gdańsk, poland

the day after my birthday was the beginning of another travel week! a friend from my medical practice and policy core course, julia, and i were both looking for a travel buddy for a couple of days and like any other college student who goes on break when they are studying abroad in europe we decided to visit gdansk, poland! (that was sarcasm, btw)

ulica dluga (long street), also referred to as the royal road,
since it was once the former path of processions for
visiting kings

gdansk is a polish city on the baltic coast, the capital of the pomeranian voivodeship (you can look that one up yourselves), poland's principle seaport and the center of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area. we arrived on sunday night, successfully made it to our hostel, and ventured 30 feet before we encountered a woman who was on the sidewalk outside a restaurant named 'friends' trying to get people to come in. "we have large selection, very cheap, we like students!" and soon enough friends became just that. we enjoyed an enormous amount of food that included some of their famous polish pierogi's, various meats, lots of coleslaw, potatoes, and beets. we also learned that polish currency is not, "polanders," as we had thought, but polish zloty. just a fun fact. 

we happened upon this cupcake bar the first day in the city
and returned the following day for another round of scrumptious
sweet treats! 

what could make a girl happier
than a cupcake?!

we spent monday exploring and visiting the numerous churches located all around city but pretty much found our way around all the corners of the city in under two hours. while there was still snow on the streets, the sun shone brightly and warmly all three days we were there. it was a lot nicer stolling the streets than we had expected. one of the nights we had dinner at the best restaurant in gdansk, kubicki. we wined and dined on delicious salmon, caviar and apple pie. the only downside was the service, where our server was less than friendly and as he served me my salad asked, "good luck with that?"??? what was that supposed mean?? i'll just settle on believing it was just nervousness due to the language barrier. regardless we enjoyed the rest of the quiet, peaceful and clear evening.

on tuesday, we strolled a little more and visited the gdansk history museum, which is located in the main town hall. while my mom had mentioned before going, i had no idea how badly the entire city was destroyed during world war II. literally, the city was nearly barren. since then, the city has been completely rebuilt. however, the reconstruction was not tied in any way, apparently, to the city's pre-war appearance, instead its politically motivated purpose was to rebuild a pre-german city. any traces of german tradition were ignored, suppressed or regarded as "prussian barbarism" worthy of demolition while flemish-dutch, italian and french influences were emphasized. every single facade was indeed its own work of art, giving the whole city a very quaint, storybook feel.

the royal chapel of the polish king - john III sobieski built
in 1681. just behind stands st. mary's church, the largest
brick church in the world, begun in 1379.

the beautiful ceiling of the red hall located
within the main town hall 

we spent the rest of our time in gdansk lounging in various cafes and left gdansk well rested and with a good amount of fresh air in our lungs. it was the perfect way to start off my 2013 spring break.

neptune's fountain