Poland is the most underrated country from my perspective. Being famous for stag parties, is a stereotype that needs to be put in the history. Poland deserves much more attention among travellers. If you have direct flight connection or train under 6 hours, do it, don’t think twice. It offers everything: great sights, architecture, nature, restaurants with both polish and international cuisine. Also it has been one of the safest, plus the one with very well developed alternative/hipster scene.
This year I had the pleasure to visit Krakow and Gdansk, and I really can’t tell which one I liked more. Next on my Polish want to go list are definitively the mountain area and Warsaw.

Gdansk was always on the list, but never on the top plan. When I saw that there are direct flights to Aarhus, I thought: “Why not connect the two cities in one “workation week ?” It turned out to be the best “workation” week in the past four years.
We took a train from Berlin. There are two options: direct or with a change in Poznan. Lately I really like travelling by train much more, it is almost hassle free. Had a Paczka in Poznan and arrived at the main station Gdansk Glowny in the evening. Our accommodation was walking distance from the station, in a ultra nice student dormitory with 24 hours receptions and with many free amenities – MILESTONE Gdańsk Center

Hotel: MILESTONE Gdańsk Center
Recommendation: Student dorm and a hotel amazing, clean location is not central but it is in a popular neighbourhood.
Breakfast included: NO
Price: $$
Payment: Cash & Card

The first night in Gdansk was devoted to the hip area 100cznia, part of shipyard factory, turned into party zone. There were more than 20 food stands, different halls with music, also open air one. After we’ve peeked everywhere, we’ve decided to take a night stroll along the river in the city centre. We were amazed by the beauty, cleanness, and the amount of people in the bars and having party around town. That set our expectations even higher.

We started the next morning again in the similar area, as we’ve learned that there are even more happenings. The W4 food hall, the cultural center Ulica Elektryków, and we stumbled upon a designer market, where we saw super refreshing and nice designs. We’ve decided to start our snacking at Plenum cafe, which apart from the waiting times had amazing Japanese inspired snacks, and great pastries.

We’ve decided to continue along the Vistula river, and we were seeing gem after gem: little cafes, sculptures made out of old iron, new buildings with amazing architectures. I know all of this sound normal, but in the area where we were accommodated everything seemed devoted to ship building, so these things came unexpected.
Before reaching the old town we’ve spotted the Ołowianka island and next to it the Bascule (movable) bridge. There was some fair in town, next to the Philharmony, and from this point onwards we’ve started admiring the architecture. It was mostly old, but there were also very nicely incorporated new buildings, next to the old one. Even more Netherlands style houses, with nicer facade. We’ve tried to go in as much as possible hidden alleys, like Mariacka Street, but the fair was all around town. Then, we’ve just found a random spot fro drinks before we made the decision to go to Sopot.

To get to Sopot from the Central station you need around 15 minutes and a ticket of around 1.5 euros. The city is small. As we were in August, which is high season, the place was full of tourists, but at this time of the day, not so many of them were on the beach. That’s where we were headed, the sea was typical Baltic, more wind then fun, people dressed from head to toes. What I found interesting was that the beach bars were numbered going on both sides from the city center, like lidos in italian sea towns.
Many of them have low ratings on google maps, I guess those are based on peak hours, as we were completely happy with our choice. We had a drink and a snack at M15 restaurant, afterwards checked out the Piaskownica, which had hammocks, and very nice almost mountain hut in the middle of the beach setup with lots of flowers. Sopot is super flat, and has nice bike path along the beach bars, so renting a bike via the Mevo app could be a nice option to reach your beach destination or the railway on the way back.

As the next morning was a working one for us, the breakfast was in our apartment, the “eleveness” in a nice cafe – kompozyt, right next to the hotel. There is something about student cities and areas of town which makes my heart skip a beat every time, in a way that I feel ultra young again.
For the afterwork part, we’ve decided to check out the Montownia Food hall, which had one of each food stands. The food was okay, but nothing ground breaking, our choice was tartar steak and stir fried noodles. I was amazed by the amount of food halls, but I guess that in a city with so much new buildings being constructed, it is a simple answer, for creating spots where the communities could gather.

Next on the checklist was the Eclair shop – Eklerownia, good, but we’ve seen better. For the end of the day we decided to explore the bastions around town. We’ve checked a few of them, had a look to the city, but as it was getting dark decided to go back. In this part of the town is the Wyspa Spichrzów island there was again new architecture present, incorporated so nicely with the old one, that in moments you feel as if you are somewhere in Scandinavia. Place I had on my list in this part was Kawiarnia PUBLICZNA, but I guess it will wait for us to come back. We’ve ended the night strolling around a place very unusual for us – the shopping mall – Forum. We didn’t do any shopping, but the architecture was out of this world, and if you are plants lover, you will feel slight jealousy of the amount of greatly looking plants inside.

On our last day I woke up early in order to visit a weak spot of mine – the Market Hall. On my surprise it was not as developed and colourful as in other parts in Poland or baltic countries. Still it was a good sunny stroll. Saw many murals, city life, and people starting their day. Afterwork we took the tram towards Wrzeszcz, as we saw that this part of the city can also get busy. Even before arriving to Gdansk I noticed how much the city is spread, and somehow it seemed that these distances were not walkable.Getting here from the historical centre would take almost one hour.

The cafes and restaurants at Wajdeloty street were full of life. There was even a Michelin spot, and again old brewery transformed in a residential complex. The night and our trip to Gdansk ended at Nowy Browar Brewery very usual/average restaurant, with mussels, burger and the queens of the night, blueberry pierogi.
Our flight to Aarhus was at 5:50. As busses to the airport are starting at around 5, we had to call a cab, the apps like Uber and Bolt were slight disappointment, as almost everyone was rejecting our ride. In the end we succeeded for less than 10 euros to reach the airport, which luckily was well organised. If you are leaving the city at this time, maybe try calling the local taxi company instead or arrange with your reception.
The city left such a good impression on me and I would definitively come again and bring more people.