Part VI: Gdansk and the old town - Żuraw and the Mariacka

This is beginning to feel like the neverending post, but what do I know.

Tour de France is due to come by Tower Bridge anytime soon now, and I am going there to witness history.

(A/N: Back from witnessing history, and got in a few pictures too. Should probably write a new post on this.)

I noticed several extremely ominous-looking clouds overhead, and decided that they would ruin my pictures anyway, and since it was dinnertime I might as well have a bite and watch the Switzerland-Argentina match at the same time. Sure enough, right after I was seated, great dollops of rain began falling down upon the amber city, and there was a huge clap of thunder. I coughed and checked out the menu, and looking at this exquisite and extensive palate in London now only makes it worse.

I ordered Polish dumplings again.

With hot chocolate pudding as dessert.

When I finished dinner, the clouds were still there, but at least it had stopped raining, and sitting in a restaurant without wifi can be very boring. I walked out and went to ul. Mariacka, one of the most famous streets in Gdansk.

In the aftermath of the thunderstorm..

Walked around a bit after that, and went to see the Bazylika Mariacka, the largest brick church in the world. It commenced work in the mid 14th century, and was unfortunately severely damaged by the Red Army in 1945. Most of the cathedral today is a modern reconstruction.

It’s the building on the right, but the angle of the sun prevented me from getting a clearer picture of it

A/N, 2017/12/21. Thanks to improvements in modern technology, I am now able to present an edited version of the photos of the Bazylika Mariacka, in which you can see the cathedral in all its full glory. Four years too late, maybe, but late is better than never. And these newly enhanced photos really are stunning, if I do say so myself.

Walked back to the lovely Motława to see the shipyard, and the famous medieval port crane, the unusually phallic shaped Żuraw.

The Żuraw can be faintly discerned from behind all those boats

And here’s a clearer picture of the Żuraw. It’s the building with the oddly shaped funnel-like structure.

And this is the part where I sort of went crazy and snapped loads of photos again, because it was that time of the day, and this was that kind of city, and I’m an indecisive person who just wants it all.

I went back to the hostel after that and met some of the new arrivals in our room, and talked (as we always do!) about politics and history and visa restrictions. Went through an awful lot of cider too, courtesy of one of the Polish guests.

I really liked Poland, and it’s a rather odd feeling, sitting here again in my London Bridge student room, typing this up, reliving the emotions and feeling of being there. A profound sense of displacement, tempered with a dash of nostalgia and regret. Listening to my roommate cooking in the kitchen, and to the skateboard idiots trying out their tricks in the quad. Wondering who’s going to break through in tomorrow’s match. Thinking about certain people, and the fact that it’s past nine again, and very soon I’m going to go to the kitchen and try to wrap this up. Wanting so much more out of life, even though I already have so much, because that’s the essence of human nature. In the end, if one’s not careful, they’re left with a handful of what-ifs. Humming “Lemon Tree,” and you’re wondering how, and wondering why, that yesterday all you saw was a blue blue sky, but now all that you can see is just another lemon tree.