I woke up at the hostel and had a walk around Old Town Gdansk before meeting Sylwia at 12:30. The city center was dense with church spires, towers and protective fortress gates. The old crane dominated the dense waterfront. Located along a canal just off the Baltic, the crane was the gateway for all goods and products coming in and going out of Poland. It is a remarkable structure that looks medieval in some regards, and futuristic in others. I loved it. It’s presence. It’s materiality. It avoids all association and definition. Dating back to the 1300‘s, the brick body of the structure, with the curved ramparts and the pitched roofs felt kind of romanesque. Then the wood framed and black clad cantilevered crane could have come straight from Norway... or Japan... And then the form was something completely autonomous and functional. I’ll leave my obsession here and get back to the experiences...

I met Sylwia at 12:30, we got a coffee and I was dropped off at the house while Syl went to pick up Hania from preschool. They live in a great part of Gdansk, outside of the Old Town but close to the Polytechnic Institute, where Michau can walk to work every day. They are on the top floor of an older house on a cobblestoned and tree lined street, particularly nice right now with the golden leaves covering the sidewalks. Since arriving in Gdansk Sylwia has had her hands full getting the family situated and renovating the flat. It’s beautiful inside. A complement of warm wooden floors and white walls and cabinets, the flat is airy, comfortable and modern. A great place to call home for a few days... perhaps more than Michau and Sylwia bargained for!

It really was a nice place to spend time and I enjoyed being a part of their family for a little while. Hania would sneak into the living room every morning, lift up the covers and tickle my feet. I found this very endearing. When I told my friend Karolina, she was a little more suspect, squealing ‘eeewwwwww, that’s so gross, I hope she washers her hands a lot...’. I think Hania found an intellectual equivalent in me, and took to referring to me as ‘Wujaszek’, or ‘dear little Uncle’.

Gdansk has a pretty rich history, which I tried to absorb from my conversations with Michau, who grew up here. The city enjoys a very strategic location, in a natural harbor along the Baltic Sea, the major hub of export for Poland and easy access to the other cities in the Hanseatic League along the Baltic, including London, Brugge, Cologne, Hamburg, Bergen and Riga. The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds dating from the 13th to 17th centuries, during which time it was declared the free city of Danzig, free of any ruling body. Due to it’s strategic location, Gdansk was fought over for centuries by Germanic and Slavic people before it’s incorporation with Poland after WWII. Throughout its history the city has enjoyed an eclectic mix of people including the Polish, Germans, Prussians and Dutch among others.

I spent some time wandering the Old Town, climbing the tower of St. Mary’s, the church that dominates the city. I took in a tour of the crane building, where the administrators got a bit bored of my sketching and eventually told me I had to leave... they were tired and wanted to go home. Syl and I made a trip up north to Sopot and Gydinia. Sopot is kind of like the Jersey Shore, with a mild winter population, but swarms of (not so classy) beachgoers in the summer. Michau mentioned that they like to cruise the strip in the track suits drinking beers... yep, sounds like the Jersey Shore to me. But it was a different scene now in late October, and I saw my first snow of the trip.

The evenings were full of fun conversation and fantastic meals: schnitzel and sauerkraut, pan fried cod, pickled herring, head cheese, blood sausages, baked chicken, potatoes, meats, cheeses, home made jams, beer and wine... my mouth is watering as I write this.... I ate like a Teutonic Knight! On my last evening we drank beer and talked and danced until the early morning hours... and at 9:30 I was at the train station, ready for the next adventure... well supplied with a couple of schnitzel sandwiches.