To start off my long awaited four weeks of vacation (Yay!!!) I decided to take a quick 24 hour cruise trip to Poland with a friend. The purpose of the trip was simply to relax, to have fun and to shop.
Below are some photos of my quickie to Poland. :p
View from our cabin. :-)
Evening fun. ;p
Daytime luxury.
Sunshine.
Calm sea.
A relaxed me. :p
And great shopping!
To sum it all up - I had a very successful mini cruise trip to Poland indeed! Definitely a perfect start to my summer vacation. :-)
After a day in the charming city of Gdynia in Poland, it was time to board the ship Stena Line Vision and head back home to Sweden. So in this second post of my mini cruise to Gdynia I will share photos from inside and outside the ship Stena Line Vision, as well as photos from Gdynia harbour as we were leaving it in the evening. And I will finish off my mini cruise Karlskrona - Gdynia photo series with the absolutely stunning sunset we had the pleasure of enjoying out at the Baltic Sea on our journey home.
But first, let us back up to where I left off in the last post. Which was where my sister and I, instead of taking the Stena Line Ferry Bus to the Ferry Terminal at Gdynia harbour, took the local bus (number 150) to the ship from the Train Station at Gdynia City Centre. So when we arrived at the Ferry Terminal at Gdynia Harbour, onboard the ship we went.
Boarding Stena Line Vision at Gdynia harbour after a great day in Gdynia.
Though Stena Line Vision is not that big of a ship, there were still plenty of stuff to do onboard.
Like having a bite to eat in one of the restaurants.
Or shopping.
Perhaps even do some gambling...
Ehum - yupp! I did, no luck though...
There was even a mini golf course outside on deck. Hehe.
Nearby the harbour were also lots of houses, roads and a lovely church (I think it is a church?).
But most of all, there were lots of cranes and containers at the harbour.
Now actually Gdynia Harbour was built in the early 1920s, even before Gdynia City got its city privileges - which it did in 1926. In 1938 Gdynia Harbour was the most modern and largest port of the Baltic Sea, as well as the tenth largest in Europe. Today millions of ton of transshipments take place at Gdynia Harbour and hundreds of thousands of containers pass through the harbour every year.
And there certainly were a whole heap of tons of containers there.
As well as cranes and ships.
This is how it looked onboard as we were leaving the busy Gdynia Harbour.
It was a very lovely...
... and relaxing evening...
... as we made our way out of the harbour.
Bye Bye Gdynia. :-)
A bit further out at the Baltic Sea we also got to enjoy this amazing sunset! Indeed a perfect ending to a perfect day.
And this marks the end of my duo travel post report of my journey to Gdynia in Poland with the ship Stena Line Vision. Thank you all for tagging along with me. :-) Next time I will be back with an all every day post from my life here in Sweden with the world's greatest doggy - my beloved Lisen. ;p Wahoo! :-)
Mini Cruise Karlskrona - Gdynia, Expectations
This Sunday I went on a mini cruise with the ship Stena Line Vision from Karskrona here in Sweden to Gdynia in Poland. The trip was two nights on the ship and one day in Gdynia. Though I had been in Gdynia a few times before, it was many years since my last visit. So I was quite curious to see if the city still looked as I remembered it? Which it both did and did not.
1300 Photos - Two Posts
Now because I got a bit crazy with my camera, I took about 1300! photos on this mini cruise, I have had to select some photos out of all those to represent my trip. But I simply could not edit them into one single post, so I will do two. And in this first post I will write about my day in Gdynia with photos of some of the most memorable sights and places I visited there. In my second Gdynia post I will include photos from inside the ship Stena Line Vision as well as photos from the picturesque Gdynia harbour with all its cranes, containers and ships. In both posts I will also share a bit of history and facts about Gdynia.
Boarding
But before I even got to Gdynia in Poland, I had to of course board Stena Line Vision here in Karlskrona in Sweden. Which is where I will begin the story.
So this was the ship that took us to Gdynia in Poland this Sunday evening. We, my sister and I, boarded it at Verkö Ferry Terminal in Sweden.
Because we were leaving a rather rainy and cold Sweden behind, we were of course hoping to arrive in a sunny Gdynia in the morning.
Short Recap Of Gdynia History
Just in case there is anyone out there (like me) who is not very familiar with the history of the Polish City of Gdynia, I have put together a short recap of it here:
The first time the name "Gdynia" was mentioned was in 1253, when it was referred to as a Kashubian fishing village in the Duchy Pomerania. But it was not until after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that Gdynia, along with other cities of the former Polish Pomerania, became a part of the new Republic of Poland. Today the city of Gdynia is a port city located in northern Poland by the Baltic Sea. By itself Gdynia has about 250 000 inhabitants. However, Gdynia is a part of a conurbation with the city of Sopot, the city of Gdansk and suburban areas. Together they make a metropolitan area called Trójmiasto, or Tricity, and have a population of over one million people.
Photos From Gdynia
Now on to the photos from My Day In The Charming City Of Gdynia In Poland.
Though the weather was a bit cloudy at first in the morning when we arrived in Gdynia, it did clear up a bit in the afternoon. Yay! To get to Gdynia City Centre from the Ferry Terminal we took the Stena Line Bus to Gdynia Train Station (in the photo). A ride which took about 7-8 minutes.
From the Train Station we went to this lovely Covered Market nearby, which is one of the places in Gdynia I always stop by when I visit.
Actually this Covered Market was in built in 1935-38 and is one of the old buildings in Gdynia which is still being used for the same purpose as it was originally built for, an indoor market.
And I rather enjoyed to walk around there with the locals and soak up the Polish every day atmosphere.
Bread please!
Also for sale here were: Polish sweets, sauerkraut, cloths, shoes and much, much more.
After a stroll at the Covered Market, here seen from outside, we continued on to Gdynia City Centre.
Where we ran into this guy, Antoni Abraham (1869 - 1923), who was a poet, a Kashubian activist and an advocate of the idea of Pomerania being a part of Poland. In fact, he was the Kashubian representative to the Treaty of Versailles.
Today this statue of him is placed
at Kaszubski Square in Gdynia as a memorial of kashubian culture.
Another kashubian memorial sculpture also located at Kaszubski Square is this super adorable one.
It is called "The Kashubians' Bench" and celebrates the romantic legend of the love between the married couple Jacob and Elizabeth Scheibe. Jacob, who was a fisherman, built a big house for his family here at Kaszubski Square. And the legend says that his wife used to stand on the balcony he built ontop of the house to keep a lookout for her husband's return from fishing. Aww. :-)
After all this sculpture/statue watching it was hard to decide where to go next, hm..?
In the end we decided to go to Kościuszko Square and the beautiful, artificially made, South Pier.
Where there were lots of impressive big ships. For instance, the ship in the photo, ORP Błyskawica, was originally a Grom-class destroyer that served in the Polish Navy during World War II. The ORP Błyskawica is actually the oldest preserved destroyer in the world today. It is also the only ship of the Polish Navy awarded with the Virtuti Militari medal. Today the ORP Błyskawica spends her days as a museum ship along the South Pier.
The most magnificent ship though, I thought, was this one - The Dar Pomorza. Originally this ship was a Polish sailing frigate built in 1909. The Dar Pomorza has served as a sail training ship in Germany, France, and Poland. Today she, just like her neighbour - The ORP Blyskawica, also serve as museum ship along the South Pier in Gdynia.
A busy South Pier I might add.
Also along the South Pier were lots souvenir shops . (By the way, the grey skyscraper in the background is the Sea Towers. It was finished in 2006 and is the tallest residential building in Poland today.)
I, of course, had to buy a magnet here for my souvenir magnet collection at home. :-) But, although those BIG ice creams in the right photo looked very unusual and enticing, I did not buy one of those...
Another stand that caught my attention along the South Pier was this one, Bubble Tea? I had never heard of that before?
But it looked quite intriguing, so naturally I had to look it up when I got home. Hehe.
Bubble Tea Origin
Turns out that Bubble Tea was originally a Taiwanese tea drink that originated from tea shops in Taichung, Taiwan, during the 1980s. Most Bubble Teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit (or fruit syrup) and/or milk. Bubble Tea also contains small chewy tapioca balls, also known as "pearls".
Surprised And Curious
Huh!? I was convinced it would have had bubbles, as in sparkling water, in it at least. Lol! Now I did not try any Bubble Tea this time, but I certainly will the next time I see some! Because I am definitely very curious about how it tastes now after learning all this about the drink.
Something I did eat however was this fresh fried fish with fries and Polish salad. I bought it from one of the many fish stands/restaurants along the South Pier. Very yummy indeed! And not that expensive either, 21 Zlotys - about $6.30, with a 50 centiliter Coca Cola.
Finally we made it to the end of the South Pier and the Kościuszko Square with its two sculptures.
This sculpture was built in honor of all the Polish sailors who lost their lives during World War Two.
And this sculpture is a momument dedicated to the famed Polish author Joseph Conrad.
Who definitely seemed to be looking towards the City Beach in Gdynia to me, also our next stop.
But on our way to the City Beach we got a bit side tracked, because we found free WiFi - YAY! Awesome Gdynia!!
However, after some surfing (on the phone) we did make it to the gorgeous City Beach in Gdynia.
Where it was a bit too cold for a swim though, at least for me. Hehe.
These swans seemed to enjoy themselves in the water though.
Now while I was trying to strike a cool pose for the camera... I could not help but notice the film crew behind me which was in full swing of filming a lesson in actual surfing in water.
Well, that is what it looked like he was trying to teach them anyway... But whatever the guy on the board was doing, I cannot believe how he could be in that water with just those shorts - BRR I say!!
Our last stop before heading back to the Ferry Terminal was the Shopping Mall Batory.
Which was nice and cozy, but not enough stores for me. Lol! So we moved on from there pretty quickly.
But instead of waiting for the Ferry Bus we decided to take the local bus to the Ferry Terminal.
Which Local Bus To Take?
Although it took some asking around to find out which bus number to take, the locals were very nice and helpful so it was not that hard. It turns out that the local bus which stops at the Ferry Terminal in Gdynia, where Stena Line departs from, is bus number 150. We took this bus from the second bus stop behind the Covered Market, near the Train Station. And the bus stop to jump off at is called Terminal Promowy in Polish. Just in case anyone ever needs to know this, because I had a hard time finding this information online in English.
Will Retrun
Anyway, I definitely had a very lovely day in Gdynia, with better weather conditions than what we left behind in Sweden too. So a major plus just there. But I must also say that I was pleasantly surprised by how modern Gdynia has become, in comparison to when I first visited the city many years ago. So my newly refreshed impressions of Gdynia are that it is a very charming, up to date and tourist friendly European city. One I am sure I will stop by many times in the future. :-)
Post Number Two
Like I said in the beginning, I will be back with photos from inside the ship Stena Line Vision and Gdynia Harbour next time. So I hope ya'll will join me then. :-)
Some Final Polish Words
Do Widzenia for now (Good Bye in Polish). :p
Tonight I am off to Gdynia in Poland for a short visit. We have mini cruise ships that go back and forward between Karlskrona here in Sweden and Gdynia every day. So once in a while I think it is fun to just take a mini cruise over there. This trip is two nights on the ship and one day in Gdynia, so just enough time to play around a bit on board as well as in the city. Hehe. ;p
And way over there out at sea is the ship which will take me to Gdynia tonight, Stena Line. I just happen to see it a while back when I was walking along the ocean with my doggie Lisen here in Karlskrona.
I will of course also bring my camera so I can document my mini cruise to Gdynia. And hopefully I will return next week with lots of photos from my little excursion. But for now I am off to get ready for the trip, so see ya'll next week. Toodeloo! :p