We left Frankfurt like pack horses heading for Gdansk.  I must say, we really didn't pack lightly! After an 11 hour train trip from Frankfurt. It sounds longer and more tiring then it really was.  I read on my kindle the whole time and finished a book about 5 minutes before arriving after speeding through the last chapter because I was quite over reading that book - to many hours in one bit! We found our hostel right next to a beautifully lit building and in a street full of restaurants with outdoor seating and people milling. Since it was 10:30pm, we just showered and collapsed into bed!

We woke to perfect blue skies and a cool 18 degrees, had our hostel cornflake breakkie and vegemite toast and set out.  Gdansk is not far from the Baltic sea in northern Poland, and was important historically because of its sea port and the fact that World War 2 was kicked off in Gdansk on 1 sept 1939. Aha, I did learn something about history along the way!  Most of Gdansk got destroyed in the war and alot has since been rebuilt or restored making a gorgeous old town, with one of Europe's largest brick churches and a cool medieval port crane.  The old town was swarming with tourist groups and for me that somewhat dampened the beauty and the atmosphere of the place.  It was still lovely to wander along the water front though...

After walking around for a few hours, we went home for a nap- we are on holiday after all. We woke up to the smells of the kebap shop below the hostel and were suddenly ravenous (we didn't eat lunch also).  The kebaps were to expensive at 4euros each so we decided to cook for our first proper night as backpackers in Poland.  We whipped up the best tasting spaghetti neopolitana for 3euros - seriously, it was so good I had 2 bowls smothered with parmesan cheese!


Gdansk is a part of the 'tri-cities'which also includes two other towns called Sopot and Gdynia.  Sopot is famous as the Polish riviera and is a fancy seaside town where all the Polish tourists go, and also lots of Germans and Russians, for summer holidays.  Sopot is in a bay, so the sea is completely flat, and has the longest jetty in Europe at 511.5m.  There seems to be entrance fees for everything in Poland, and even to walk on the jetty you have to pay ~2 euros and wait in a long line to get your ticket.  So we just looked at the jetty from the beach instead.

Our hostel in Gdansk was awesome.  It was a big old house on a leafy street with a big garden with chairs and hammocks!  We had a room with 4 beds, but just one other nice Aussie girl to share with and a view over the garden.  It was so perfect and relaxing that we stayed an extra night to give us more time there.

We did a hike for a couple of hours along a beautiful coastal path and tested out our hiking boots - so far so good! We had lunch on a jetty that was shorter but free,. then got rained on and had to take cover in the trees.  Being a litle lazy, we took a bus back to the hostel.  We made daily trips to the supermarket and cooked everyday we were there - supermarkets are so cheap in Poland! We made chicken fajitas with salad for about 2 euros each.

Our last night in the hostel was in a 8 bed dorm because they had no other rooms free and we booked that night at last minute.  It seemed like all would be fine, we just had 3 other guys in the room and they seemed nice enough. We settled into bed just before midnight, only to get woken up not so long later at 4am.  I woke up to some bangs, and saw that two of the Spanish guys had made it home.  I watched the guy who had a bed closest to mine who was so wasted he couldn't take his shoes off.  Finally he managed to get them off and collapsed into his bed. Peace now?  No chance!  A few minutes later he jerks up out of bed, leans over the edge and projectile vomits onto the floor between his and my bed. Gross! I woke his slightly less drunk friend up, got him a mop and told him to clean.  I tried to help, but man it stank.  I thought I could deal with that stuff, but I had to leave the room because I was dry wretching.  The friend had just finished cleaning the vomit, when his friend comes back and vomits again...in the same spot, getting it this time over his shoes, clothes and bed. Aaaargh!  Finally, after cleaning a second time and spraying lots of disinfectant we got it clean enough for me to sleep.  I settled back in bed but couldn't sleep, so I read my book for a while, before I noticed drunk guy dry wretching in bed.  He had already vomited some more before I got there with the bin to hold it under his mouth.  When he finished he just said "finnito"and rolled back over.  As a last straw, the less drunk friend then suddenly leaps up from bed and runs to the toilet and starts the loudest run of vomiting I have ever heard. Seriously!

So we left Sopot the next morning for a 6 hour train ride to Poznan with a vow never to sleep in a 8 bed dorm again!