Polish adventure.

What would you do for 9 hours in Poland?

I booked tickets in December to go to Gdansk on a whim. I need more whimsy in my life.

The tickets cost £50.

I was looking forward to it… being honest I was barely holding on.

So… the day before I go my friend texts me to ask if I had booked my coach to Stansted… I didn’t know how we were getting to the airport… I just assumed London would find a way.

So the day before I booked my coach. It was £22 (she paid £11 but she booked 3 months ago so fair…)

4pm after work the day before my trip that is when I look for my passport. That is when I pack. That is when I take a train to London and go buy wool so I can crotchet. (that mission failed)

Then the crash. My mental health had taken a beating. I was not myself, I was having anxiety attacks for weeks and it was affecting me.

I went to Caroline’s after buying some essentials, (went to John Lewis to buy wool and bought the wrong one) maybe 7pm? She wasn’t in, she left me the keys but it was dark so I couldn’t see, but luckily she was on her way.

She was with Raquel.

Raquel told me all the crazy she has been through this quarter. Essentially she got a job with a startup and they are cash strapped because the owners fell out with the investors. It sounds like hell.

Meanwhile we talked trips… Dublin. God willing, May for them, I may not go.

I have been thinking about not going to a friend’s wedding because I’ve been depressed.

Anyway we were talking until past midnight, and I slept under my coat using my crotchet blanket as a pillow.

Woke up at 3am, put on light makeup “hoe bathed” (I think I showered the evening before (side benefit of depression)

And took a bus to Victoria coach station.

We arrived in plenty of time and had an empty bus to Standsted.

It was great, slept, talked, relaxed. We’d checked in the day before, we walked to security and then met Jita on the other end of it.

We got Leon breakfast using Jita’s NHS discount, I needed to add surprisingly little sugar to my porridge bowl, and then we went to board our flight.

I was on the aisle seat to Gdansk, slept the entire way. There was no middle seat so it was super comfortable, when we got to Gdansk we went to the toilet before customs… this was a mistake.

Customs was madness due to the new EU regulations. They need to scan you in and out. Fingerprints and face. Over one hour queuing when we were spending less than 10 hours in the country. Thanks Brexit.

We get out and get an uber to the restaurant with the dumplings. Whilst we wait outside we drink raspberry lemonade, (rasberries, orange and cinnamon with probably honey to sweeten) was lovely, as were the dumplings, the waitress got the order wrong so half (the bigger half) of the non pork dumplings came later. They were 5 chicken and cheese dumplings and 5 beef and cheese dumplings. I only ate the beef. I also ate a different chicken dumpling with satay sauce. That was delicious. Jita and I don’t eat pork.

We had green tea, and an oreo dessert which was incredible.

Then we made our way maybe 5 mins down the road to the tourist spots.

There was the bridge with the keylocks (lots of them) there was the tudor building, then we got ice cream (I got a waffle with waay too much whipped cream) then Jita and I bought sweets and looked at amber jewellery, (amazing but not in my budget right now, I’ll go back) then we enjoyed the town square before going to the Basilica, which was beautiful and had a 400 step tower to climb…

We climbed it.

The first 150 steps are brutal, it’s a narrow tower at the start and you really feel the burn, then they modernised it and opened it up at the top which conversely made the next 250 steps easier than the first 150. I didn’t say easy, I said easier…Note the difference.

The view was beautiful, then we went back and walked around the pier a bit, there’s a ferris wheel and a sign that says Gdansk. It was a beautiful sunset.

We then found somewhere to eat. Jita and Caroline had a seafood platter, I had chips and drinks. I wasn’t hungry (the dumplings were filling) we sorted out money and then waited for our uber back.

In the meantime Caroline wanted to get on the merry go round. The uber came just in time.

I was a little nervous that we’d be late for our flight but no checked baggage really does help a lot. We had plenty of time, and it was way easier to leave the country than to enter it. Caroline got stopped at security because she refused to take off her hat, I’d have done it but I’m not her, she works in a prison, so being searched means nothing to her. It wasn’t serious and didn’t kill the vibe.

I was even able to buy water at the gate before boarding, we got on the flight and again I was sat next in the window seat this time with no one in between and I slept the entire flight. We got back to London.

We said goodbye to Jita and then took the earlier bus back. But it was late so it didn’t make a difference to our getting home time.

This is when Caroline started to get stomach issues. The pain came back.

We got home and went straight to bed, she was wearing makeup so had to wind down, less so for me, I took the first train back home and then went immediately to sleep, the sleep I stayed in for the entirety of Sunday, I think I was home before noon.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. Aside from the overpriced sweets Gdansk was a really cheap city that was really walkable.

Aside from the customs issues at the beginning, we had no issues at all.

Pastime with good company as Henry the eighth would say.

Grace and Courage.

Annetta Mother Smith.