Category: Poland

This was the final day for us unfortunately, with five of us flying back from Gdansk Airport and Richard going separately from a VIP terminal somewhere else in Poland. The plan was easy, a taxi was booked for 06:45 and that would give us enough time to get to the airport before we needed to board. It was evident that Susanna and Bev especially would want to be early, given missedflightgate at the start of their trip, and so everything looked like it would go perfectly to plan.

I think this sums up the situation nicely. The time difference means that the Polish times are an hour later. It’s not for me to gossip of course, but Steve, Ross and I had a long chat about the situation and it was evident that Susanna and Bev had stayed up late with a bottle of wine and then slept through their alarm. Ross and Steve were of course livid at their incompetence, but I remained calm as is clearly evident from my messages. The group were fortunate indeed to have my calm and steady approach to dealing with the trouble makers.

Susanna and Bev stumbled out of the hotel, actually literally, only 14 minutes late which was an impressive getting ready time and shows what they’ve capable of and I will remember that for future time keeping plans. They didn’t get their cup of morning coffee, but managed to collect body, soul, mind and luggage together in some form.

As the adult of the group, I was put in charge of sitting in the front of the taxi. Bev annoyed the taxi driver by getting muddled up with the seatbelt and he turned to me, smiled and said “women” which was probably a little sexist, but I could see why he was annoyed given that he had been standing about with us waiting for them so his patience was already frayed.

Luckily the tram didn’t move from its stand….

Bev was inside the car arguing with the taxi driver, whilst Susanna desperately tried to wake up. I’ve deliberately not used photos of them looking too worse for wear, as that would be unfair and inappropriate. And I would never sink to those lows.

Bev with her two coffees, that was her way of waking up.

After a morning snack and drink, the two miscreants were feeling remorseful but were back on top form.

Boarding the Ryanair flight, which was uneventful and through which I slept most of the time. I was nervous about using Ryanair, despite not having any issues with them over my decade of using them, but their service was always fine and I have no complaints. For £50 return, I thought I received excellent value for money.

The border looked chaotic, but we were through in fifteen minutes.

Ross had rushed to get an earlier train and that’s where this blog series comes to an end. We were all back in one piece, there had been no arguments and the company was marvellous. There are lots more trips to come and I think it’s fair to say that we all had an enjoyable time, with Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot not letting me down. Plenty of craft beer, decadent food, some football, history, culture and good company. All I have to do now is hope that none of the group take legal action against me for the content of the blog and I’ll call that a result.

I stayed at the Hotel Artus last year and enjoyed the view from the window that I had then, with this year’s one night visit having an equally impressive outlook onto the Cathedral. Five of the group were staying there for our final night, with Steve being just around the corner, and it’s a central location which proved handy. The welcome at the hotel was friendly and the prices very reasonable given how conveniently located the building is.

Every time I see this I think of the Corby trouser press and Alan Partridge, but I digress…. It was a shame that I didn’t get to see the hotel for long as I got back late after accompanying Richard to a bar as he led me astray, whilst also having to get up early the next morning. The hotel supplies earplugs because of the external noise, but I very much like that sort of distraction and the sound of the bells ringing. For anyone staying, I’d recommend trying to get a view of the cathedral, it just adds to the experience for me.

After some confusion at Whiskey in the Jar, we decamped next door to Billy’s American Restaurant which I had visited last year when I came to Gdansk on my own.

Susanna was very excited at her cocktail which was fizzing and bubbling. Actually, to be honest, we all were and I’ve videoed the whole experience which I’ll upload here at some point. It’s amazing what a little bit of dry ice can do, although I suspect the waiter thought he had a load of idiots in after watching our joy at this simple thing. He never showed that though, the service here was personable and helpful throughout.

See, I wasn’t exaggerating about the excitement….

I went for the Touchdown IPA from Browar Czarna Owca, a very decent American IPA which was in keeping with the restaurant’s theme.

I opted for that traditional Polish dish of chicken fajitas and I was sufficiently surprised and delighted by this arrangement. Tender chicken and plenty of opportunity for me to make my own wrap, I nearly always seem to end up ordering these when I see them on a menu. I think it’s the childlike sense of excitement of shoving random food in a wrap, although in my opinion they never give enough to complete the job efficiently. Anyway, I digress, and I think that everyone enjoyed their meal. Susanna kindly gave me some of her ribs, they were tender and the meat fell off the bone.

I’m pleased to say that we didn’t experience any issues with the bill, which was a relief after the earlier little problem that we encountered. The restaurant wasn’t that busy, but the atmosphere was inviting and vibrant with the food and drink being served after a reasonable period of time. We weren’t rushed out and indeed I had to get Susanna to attract the waiter’s eye, which she’s good at, to get the bill.

It was our last night in the city, but most of the group were exhausted. However Richard and I are nothing but hardcore, so we went to another bar.

Just for completeness, we went back to Pułalpka and I had the Miraz double fruited imperial pastry sour with lots of plum flavour to it. Not a bad way to end the weekend in Gdansk in terms of the bars.

Gdansk looking lovely at night and I am missing this fine city.

I’m having to reuse a photo from when I visited Whiskey in the Jar on my own last year, as our group visit here this year didn’t work out. It’s a small national chain and I’ve visited nearly all of their locations as they are usually a reliable venue. I particularly like their Warsaw outlet which I’ve visited a couple of times before. Since my last visit, they have moved to new premises in Gdansk near to their previous one and it looked contemporary and modern when we went in.

They were unfortunately all over the place this time if I’m being honest. The greeter said that they couldn’t split the bill but they could accept a single payment across card and cash. Then another staff member came over and said that was wrong and the venue only accepted all cash or all card payments, although perhaps there were some translation issues here as that seemed a bit odd to me. The only option we had, as some of our group only had cash, was either to leave or to sit across two tables where we paid cash on one and card on the other. The latter seemed sub-optimal to say the least, so we unfortunately had to leave. Disappointing, perhaps it was just a one-off, but the staff seemed to be trying their best to help. But I still like them and I’m sure that we would have enjoyed the food and drink though, it has always been decent before.

The afternoon’s entertainment was to get a tram to visit the murals in the Zaspa area of Gdansk, somewhere that I haven’t visited before. It’s a housing estate now, but it was once the site of Gdansk’s airport before it moved to a larger site to the north of the city.

It was about a fifteen minute tram journey and it was the first time that the group has used a tram this weekend, so that was part of the reason for going on this little expedition. I like to surprise and delight the group.

There were tens of murals and we had an on-line guide to them which I nominated Richard to navigate us around from and he did a reasonable job of that. This one dates from 2012 and is by the German artists Klaus Klinger, with the notes reading:

“A model worker of the Age of Consumption wanders through a flowerly meadow pushing a bottomless shopping trolley. The mural deliberately recalls the style of socialist-realist propaganda. Interestingly, the woman in the mural is headed straight for a shopping mall built from a converted hanger where the airport terminal was located until 1974”.

This mural is by Rafał Roskowinski of Poland, entitled ‘Toucans’ and created in 1997. The text reads:

“One of the ten works painted during the festival organised to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Gdansk. This mural brings the leading theme of the festival – colour – into the concrete-dominated space of the housing estate. Fearing intervention by the local graffiti scene, the artist left the lower part of the wall to Zaspa’s TKA crew. In line with the unwritten code, the “Gdansk” graffiti was saved and still complements the colourful mural.

Much faded since it was first painted by Rafał Roskowinski in 1999, this imagery is of John Paul II and Lech Walesa and it overlooks the park where in 1987 the Pope celebrated Holy Mass. I hadn’t realised this when in Gdansk, but the former Pope’s previously positive reputation in Poland is currently under significant attack amidst more allegations against the Catholic Church, but there’s a defence of him this week at https://catholicherald.co.uk/how-the-stories-circulating-about-st-john-paul-ii-are-baseless-speculation/. I hope that the allegations are baseless, he was an integral figure in the fall of communism and the growth of Solidarity, which is why these two figures are on this mural. As an aside, it’s the last thing that the church needed in Poland, the number of people attending mass in the country at the time of John Paul II was over 55%, it’s now down to 28% and has been falling for several years.

Perhaps the most dramatic of the murals, this one was created by Michał Wegczyn in 2012 and marked the 70th anniversary of the National Armed Forces. I think this is the mural that most impressed me, it’s got a dark side but a reminder of the bravery of the Polish troops is always a positive move in my eyes.

After looking at around one third of the murals, it was time to return into Gdansk on the tram as we were never going to finish seeing them all and Ross looked like he needed a long lie down. I’d recommend that anyone interested in street art of this form makes the expedition out to the outskirts of the city to have a look at these and there are also guided tours conducted by local residents.

My lunchtime restaurant of choice for the group was Chleb i Wino and I was even willing to sit outside as I suspected that it might be quite busy. To my delight, the outside area was full but they were able to find us a table for six of us indoors. At least that meant I wasn’t at risking of being attacked by a wasp or having cigarette smoke wafting over the table.

Not being a Belgian beer expert, I must admit to not having heard of the Grimbergen brewery, but I liked this idea of tasting three different beers from their range. The Dubbel (the darker one in the photo) was the pick of the bunch for me, a pleasant aftertaste and a beer that I’d willing order again. The other two in the tasters range were the Blonde and Blanche beers.

I have a separate video of the whole matter, more of which in a later post, but Bev managed to have another crisis. She was playing about with the beers and managed to jam one of the glasses into the wooden holder. The helpful server tried to free it, but eventually he had to return it all to the bar to fix the problem. He brought just the glass back, he clearly and correctly didn’t trust Bev not to jam it right back in to its wooden holder. I didn’t say anything of course, I let the server deal with the matter as he is clearly trained in handling difficult customers.

The Caesar salad, which doesn’t look great in this photo, but it tasted much better with plenty of chicken although it was lacking in any dressing. However, it sufficed my needs as it’s one of my favourite dishes and the ingredients seemed to be of a high quality.

Don’t ask.

Steve getting ready to list his beers on Untappd, which is one of the main reasons for going out if you ask me.

And they had a Banoffee dessert and this was much better than I had expected, loaded with toffee and banana, very delicious. Richard was particularly excited by this as he’s from the Eastbourne area and the dessert originated in Jevington in the 1970s, a location which we’ve walked on numerous occasions over the years. The dessert was served at the Hungry Monk in the village, but sadly that restaurant has now gone and has been turned into housing.

The restaurant wasn’t keen on splitting the bill, but it was busy and they just wanted us out because there was a queue of people waiting to get in, so Ross resolved the situation in a very mature manner. The service was always polite, even when Bev caused issues, with everything feel well managed and efficient. It’s a very well-reviewed outlet, and they have a couple of others in the city, with a variety of mostly Italian dishes and I’ll merrily visit here again.

This museum about the Second World War is of international importance and is sited here because Gdansk was where the conflict broke out. I’ve visited before and written at length about it, so I didn’t go along with the others but I felt it was absolutely worth them visiting. Susanna took longer than the three hours she had been allocated, but I was very forgiving of that because this is such an important museum. It is unfortunately quite an emotional experience, there’s no way of hiding the torment and hatred that took place in the 1930s and 1940s, but the story should never be forgotten.

I’ve written about this bar numerous times before, it’s one of the best craft beer locations in Gdansk. Although I think Richard thought the whole of Gdansk would be watching Eurovision, I was confident not many Polish bars would be too engaged with it, but I was delighted when we arrived and it wasn’t overly busy and there were absolutely no screens. I went for the Sinister Smoke from Palatum, a rich and smoky but smooth 8.3% imperial porter.

Richard had purchased a £25 bottle of something decadent and he was so excited, or perhaps drunk but it’s not for me to say, he smashed his glass and caused a spillage. Bev rushed to assist as she’s very pro-active and helpful like that.

Ross was less bothered in assisting if I’m being honest. I was busy recording the moment for this blog, so I unfortunately couldn’t help deal with the crisis.

And here’s the expensive drink that Richard acquired, which I must say wasn’t too bad at all as I thought I’d better taste test it for him. After an hour or so of gossiping, Richard and I had to get back to Gdynia, whilst the others had a short walk to their hotel. Bev won the prize for being my favourite member of the group with a series of lovely things she said. I’ll invite her on trips again in the future….

As an aside, after a brief worry that we had missed our last train, Richard and I only had a wait of two or three minutes before a delayed train took us back to Gdynia. It was busy but there was a congenial atmosphere on the train, which I have to say isn’t always the case with some of the late night trains in the UK. But, I digress, it was the end of another lovely day.

My second visit to Under Beer of the week, I won’t add much to what I’ve written numerous times before about this excellent bar.

One of the reasons I’ve returned here yet again, this time traipsing the whole group along, is that they have Funky Fluid cans in the fridges that I usually haven’t had before. Viola is part of their ice cream sour series, this time with blueberries, plums, raspberries, marshmallow and vanilla, an intriguing combination. It was very decent, but it didn’t quite have the creaminess and smoothness that some others in the series have.

However, the Triple Gelato Berries and Cream absolutely surprised and delighted me. It was creamy, rich in taste, fruity by smell, packed with flavours of blackcurrants, raspberries and some sweetness from the marshmallow. A beautiful beer and Bev was so surprised and delighted when she tried it that she excitedly ordered one to herself. Bev was slightly less surprised and delighted when it transpired that I had purchased the last one. I think I’ve done sufficiently well at selling Funky Fluid beers though, with Richard and Bev at least being keen to try them.

I wasn’t eating as I was still content with the hot dog and beer at the football, but Richard went for a cheese salad thing.

Ross enjoyed his pizza, but Bev wasn’t happy as her bagel didn’t have a proper hole in it. I did offer to create a hole if that would help, but apparently not. As usual here, the service was friendly, personable and engaging, with the team members managing to sort out the payments despite our group being quite demanding. I didn’t say anything of course, I had already paid and so I waited outside only slightly impatiently.

We didn’t linger for too long in the bar as they were showing Eurovision, and I didn’t much fancy sitting staring at the screens of that nonsense for very long. Richard would have probably sat there and watched it all night, but I was far too social for that, I felt the need to get to another bar so that we could discuss important matters in the world. Or matters important to me anyway. Another positive visit to this bar though, all rather lovely.