Monday - July 24 - Gdansk, Poland
My morning started out with quite a surprise when I went to breakfast and went thru the buffet getting my normal items. When I sat down to eat, the chef walked over with a dish of chocolate ice cream......two scoops! LOL!! My love of chocolate ice cream is well known on this ship, even the people in the other groups have commented on my ability to find ice cream no matter where we are.
So, in order not to let it melt, I started off with my ice cream, then the oatmeal, blueberry pancakes, etc., that were already at my table. I must say, though, that some people have come up to me in the past few days saying they have started to eat more ice cream after watching me enjoy it so much.
It is still July and that is National Ice Cream month in the United States, so I am doing my part to help celebrate! I do believe that some of the 26 pounds I had managed to lose over the past few months have found their way home to me!
Well, this starts the final full week of this trip to the Baltic Sea area and the few days in Denmark I will spend, and the last week of the summer-long vacation (including the trip to England, Wales, and Scotland). It will soon be time to head home and go back to work.
We had a little warmer weather today while visiting Poland...71 degrees, although there were threats of rain throughout our visit. We have been very fortunate throughout the Baltic Sea and heard we just missed snow in St. Petersburg two days after we were there. I think I would have liked to get a picture of the palace with snow, but as far as walking all over the place, I am glad it was without snow.
Shortly after breakfast we docked in Gdansk, a Polish city with a Baltic vibe. We started off with a visit to the European Solidarity Center, where we learned more about the Solidarity movement of this Eastern European nation and its tenacious opposition to communism post-World War II. The Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, has an office in that building and we kept an eye out for him, even saw where his office was, but we did not see him.
We saw the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers which is three 138-foot-tall steel crosses at the entrance to the city's shipyard. A sudden spike in food costs in 1970 led to mass riots throughout northern Poland that left at least 40 dead and more than 1,000 wounded. This monument was the first to commemorate the victims of a communist regime.
After there we headed over to the Stare Miasto (Old Town) for a morning walking tour. A maritime city that has been around for a millennium, Gdansk has fluctuated between great prosperity and tragic destruction, and still shows both wartime scars and rich architectural beauty.
We wandered past the town hall and its Neptune Fountain, rumored to have once spouted Gdansk's trademark liqueur, Goldwasser, instead of water. The architecture in the city is beautiful and there were several street musicians whom I really enjoyed. Lots of activity in that area, but at the same time it was very pleasant to stroll down the pedestrian area.
Along the way we saw many gates, including the Green Gate, Golden Gate, and the Upland Gate. We walked along the Utica Dluga, or Long street. This is the main promenade of what 600 years ago used to be the richest city of Poland. This was thanks to the ties to the Hanseatic League. The promenade is nicknamed the Royal Way because the king would follow this road when he would visit.
I found a watercolor by a street artist of one of the important buildings containing a crane that was run much like a hamster wheel. Men were put inside the wheels and had to keep walking; that was how the crane was operated.
We stopped in many of Gdansk's cafes, bookstores, and shops, prior to going to a home-hosted lunch with a local family. Twelve of us were able to go to a typical Polish home, and I must say we thoroughly enjoyed the couple of hours we spent with the family of five. We were served potatoes, cabbage salad, stuffed pork, and a couple of delicious desserts, while all the time engaging in lively conversation with lots of questions answered about the Polish way of life.
Here are some things I learned:
- Polish people generally peel bananas from the blossom end and not the stem end.
- Poland shares its borders with no less than seven countries: Russia,Lithuania, Belarus, Slavic Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
- Geographically, Poland is not actually in Eastern Europe; it is in the very center of Europe.
- In Poland, one's Name Day (imieniny) is considered a far more important occasion than one's birthday.
- This country boasts having the most World's Strongest Man winners.
- People of Polish descent have won seven noble prizes, including four for peace and five for literature.
- Roman Catholicism is so popular that Poland has a TV channel dedicated to the Pope. Pope John Paul II was Polish.
- Marzanna is a Polish tradition where people weave straw dolls, which they decorate with ribbons. These dolls represent winter. When the snow starts to melt, the Marzanna dolls are thrown into a river, symbolizing the killing of winter.
- In Poland, pizza bases are not topped with Napolitana or a tomato-based sauce. These are generally served separately and resemble what we would consider to be ketchup.
- Polish people marry the youngest within the European Union; 24 years old for women and 26.5 years old for men on average.
- During Wianki, people go to the riverbanks and float wreaths with candles on them on the water. If it floats to a woman on the other side, she will find love. If it circles three times, she will be unlucky with her love life.
- Abortion is not allowed. It was allowed under Soviet Rule, but not now where 87.2% of the people are Catholic. The woman will not be punished if she gets an abortion, but the doctor and/or the person who coerced her into getting an abortion will be punished.
- Divorce is not allowed either.
- The great composer Chopin was from Poland.
- Poland is the 9th largest country in Europe with a population of 38,000,000.
- Life expectancy for men is 73.5; females it is 81.5.
- Unemployment rate is 10.6%; inflation rate is 0.8%.
- The form of currency is called the zloty.
- Gdansk, which had been part of Germany, was given to Poland as part of the settlement that ended World War I. This heritage shows itself in the architecture and design of the city, which is distinctly German.
- Many of the city's residents are neither Polish nor German, but Kashubians. This small ethnic group (about 500,000) is concentrated in Gdansk. The Kashubians have their own language and culture, which is similar but distinct from Polish.
Words in Polish:
Dzien dobry = good morning
Dziekuje = thank you
Tak = yes
Nie mowie po posku = I don't speak Polish
Do widzenia = goodby
We are leaving Gdansk this evening, shortly before dinner, and will be heading towards Rønne. Rønne is the largest town on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,579. I have never heard of it before, so am eager to explore once we get there.
Until then, our ship staff will be presenting a program, which will probably be quite funny, as my cabin attendant has told me about their practice sessions this afternoon while we were in Gdansk.
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