Category: Gdansk

It’s day two and Richard, Steve, Bev and Susanna are making their way to Poland today. Ross and I have had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and will wait for updates of how the others are getting on. For anyone that’s interested, although I can guess the number, I’ve caught up on sleep after our overnight stay at Stansted Airport yesterday. I’m also pleased to hear that the bar billiards team I’m on had a victorious night yesterday, something that I think will happen quite a lot when I’m not there.

Steve sent this photo, he’s currently stuck in traffic in Norwich. Steve arrives in Gdansk later tonight and we’ll see him tomorrow morning (Friday). Richard has just boarded the British Airways flight to Warsaw after enjoying a morning in the lounge at Heathrow binge drinking Bell’s whisky and eating crisps. We’ll also see Richard tomorrow as he is having a specialist evening in Warsaw before getting the train to Gdansk in the morning. He’s planning to get some vodka to drink on the train, so I hope he doesn’t upset the local commuters.

Bev is spending the morning taking the rubbish out and then doing her headstands as she’s heard that it’ll help her back, whilst Susanna is looking like a Princess without needing to even try. They both get the Ryanair flight early this evening and hopefully we’ll see those two tonight. It’s all coming together now….

Game Over is a new venue to me, somewhere that I’m not sure I had been aware of before, but it’s located just around the corner from Under Beer.

A bright and modern bar. The service was polite and efficient, with the atmosphere feeling warm and inviting even though we were the only customers.

A mural, with one of this bar’s USPs being the range of board games that they’ve got behind the bar which customers can play.

The blackboards are for shots and cocktails rather than beers, with the whole arrangement having something of a younger vibe. I can imagine that this is busy and rather more vibrant on a weekend evening.

The beer fridge. This is what is a little disappointing with so many bars in the UK, as any pub (if it’s not tied anyway….) can offer a selection of craft beers by just having a fridge in the corner. The best before dates are usually relatively lengthy and it allows a pub to have a wider offering than they might otherwise have. I was pleased, as ever, to see more Funky Fluid beers and there were plenty of tempting options here.

I was pleased with this, the Mello Jell-Oh from Browar Birbant from Zielona Góra. I’ve had their Fruitness and HBC GO beers before, they’re a classy brewery with a strong selection of sours and IPAs. The beer is a pastry sour and I thought it had notes of nectarine and mango, although it’s actually got nectarine, passion fruit and guava, but that’s near enough. Ross once again had some lager that he forgot the name of before he got back to the table. It’s perhaps fortunate that Ross isn’t on Untappd.

The gaming element here wasn’t quite what I expected, although that wasn’t the main reason for going or indeed any part of the reason. There was no video gaming element, it was primarily board game based, and we didn’t have time to faff about with that. It’s a comfortable place to have a drink even though there are limited draft options, but I was sold on the canned selection so that worked out. The mezzanine level gives views over the bar and there’s plenty of seating available across the two floors. I quite like the thought of a long Sunday afternoon drinking craft beer and playing board games, it would be all rather pleasant.

Although hunting for bars that I haven’t been to before, one of my favourite locations in Gdansk is Under Beer and I felt the need to pay it a quick visit since I was nearby. As I’ve visited before, I won’t add much here, but this repeat visit didn’t disappoint.

I was delighted to see a beer from Funky Fluid’s Gelato series that I haven’t had before, this one is Dekadent Banana Parfait brewed in conjunction with Pühaste Brewery of Tartu in Estonia. It’s an ice cream sour (and can there be a more summery drink?) with a fruity aroma which has the flavour of banana and lime running through it, without it having an artificial edge. And any beer with the word decadent in its title is of course worth trying. A beautiful beer, I’m positively excited to visit Warsaw Beer Festival to continue to work through whatever delights Funky Fluid come up with next.

Ross had some lager, but he had forgotten what it was called by the time he arrived at the table, although I’m sure it was delicious…. I suspect I might be back here later on in the week with the rest of the group.

Ahead of the mass of people arriving tomorrow, Ross and I went out for a peaceful pizza at Farina, located at ul. Szeroka 89.

The drinks menu and I had been attracted here by the effort they make with their bottled beer selection. They do have a beer which seems to have been brewed for the restaurant but I couldn’t find it on Untappd and so I decided it couldn’t possibly exist at all.

And the pizza menu. Prices in Poland have been rising like everywhere else, but they remain reasonable (divide by five for the approximate UK price).

There was an air of Italian authenticity to the internal design, or at least, as much as you can realistically get in Gdansk. Clean, comfortable and quiet since we were visiting in the late afternoon.

The Czarny Bez from Amber Valley, a lager cut with elderflower syrup which gave it quite a pleasant floral feel to it.

The n’duja pizza, suitably delicious with leopard spotting to the edges. The N’duja had its usual spicy edge complemented by the creamy mascarpone along with a deluge of greenery on top.

All was well with the on-line reviews with very little negativity, although they picked up a ridiculous 1 star review a few months ago, with someone commenting:

“They took money from the child for the toilet”

I liked the owner’s response which I think is reasonable given that public toilets aren’t free in Gdansk (well, the ones in shopping centres are, which is always handy).

“Write the truth . not from a child, but from you. you asked if you could use and we informed that the toilet is for customers. otherwise it is payable. 50 m away is public toilet, also paid.”

Anyway, I digress. Given their positive reviews, I had high expectations of this pizza restaurant and I wasn’t let down by the service, food or the atmosphere. All rather lovely.

After having ninety minutes of sleep on board the aircraft, I decided I was good for the rest of the day in that regard so it was just the bus journey into the city centre to manage in the morning. We were in the queue to buy tickets from the machine when the bus came and promptly left again, but they’re every half an hour so the wait didn’t feel too onerous.

Then Ross, who knows nearly everything football related, noticed Sam North of Footy Adventures and very bravely for him went and introduced himself. I’ve now added Footy Adventures to my YouTube subscribed list and he is a very friendly guy, I like his ideas to come out and make 24 hour videos of cities around Europe. Travel content is always exciting to me and I think Ross is particularly engaged with football travel content. Hopefully he wasn’t entirely bored about my riveting travel stories from around the world and I just know that he’s going to enjoy Gdansk.

I navigated Sam to the city’s main street and let him get on with his adventure and he was initially off looking for coffee which didn’t seem a bad idea at all. It all added a touch of glamour to the proceedings although Ross and I decided not to appear in the YouTube video as I don’t like being filmed so I wouldn’t have watched it back anyway. But here’s a photo instead.

With that, I walked Ross and I in a slightly circuitous route to the hotel and I’m pleased to note that not only did they give me a room with free early check-in, but Ross was also able to check in early to his room as well. I’ve been busy doing work whilst Ross has been sleeping, but I guess we can’t all be tough travellers. It’s all been a suitably exciting day today, we’ll be on the hunt for pizza and beer shortly, those staples of the Gdansk food and drink scene.

How exciting, it’s a group trip this week to Gdansk, with six of us going to this quite marvellous city. Of course, nothing is simple, Ross and I are departing by train this evening whilst the others arrive at random times during the week. Everyone is flying with Ryanair to Gdansk other than Richard who has hired a private jet or something to take him to Warsaw and then a first class train to Gdansk. How the other half live….

Here’s my scribbling down an itinerary that will likely change numerous times, but showing my commitment to organisational excellence. We have museums, bars, restaurants, bars, a boat trip, bars, trams, bars, cathedrals, bars, churches, bars and pizzerias. I have already whetted my appetite by looking at ontap.pl to see what beers are being sold in Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot at the moment. I am beyond excited at just how many tempting sours there are across the city and very excitingly, I’ve discovered there’s an outlet of PINTA in Sopot.

I’ve missed Poland and if any of the other five going don’t enjoy Gdansk then they’re idiots and I am unanimous in that. And for anyone interested, which I readily accept is likely below one in number, the photo on this page is from my trip last year to Pikawa in Gdansk.