Pleeze! Madam and Mr. You sit here. My name is Ik'lil and I am your waiter.' We had been shown to a table for 4 persons. This is what we originally asked for due to my fear of being surrounded by prats and tossers if we had plumped for a larger table!!

There weren't many diners who were occupying the adjacent tables. There were 2 couples on a table next but one and then nothing until you hit the main dining area.

It wasn't long after Ik'lil had given us the menu and taken our drinks order, a carafe of wine, that two ladies joined us. ‘Eh up!' I thought ‘that's no Italian or German accent. It's not even an American accent' Pam and Ann were from Blackburn and Accrington respectively and this was only their 2nd cruise. Wow!! Cruise veterans (compared to us!!)

It was evident that Pam and Ann were very nice people and like-minded individuals. This was the first evening on board and the time just flew by. We didn't even bother to file in to the Teatro dell'Opera to watch Illusionist Paolo Giua spin his magic. On the plus side, we didn't have to watch Illusionist Paolo Giua spin his magic!!

As the dining sittings are later than UK or US owned cruise lines, the entertainment is tailored to dovetail with the diners. The 2nd show is scheduled for 22:45hrs each evening. That's quarter to 11 in real money!!! Pam, Ann, Roisin and I were the last one's left in the restaurant.

On getting back to our cabin, the daily programme was on the bed together with a chocolate on the pillow. The Opera was due to dock in Gdynia at 14:00hrs so there was time for more exploring in the morning.

So what's on…. We had heard so much about cruise entertainment. After a quick scan of the options it seemed to be a toss up between the Friendship Game at 11:15 in the Caruso Lounge OR Bingo in the Cotton club at 11:30.

Bingo it was then!!!

"Numero ventidue, nummer zweiundzwanzig, nombre vingtdeux, numero vinte e dois, número veinte dos" And finally, if you hadn't already worked it out, “All the 2s, twenty two!!” Bloody Hell, this was to be the longest game of Bingo in the history of the game. Quick call up Norris McWhirter or is he dead?? Perhaps it's the other one. Either way, I'll be checking the Guinness Book of Records when I get home!!!

Never the less, this was fun. Roisin was the marker and we tried to pre-empt the number as English was inevitably the last number called each time. Ironically, the full house was won by an innocuous little Japanese gentleman stuck in the corner of the Cotton Club!!!

Gdynia, together with Gdánsk and the small spa town of Sopot have grown sufficiently to merge in to one metropolitan area called Trójmiasto (Tricity) and has a population of over a million people.

The guidebook says that Gdynia is a relatively modern city; there are not many historical buildings. As they say, you can't bull-shit a bull-shitter so reading between the lines, this meant that there is fuck-all there. Gdánsk, on the other hand, is supposed to have a very historical old town despite the claim to fame of Gdánsk being the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which, under the leadership of the political activist, Lech Wałęsa, played a major role in bringing to an end communist rule across Central Europe. Gdánsk has always painted the picture of industry, shipbuilding and bushy moustachioed banditoes!!

All the organised shore excursions were headed for Gdánsk. None seemed to be hanging around Gdynia. The cost of these tours ranged between €30-58. The cheapest tour was entitled Gdynia on your own!!! Sod that. We're sure we could do that on our own for a damn sight cheaper.

The hospitality desk provided a town plan of Gdynia. This highlighted the local station. The plan was to walk to the train station in Gdynia and check out the trains to Gdánsk. The transfer time by coach from Gdynia to Gdánsk was 1 hour so it couldn't be that far by train.

The walk to Gdynia Centre took us through the relatively deserted dock estate and along a feeder road that started sparse but after a '15 minute walk started to become dotted with shops until we suddenly hit a major cross road.

The train station was a further 5 minutes walk off to the right. The total walk took about 40 minutes.

My Polish is very rusty so I tried out my German to the young girl behind the ticket office. ‘Was kostet einen hin und zurűck Biljet nach Gdánsk?' To my surprise she answered straight back in German ‘4 złoty 50'. This is approximately €2 that equates to £1.60. For a return ticket, I'd say that is a result!! Further more, the train runs every 20 minutes.

On arrival at our destination we headed for Głowne Miasto (the Main Town). This seems to be where all the excursions recommend and is supported by the guide books as by far the ‘showpiece' of the city.

The simplest and most ‘economic' way to see the main town is follow the Royal way to the waterfront. Roisin and I both like ‘economic. This usually means ‘not a lot of walking' and what walking there is, is usually on the flat!!!

The golden gate stands at the start of Długa Street. This is a relatively new and shiny gate only having been rebuilt in 1997. Atop of this gate stand the symbolic statues of Peace, Freedom, Wealth, Fame, Wisdom, Piety and Justice.

At the end of Długa Street, which despite being translated in to ‘Long Street', is only 300m in length (that's ‘economical' enough in my book!!), stands the main town hall. Although I did fail to identify any other town hall in the vicinity!! This not only is it the ‘main' town hall, it appears to be the ‘only' town hall!!

Długa Street suddenly widens out in to the Długa Targ (Long Market. I spotted something much more interesting. Down a narrow side street was a sign emblazoned with the words ‘I-R-I-S-H P-U-B'

‘No, you're not coming all the way to Poland and beyond just to drink Guinness and watch Sky Sports!!', Roisin said having also spotted the banner, probably fractions before I did.

We pottered around the Neptune fountain for a few minutes just chilling and watching the hoards of organised tours (some with MSC stickers gather around listening to tales that would make a deaf man yawn!! Behind the statue of Neptune is the Artus Court. This seemed to be of great interest to passing tour parties. It was named after King Arthur and was founded as a meeting place for merchants and the VIPs in the 15th century. I can't see how that took, in some cases 15 minutes to explain!!!

We soon arrived at the waterfront and strolled along side the River Motlawa. This had obviously been redeveloped as there was still evidence of days gone by when the river must have been a hive of activity for barges and other vessels offloading their wares at the now converted warehouses. Nowadays there is a mix of craft shops, stalls and pavement cafes.

The characteristic feature on the waterfront is the Gdánsk crane. This wooden structure overhangs the pavement and dockside. It was built in the 15th century and worked by people walking around huge mouse wheels to lift and lower cargoes on to waiting ships.

On our way back to the ship we tried to box clever. According to the map, provided earlier by those nice people at the information desk aboard the Opera, there appeared to be a railway station, closer to the ship's berth. Unfortunately, the map did not appear to be to scale and the balance to our ‘economical' part of our day (i.e. we were bloody knackered when we arrived back at the ship).

Timing was never my strong point. As other members of the band I used to be in will tell you!! We arrived back at precisely the same time as about a dozen tour buses!! Still, you've got to laugh. Not a bad day out for £1.60!!

Later that evening, we swapped stories with Pam and Ann over dinner. As it turns out, they doubled up with another couple and hired a taxi to Gdánsk and back. This cost €100. That's €25 each. Not bad but much more fun to make your own way. (and cheaper too). Hopefully, more of the same please. I think I'm going to enjoy this cruise. Tomorrow is a full day at sea. This will be the acid test…

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