Day trip to Gdansk

Today I took a trip to Gdansk. It's part of the tri-cities and where I flew into. It's also where WWII started and the communist riots / strikes of 1980.

I had planned to do the free walking tour, put on by the same company as the ones we did in Kraków, however I was able to follow they're too a properly and ended up being 30mins late. I did wander around trying to find them, and gave up.

I used the tourist map I was given, the wifi located in most parts of the old town and longitude planet's '24 hours in Gdansk' to plan my own walking tour.

Starting at at Mary's church, I walked up streets a and b through the -- gate, past the river and down -/- street. Apparently this was where the royal processions used to walk. I saw Neptune's statue, golden gate and Amber museum, amongst all of the old buildings of course. These were all beautifully designed and all very individual.

I had lunch at bar ... Neptune, it was an old milk bar built in the communist era. I was disappointed in it, but it did the trick. When we water in Kraków we ate repeatedly at a lovely milk bar, maybe it was too new.

After lunch I walked all the way down the Marina, taking in the tall ships. There was a four day celebration taking place called the tall ships festival. There were lots of little markets, kids activities and a stage set up, for what I assumed was entertainment for later on.

My walk took me further in the loop and back towards the train station. I took a left and ventured towards the shipping yard headed for the European solidarity museum and shipping worker monument.

The ESM tells the story of the workers strike at the shipping yard in 1980 and Poland's rise out of communist rule and into freedom. Laid out across seven rooms, the story is visually told through artefacts, videos, sets and so on.

I'd like to learn more about why the communist regime was allowed to last so long, who paid for the rebuilding of the cities and more about the strikes.

After the museum I took the train back to Gdynia to attend day 3 of Open'er!Read more