Perogies for the win!

Not since his dip in the Dead Sea have I seen Geoff as filled with joy as when he dug into the perogies served at Pergorina Mandu in Gdansk.  

He claims that the spicy tofu perogies are some of the best food he has ever eaten.  

Were it not for so much gorging at dinner that we felt completely full for almost 30 straight hours, we would have gone back the very next day for a quick lunch before hopping on the train.  

This is a place not to be missed! 

Silver Linings

Having just opened in March 2017, Gdansk’s Museum of the Second World War was high on our list of things to do in Gdansk.

Conveniently located by our hotel, we passed by the striking building numerous times during our stay and scheduled it in for our last morning.  And, as planned, we headed over to take it all in...

Having investigated timings and "how to visit" the Museum, we were shocked to learn that the Museum was already sold out for the morning times and that the earliest we could get tickets to visit was at 3pm that afternoon, after our train was to depart!


Why did it say nothing about booking in advance on the website?!  (This one seemed to have nothing to do with losing our travel mojo!)

Unable to change our train to earlier in the day, we instead headed back into the Old Town to visit Uphagen House.  Built in the 18^th century, this house was restored after the war and now offers a view of what wealthy life was like in Gdansk.

But perhaps things happen for the best -  if we hadn’t been blocked from the Museum we would never have run into legend Lech Walesa just wandering the Old Town in his white outfit and ski poles, casually talking with passersby and kindly snapping photos with those who asked.  Like a museum that had come to real life!

Solidarity

Much like the other main cities in Poland, Gdansk has a turbulent history that has influenced and shaped Poland into what it is today.

As one of the oldest cities in Poland, Gdansk has changed hands several times over the centuries, first under the rule of the State of the Teutonic Knights and then Prussia and then Germany.   Funnily, however, the city feels almost Dutch, obviously strongly influenced by extensive trading with the Netherlands in the 1500/1600s. 

After WWI, Gdansk actually gained independence as the Free City of Danzig and fell under the protection of the League of Nations.  Its majority German population, however, made Gdansk a key target for the Germans and Hitler used the city's status as a pretext for attacking Poland in May of 1939.  The German attack of the Polish Post Office in Gdansk was said to have been the official launch of war against Poland. 

After WWII, the city was made part of Poland once again and the German population either fled or were expelled back to Germany.

Of course, now part of Poland, Gdansk fell under the communist rule of the USSR.

Polish life under Communist rule was hard.  For so many reasons. Food was in short supply and other home conveniences even more so.  Our tour guide, who grew up during the Communist era, talked about how toilet paper, in particular, was almost impossible to get.  If someone was lucky enough to find some, they would wear the rolls around their neck like a necklace.  She also recounted that she was one of the luckier children – because her father was in the Navy and thus earned some US dollars on occasion, her family could afford to buy her a pair of Levi's jeans every other year for her birthday.  

Due to its role as a seaport, Gdansk played a prominent economic role during Communist times.  It also played a pivotal political role as well, credited with launching the Solidarity Movement which ultimately led to Poland becoming the first country to to free itself from Communist rule.

The Solidarity Movement officially launched on September 17^th, 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard, after the firing of a crane operator led to a shipyard-wide protest that gained international attention.  An agreement negotiated by Lech Walesa (on behalf of the workers) and the government, saw Solidarnosc (the Solidarity Union) become the first trade union in Poland that was not Communist-led.  Within a year, the Union reached 9.5 million members, which constituted one third of the total working-age population of Poland.

The Communist government attempted to destroy the Union by imposing 2 years of martial law but the movement proved too powerful.  Eventually, the government relented and even allowed for semi-free elections in 1989. 

Impressive political tactics, which included Lech Walesa posing for photographs with each of the Union's candidates, proved incredibly successful and, in December 1990, Walesa was elected the President of Poland.  Communism in Poland was over.  

Quirky train rides

We found Poland to be a very functional, efficient and organized country.  But this perspective was somewhat challenged by our experience on Polish trains.  

On our first trip from Warsaw to Krakow, we boarded their highest-end train to find our seats occupied with people who we suspect were stowaways that had stayed on for far more stops than their tickets allowed.  When these “seat-stealers” refused to move (or even show us their tickets!), we inquired with an attendant who preferred not to bother them and instead asked us to move to another car on the train. 

On our return from Gdansk to Warsaw, the conductor pushed us onto an overcrowded train that already had 10 people standing without seats.  We found our seats once again occupied and thus creatively found a way to share one seat for the full three-hour trip.  But we felt we had lucked out – our one seat was better than the family who had blocked off the local bathroom to use as their seats. 

When travellers got angry at the train attendant, she simply got angry back. 

As a result, people just sucked it up, leaning on nearby seats, pulling up some floor or snuggling in with a willing passenger.  Kudos (or not kudos?) to the other train attendants who continued on with business as usual, pushing and bumping through the overloaded train car with cases of water to distribute the free bottle of water that each passenger was entitled to as part of their ticket.  Pretty sure people would have preferred the seat they were promised instead….

Going to Gdansk

Our last stop in Poland was Gdansk, Poland’s principal seaport (we had this route planned before Prince William and Kate executed the same path earlier in the summer!).

Unbeknownst to us when we originally booked (do I need to mention the missing travel mojo again!?) we arrived in Gdansk during its annual festival, St. Dominic’s Fair, which attracts over 6 million visitors annually.  No wonder our hotel seemed so expensive! 

St. Dominic’s Fair dates back to 1260, originally introduced to encourage merchants from around the world to meet and trade both commodities and culture.  Today, hundreds of merchants from around the world gather to commemorate this tradition and trade their goods.  The only requirement is that no name brands are allowed – merchants have to sell uniquely crafted merchandise.

Stalls line the waterfront and the streets in the Old Town.  It can take days to wander through and look at everything, especially when distracted by the myriad musicians and buskers that tempt you to stop and listen. 

Nonetheless, we ventured out each day to check out the different stalls and hunt for the perfect piece of Amber jewellery to give as a gift.  Gdansk is famous for its amber, recognized as the largest trader of Baltic Amber in the world.  Amber has been traded in Gdansk for over 6,000 years and was a major contributor to the success of the city.  Not surprisingly, we found success ultimately on Mariacka Street, also informally known as "Amber Street" because it has the best vendors.

In the spirit of the Festival, we spent most of our time in Gdansk wandering the streets, buying snacks from street vendors (who conveniently made food into a necklace for ultimately portability), enjoying drinks at many a patio and finding the most delicious potatoes-only restaurant!  Hard to think of anything more festive!