Gorgeous Gdansk, Baltic Bathing and Kick Ass Karaoke

My word is #Gdansk #calm and #beautiful. One of the calmest, most serene cities I’ve ever visited. I was delighted when one of my friends, similarly keen to live for the moment and enjoy life to its fullest, said she had a free weekend that aligned with mine. A quick game of Skyscanner Lotto resulted in a number of appealing options, but the most appealing for me, Gdansk in northern Poland was by far the winner as somewhere that had been firmly rooted in my wish list for quite some time now.

The flights couldn't be better either for maximising your time on a #weekend #microadventure. Out from Luton with Wizz Air, again wayhay, love them! at 9:55 PM on the Friday night. This meant that I could comfortably pick August up from school, and in no rush after Paul had collected him head over to Charlotte’s down the M1 and bingo we were parked up at the mid stay car park, a short walk from the terminal and sitting having a very enjoyable pre-trip drink in the bar.

The return flight got us in at 8 o'clock on the Sunday night, a perfect time for enjoying a full weekend and full two days in the destination and yet arriving home in your bed early enough to get a decent night's sleep and feel well and truly #refreshed on the Monday morning.

Don't believe the scaremongering on the Internet about getting ripped off when taking a taxi from the rather beautiful and brand spanking new Gdansk airport. We headed outside to the taxi rank having no public transport options on account of it being almost midnight and were greeted by a friendly taxi driver who kickstarted his metre and didn't jump up £10 at every traffic light or bend like the ones in Romania had. I think it worked out to about 15 pounds, again something that characterised the trip that it was superb #value for money, and we really did spend hardly anything.

Flights were £12 each and accommodation, in which we had an entire dorm to ourselves as a private room was 15 pound a person for the two nights. So, another absolute belter of a deal. Cheaper than a taxi back from town!

We were blessed with the weather that weekend as well. Although crisp and cool, the sky was a deep Azure and the sun shone. It was just bliss to feel the sun on your face.

Both enjoying a spot of #wild #swimming we had aspirations for a frosty dip in the #Baltic. It absolutely had to be done and I was even hoping for a bit of frost on the surface. I'm glad we built that into the Saturday. We had a really good scout around the most beautiful #architectural city in the morning with appropriate refreshment stops to warm our cockles with some delicious, mulled wine, delighting in the accompanying #mulled #wine heater. They really had thought of everything to the extent that I would definitely rate it as my best mulled wine so far. Even better, at the waiter’s suggestion this yummy, mulled wine was accompanied by some delicious scrummy cake. The most delicate and fragrant apple pie I think I've ever tasted. Charlotte’s delight with the cake was evident as she offered up appropriate cake eating noises. Not satisfied with a mooch around the #cathedral we opted to climb the cathedral tower, a rather hairy experience and not one for the faint hearted but very much worthwhile after the 800 steps round trip for this stunning view at the top. Down again we climbed hearts thudding in our chests, no safety rail for security.

The realities of the terrible situation in Ukraine were brought home by queues of refugees lining up for donations at an outpost in the city centre evidence of the kind hospitality given by the Polish at this heart wrenching time.

Perhaps against our better judgement, or perhaps not we opted to walk to the sea. On a map it didn't look so far and in fairness I don't think I calculated the actual distance, but Charlotte seemed to have a better finger on the pulse. We started by following the #tram line which would hopefully take us back to the city after our frosty dip. Musing along the way at the curious contents of vending machines on the street. At some point on our walk Google Maps had our pants down and took us on a bit of a wild goose chase along a path that had since been obstructed by new industrial buildings. The walk went on and on and my imagination ran wild as we crossed the deserted scrubland. Land mines? Bears? Psychotic killers that would chop us into pieces, eat our fingers and put us into black bin bags.

In fairness though I'm so glad we walked. Doing things on foot and moving out of the central sanitised core of the city is insightful. As we left the beautiful city centre the affluence diminished and the beautiful architecture was replaced by traditional ex- Soviet grey blocks in varying states of decay and disrepair. As we walked further, we came upon a huge area of what appeared initially to be allotments. But some of these allotments had sheds giving the appearance of homes on them and as we walked further still, some had more permanent structures on. So, it was essentially a massive housing estate constructed, perhaps with no reference to building regulations or legislation from a range of fragile and not so fragile materials. It gave us a really interesting insight into how people live, one of my favourite aspects and motives for travel.

We eventually reached the sea and again the wait was worth it. The write up of the City #Beach had given the impression that it would be an ugly industrial place and if you gaze to the left of course you've got the industrial port area, but I was stunned by the cleanliness of the beautiful wide sandy beach and if you gazed to the right all you could see was sand.

There were quite a few people on the beach enjoying a late afternoon stroll in the sunshine as the sun started to lower in the sky and the light became exceptionally beautiful. We're going in then? I asked. Of course, it’s a matter of principle now! Slightly more prepared for this wild swim we both had our neoprene gloves and booties although in true Faye style I had scrimped and got a cheap and highly ineffective job from eBay. I can confirm that it was Baltic in the Baltic, but we did it and came out feeling exhilarated, with accompanying lobster tans as the phrase seems to go and not being able to feel our limbs.

The sea was actually a lot less salty than other seas and we mused on why that was and why in fact sea is salty at all. This kept us occupied as we headed back, this time on the tram, for free! to the city. After a quick change and warm up we headed into the city to find some grub, well deserved we fancied a big feed.

But finding somewhere didn't prove all that easy initially as it was really busy, or the menus didn't really cater for #vegetarians so well. We landed on what appeared to have been an old factory with river views that was called the market restaurant. Really cool vibe inside, there were loads of different food options and you could choose and graze to your heart's delight. We opted for Greek, having the night before decided that our next little #microadventure would be to #Kefalonia and similarly had bagged a #bargain, so this was getting us in the mood. Again, the prices were so incredibly reasonable. Being in #Poland I persuaded Charlotte that it was only right and proper for us to drink #vodka. But #vodka in Poland doesn't come in a small shot glass; more like a tumbler and very soon we were feeling the effects. I can’t really remember scoffing some sweet Pierogi for pud!

Earlier in the day we had passed a place called the Red Dog Saloon and in respect to my lovely American friend I had a yearning to go in there so that's where we headed to be greeted by #karaoke heaven. Slightly intoxicated and a number of power ballads later, we hit the stage and murdered Fleetwood Mac Lies and Proud Mary (what else?). I say we murdered it; Charlotte seems to think we rocked the place. The jury’s out still on that one….thighs still smarting from the deep lunges…

What was incredibly nice though was just to see people singing their heart out at the top of their lungs cheering and coming together, so many different #nationalities, and having the time of their lives. Giving a sense of new hope, albeit hard to hope with such terrible things happening in the neighbouring country.

The next and final day we were feeling slightly delicate but determined to make the most of it we checked out of the hostel, small backpacks on our backs and decided to sail (I use the term loosely – more like chug and emit black smoke and soot) on the Black Pearl out to #Westerplatz, which used to be a high end #seaside area, destroyed in the first attack of the Second World War.

We headed back to the city by bus and settled on Woosabi for our dinner before heading back to the airport. Despite the initial impressions of poor service and lengthy queue, the food was exceptional and environment really nice as well. It's an Asian fusion restaurant and a delicious slap-up and super healthy meal cost us £15 each. We caught an Uber back to the airport and were home and #refreshed in time to start the week again on Monday