Part VIII - Last few in Gdansk and and the airport as my hotel

Just witnessed our World Cup hosts being wiped off by Germany like bugs on a windshield. Whew. That was a match and a half..and it’s not even over yet. Emotions running high. Neymar and Silva are sorely missed.

(A/N: 0:7. This is surreal.)

(A/N: Half an hour later. Germany’s in the finals, 1:7. Am looking forward to seeing all the bad memes tomorrow morning when I wake up.)

Watching Germany hammering Brazil to bits was one huge emotional rollercoaster, accompanied by the whooping shouts of the other spectators in the halls, and my roomie’s quips on the horrified/elated expressions of the audience in the arena. Oh gosh golly. Will attempt to focus on the task at hand.

As mentioned in the previous entry, I took the 15:28 bus back to Gdansk central station. And what do you know, they have wind turbines here, exactly the same as the ones in Scandinavia.

When I got back to the city centre, walked around ul. Dluga for a bit, and bought some of their soft ice cones - which are the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. This country never fails to surprise me, and I am of the staunch opinion that one’s life is not complete if one has not tasted a Polish ice cream.

 YUM! I didn’t take a picture of the ice cream since my hands were too full, so had to make to with the big plastic uneatable one outside the shop.

The ice creams are incredibly cheap as always, 5 zloty for a medium sized one and 6.5 for a large one.

Found a fairly nice place to have dinner, and these are some of the best potatoes I’ve ever had in my life.

Took bus no 210 from Gdansk Glowny to the airport after dinner, which cost 1.50 zloty (again, LOVE the cheap transport) and took around 40 minutes. My flight back to London was at 6am the next day, and I figured that I’d just kip in the airport, since the timing was just too bad. I don’t like being outside after a certain hour.

I’ve never actually had to wait in an airport overnight for a flight, and for a first timer, this one wasn’t half bad, and I do see myself doing this again in the near future. Gdansk airport was very nice, and the wireless was free, although negligible, and not provided by the airport itself, but by one of its shops/sponsors/clients. You just have to keep clicking till you find one that works for you - in this case, ING. I found a seat next to a power outlet, and used my tablet for about four hours whilst waiting for it to charge.

I have a love-hate relationship with these flight announcement boards - I’m always hurrying to some boarding gate or terminal when I’m looking at them, but when I see the names of all these cities and destinations, just waiting for me, my heart floats away.

The lights in the airport began to darken, and since it was 12, I decided to get some sleep. I found a VERY comfortable spot in a coffee shop.

The sofa was made out of plush white leather and it was one of the most comfortable surfaces I’ve ever had the pleasure of lying on. I actually managed to get in about 4 hours of real sleep here (a lot more than I did when I was flying to Copenhagen), complete with my earplugs and eye mask.

No one told me that Poland could get this cold in July though, and I woke up at about 4, shivering. When I got on the flight at 6, my breath formed a white mist. That's how cold it was. 
The airport had begun to fill up at this point, since the check-in desks were opening. I looked up, and saw that my flight was ready for check in, so I bade adieu to my freezing sofa and went off.

Goodbye, Gdansk airport!

And that was pretty much it - I got on the flight at 6, arrived back in London after two hours, took a shuttle back to central London, and was back in my room before 10am, safe and sound.

Poland’s probably my favourite country so far. Sometimes it’s so hard to judge places, because they’re so different, but if I’m going to go with the “feel-good” factor per se here, then Poland takes the crown and cherry. Everything about it was just so right, from the food and the people and the scenery to the transport and the hostel. You name it, they nailed it. Poland completely and utterly surpassed my wildest expectations, and I highly recommend this lovely, severely underrated country to the intrepid explorer. I know I’m certainly going back.

Abject apologies if this entry comes across as somewhat vague - am still reeling in the aftermath of Germany’s resounding victory, and for some reason I’ve been feeling really lethargic recently. That coffee earlier on in the evening worked, but not as well as I hoped. Am probably experiencing post-holiday, pre-dissertation blues. I want to go back to the Continent ASAP.

Will be moving my old stuff over during the next few days/weeks, but it’s really time to focus on my dissertation, so will have to hold off Europe entries for the time being. Do expect to see posts on England, though, since I plan on visiting Stonehenge and Warwick Castle in the next month or so, at the very least! And now, if you will excuse me, am off to read some biting reviews of the Brazilian side’s crushing defeat. They’re going to be talking about this one for years to come. The funny thing is that these pundits probably can’t kick a ball to save their lives, but that’s okay, because they build their happiness money on the torment of others Brazilians.