Ahh, Poland, practically known only for Auschwitz and Warsaw. Which is why it was to my utmost surprised that Gdansk is Poland’s largest city, and one of the most thriving ports in the Baltic Sea area. WTF? I’ve never even heard of this place. Although I’m sure the number of places I’ve never heard of is certainly up there. 
The drive to Gdansk from Poland was rather far, as Gdansk is inland and the boat actually parks in Gdynia, not Gdansk.
Gdansk is a pretty old city, dating back 1,000 years. Lots of brick buildings, and it was one of the earliest ports in the area, so it had a brick building that was what was formerly a crane used to lift up items from ships, I reckon. But the cranes are obviously nothing like the cranes we have now. They’re giant building with what is like two giant hamster wheels inside… and each wheel would have three people – the larger the better – in it, that would walk and thereby pull things up. Haha??
The black thing is the old crane!!!
They also had a lot of medieval buildings in Gdansk, that were destroyed or covered up. Archaeologists make their way into the place often, as Gdansk has a lot of uncovered buildings in the city center area. The old part of the city has been reconstructed in recent times based on these archaeologists’ researches, and very little of the buildings are original. It’s easy to distinguish between the old parts of the buildings (darker, hand-crafted bricks) and the newer parts of the buildings (lighter, machine-made bricks).
Dutch-influenced architectures!
And then some.
BEAUTIMOUS!
The archaeologists dig up these old buildings and look very much for medieval toilets, where many of the buildings sunk into. The toilets, pits of what was poop and piss, manage to preserve things very well… including their smells. Haha! I guess they pull artifacts out of those poop holes all the time though, now that they’re excavating them.
Church under construction!
Gdansk also had Dutch influence, so in its main shopping strip area, the architecture is kind of random and Dutch and all over the place. Very cute and brightly painted, with every building a little different… some with just fancy trim, others with sculptures popping out of its facade… shit, I don’t know. Pictures doth sayeth a lot more than I.
Church.
While in the main square, this Ah-Yi was standing next to me and some dirty, possibly homeless but possibly just dirty, guy stood next to her and kept staring at her, supposedly. It freaked her out and she’s like, “This guy keeps staring at me,” and moved away behind me. She walked away. I looked up and he was now staring at me, so I said hello to him, and he made little conversation. He said hello, how are you, and I answered and such, but then he said some other thing and I didn’t understand… and he said, “Of course.” [?] I have no idea. But I must say… I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but I am certainly not scared of speaking to strangers with staring problems. I mean some people are pretty obviously people you don’t want to talk to, but as far as the like, kinda dirty, slightly nutty, possibly homeless people, I find them to be generally harmless if you speak with them with the correct tone of voice or something. I’m not sure quite how to explain it, but I pretty much think I have a good way with the afflicted. Or maybe it’s just because I’m not afraid of them. I’m not sure…
After that, we drive like 1 hour (I slept unfortunately… not sure why I was so tired today) to Malbork Castle in Malbork, Poland. It’s the largest brick castle in the world or something. Pretty trippy. Created by monks, I believe… monks who were better warriors than religious men. They were apparently not the brightest light bulbs in the bunch, as supposedly all they had to do to get in was learn the Lord’s Prayer in 6 months time. Rofls.
The castle!
Gate!
Moat? Ex-moat!
The castle itself was taken over by Nazis (godamn they took over everyone and everything) and so the Soviets bombed the castle immensely. The castle is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and although it had been destroyed in many places, the Polish government has slowly been restoring it. In 1990, the EU gave Poland $4.5 million to restore a wall that was crumbling… which was supposedly quite a big step due to the fact that Poland was not even in the EU at the time.
Hot castle.
There is a church in the castle that is pretty much in shambles, but they are not yet sure if UNESCO will have the funds to give them to restore the church. Frankly, I don’t think it should be restored. To me, part of the beauty of it is that it is in a state of disarray. I mean, there’s already SO MANY churches to look at in Europe, with so many of them being the same. This church, though old, is no real exception. It’s in the classic Gothic style and frankly doesn’t have that much more to offer. But the fact that it is in shambles gives it some personality some other churches don’t have, and its history is worn on its sleeve… not so the case if it were to be restored.
I got this cool shot… or at least I hope it is cool… I didn’t have that much time to take it… of plants overtaking this church’s Gothic paned window. I had to go back especially to get it, because the imagery and message seemed to convey so much to me. ^_^ Wish I had had more time to get a perfect shot, though. The castle required you to buy a sticker that cost 5 Euro if you wanted to take a photo, so I didn’t buy one… so I didn’t take pics really (I snuck one in but then I felt bad) even though it would have been pretty easy to take pics sneakily. I guess someone’s camera broke, though, so my mom managed to get that person’s pass and I went back to the church to take that photo.
The church the church, of course, of course. Mmmm.
And I leave you with a quote from our tour guide today…
“And so you shall follow me, as Mother Goose her ducklings.”
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