Gdansk

John and I had a few days in between sits. We looked at the map of Europe and cheap plane fares. We wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere "exotic" (well, at least to us).  We settled on Gdansk Poland. Neither of us knew anyone that ever visited Poland. Neither of us had ever even thought of visiting Poland. The town of Gdansk sounded inviting and it was a fairly cheap flight from Edinburgh. So off we went!

We arrived in the Gdansk airport around 9:30pm. Most signs were in English which was most helpful! John and I learned 5 or 6 key words in polish so we could at least communicate a bit. My Uber was not working (long story there for another time) so we grabbed a taxi. I showed the driver the hotel address and between her broken english and our polish we arrived at our hotel in good time.

Our hotel was situated on a busy street. Directly across the street was a huge ferris wheel. There were cafes with outdoor seating lined up and down the road. The street was packed with people.

We walked into the lobby and were greeted by name! The hotel employee stated she likes to know everyone that is arriving. We were given a quint little room with all the mod-cons (European for modern amenities). The windows, looking onto the street and ferris wheel, were large and opened in. There was a ledge that you could sit on and enjoy the view.

The first night we didn't get much sleep as the tourists and locals were partying it up until daybreak. We got up and decided to have lunch at a milk bar. A milk bar is a cafeteria style restaurant held over from the communist days of Poland. Authentic polish food. We made the 4/10 of a mile walk over to a popular milk bar. On our walk we passed over the harbor, past beautiful churches, cafes and shops. Lunch was great! Potatoes, cabbage and pork. After lunch we strolled the streets until we came upon one street that was much busier than all the rest - Long Street in Old Town.

Long street is lined up and down with outdoor cafes. There are buskers and tourists eating ice cream. Ice cream seems to be the big hit in Gdnask, everyone strolls along with a cone or a waffle topped with ice cream or just cream and fruit. We spent the afternoon on Long Street, people watching and partaking in drinks.

As we headed down Long Street to find our way back to the hotel, things started to look familiar. As we passed through a small tunnel we realized that we were staying on Long Street! This was great! We were in the heart of Gdansk!

That night we didn't get much sleep as the tourists and locals were partying it up until daybreak.

The next 2 days were spent exploring Gdansk. So many cafes, so many desserts and the milk bar! We discovered that there was an excellent milk bar just doors down from our hotel! We ate there every day for the next 3 days. We also tried street food, we picked smoked cheese cooked up and served with cranberries, delicious! We toured Westerplatte, the sight of the German invasion into Poland that started World War 2. We'll have a post about that shortly.

Those next 3 nights we didn't get much sleep as the tourists and locals were partying it up until daybreak.

We left Gdnask by train heading to Berlin where we would stay overnight to catch a train the next morning to our sit in Munich.

We loved Gdansk and highly recommend it. Speaking polish would be helpful but not necessary as you can get most menus in english and people do speak some english.

You can see many more of my pictures of Gdansk here.

Cheers!
Barb