Alas, our trek to Gdańsk is coming to an end. Monday morning it will be a taxi to the airport, then many flights from Poland to Regina, Saskatchewan. After that, the car goes to the Smart dealer there for service, then the seven hundred mile return trip to Nebraska. At least we have new Polish luggage that has everything from wheels to a loo; I am not lugging all those cases through four airports again.
This coffee shop caters to folk from Daily Kos, as evidenced by the love of pie. You can caffeinate quite liberally here. Moreover it is right around the corner from . . .
. . . Solidarity's offices. Gdańsk is the home of the Solidarity Trade Union movement that brought down the Communist government in Poland.
President Ronald Reagan gave great moral and political support to the Solidarity movement as it fought for worker rights and then political rights here in Poland. Ronald Reagan is so-well loved there is a park named after him here.
In the USA of course, President Reagan could not be a Republican today; he was far too liberal for them.
Police and what not to do in Gdańsk, along with more foodie photos below the orange pierogi.
Last night I was standing outside my hotel, after the bars and restaurants in the Old Town of Gdańsk had closed for the night. Many happy drunks were staggering past.
Since Gdańsk is only a few miles from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Gdańsk and Sopot (the beach community on the border) get a lot of Russian tourists.
There are two divisions of police in Gdańsk. There are the regular police (Policja), charged with enforcement of the laws, arrests, investigations, &c. They always carry guns and truncheons. Here, the Old Town police station is two doors down from our hotel.
Then there is the Municipal Guard (Straz Miejska). [Link goes to the Website of the Gdańsk Municipal Guard, helpfully in Polish.] The Guard is not permitted guns but does carry truncheons. Each guardsman wears a badge of a flag indicating the foreign language(s) he (they are always men and there is a reason for that) speaks. They provide aid and information to tourists. They shut down illegal street traders (according to its Website that has been almost three thousand already this year). They also enforce ordinances concerning illegal parking and jaywalking.
On the latter charge (jaywalking), a foreigner is immediately fined 100 złoty (roughly $30). The Guard helpfully accepts foreign currencies (US and Canadian dollars, Euros, Pounds sterling, and Swiss francs) at the current exchange rate. Foreigners must pay on the spot.
The Guard also deals with unruly tourists (and can call the Policja immediately if trouble is beyond their means, and have the authority to detain people until the Policja arrive). The most common infractions are drunken Russians brawling in the street and drunken Americans making too much noise.
I was standing outside my hotel at around 2AM when a police van pulled up to the station. The officer got out and started inspecting his van from a checklist. (I assume it was something like a shift-end or turnaround inspection.)
Up the street from the Long Market came three Russian tourists, all very drunk, two of them half-dragging, half-carrying their third even drunker buddy.
All's well and good up to this point: even excessive public drunkenness is generally left alone by the police as long as you aren't being a fool.
These guys were fools, and I had a front-row seat for what transpired. (I guess that makes me a witness to a crime.)
The two slightly less drunk Russians started harassing the police officer inspecting the van; they got louder and louder, and even got to the point where they were pushing him (not hard).
If this were the USA at this point I suspect the police officer would have feared for his life and gunned them down, but in the case of the Gdańsk officer in a town full of drunken tourists, he quietly talked to them and convinced them to move along.
Then the guy in the middle got sick, all over the police station staircase.
Three cops came barrelling out of the police station, dragging the Russians inside. The police officer inspecting the van assisted them. I got lost really quickly.
I do not know what happened to the Russians afterward.
The police were so busy with the drunken Russians they failed to stop the giant panda invasion.
The Pierogi Emporium up the street has an apartment for rent above it today. I need to check into that. I could eat a different set of pierogis for lunch and dinner every day for a month and not repeat anything.
And what would a travel diary be without foodie pictures? From last night, my dinner, a sampler of many different pierogis:
My wife has diabetes, diagnosed last November. Since our arrival in Europe, she has been walking a great deal in the old cities. Amazingly, despite her indulgence of German and Polish delicacies, her blood sugar remains under control.
Despite meals like this salmon volcano and desert of traditional apple pie below.
Salmon and shrimp interleaved between tomatoes, on top of mashed potatoes and asparagus.
Apple Pie. Not American at all.