Kevin's Photoblog

Gsańsk has many donut (pączek, plural pączki; the ą is a “an” sound) shops in the train station.  Each morning in Gdańsk we buy four donuts and then these to a coffee shop.  The four donuts cost less (maybe $2 altogether) than the coffee.

I have previously shown pictures of the cobbled roads that are found throughout the old cities of Europe.  These must be hard on shoes, knees and tires (not to mention city budgets) but are absolutely beautiful to the eye.  These of course need to be maintained, and it is interesting to watch the people rebuilding these roads.  A lot of work here, where we would simply lay down another coat of asphault.

I am something of a connoisseur of hamburgers.  I can likely remember the ten best hamburgers I have ever had, and all of them have been in Europe.  My experience has been that any hamburger in any small restaurant in Germany or Poland beats basically anything you can find in the US, anywhere.  Here we are eating a hamburger at a small sort-of-hippyish restaurant in Gdańsk: not one of the ten best I have ever had, but OK.  Note, there is always beer served in European restaurants.

This is a small road bridge in Gdańsk.  Lovers have attached locks with their initials – there must be thousands of these locks.  I have seen such bridges in various locations in Europe.

A bit of early 20^th century history:  With the establishment of Poland in 1918, the mostly-German city of Danzig became an isolated “free city” surrounded and partly administrated by Poland.  In the 1930s the German population here became heavily Nazified and, coordinated with the German invasion of Poland, rose up and attacked the Polish population.  In the post office were about 49 civilians who improvised a defense of the building.  They held out for 14 hours, eventually retreating to the basement, where gasoline was poured onto them and lit to force a surrender.  The survivors were then marched through the city, where the German spat and threw rotten vegetables at them, this on the way to their execution.

This is the post office that they defended, with a monument nearby.  The Germans, once in control, treated the Poles very badly.  When the Russians came and Poland was reestablished as a nation, though now occupied by Russians, the Poles threw the Germans out.  They only come back as tourists.  The Germans never appreciated early on before and during the war what the consequences of their behavior would be should the war be lost.  This building, which I think shows the Polish determination against the Germans more than anything else in the country – houses a small museum but seems to be generally unused and not very well maintained.

There is much new construction happening in downtown Gdańsk.  There are ten cranes in this scene (a couple are behind the trees).  The second picture is of the train station – such beautiful buildings!

This is the challenge of reading Polish.  A train stop – note that there are only two vowels.

Kate and I love farmers markets, and had much to do with the establishment of the original farmers market in Caribou, which later moved to the Presque Isle Mall.  We came onto this Market in Gdynia.  Lots and lots of beautiful food, being sold by the people who raised the crops.  These markets are open all week long.

Another real bicycle, this in Gdynia.

Statue of Antoni Abraham, a writer who promoted Pomeranian culture.