Gdansk is amazing. In all aspects. Considering that it was totally bombed during the 2nd World War and now it looks as it looked before the war – makes you believe in the Fenex legend…No wonder there is a new 2nd World War museum built and opened on the outskirts of the old town, right where Russians and Germans had flattened the city. It is in a modern structure, the main part of the very informative expositions being situated under the ground level in a very creative manner:
The museum is only underground and the offices are upstairs in this leaning tower.That is how Russians from one side and Germans from the other side attacked Poland. Based on casualties Poland suffered the most of all countries. There are very extensive displays of all the stages of the war, of all the facts and stats and lots of survivors speaking on TV screens. Lots of chambers recreated, walls of photos of the Jews killed in the camps – and a voice constantly reading their names. There is even a street after bombing recreated there, in those spacious undergrounds…The Pact of Molotov and Ribbentrop in which Russia and Germany made and agreement to divide Europe between themselves…But obviously – it didn’t work well. Gdansk is a port, lots of waterways there. And when you think – all those buildings are rebuilt, and most of them in the old style. Except for some, that are very contemporary but match the style. I liked this building. A little Gaudiesk, but not as busy. We stayed in a very nice apartment in the very center of downtown in front of the farmer’s market, through Air B&B. They even had a parking for our car. It was not hard to find it , lots of choices and it was the season – end of June. I highly recommend to go to Gdansk!Wherever you go in downtown – it is picture perfect!There are two parallel pedestrian streets that are rebuilt exactly as they were before the war, makes me wonder how did they recreate all he sculptures, frescoes…There are several fancy houses as museums, but the facades were impressive enough that I decided to leave them for the next visit. The fountain on the main square for me,the lay person, didn’t look worse than fountains in Rome…Business is more important than fun frescoes…A fountain with 4 lions. The Europe center – where Polish revolution led by Lech Valensa started. There used to be a factory here and the factory workers started their strikes against Russian invasion in the late 80s. Now Lech Valensa is still working in this building and visitors sometimes see him. We were not as lucky :-). Again in the city center, again enjoying the buildings but not the weather (it was windy, rainy and cold -Baltic sea normal :-))Like Dega’s Absinthe… 🙂 So young and so disappointed in life already…What a miserable teenager – her parents took her to eat fantastic Ukrainian dumplings with whatever fillings and the best Paska- cheese pie I ever ate in my life – and she sat as if taken to jail…Paska- traditional Ukrainian cheese pie, it is only for Easter celebration and we ate it in June…At last – we got a clear sky of especially beautiful color because those were the shortest nights, almost White nights!There was a city gate from the river side with 4 wide covered passages with very good acoustics. Gifted young people figured out it is a good place to play some music there. And they were playing all weekend long, even late into the night- there were trios, duos, quartets – changing each other. Their music was really good, mostly classical and they played well, but it was sad to see how people do not pay much attention and just walk by. We drove to Gdynia close by – they are always mentioned together so I expected to see something similar, but no way. Maybe we didn’t find the nice parts of the city. maybe we had no time for that – we just found this hill with views.Then we stopped at Sopot- it is a resort known for its music festival. During Soviet Union times- for us it was the biggest festival. it has the same white sand as in Lithuanian resorts. Walking by the sea must be fine, but there are no waves, it is in a cove and sheltered by two ports -Gdansk and Gdynia. So how can it be a good area for vacations?Sopot – the houses are old style and nice.I don’t even remember the name of this town. It was on our way from Gdansk home, we stopped here to eat – and there was hardly one pizzeria…Traveling is an adventure- you never know what you gonna find. Sometimes beyond expectations, sometimes- below.
