Gdansk on the Baltic coast

More of Lodz

After my quick nightstop in Lodz, I move on to Gdansk by train today.  But I have some time in the morning to explore a bit more.

I walked to the south of the old city to a development called OFF (as it was off Piotrkowska Street).  It’s a drinking and eating alley but small in comparison to Manufaktura.

I had planned to visit the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral.  I had caught a glimpse of it in scaffold from the railway station yesterday, and saw on Google Maps that it was temporarily closed.  But with time to kill, I went anyway, somewhat to explore the area rather than see the building.

On the train

I left the hotel around 1100 for my 1132 train to Gdansk.  The train’s final destination is actually Hel.  So, I took the train to Hel.  The journey of about 4h45 took me via Warsaw.

Fortunately, my seat was in a conventional aircraft-style layout, unlike some carriages which had 6 seats per enclosed compartment.  That configuration is more generous with only 3 seats per row (instead of 4) but it seems so awkward to be facing others.

With a tray table, my laptop and my new unlimited roaming plan on my Malaysian SIM card, time went very quickly.  I managed to settle the Irish rental car problem by sending them photos of the pre-existing damage with the photo metadata, following a phone call made by Kim to their office.

Exploring Gdansk

Arriving around 1615, I found my way on foot to the Kamieniczka Palladium B&B.  Entry into the building and my room was by access code.

After a brief rest, I wandered out around 1715 to explore and found that I was only a minute away from the waterfront.  Surprises like that are great!  But it wasn’t by chance as I had put a lot of work into choosing a property, except that I did it so long ago, I had forgotten the details.

The beauty of this Baltic port city is quite stunning.  Due to its prosperity, there are lots of ornate buildings for us to admire today.  One iconic building on the river is the wooden crane that is used to hoist heavy objects (e.g. masts) onto ships.

I grabbed dinner at a stall that was boiling some bigos (a sour cabbage stew).  While it looked awesome, the lady insisted it is not ready till tomorrow.  I settled for a kielbasa sausage instead.

Back around 2000, I felt like a little dessert.  I popped into my local convenience store for an ice cream, then went on a wild goose chase for some elusive natural muesli for breakfast.  I returned with some granola instead around 2130 and was ready to crash.