Gdansk
Poland has been luring me, a vast terra incognita just to the right of
here on the map, for some time now. Earlier this year I made a
fleeting visit across the Neiße/Nysa to Zgorzelec for an hour or so.
But we have friends living in Gdansk who have been wondering for some
time when we'd show up. With another friend flying over from the
States for a week, we finally managed a long weekend visit.
Some disordered impressions
here on the map, for some time now. Earlier this year I made a
fleeting visit across the Neiße/Nysa to Zgorzelec for an hour or so.
But we have friends living in Gdansk who have been wondering for some
time when we'd show up. With another friend flying over from the
States for a week, we finally managed a long weekend visit.
Some disordered impressions
- the first billboards as you arrive in Szeczin are for MacDonalds.
- whether it's something about the vehicles or the fuel they burn, the diesel fumes can be a bit oppressive in the centre of town.
- the Ship Worker's Museum is a major highlight of the town. This is where the Solidarity movement begun. The museum is installed in the rooms where the unions negotiated with the goverment.
- Gdansk has an interesting old town. There are lots of old houses (surviving? rebuilt?) in what is apparently Hanseatic style, with tall elegant facades with curving silhouettes topped by intricate "figurehead" animal statues.
- amber and amber sellers are everywhere in town. The latter are kept busy trying to sell to well-off German and American tourists.
- the language sounds quite pleasant, which is surprising given the aggressive appearance of written Polish. Apparently vowels are expensive in Poland, so the Poles have learned to survive on levels so low as to be near-fatal for native English speakers.
- nearby in Marbork is a massive brick castle extensively restored by Germans in the early 20th century, just in time to be heavily damaged in the Second World War. It was formerly the headquarters of the local Teutonic knights. It has all the de rigueur accessories: moats, portcullis, arrow slits, and an absolutely stunning chapel which wouldn't have been out of place in Rome.
- There were Teutonic knights running around here in the fourteenth century or so when they were busy spreading the Word. Lithuania, just up the road, was the last part of Europe to convert to Christianity. Apparently, at lance-point.
- foreign movies on TV aren't subtitled. Instead, someone reads the translation over the original voices, which you can still pick out if you listen carefully. I find this more satisfying than the German practice of dubbing everything.
- the trains will probably get you where you wanted to go, eventually. It took us 6 or more hours to crawl 450 or so kilometres across the top of Poland. While this might seem reasonable by Australian standards for train travel, it feels slow after spending time in Germany.
- Poland is big. There's still another half of the country waiting for us to explore to the east of Gdansk.