2022 World Tour – Wrocklaw, Poznan, Olsztyn and Gdansk Poland
Hello from Poland, my 34th – 37th stops on the trip and my 63rd country.
Below is the standard summary:
– Cool Ranch Doritos: No
– Thai ATM Card Works: Yes
– Thai Debit Card Works: Yes, but had one decline for no apparent reason
– Thai Internet Purchase Works: Yes
– USA Credit Card Works: Didn’t try
– Worldwide Telephone/Data/SMS eSIM Works: Yes, but lost coverage in Gdansk
– Spanish SIM Card Works: Didn’t try
– Magic Jack Works: Didn’t try
– VPN Works: Didn’t try
– COVID Compliance Chronicles: No Requirements
– Internet Works: Yes
– Drone Flights: Didn’t check
– Cost of Living: $$$
– Currency: zÅoty zÅ 4.73 = USD $1.00
– Language Issues: None, but I noticed Poland has the least other-languages on signs
Your Short History Lesson:
Poland is one of the oldest states in the world, established in 966, formally becoming a kingdom in 1025. Poland and Lithuania linked up in 1569, establishing a Constitution in 1791. After World War I it regained its independence, but was invaded by Germany in 1939 triggering the start of World War II. The USSR took control at the end of the war and was part of the Warsaw Pact. Lech WaÅÄsa, the leader of the Solidarity trade union, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for the efforts that contributed to the end of Communist rule in Poland in 1989. It is a member of the UN, NATO, the EU and Schengen.
I’m doing a consolidated post about all of my stops in Poland and I’ll abbreviate some of the descriptions to save you some time.
The bus from Prague to Wrocklaw was a little late due to heavy traffic on the roads, but luckily no out-in border crossing, just zoomed right across. The bus station in Wrocklaw is also in the basement of a shopping center – I think this is a great idea that should really catch on. The station toilet was a pay-to-use but I went up into the mall and found one for free in the regular shopping area – now that’s a life hack! I got on the #9 tram and just beeped my debit card on a reader to pay – just the way it should be. It took me within 2 blocks of the hotel and I rolled the rest of the way. My room is on the top floor, long and narrow with two single beds, fridge, TV and AIRCON!
Gnocchi for dinner and walked along the riverbank to do a quick check of the area. The lady at the front desk does laundry so I gave her almost my entire wardrobe, ready for pickup in 3 hours, excellent. When traveling, always be on the lookout for laundry services! I’ve come to the realization that I should have packed one less pair of shorts, one more shirt and more underwear. I had a dream that I went back to my university for another degree but got off at the wrong bus stop and decided to quit school. Wow, figure that one out.
The next morning I walked two blocks to the town square and lucky for me its Saturday and there’s a wine, beer and cheese festival going on, plus farmer’s market. Hundreds of booths, easily a thousand people out in the sunshine. Got a real glass wine glass for a zÅ10 deposit and bought a serving of local chardonnay and a hot dog which from the picture looked like it was made from boar meat. Saw the old town hall and the astronomical clock. I found the Piwnica Åwidnicka restaurant/bar under the town hall which was founded in 1273, one of the oldest still-running restaurants in Europe. The city is crisscrossed by small bridges over the many small rivers, you end up walking across a lot of bridges to get to your destination.
Being an infrastructure guy I was drawn to the Hydropolis – an exploration center about water and oceans in general, and especially the city’s fresh and waste water management systems, pretty cool. There’s a dripping wall of water on the front entrance, each vertical stream has a computer-controlled valve so it can “print” a pattern in the water as the drops fall, check out the video. In the evening I walked over to the university & the old tower area. I found a restaurant called ‘Cheese Is More’ where they specialize in gourmet mac & cheese – I had one with 4 kinds of cheese and bacon on top plus a local beer, really yummy.
The next day I got on the train for a quick pop-in to Berlin, but I’ll make that a separate post for that because I did a very special thing there!
Leaving Berlin, I arrived in PoznaÅ Poland by train – a straight shot east. Good hotel room with a large single bed, desk, fridge, 2 large opening windows and a fan. Married With Children was playing on the TV dubbed in Polish. I walked into the local old town, with narrow streets downhill to the town square, which is completely torn up and under construction for more than a year. I’m finding a lot of city-center area demolition and rebuilding, which according to the signs is partially funded by EU grants so cities must be scrambling to spend that sweet EU money. I found a Cuban restaurant on the square where the outside tables are sitting in the dirt where the cobblestones used to be. Had a Cuban sandwich, a large Cuba Libre and tried to get flan for dessert but no flan for you today. A couple of kids walked up taking donations for Ukraine. They showed me their government-stamped fundraising papers so I gave them zÅ 50.
The next morning my target was a park on the far side of the city with a miniature railway, so I walked through the big shopping mall next to the hotel, then about 40 minutes through town and the Polytech University to the big lake, laid out with sculling lanes, finally arriving at the train. The train ride was about 15 minutes and ended up at the city zoo. I wasn’t planning on going but the reviews were good as it’s a massive wild space with natural habitats. As I started walking, I realized just how big this place is, built with a huge walking loop. Running out of energy I tried to get on the electric tram shuttle at the end of the day but they stop running it an hour before the zoo closes! Who runs this place? I grumpily trudged to the zoo exit and down to the little train station only to find it has also shut down for the day! What? A very nice local guy called Martin was in the same boat so we found a bus that took us back into the city. I spotted a pierogi shop but they had finished their last batch of the day, man I just can’t catch a break! I saw on the news that Salman Rushdie was attacked and stabbed in the neck and face – this is what happens when you write a book 34 years ago? Yet another reason why I decry all religions. That was a 15K step day.
The next morning I went to the train station to buy a ticket to Olsztyn for tomorrow and got in line with about 40 other people, with no automated ticket machines to be found. I got on my phone and booked a ticket while less than 10 people were served at the counter. Sometimes you need a human, but increasingly automation wins the day. I bought a 24 hour tram ticket and rode down to that pedestrian walking & restaurant street and hit the same pierogi place and got a plate of 8 with spinach, cheese and sour cream. Spent the rest of the day writing up the Croatia post and editing videos.
The next morning I checked out and jumped on the tram up to the train station. 3.5 easy hours to Olsztyn, the hometown of Magda, one of my AirBnB housemates in Barcelona so I couldn’t miss it. Unfortunately my “hotel” turned out to be a “hostel” and I discovered my first real mistake of the trip. While searching for hotels I accidentally booked for three days in September instead of August. Damn. I hesitated thinking I should find a slightly more upscale place but it might be hard to find something same-day and there is a room available so I booked it, the location is fantastic right next to the ancient 14th century gate into the old town. It has a good bed with a sink, but no aircon, no fan, no fridge and a beeping smoke alarm. Yay! I walked through the gate to the old town and down a long cobblestone slope lined with restaurants and shops. I ended at the river, went back up and got a feta kebab, sitting outside under a lucky roof because a thunderstorm came out of the clear blue sky, soaking people in a torrential downpour. It cleared after a while and I went to ‘u Jacka’ for the best ice cream in town, according to Magda.
The next morning I took the bus to the beach at one of the big local lakes with beautiful scenery and hundreds of families out enjoying the water and the sunshine on this Armed Forces Day holiday. A stage was being dismantled from a music festival over the weekend. I had a huge plate of penne with cream sauce and grilled chicken at a marina-side restaurant recommended by Magda again. I walked to the bus stop to go home and saw two girls apparently selling Kinder Egg candy. I asked how much and they said it was free, left over from the festival. Score! I took the tram to two shopping centers but both were closed due to the holiday. Boo! Back at the hotel I worked on the Croatia Rimac visit video. I could hear a guitar busker in the old town from my window, he only knows 3 songs and plays them in rotation with full reverb and backing track.
This is where my next travel destination gets tricky. I want to continue north-east into Lithuania but there are no trains and the bus service is really bad – I would have to go south to Warsaw and then get a sleeper bus that dumps me somewhere over the border at 3am.
Here’s something I had absolutely no idea about until I arrived in the region: there’s only a narrow border of land between Poland and Lithuania due to Kaliningrad Oblast to the west and Belarus to the east. I can’t go through Kaliningrad Oblast because it’s actually an isolated Russian-controlled “semi-enclave” with its borders defined after World War II, locals expelled and Russians imported by the millions. The strange geography wasn’t an issue when the Baltic states were part of the USSR but after the collapse it became an isolated region, surrounded by water and other countries! It was apparently offered to Soviet-occupied Lithuania in the 1950s but rejected by the still-fighting locals due to the entrenched Russian population. Check out the map snapshot I’ll put in the photos. I can’t go through Belarus to the east because Ukraine reasons.
So I have a predicament. I went to the bus station to get human help, only to find it’s completely derelict and abandoned except for the bus stalls. According to a very helpful young lady, you have to work out which bus you want, arrive at the right time and pay the driver. Um nope that’s not going to work for me as I’ll be needing multiple connections and have to build a coherent plan in advance. In the end I decided to go north to the Baltic Sea port of Gdansk and try to make my way up to the Baltic countries via ferry. I booked a first class train ticket as the price wasn’t much higher for the short trip. For dinner I sprung for high-end pierogis with ricotta and salmon and nutella pierogis for dessert.
The next morning I went to the train station, which is under massive construction with the ticket office in a temporary building. It’s a madhouse – children running around screaming, aircon running but with the front and rear doors wide open and a backhoe working 2 feet from the rear glass window. After getting on the train I realized I ended up in exactly the same second class 6 seat compartment as my arrival trip! So much for first class, they just changed the number on the side of the train from 2 to 1! It got really hot with 6 people and no airflow in the closed cabin so after 15 minutes I went and sat in the standard row seats in the car, cool and uncrowded.
I only booked two nights in Gdansk as my goal was to just get on the ferry. For some reason my phone data stopped working on the train north and I had zero service in Gdansk so I couldn’t get Google Maps directions to the hotel. I finally found a city-wide Wifi, signed in and rolled to the hotel, saved my bacon. The hotel is really nice and in a great location next to the river. I walked out in the evening along the river, beautiful and lit up all the way down.
The next morning I started my ferry hunt and to my dismay found at least 3 ferry companies but there’s nothing direct to Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. I could go north to Sweden and then across to Helsinki or Tallinn but that’s a slow 2 days on the water and strangely no tickets are available for the next 3 days! I bailed on the idea and booked a flight directly to Tallinn on Lot airlines, where I had to pay extra for my suitcase. I hate this nickel-and-dime shit the airlines are playing now. This is why I enjoy the bus and train so much – buy a cheap ticket, walk up 10 minutes before departure and off you go.
Are these cities worth the visit: Yes, Poland has a lot to offer, each city with its own unique features. Just be sure to plan your method of transport early in this region and be ready to hunt for alternatives due to schedules, availability and borders.
Next Stop: Berlin then Tallin, Estonia
