A Lighter Look

We left our stuff in Warsaw in favor of a short trip by train to Gdansk for two nights.  I’d love to hear how each of you might pronounce Gdansk.  Phonetically, it is Guh-Dainse with the accent on the second syllable. Think of the sound of “ain” in rain or ain’t then apply it to guh-dainse 

Oh, what an enchanting place.   Once a critical port at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea, Gdansk was the jewel of Poland.  It is important to understand that the Baltic Sea has shores on Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Polland, Russia, and Sweden.  Because of its strategic port on the Baltic, this is the area where the first German attack and invasion of Poland took place which kicked off WWII.  Nowadays, having been rebuilt and restored to its early grandeur, it is a lovely place to visit. The city has wide boulevards and pedestrian streets filled with amber merchants, fine restaurants, and historic sites.   At first glance, this picturesque city with tall, skinny buildings along a canal leading to the river is reminiscent of Amsterdam and Copenhagen.   

The architectural influence is attributable to Dutch merchants.  With its important trade location on the Baltic and a natural terrain much like that of the Netherlands, the Dutch drained the land and built the city.  Those guys knew how to do business and how to build towns.  The buildings that sit along the river today reflect the rich Dutch heritage.    The colorful, artfully decorated tall, narrow buildings designed to avoid old-time taxes based on the building’s footprint, are now home to high-priced restaurants with even more high-priced apartments above.  In Gdansk’s early days the merchant conducted business on the first floor and the upper floors served as the family’s residence.   

We did not expect tourist crowds to be so heavy in Poland.  Would you??  But throngs of people were there!  In Gdansk, we happened to arrive during the annual “St. Dominick’s Trade Fair.”  Booths offering hats, skirts, shirts, dresses, coats, cheese, honey, candy, scarves, waffles, arts of all kinds, and so much more were everywhere.  There were hundreds of them.  These tented shops lined both sides of every street.  Street musicians and entertainers kept the crowds entertained.  I never buy much in our visits due to baggage restrictions but we passed a vendor with the loveliest hats! They came in a variety of beautiful colors and were crushable, packable, and oh-so-flattering. As I tried on two different colors, falling in love with each, I asked the lady the price. She said, “Oh? Expensive.” I wasn’t bothered. I kept looking at the hat I had on in the mirror thinking soon this will be mine. I said, “How expensive?” She replied, “400 PLN.” I gasped, “One hundred dollars???” I loved the hats; they were perfect . . . but not that much. Later I found the same hats on Amazon for $35 and free shipping. I can order one or maybe even two. Ha! The downside, however, is that I cannot wear one until Cody delivers them to me when she visits us in September. Stay tuned.

Just below our apartment was an extension to the fair that featured a competition to find pieces of amber in a pool filled with gravel and muddy water.  Kids and adults alike waded around and ruined manicures digging through pebbles in the murky water searching for the stones hiding there.  Amber is a native gemstone of Poland.   Some amber pieces date back 6000 years.  Amber in this part of the world once was considered precious and a sign of wealth.  Whole streets in Gdansk and Warsaw are dedicated to Amber shops while tented kiosks sell less expensive jewelry and art made of amber. 

Like most of Poland, Gdansk was hit hard in the war.  Seventy-five percent of the town was destroyed.  Many of the buildings have been rebuilt since the 1950s – demarcation lines can be seen in many structures where new bricks were added to the remaining original walls to replace those lost in the destruction.  One of the most famous stories is how a band of postmen armed themselves and trained themselves to defend the Polish Post Office.  It was known at that time that Germany was planning an attack.  When Germany opened fire on the port, they also planned to take full control of the Gdansk by capturing the Polish Post Office.  The postmen surprised the advancing Germans with point-blank fire as they approached the post office.  Forty-four men held off the Germans for 15 hours before being defeated by heavy artillery.  All of the men except just four who escaped the building were executed not as captured soldiers but as civilians. 

I should also note, the Solidarity movement, led by Lech Walesa, had its roots here in Gdansk. Good things can and do happen in this world. Solidarity led to the end of communism in Poland and the end of the Cold War

Now let’s talk about the fun stuff. 

The food here in Poland is hearty and delicious. Typical dishes are pierogi stuffed with a meat mixture or potato and cheese, pickles, cabbage rolls, fried pork cutlets like German schnitzel, sausages, beetroot and other vegetable soups, borsch, goulash, stewed beef, and lots of boiled potatoes seasoned with fresh dill.  Cabbage, carrot, cucumber, and tomato salads are each freshly made and tasty. Polish bread is dark and sliced thick.  Food in most restaurants is reasonably priced, but you can also choose a fancy place with outdoor tables, impeccable service, beautifully served food, and a big fat check.  Or you can visit a milk bar.  These tiny but very popular restaurants are left over from the communist era and receive a government stipend to provide nothing but traditional Polish food at a reasonable price.  Visiting one is a unique experience.  In most of them, diners stand at a counter and make their order from a Polish menu on the wall.  They pay and are given a ticket.  The diner usually takes the ticket to the kitchen window and either waits for his plate or listens for the name of his dish to be called.  To say the Polish language is difficult is an understatement. We usually know the English name for the plate we ordered but we’d never recognize their names being shouted in Polish. Stan and I just wait for our plates. Two people can enjoy a hearty meal for about $12 USD.  Polish people love sweets.  Bakeries, often called Cukiernsas, make cakes, custards, and pastries; the people eagerly partake. Their pancakes (crepes) filled with soft cheese and topped with warm strawberry sauce are stupendous! Our sweet temptation in Portugal was the nata; here it is undeniably the crepes.  

Walking down the street, Polish people do not acknowledge one another unless they know each other.  While we’d love to greet a passerby, it is just not done.  However, in a store or a shop, on the bus or tram, people are friendly and volunteer to be of help if they think we might need directions or other help.  Older people do not speak English but nearly all young people do.  I asked a young mom-to-be who sat next to me on the train from Gdansk, how she became so proficient in English.  She said English is taught in schools, but she became more fluent and comfortable with the language by listening to American music and watching movies on Netflix.   

I hear the US is literally baking this summer. I’m so sorry for the suffering. I am sure it is miserable. In contrast, our weather has been unusually moderate. Rain poured on us during our visit to Gdansk but then cleared to a blue sky the next day. While today the high temperature was 79; a day or so ago it was even cooler. We have seen no temps over 84 degrees. 

Talking about high things, tax rates here are almost as high as in the US but average incomes are much lower. Overall, however, the quality of life is good. With reliable and inexpensive transportation systems, a solid national healthcare program, and free education for all, the general population is healthy and well-educated. 

Speaking of the transportation systems, lo and behold, fares on the city transit system are free to riders aged 70 and above!!! The same applies to the transit systems in all the Polish cities we plan to visit. While there are very few advantages to being old, this is one we certainly appreciate. 

We went to church today. We found an English-speaking interdenominational church and took the transit system to get there. We saw new territory, new parts of town. I am so glad we went. What a gift! The people were wonderful to meet . . . members there come from 30 different countries. The service was uplifting, and the message was one that fits most of us every now and then, The Prodigal Son. The music was familiar and made me misty.  

Visiting the Warsaw Zoo was our final Warsaw outing then we will be off to Krakow. The zoo has been in operation in the same location just across the Vistula River in Praga since 1928, but in the years between, additional land was incorporated to make it a very spacious green park with a great variety of well-kept animals in the zoo section. Like botanical gardens, zoos are among our favorite spots to visit. Zoos have come a long way since the WPA rusty stone and iron-barred enclosures of the defeated-looking animals we used to visit in Little Rock as kids. Sloths and Red Pandas here have tall trees in which to climb and the big cat enclosures are so large, animals have plenty of space for hideouts. Sometimes finding the animals is a real task. I’m happy for them; I am sad they are not still in the wild but happy they are well-kept.

This zoo is where the true story, “The Zoo Keeper’s Wife” took place. It recounts the remarkable story of how the Director of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife, during the German occupation, sheltered and saved the lives of 300 Jews who escaped the Ghetto and the death camps.

See you next in Krakow!

God bless you all.