Poland or Queens...

Today was a new port for me in the Baltic, Gdansk in Poland. At first sight it was just like any other place in the world. We ported in a totally residential area and commercial port. I took about a 45-minute walk and the entire area looked like some place in Queens, New York. I was disheartened since we were supposed to leave so early and I didn't do any research on the port itself. I was thinking I should've taken a tour. I came back and found there was a better part of town and to get there would cost 25 Euro. I thought for a moment that it wouldn't be worth it, but if there were enough people we could try. I looked up the port on line and it said that Gdansk was the most beautiful European port. Now this peaked my interest. I got back and one of my cast mates, Niffer, wanted to go into town too so we headed out. We managed to grab a cab for what we thought was $20 round trip. To our dismay we got there and he misunderstood and said it was $20 for one way. Since we made sure beforehand that he was in understanding that it was for a round trip, and he agreed, we tried to bargain for $10 one way and ended up paying $15. This was still not bad since the original price I heard was 25 Euro one way, which amounts to about $30. We walked into town and there was definitely a difference from the Queens looking place to the rich architecture and vibe of the downtown area. We walked along the Royal Route to through the market place. This is the area where all the events and parades are orchestrated over the many centuries this town has been a town. It starts at one end with the prison tower and torture museum by the Golden Gate and stretches along the route to the Green Gate. We had lunch at this café where I ordered real Polish pierogies and some cappuccino. The pierogie was filled with sauerkraut and mushrooms. It was so good. We left there and headed to the scenic Motlawa River just outside the Green Gate. After taking in the river we walked up the route towards the torture museum and along the way there were all kinds of street performers and even performers peering out the windows at the tops of the buildings. We were eating lunch and there were so many people looking up, I had to check it out. I noticed there was a statue peering out of one of the windows above and told Niffer that. However she asked why would people be video taping so I checked it out again and it turns out it was an actual person up there instead of a statue. Sure enough after lunch she was gone. Once we saw the torture museum at the other end of the strip it was pretty much time to go. It was a short day in port today. We took our cab back and this time it did cost $20, but that was way better than 25 Euro.