Half Term in Poland

With our big plans for Christmas being refined daily (we're off to New York on December 19th to spend the holidays with Sam and Brent, our favourite friends and neighbours from Japan - for more adventures visit allieandrossinjapan.blogspot.com), October half term was a tough one to plan. We wanted to head somewhere on a 'small trip', nothing too far away or too pricey. So, we decided on a Ryanair flight to and from Gdansk, a seaside port village in Poland, famous for a steady amber trade, a massive uprising in Polish political history and the birthplace of the Solidarity Movement, which brought an end to Communism across Europe, and the site of the 'Post Office siege' during WW2...all of which we didn't know until we got there, so don't worry. I'm still just as culturally and geographically clueless as when we left Australia. For the most part, I plan our trips with one window open on ryanair.com, looking at possible destinations and one window on google, searching to find out where certain destinations actually are. Who the heck knows about Faro? Or Malaga? Poitiers? Not me. Sometimes I guess their general whereabouts by saying them aloud in an attempt at a regional European accent. If I mutter 'Rimini' to myself, and come out sounding friendly and waving my hands around, Aha! Must be in Italy. 'Carcassone' sounds like a snotty way to say Carcass. Cooking. Snotty/ Aha! Must be France. It's worked so far. 'Gdansk' I said to myself, found it hard to pronounce, knew it must be Polish. So, we headed to Poland for half term. We flew into a mini airport, as is the custom with ryanair (think Avalon, only smaller and with guards in army fatigues holding machine guns) and after quite the scrutiny from visa officials 'I zee you haf bin in Germany recently?' (see what I did there? Attempted to phonetically mimic a Polish accented guard? Unsuccessfully though - that reads like the man was choking and Swedish. Apologies) we took a taxi along winding roads into the little village of Gdansk, where we arrived at what i have come to call 'Free Cake Hotel' aka 'Best Hotel in the World'. The hotel we were staying at was 3 star and really quite inexpensive, but as we have come to notice in Easter Europe, hotel service is quite fantastic, despite the price. The hotel was lovely with big rooms, a central location, GREAT breakfast buffet, friendly staff...and did I mention free cake??? All day! In the foyer! Cake! We spent four days wandering around this lovely part of Poland and included a day trip to a famous castle town about an hour away. Gdansk itself features, like many European cities, an Old Town in amongst the new parts of the city. It has gorgeous old cobblestones streets with big frontages heavy stone steps, kind of a cross between New York Brownstones and Prague's ancient streets. The facades of the buildings are as colourful as Germany's but the architecture again is very similar to Prague and Vienna. One street, Mariacka Street, in particular is famous for its stores selling amber and the street is lined with glass jewellery cases, teeming with beautifully handcrafted objects. The Old Town was also the perfect place for antiques browsing and sitting on heated outside areas in front of street cafes; drinking hot chocolates, thick melted chocolate with a massive dollop of whipped cream, European style. We spent time wandering the waterfront, ate twice at a fabulous restaurant serving up Polish delicacies such as Pierogi (ravioli like dumplings with meat, potato and cheese fillings),podany z sosem żurawinowym (fried wheels of camembert served with currant jam and salad), Bigos (Polish stew of cabbage and meat) and Polish sausages, and spent time shopping and reading and just relaxing as well. The weather was cool but not cold, so it felt lovely to be out walking and seeing and experiencing somewhere brand new. Our day trip to Malbork Teutonic Castle was really nice too, though after an hour long trip in the most packed train ride we've experienced yet, we actually got there too late to do anything more than explore the grounds. The castle is HUGE and quite foreboding, despite its beauty. This is perhaps partly due to its role in WW2 as a POW camp, but I'm not sure. It sits on the River Wisla and was once home to the Teutonic Knights, a group of monks who went around slaying and converting people in the 1300s. They were given the land in Poland by a POlish King who wanted them to deal with Pagan Lithuanians but they were an odd bunch, who actually took over the amber trade in the region and slayed the people of Gdansk, who they were meant to be protecting at the time. Over time the castle was under the ownership of Russians and Polish and ended up as a Prussian Castle, the one the Geoffrey Chaucer mentions in passing in Canterbury Tales. Interesting place. Such a mammoth, 'in your face castle' but in such an odd area. It brought Ross and I, at the time, on to the 'Isn't Europe weird?' conversation that we have off and on on our trips. This thinking comes about when you notice the only thing near this famous castle is a rundown mini golf centre and a McDonalds. And poorly dressed Europeans. But, the castle was great and Ross added Poland to his 'eat a cheeseburger in every country of the world' quest. Job well done.