Moscow to the Hudson: Gdansk

I took the 7:00 am train from Warsaw to Gdansk, it was an older & slower train (1 hr 15 minutes slower) compared to most of the others on the same route. Unfortunately the train was very crowded & I was wishing that I spent extra $20 to get there more comfortably. The apartment I rented in Gdansk was a 20 minute walk from the train station. The outside of the building looked a little rough, but the apartment had just been renovated, so everything was fine once I got inside. The location is great, less than 5 minutes from the main tourist area.

My apartment is on the left.

Gdansk is a town on the Baltic Sea with a population of approximately 500,000. It has been an important trading city for centuries & was part of the German Hanseatic trade league. It was also the site of the first battle of World War 2 & as the home of the Solidarity trade union which helped bring down the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. It is also very popular with tourists due to it's scenic waterfront area.

As was the case with Warsaw, almost all of the downtown area of Gdansk was destroyed during the war. So the town has been reconstructed to resemble what it looked like prior to the war. The weather was great during my visit to Gdansk. On my first 2 days there, I walked the city several times including doing a group walking tour, ate some good polish food, & was able to get some nice photos of the city.

One of the highlights of my visit was the Solidarity museum. The museum is a brand new 2 story complex with a lot of great exhibits & historical items. The total cost was just over $4 including the audio guide. The Solidarity trade union was able to push the communist regime for better wages, improved working conditions, & other reforms which ultimately help bring down the communist governments in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s.

Solidarity monument

The front of museum.

Lech Walensea speaks to Congress

On my last day in Gdansk, I visited Sopot which is a 20 minute train ride from Gdansk. The town was really nice with a sandy beach & the longest wooden pier in Europe. It was quite windy on the pier, but luckily I remembered to bring a jacket with me. I had a really good lunch of fish & fries at a small family restaurant near the beach. You had to order inside & they called your order number when it was ready. It was funny because the lady called the number for my order in English instead of Polish when my fish was ready.

Sopot main pedestrian area

Sopot pier

Sopot train station

"Krazy House" because of the shape of the building

Every day on my trip, there are always large groups of schoolchildren at every tourist site. I thought I would get a break from this when visiting Sopot, but there were lots of schoolchildren there. What is educational about visiting a beach town? I wonder how they can speak 2-3 languages if they are always on these trips?

Field trip to the beach

I also found out there was a famous historical site right near the apartment I rented. It was a post office & communications center that was attacked by the the Nazis on the first day of WW 2. The postal workers held off the Nazis for almost a day & there is a monument with a museum inside the building.

Monument to the postal workers.

The survivors of the attack were executed by the Nazis after a trial.

Overall Gdansk was a great place to visit, but it is popular with tourists so it gets crowded at times. There were also some of the "umbrella women" that I saw last year in Kraków trying to get foreign guys to visit the local gentleman's club. My next destination on my trip is 5 hour stop in Torun & then on to Warsaw for the night. I have a flight from Warsaw to Budapest the next day.

Here are a few more photos from my visit to Gdansk.

Lody is Polish for ice cream. This is a famous ice cream shop with great homemade ice cream for $.75 a scoop.