So, where to eat cheap and good in Gdansk? My favorite was a place called Dwadziescia Cztery that's located on Piwna 16. Here they serve lunch menus that change everyday, and from Monday to Friday between 12-4pm you can have the main course, dessert and drink always at 18PLN (which is a little over 4€) I mean, you want better than that? It's even cheaper than McDonalds!
Gdansk, in the North of Poland, came at a time I needed to be remembered how it felt like travelling alone, with no one to count on besides myself. I had been travelling for two weeks with two amazing Portuguese girls I had met on my way, so during this time I actually let go and forgot about the difference of travelling with someone and going alone. It brought back all those feelings of arriving and saying "where the hell am I?" and "How do I get out of here? Where is the hostel?" and my typical one "Oh my God, I'm going to die here!" Five hours on a bumpy bus from Warsaw later, I say hello to Gdansk. And after two weeks of absolutely no worries about anything related to travel, what happen was that the moment I got my feet out of the bus, I looked around, totally lost and suddenly realized I had no idea of anything! I didn't know where to go from the station, which turned out to be hilarious as it took me almost an hour to figure out how to cross the street (like I've said before, in Poland you have to cross the street by going down the tunnels, which is an adventure by itself), and I didn't even know the name of the hostel! I had only one information about where to go, which was to get close to the water. So I started to ask pretty much everybody that crossed my path how to get there. Obviously nobody spoke English. After one hour of not even figuring out how to cross the street, which made me think I was probably an idiot, and not a single person able to speak English and point me in the right direction, I started to freak out a bit. It was the kind of feeling I didn't have for the past two weeks, and I wasn't used to being lost and alone after all that time. So I had to go back in time, take a break and a deep breath and remember what I used to do in that kind of situation. I went searching for a point of information, and after a while I discovered that Gdansk has city wifi all over the place, so I turned the wifi on my phone, I opened the maps app and I just followed it until I got to the water. Having three nights in the city, and not feeling well on the day I arrived, and the weather being pretty bad, I ended up just staying at the hostel the first day. I was actually pretty bad and I had fever by night, which is not something you want to have when you're traveling, specially if you're alone. I ended up meeting a guy in my dorm who told me he looked at me and asked himself why I slept so much. Getting sick on the road sucks! The next day I woke up early, got my small backpack with me, my camera, and I went exploring Gdansk. And on this day I fell in love with this city. From walking side by side with the river, to the breathtaking colors of the buildings and the architecture that was different from everything I had ever seen, Gdansk grew in my heart. Here I realized how much I had missed being alone. Not that I didn't like having company to travel for two weeks, because I loved it, and meeting the two Portuguese girls was one of the highlights of my trip, but I remembered how much I can enjoy being alone, how much I love walking outside the hostel and saying to myself "Rita, where do you wanna go? What do you wanna do today?" I got to see the city at my own pace, I tried to walk every small hidden street I could find and I did something I hadn't done over the few weeks before: I wrote! I got to search for perfect places with typical Polish coffee, sat there, almost always by the window, watching locals pass by and writing as much as I possibly could. I finally felt inspired to write about everything my life had been over those months of backpacking Europe and doing what I love. Gdansk is all about walking around by your own feet. No bus, no train, no metro. Just you working out your legs. It's a small city and it seemed to me like a very different city from the touristic cities of Warsaw and Krakow. Not being a place that gets a lot of attention from outsiders, it's the perfect city for you to explore without being bothered by selfie sticks or crazy euphoric tourists. I guess I can say Gdansk was my Polish getaway and a place that confirmed my love for my beautiful Poland. One thing about Poland that's not news to anyone is the crappy weather. Polish weather tends to be very annoying during Spring, as you can actually feel the four seasons in less than thirty minutes. Yes, if you feel the sun shinning and warming up your face, I can promise you it will last a few seconds and trust me it will rain, get windy and even snow for a second, even if you get a glimpse of the sun. That's just Poland. Poland and its bipolar weather. I can't say how the weather gets there in the summer, but I think it might be a pleasant time to explore the country. But not all is bad. Or I wouldn't say Poland was one of my favorites out of twelve countries. Excluding Italy which is the only place I feel like I'm at home and I have this unconditional love for its language, culture, people, landscapes, cities, everything! Italy is home. But Poland grew on me too. Obviously not counting with the freezing cold weather, Poland is amazing, and it has one great advantage over some other countries I visited: you can find really cheap food! And I'm not talking about crappy cheap food or fast-food, I'm talking about typical Polish food at the price of almost nothing. That kinda of food that will make your tummy incredibly happy and wishing for more. The trick to eating good in Poland is having the patience to look for the best and cheapest places. If not, you'll probably end up paying for fake Polish food and you will also pay the price of a tourist. It's like any other place I guess. So, where to eat cheap and good in Gdansk? My favorite was a place called Dwadziescia Cztery that's located on Piwna 16. Here they serve lunch menus that change everyday, and from Monday to Friday between 12-4pm you can have the main course, dessert and drink always at 18PLN (which is a little over 4€) I mean, you want better than that? It's even cheaper than McDonalds! Another typical thing in Gdansk, or maybe I should say in Poland, is the coffee tradition. Here you will have a lot to choose from, if you're looking for great coffee with a cozy environment to enjoy on a cold or rainy day. And since I'm here to help you get the best possible experience on the places I've been, here are some of the best places for coffee in Gdansk: Kurhaus, on Aldony 6, Poludnik 18, on Garncarska 7, Pies i Róza, on Swietojanska, and Palarnia Kawy, on Tkacka 7/8. You will thank me later about this! Do you understand now the reason I started this post by saying that Gdansk was the place that reminded me how much I love being alone? In just three days I did all that I love. I walked an entire city, I discovered what's probably the cheapest place to eat in the city and my tummy was happier than ever. I've jumped from one coffee shop to another, tasting great coffee and writing about my travels. I felt the panic, again, of being alone and lost with no one to help me as nobody spoke English and I've managed to find my way. I felt the joy arriving to the hostel and having that great feeling of accomplishment as I dropped my backpacks and said "I did it!". I discovered an amazing city that most people who go to Poland don't even know about. I embraced being alone. I remembered how ok I can be just by myself. How I actually believe that to be a great advantage to me as I I'm not the kind of person who's afraid of loneliness. Overall, I was once again a happy kid. I guess I like the feeling of finding a way of doing things that aren't easy for me. You know? That feeling of conquering your fear, of not letting it hold you back. If the three months I had backpacking Europe on my own did something, was to give me seconds of feeling like a superwoman, of believing I can do anything I want. And that, nobody is ever gonna take away from me. It will be moments I'll have carved in my memory and that will go with me wherever I go from now on.
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Travelling With RIta
After creating this blog as I did my Erasmus and traveled for the first time, I've made the biggest decision yet and I'm backpacking Europe solo for a few months! Archives
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