August 7-8, 1999 - Szczecin, Poland
We bade farewell to Kelly's parents and sister,
and took the ferry from Malmo, Sweden to Swinoujcie, Poland. We planned to jump on a train
to the coastal resort city of Gdansk as soon as we arrived, but it just wasn't that easy.
To get there we first had to go through Szczecin to access the right train line. We
somehow managed that, but learned we wouldn't make it to Gdansk until after midnight, so
we decided to stay put.
Szczecin was not a town used to receiving
travelers, especially foreign travelers. There were several train stations and no way to
determine which was the "main" one. And for being so close to Germany, we
couldn't find anyone who knew German, or English, or who seemed willing to interpret our
wild gesturing motions and help confused backpackers.
Luckily a woman on the local train pulled us
back in when we started to get off too early. We got to the main station and stood in line
at every information and ticket booth to ask about lodging but nobody had any information
on such things. We got a phone card and called phone numbers listed on a message board; we
weren't willing to pay $70, so no luck. Dave wanted to take a night train immediately on
to Warsaw, but Kelly reminded him that the more difficult places were usually better. We
decided this happened because just a few hours before we had told Kelly's parents that we
had not had a problem finding a room yet, anywhere. Big mistake to talk that way! Dave
finally walked up and down the streets near the station until he found a hostel.
The place was decent so we decided to stay for
an extra day.
We wondered why the desk clerk at our hostel,
when drawing us a map, took out a red pen and drew in a dotted line on certain streets for
us to follow. We thought she was simply highlighting the areas where we should walk. When
we started down the streets though, we noticed an actual red dotted line painted on the
sidewalk (kinda like the freedom trail in Boston). As there was no tourist
information, we couldn't find out what it really was, but we guessed maybe it was there in
place of a tourist info office.
So we followed the red-dotted-line-sidewalks.
We went to Zamek Ksiazat Pomorskich castle, and climbed up to the bell tower for a great
view of the city. Saw an exhibit of Salvador Dali lithographs and an odd exhibit by a
nineteenth-century Polish oil painter. We wandered in a couple churches where the Pope had
recently been (probably while we were being whisked around the bowels of Vatican City).
His photos were everywhere.
And we figured out our route to Gdansk, in
advance this time.
