Gdansk, Poland, First Impressions, September 2017

The trip getting here was relatively painless.  Lately I've dreaded getting onto airplanes. Spaces are getting smaller, tighter, meaner, suffocatingly hot with endlessly recycled air although too cold for comfort as well, at times.  Many have never had the luxury of flying it seems a little churlish to complain, I'm moving on.

No complaints about KLM performed effectively and Amsterdam airport was a pleasant surprise.  Spacious and airy with a lot of nooks and crannies where one might plonk down and relax, much better than Heathrow or Frankfurt which are both pretty dreadful.

On the plane to Gdansk noticed a lot more men getting on, a possible 3 to 1 ratio, 3 men for every woman but I'm no mathematician so this might be more of an impression than an actual bona fide statistic.  I suspect that men are one of Poland's frequent export.  They go where the jobs are in Europe.  Although Poland is part of the European union they have chosen to stay with their currency, the zlote, which is about three times less in value than the euro.  Coming back with pockets full of euros is therefore an attractive proposition.  We are staying with relatives therefore haven't been able to fully test out of the costs in terms of buying power.   This will become more apparent once we start to travel on our own.  We're leaving Gdansk for Warsaw on Monday, courtesy of PoliskBus big red double decker affairs, cost for two 56 zwote which is about $20.00, pretty cheap so far.  I rented a do it yourself apartment in the heart of old Warsaw.  There is no host to greet you.  They send you instructions via email on how to get there and into the apartment.  It's a cozy little arrangement hopefully it will work out just fine and we won't be stranded in the street.  Apparently there are a lot of these triple A rated apartments around in Europe.  Poland seems to have quite a few of these.

We're not actually in Gdansk proper. We are in Gdynia with the Baltic town of Sopot further south.  This is where Poles come to play and relax.  We took a little drive through the forest to get to Sopot but didn't actually visit the town itself.  We went instead to the heart of old Gdansk with its magnificent beautifully preserved buildings some of  which were destroyed during the war but have been rebuilt or restored to their former splendor.  A lot of the buildings are intricately decorated some with nautical scenes, historical figures or Roman mythological creatures.  A number of buildings have these mythological statues standing guard at the top.  There were a lot of tourists ambling about,not that unusual even for the month of September.  Along with the usual trinkets found all over the world (fridge magnets, postcards, little costume dolls etc... possibly all Made in China) the main currency here is definitely amber.  Amber shops are everywhere with amber on display in all shapes and sizes.  I have a few amber necklaces from Poland at home although I'm not a huge fan.  I know I shouldn't say this but I don't like its "plastic" appearance.  Of course there are big differences in the quality of the amber, mine is probably on the cheap end of the scale.

Since we are staying with relatives it's a little different experience.  My Polish is insufficient for my needs which can be very frustrating.  It's hard listening to a conversation you don't actually understand but appearing to nod in all the "right" places as though you might have understood at least a little.  Sometimes they forget I don't speak Polish and talk to me as though "I get it", it's fine, we just pretend I do.  It's been a while since I've traveled in a county where I didn't speak the language.  We mostly traveled to Latin America, Mexico and France so NO PROBLEM.  This is motivating makes me want to learn more so I don't feel so foolish.  We're so dependent on our words, I can't share little anecdotes, have to resort to other means to make my personality come through, don't shine as bright, I'm a little duller penny.  Stan has to do most of the heavy lifting, it can be a bit trying for him as well.  

I'm being called to eat.  They're constantly prying us with food. Poles love to eat,anytime, anywhere, anything ok well maybe not anything but they certainly don't restrict themselves to habitual eating times like the French.  They manage to stay quite thin, women love to wear makeup.  More on the geography, culture next time. For now do widzenia.