Part VII - Frombork Cathedral

I was just reading through my old posts yesterday, and was appalled by the amount of typos I found. Oh, dear. Well, at least I found them.

The weather in London has been simply horrid for the last few days, and I love it. My heart sings whenever I see heavy grey clouds overhead. Of course, I only enjoy bad weather when I’m indoors. I also think that I’m drinking far too much coffee.

I did a teetotal of all the pictures that I have left, and I’ve got two entries left, including this one. I went to Frombork on the second day, the town where Nicolaus Copernicus did most of his work on astronomy, and where he was finally laid to rest.

I don’t think there’s a train to Frombork (not when I looked it up in London, anyway) but there was a direct route by bus. I had enquired at the bus station the day before, and they told me that there were two buses a day. I took the 9:50 one from Gdansk Glowny, and arrived there at around half past twelve. The journey cost 19 zloty, and was fairly enjoyable, as far as bus journeys go. I bought the tickets from the bus driver. Ha - when I remember my first sojourn to the Continent and all that meticulous planning and pre-booking, it seems all so distant to me now. Now I go along with the flow. I do think it’s a good idea to plan ahead where and when you want to go, or to have a general idea at the very least, but it’s not completely necessary to work it out to the last minute. And for some of these central and eastern countries, you really can’t do that, since they don’t have websites or other pre-booking facilities available. I miss travelling ever so much.

When I arrived in Frombork, the sun was still shining, but there was a patch of ominous grey looming up behind the cathedral. And, ah, the cathedral, where Copernicus is buried. The bus stopped right in front of it, and it’s huge. It’s on a hilltop. There’s no way you can miss it. Again, it was blown to smithereens during the Second World War, but restored to its former glory.

I know that this picture has endless blue skies, and yes, I cheated by putting a later picture up, because at this point, the clouds were seriously photobombing me. I decided to go to one of the restaurants right across from the cathedral and wait till the clouds had drifted away. And have lunch, in the meanwhile.

Not at all shabby, the restaurant.

And I was provided with a very good view of the cathedral.

The menu was Transylvania all over again - only this time, rather than Dracula steak, we have Astronomer’s dessert.

I ordered an iced espresso because travelling really takes the stuffing out of you.

And Polish meat rolls, which were very delicious. The sauce was cream of onion and very savoury.

In the meantime, the clouds descended upon Frombork and the skies split open, releasing a colossal deluge, the likes of which I haven’t seen ever since I left tropical Taiwan. The rain and thunder was terrific. Less amusing was the fact that it went on, and on, and on, effectively stranding me (and quite a few other tourists/patrons) in the restaurant. The wifi there was free, but it was starting to get very dull nonetheless, waiting for the rain to abate, which it did not. It was like waiting for a pot to boil, and we all know what happens when you watch that.

After around two hours of hiding in the restaurant, I decided that I was sick of being indoors, and that I would go outside nonetheless. I charged out resolutely, and made for the cathedral, and at first it was miserably freezing and wet, making me question my sanity and the wiseness (or lack of it) of my decision.

But then the sun broke through, and I saw this.

It was like finding an oasis in the desert, and I was able to gaze upon the full glory of Frombork Cathedral, in all its summer splendour.

I walked on, basking in the sun that comes after the rain, and the leafy shade of the trees. It was a very pleasant walk up to the cathedral.

The main entrance of the cathedral.

The main building of the cathedral.

The other side.

And I’m already beginning to see Copernicus all over the place.

The Planetarium which he worked in. This was also destroyed during WWII, and this is a modern reconstruction.

I enter the cathedral. There a large coffee machine adorned with the image of..Copernicus.

I paid (can’t remember the price but it certainly didn’t cost more than 5 zloty) and went in.

My view of the cathedral upon entrance:

And a majestic statue of Copernicus.

Further on in.

And finally, the moment I’d awaited.

The tombstone of the great astronomer himself.

It was quite daunting, and extremely thought-provoking. I stayed there for some time before leaving.

The statue of Copernicus that stands guard in the town he lived and died in.

I caught the 15:28 bus back to Gdansk, and arrived there at 17:00, but I’ll talk about that in my next and last entry. Till then, the final resting place of Copernicus seems a good place to leave you.

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.

Part IV - Sopot

I hate it when the people living below me cook stinky food, which is unfortunately rather often. It smells so bad. Why o why must you use so much vinegar!? Or has your food simply gone bad?

I may have to split these entries up, since I’ve got too many fantastic photos here. Poland is SUCH a photogenic place, and I was lucky to have wonderful weather (for most of the time, anyway).

I ended up going to Sopot, which forms the Trójmiasto (Tricity) along with Gdansk and Gdynia. Remember that hilarious 200kg bomb they found from the second World War? (Probably not so funny after all, now that I think of it. I do apologise.) The train station opened again after noon, so I decided to go after all. The trains that run to Sopot and Gdynia are on the same line, and are operated by SKM. You can get the tickets in the railway station, and they cost 3.80 zloty for a single journey. I love how cheap the transport is over here. The trains run every ten to fifteen minutes, and it’s a half hour journey from Gdansk to Sopot. I wanted to see Sopot mainly because of the Krzywy Domek - a wonky house built in 2004. The pictures on the Internet looked very quaint. It’s located in Sopot’s city centre, which is right off the Baltic. However, I was horribly disappointed when I found it, since it was almost completely obscured by two huge and bushy trees right in front of the main entrance. I could barely see it.

See?

I tried to get closer for a better shot, but they really need to do something about those darn trees.

A manhole lid. It was very pretty, just like the ones in Sibiu.

The promenade in the city centre was packed with people, but for some reason, you can’t really see any of the crowds in this picture here. I suppose you’ll just have to take my word for it.

And after the promenade, we reach a large plaza.

Which opens up to the Baltic. You have to pay to go onto the pier though, so I just stood outside the turnstile and took photos. They can’t charge me for that.

The Baltic is distinctly visible in the distance

Went back to the main street and had lunch there. The food was fantastic and cheap, as always. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the food in this part of the world is awesome.

And then after that, walked back to the station.

The train schedule. Lots of trains going in the Gdansk Glowny direction, as you can see.

Took a picture of what appears to be a power plant on the outskirts of Gdansk. Really rather magnificent.

Walked around the old town when I got back, the old town which was razed almost to the ground and then rebuilt from scratch (like most of Poland, sadly), but I will save that for another entry.

I just finished reading a Guardian article on human trafficking in Cambodia, which you can read here. It’s one of the most shocking things I’ve ever read, and as I was reading it, I could not help thinking that this was all a matter of getting lucky at the birth lottery. If I had been born into a poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country and had no means of supporting myself other than this, the story they would be telling would be mine. As it is, I was born in Taiwan, a wonderful, affluent first-world country, into a respectable family and was able to receive a world-class education at some of the best institutes in the world. Yes, Taiwan has its problems, but it really puts things in perspective when you read stories like these. It’s a depressing and sobering thought that you have so little control over your destiny, that the life you lead now is due to mere circumstance of chance and birth. Equally shocking is the chauvinism deeply ingrained in the values systems of these countries: ‘"There's a national saying that men are like gold and women are like cloth," says Tong Soprach, an academic researcher into the sexual practices of Cambodia's youth. "If you drop gold in the dirt, it washes clean and still shines. If you drop cloth, the stain never comes out."’ (source)