Day 3 26/11/07 - Poland

Gdansk -> Sopot -> Gdynia -> Gdansk

Highlight

• Stuck in another traffic jam on the way.
• We couldn’t get to the concentration camp at Strutthof, as we had to cross a river by ferry, which was nowhere to be seen. It was supposed to be running but obviously it was not, so we wasted all that time, and had to drive back to Gdansk, where we were stuck in another traffic jam.
• The New Synagogue was very ugly.
• Oliwa Park and the cathedral were the nicest in Gdasnk, with pretty autumn leaves and landscaping.
• Sopot was much more resort like and residential. There was quite a bit of English around the place and was touristy, but nothing compared to the big cities.
• We started at the beach, which was very nice but cold. That would be my first trip to the beach in a down jacket!
• Walked along the very long pier, great view, saw the lighthouse.
• The Hippodrome was very boring, just a patch of grass with nothingt o see…I was hoping there would be some sort of marking or something.
• Walked along another touristy street from the pier. There were a lot of construction going on, a huge Sofotel complex was due to open soon…so even more tourists to come I suspect.
• Passed the statue of Parasolnik – very weird as Parasolnik is a clown!
• Past the famous crooked house, which was just that…a crooked house.
• Lunch at Bar Elita. It was a very quiet and cheap place, with another charming waiter. Things were a little salty, but nice!
• Couldn’t find: Garrison Church of St Jerzy, Sopot Castle, St Andrew Babola Church, but I’m sure we can live without seeing them.
• Gdynia – we walked up another hill, Kamienna Gora, which had another cross on top. The Polish sure are religious.
• This time we had a view of the town and the ocean. There was an excellent park attached to the hill too.
• Down to the beach and the naval museum, but we didn’t go in. They had the only ship, Dar Pomorza, that was built before WWII that survived.
• Church of the Scared Hear of Jesus – grey and ugly on the outside, but surprisingly different and pleasant on the outside.
• Couldn’t find:
  • Church of St Michael the Archangel - after driving for 40 minutes because we were stuck in a traffic jam)
  • Domek Abrahana – small museum in nondescript looking house
• Saw a huge traffic jam on the highway back so took the scenic route. It was dark and long, and very scary, but at least there was no traffic jam.
• We then couldn’t find the perogi restaurant (I guess there’s a theme here), we went to Matarnia to go shopping instead. Went to a hardware store, Obi, to get duskpan and bath mat, but couldn’t find a soap dispenser or command hooks.
• Ikea was very small and very disappointing. They didn’t have the bathroom stuff I wanted. The complement drawers didn’t have black and they had no square frames.
• Toured another supermarket with very cheap Lindt chocolate (2.8 PLN) but it was sold out, so we didn’t buy anything.
• Nothing else of interest, so we went to the hunting lodge restaurant.
• It started snowing heavily so everything was covered in white.
• They mis-interpreted our order but was nice and gave us one for free anyway. They didn’t accept credit card though so we had to go to an ATM to get money out. We gave them a large tip anyway.
• Slokky managed to make me mad by being absorbed with the internet.

Food

• La Petite Hotel breakfast:
  • cherry yoghurt
  • muesli with pineapple
  • boiled egg and mango
  • cheese
  • ham
  • bread and breadstick
  • sausage
  • rye bread with cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives
  • apple juice
• Bar Elita lunch:
  • flaski (tripe soup) (5.4 PLN)
  • placeki (potato pancake with gouliash sauce) (7 PLN)
  • golanka (pork knuckle (24 PLN)
• Mysliwski dinner:
  • bigos mysliwski (hunters bigos) (8 PLN)
  • rosol muysliwski frykase (chicken broth with noodles) (6 PLN)
  • picen z dzika (wild boar neck) (20 PLN)
• apple