Długi weekendowy wypad do Gdańsk / Long weekend getaway to Gdańska

After our enjoyable day in Toruń last week, a few days to settle into our new home in Bydgoszcz, and the realization that life will change somewhat once the semester starts, we decided to embark on a 3-day weekend getaway. We opted for Gdańsk, notable as the heart of the Solidarity movement, but also one of the “tri-city” Baltic seaport towns. It turned out to be a fantastic choice!

While we’re not yet masters of travel, we’re getting the hang of things … so Deb was able to take the Bydgoszcz tram to meet Joe at the train station on Friday (after his meeting at the Music Academy). We’re really fortunate that our apartment is just a half block from one of the main tram stations in Bydgoszcz (Rondo Jagielliońska) – so figuring out which of the many trams to take is just a matter of checking out the electronic sign listing the next 6 or so stopping there. (The tram's great – watch for a future “getting around town” blog!)

On to Gdańsk … wow, what a surprise! It’s Poland’s fourth largest city, and like Bydgoszcz is very flat, with no skyscrapers and few buildings over a few stories tall – so it sprawls.

We stayed in the main tourist area, which is a walled section with a number of historic gates. During our couple of days in Gdańsk, we divided our time into three “themes”:

• Gdańsk up to the mid 20th century … We took a walking tour through the main town area, learning a lot about the history of Gdańsk, going back 1000 years and through lots of changes in allegiance (voluntary and not-so!). We spent a good bit of time in St. Mary’s Cathedral, including seeing the noon ‘clock’

• World War II … Gdańsk is home to an enormous and wonderful WWII museum, where we spent much of Sunday. It was very insightful to see the history of the war through the eyes of Poland. It was very clear that the Soviets were viewed with an enmity similar to that held for the Nazis.

• Solidarity … We reserved Monday for the Solidarity (“Solidarność”) Museum, which was also spectacular, claiming 5+ hours of our day! There is so much that happened in the 1950s through 80s that culminated in the success of Solidarność – being in Gdańsk at the Lenin Shipyards and walking through the events as told in the museum was riveting!

Of course, amidst our absorption of lots of history, we also did a good bit of walking and managed to fit in some eating! We spent a lot of time in the main town area, but also walked about 15-20 minutes into a suburban neighborhood to listen to a concert (Arts ‘n Voices octet – wonderful!) in a neighborhood church, which was a very different view of the city than being in the midst of the tourist area.

We also had one ‘side trip’ to the neighboring city of Sopot (the second of the tri-cities, the third being Gdynia, which we didn’t visit this time). An international choral competition wrapped up with its main event on Saturday evening in Sopot, so we took the train (20 mins) from Gdańsk and walked up to the university hosting the performances. Joe had the chance to meet and exchange info with a couple of Gdańsk-based choir folks (one whom we ran into on Sunday evening back in Gdańsk!), and even was invited to join them for the group photo with the finalist choir conductors and judges! We wandered down the main avenue in Sopot, which is a seaside resort town – it was another great pedestrian way (as are the streets in the main old city of Gdańsk), and had a wonderful buzz of energy!

While in Gdańsk, we stopped late one evening at a bar with a bunch of outdoor standing tables. Looking inside, we just saw a wall of bottles, all seemingly the same. We were curious, so approached three ‘youngish’ folks and tried out our halting Polish. We got far enough to establish that we speak (only) a little Polish, and maybe that we’re new to the area … then they quickly asked if we wanted to speak in English. We ended up spending an hour or so chatting with them over a round (ahem, or so!) of cherry vodka – the only drink served at Wiskniewski’s. Fun time for sure!

As for the rest of the weekend, it included our first try of gofry (fresh waffles) with whipped cream and fruit (yummy!!) … our first travel misadventure – getting to the Sopot train station after the ticket windows had closed and having a heckuva time figuring out the train schedule and how to buy a ticket (but all worked out fine, with the incredible help of yet another Polish local!) … dinner in a memorable restaurant with 1700s ship replicas hanging from the ceiling, entertainment from an accordion player and his one-man-percussion-section colleague (plus two dancers), and a tasty baked apple drizzled with chocolate dessert … oh gee, and this could go on and on …

Let’s leave it at “spędziliśmy dobrze czas!” (We had a great time!!)