Gdansk, Poland

We missed out on this interesting architecture , ‘The Drunken House’, which was located in Sopot, another city which was about 40mins away from Gdansk. Would be nice to see it real. Interesting architecture like this, those in Venice and Barcelona intrigue me alot! Looked at some modules at NUS today and was thinking of taking "Mathematics and art and architecture GEK 1518" for GEM when I get back in final year! Would be cool if I do a project on some architecture I have seen before!

I really should write down some things about my polish visit. Nic arrived in Frankfurt on a friday afternoon. On saturday we were on a plane to Poland. We spent four days there and only came back on tuesday night. Nic told his dad that we were going to Poland, he laughed and asked why we were going there. He said that we should be going in the other direction. Poland was like Cambodia. Well the basis of planning trips was to go to a budget airline website and look for the cheapest flight to SOMEWHERE. And in this case, it was Ryanair to Gdansk in Poland. The apparent cost was 1 Euro. But with the additional cost of being a non-EU citizen and internet booking, the ticket ended up costing 22 Euros for a return ticket. $S44 for a plane ticket was still a pretty sweet deal.

 

Poland was alright, even though it was breath-taking compared to other trips that I have made. I guess every country is just different. You can't go to a country and expect it to look like something. So Poland was Poland to me.  It looked considerably "older" than Germany. It was pretty obvious that it was a developing country. The price of things there were much cheaper thou. It was the first time I actually SHOPPED in Europe believe it or not. Language was a pretty big issue. I had the impression that most people could at least speak german. But we had to use the universal body sign language to ask for directions and help from passersby. The buildings and architecture were alright(in comparison to the others I have seen before in other parts of Europe).  We spent the first night searching for accomodation in the darkness. The second day was  in Gdansk town shopping and exploring. On the third day we took a train to Malbork to visit the biggest huge brick castle. And we just spent the last day doing some final shopping before catching our plane back. That was Poland in a nutshell. 

Of course there were times of excitement:

 

Missing the last train

Due to an incredibly unlucky stroke of bad luck, we missed the last train to catch the bus to the Hahn airport in Frankfurt. We were running to another door of the train when it closed in front of us. The board showed 2 minutes till departure. So we stood there in shock as the train rolled off. We caught the next train 14 minutes later. But half-way, I realized that our chances of catching the bus was almost zero. So I came up with plan B, which was to take a train back to the main station and catch a bus service by another bus company to Frankfurt Hahn. I was quite impressed with myself, for coming up with an impromptu idea=) We paid 12 Euros each for the bus to the airport, almost the cost of the actual flight to Poland.

 

Accomodation Hunting in Poland

We arrived after nightfall in Poland. After some difficult we caught the public bus B to the city centre 45 minutes away from the airport. We had not booked accomodation and I was a little worried to be walking the streets at 9pm finding for one. After fifteen minutes of walking, we found the accomodation that we circled in our guidebook. To our dismay, it was closed for renovation. W-T-H. We tried emailing them previously but did not get any reply. Now we know why! We looked through the book for the next closest accomodation to spend the night, and finally got there after 20 minutes of walking and asking for directions. Hostels in Poland are situated in the weirdest place, and they are so unobviously located. The entrance to the hostel was hidden in some corner at the back alley! We stood in front of the ‘abandoned’ looking building, wondering where the hostel entrance was. The outside would look so run down and abandoned and there would be a hostel inside that was actually pretty decent.  I was just glad to have a bed for the night, after some help from a Polish gal who spoke English!

 

Close shave with Salmonella

While walking the Christmas Market we found a store that sold Kebab. We ate there twice cause it was nice and heaps cheaper than in Germany! Back at the hostel we talked to a guy who had Salmonella and was in hospital from eating the Kebab at that store. Phew phew phew is all I can say. A part of the meat he ate was probably not thoroughly cooked. Unlucky him and lucky us. The atmosphere at the Xmas market in Gdansk is no where comparable to that in Germany! The focus is very different! In Gdansk, it was more shopping like ‘Pasa Malam’ in Spore!

 

Train ride to Malbork

We took the local Polish train and it made me feel like we have done it all. Polish speaking staff at the counter together with bizarre looking text on the train timetable made this a tough side trip to Malbork. We made our way to Malbork in one piece, and walked the castle grounds in about minus 1°C. I was really freezing there. Then we headed back to the train station and had heaps of problems figuring out the next train back. And there was this weird smell of chemical burning that enshrouded the whole station. We realised we had to wait almost 2 hours for the next train. Thankfully I found a 2.50zl (2.50 zwo-ti, about 0.80 Euro and 1.50 SGD) shop that entertained me, and naturally Nicolas, for a whole hour and a half. I fell in love with this furry socks and bought a few pair. Eventually our train came and we hopped on, happily making our way back to Gdansk.

Well those were the special highlights of the trip. We also went for nice dinner at a restaurant. We also did some shopping, with me doing the most of it. I got earrings, necklaces... and more earrings. It came to a point when I wondered-How many ear holes have i got ! :) Bought a pair for my sis too!

Oh. And the number of times me asking for directions to nic is about 100 to 1 or maybe even 0. Haha. Well we thought that I would have had better chance of success since I spoke much better german. But apparently most of the Polish people that we ran into did not speak German too. Haha =p

  

Biggest Brick castle in Malbork!

Packed lunch from the hostel! It was Ginormous!

Our favourite hostel with great Breakfast!

It was quite nice on the inside!

This was how it looked on the outside! We were execting some shitty accommodation when we finally found our accom sitting quietly at this corner of the street!

Cinema/Popcorn perfume/Sofa at cafe to slack/Free toilet/Shelter form the cold

"Xmas market" wanna be in Poland! The Xmas market in Poland is no where comparable to that in Germany! The atmosphere is like a Pa Sa Ma lam in Singapore! But the shopping is alot better!