Lubię Gdańsk! i Polska! Days 1-4

With a scant number of people waiting in arrivals at the Warsaw airport, it was easy to spot Fuddy’s friend, Marcin (who Fuddy nicknames Tolsty, meaning chubby in polish). I had only met him once when I was about 12, but I was getting used to pretending I knew people in order to make things more comfortable, so I was fine with it. We headed to his car and made the 2-hour drive (yes, he loves us 4 HOURS worth!),  to his hometown, Wloclawek (pronounced VWATSWAVEK. hahaha Polish has the funniest language pronunciation I have encountered to date).

We spent a lot of our trip listening to a Polish navigation system and stopping
 for delicious and cheap gas station coffee. Amazing.

Fuddy and I had a lovely recuperative nap and treated Marcin to dinner that night. Of course I got pierogi (and learned pierogi is the plural form of the word, so don’t make a fool of yourself in front of your Polish friends again and say pierogis). I also decided to try duck blood soup since Marcin said its polish. I am a sucker for any “traditional” food, but unfortunately, I hated it. It had a semi-sweet taste, giving me the feeling that I had bit my lip while I was eating regular soup. I feel like this is the one “normal” food that the Cullen’s would enjoying eating. Yeah, I said it.

Duck Blood soup. 

Happiness is... a no-smoking sign.

The next day, w picked up Tolsty’s girlfriend, Gosha, and went to Torun a university city (where there is “a lot old shit” according to marcin) where Copernicus was supposedly born. We obviously went to lunch at a delicious pierogi place. Turun is famous for gingerbread so I got the restaurant’s flavored coffee and it was the most amazing gingerbread coffee I have ever had, hands down. We walked around, peeked into some shops, and generally enjoyed the city until we lost complete feeling in out toes.

Cathedral in Toruń

Fuddy, me and Pierogi. Look at how adorable the coffee cups are!

Pierogi Restaracja. NOM.

The famous...

Leaning tower of Toruń!

  Toruń town Square

Disgusting historical story alert! Don't read if you get grossed out easily:
This donkey statue is new, but the history behind it dates back hundreds of years. It is a recreation (built in 2006) of an old wooden donkey used in Medieval times that stood in the same exact place. It was use to punish criminals. They were forced to sit onthe sharp back of the donkey and were flogged repeatedly... and very publicly. Sometimes the punished had weights tied to their feet as well to, um, heighten (?) the effect. Damn. Ouch.

We headed to Gosha’s apartment after that to play with her kitty and drink wine. We ended the night watching The Town and ordering pizza and beer from the local parlor. It was so American and felt fantastically familiar to see Fenway Park and Back Bay on the screen, even though I was halfway across the world; I was starting to feel a bit more at home in Poland.

The next day was a Gdansk day. Gdańsk is a beautiful port city that had to be almost completely rebuilt in its original form after being damaged by Allied and Soviet air bombings in WWII. Because the city looked so perfect, Fuddy described it not so much as Gdansk, but 'Gdansk World' because it looks like a beautiful Disney-Land-type-place made only for your entertainment (cue Adam Lambert song?). We all agreed and called it Gdansk world for the rest of the trip. You may already know the theme song; it's the Wayne' World theme song, replacing Wayne;s with Gdansk, naturally.

New City gate



...and again.


Marcin is a great photographer for many reasons.
Reason #1: he can make Fuddy and I look tall.

Hello Gdańsk, you are very pretty.

I think I went just-the-right-amount-of-board on the Gdańsk photos.

 Gdańsk = Amsterdam with a pastel overlay

Triton Statue appropriately in this Polish port city. 

Reason: 2. He can make Tomas, Fuddy and I look warm

Fuddy, Marcin and I

We met up with Fuddy’s friend (and Marcin’s cousin), Tomas, who lives near the city, and went to a Mexican restaurant (yes, in Poland. Whatever, it was delicious). We spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping until we completely lost feeling in our toes. 

Reason #3: He can make the viewer feel my pain at the point when I could not feel my toes.



Tomas, Marcin and I



Marcin loved quoting Cartmann, from South Park, and thusly
ended every sentence about himself with "and he's not fat at all."
What I am trying to say is, he was a fantastic tour-guide.

We drove back to Marcin’s hometown to get some beers with his friends in a sort-of secret feeling bar- too secret for photos (at least that is my excuse for not having any), I apologize.

Marcin's beautiful Polish cat. We got along well, since she spoke English. 

The next day was a day for which I was not excited, one that involved a 7-hour train ride. More importantly/horribly, I had to say good-bye to Marcin AND Fuddy. I couldn’t find any seat on the train nor person that spoke English to help and cried for the first 10 minutes until I finally found a seat in a cabin with a nun reading the bible, which made me think The Big Guy was on my side. 

Because I changed my plans at the last minute, deciding to go Krakow two nights earlier than I planned, I couldn’t find a cheap hostel online before going. I decided to wing it. I SHELAGH MOLLOHAN, DECIDED TO WING IT. This is something I do not do… and for good reason.

I got into Krakow at 6PM and quickly realized how cold, tired, hungry and ALONE I was. This was a marked new chapter of my winter travel. Scratch that. It was a different book. 


There were no English signs or speakers in sight or earshot and, not being a winger (why isn’t there a real world for “one who wings it”??), I had no idea what to do. I walked aimlessly, hoping to find a hostel and failed in that endeavor. I stopped in the internationally dependable McDonalds to get free WiFi and found “Mama’s hostel,” a cheap, centrally located hostel with a supposed opening. I walked to the address and timidly rang the bell, reserving my other hand to cross my fingers as tightly as possible; I clearly needed some good luck at this point.