After a day in London, I arrived at the airport in Gdańsk, Poland on December 23, 2007. I took a tour around Sopot with Tymon and then took the train to the Filipiak household in Bydgoszcz, where I spent Christmas. Later I stayed with Dominika and Tymon and then the Filars in Gdynia. I left on a train to Germany on December 30.
RyanAir to Poland.Frosty Poland.A new shopping mall, the Galeria Bałtycka.Tymon's high school in Sopot.Sopot.The Baltic Sea.Me and Tymon on the pier.My pear hot chocolate. The best I've ever had.Sister cities of Sopot.Bydgoszcz.A nativity creche in the town square.This little section is called "the Venice of Bydgoszcz."Inside the church.The outside of the church.A memorial in the center of town. Jan says it's controversial.A statue balancing over the river.Inside a mall.The cat and some mistletoe.I helped decorate the tree.Jan hangs the mistletoe.Hektor the dog.Odysseus the turtle.Sławek's clock collection.A Polish book that's talking about a universal Turing machine.The table set for Wigilia (Christmas Eve).Barbara's father Victor.Sławek handing out presents.Barbara.My Christmas presents.Dominika talking to Beata over the Internet.The dome of the Bazylika where we had midnight mass.Long-exposure LED display.The introligator in Toruń.Look how tall they grow the churches here.The basin in which Copernicus was baptized.Copernicus street.Me and Basia by the statue.Merry Christmas!There are three crowns because three kings and queens stayed here.A theater in the shape of a jewelry chest.Fortifications and walls built by the Teutonic knights.Copernicus's house.A dovecot.A memorial for Popiełuszko, the slain Solidarność priest.Dinner at Marysia's.Roman, Michał, and Ewa.Sławek, Ewa, Michał, me, Marysia, and Roman.Adam.Grapes grow in the front yard."Biuromax" means "Officemax."The light rail.The little sign shows you how you should park on the curb.This female archer is one of the symbols of Bydgoszcz.The philharmonic.A tree with a heavy infestation of mistletoe.A bizarre statue of Copernicus.The dollar menu is the three-złotych menu.McRoyal.In an art museum.Bromberg is the German name for Bydgoszcz.The opera house.Solidarność bridge.This means "no parking."These three granaries are another symbol of Bydgoszcz.These telephone poles were interesting to me.Valeria, Jan, Barbara, and Victor.The building of a software company in Gdynia.A memorial for a beekeepers' convention.A cross on top of Stony Mountain, the highest place in the city.A view of the city.Sister cities of Gdynia.A memorial for Pope John Paul II.The battleship Błyskawica.A memorial for Joseph Conrad, who it turns out is Polish.The beach in Gdynia.Świętojańska street.A memorial to a Kashubian man.A Kashubian couple.A memorial for Polish Boy Scouts killed in World War II.Me in the woods near the house.It is unusual to see a house decorated on the outside.Ciasto, the best thing about Polish breakfasts.The memorial to the shipworkers at the Gdańsk shipyards.The famous crane.The Green Gate.This is what a light switch looks like.This is an electrical outlet.Kitten...Attack!Another cat.A convenience store called Żabka, meaning "little frog."At the port in Puck.You can see the name of the town in the sidewalk.The beach on the Hel peninsula.A lighthouse.Do not feed the seals your change.A seal at the Fokarium.Here's one peeking through the glass.Maciej considers his move.Sunlight!See how happy I am.Malbork castle.You tend to take a lot of pictures when they make you pay for a photo pass.Many parts of it were reconstructed.Other castles in Poland were destroyed completely.The underground furnace that provided heated air to the castle.Some costumes of the era.Notice the cannonball lodged in the wall.The area is known for amber.Armor for a horse.See the wings on the back of the armor? They are to scare enemy horses who are unaccustomed to them.Jan with the leaders of the Teutonic knights.The pelican on top is feeding its young with its own blood.Inside the damaged sanctuary.A broken statue.St. Wojciech, known in English as Adalbert.Cannonballs.Steinbrecht, who reconstructed the castle.Tymon and Jan.This is interesting. The tea ball in the center is connected by an elbow joint, so when you spin the top, it swings outward and sloshes through the water.Ewa, Maciej, Dariusz, and me.The house in 1935 before all the foliage grew up around it.In Poznań.This is a memorial for a 1956 workers' rebellion.The theater.
