Eighteen Hours In Gdansk
To get into town, I opted for the cheapest mean of transport - the local bus. Sadly however, there was no relay or 7Eleven where I could purchase tickets, so cash withdrawal had to be done.
Sadly though my 50 Zloty bill was too large to be accepted in the ticket machine, and the driver on the bus refused to change it. Luckily however, a swedish girl who was on my flight was kind enough to give me some pennies. We ended up chatting throughout the 35 minute ride.
Turns out she was attending medical school in Gdansk, and when I asked why here of all places, she replied saying that the requirements for being accepted were much lower. The downside of course is that all tuition fees had to be paid out of your own pocket.
Her apartment happened to be on the same street as my hotel, and she was more than happy to show me the way.
The Radisson Blu Hotel Gdansk
I arrived at my hotel just after half past seven. At check-in I was greeted welcome by a friendly lady. As the formalities were taken care of, I pleasantly surprised to have received an upgrade to a Business Class room. It was the room only, which meant no free breakfast or pay movies.
The room was located on the 4th floor on the main facade, offering a prime view of the main street below.
The room was spacious, bright and clean.
The bathroom was stylishly decorated, with the earthy tones dominating here as well.
In addition to the standard In-room amenities, a welcome arrangement of fresh fruit and bottled water had been placed on the table.
A Nespresso machine was available as well. Standard in Business Class Rooms.
Having unpacked all my belongings in the room, I left the hotel and set out to explore the restaurant offerings of this town. Finding some genuine traditional polish cuisine turned out to be difficult, as quite frankly very few restaurants seemed to offer it.
At the end, I settled for The Trattoria, a restaurant located just a stone throw from my hotel. I was told that the place had traditional polish cuisine, but as it turned out only one of the dishes on the menu was polish, and that sadly didn't suit my taste. So I called it a day and settled for a chicken with creamy blue cheese sauce.
Stuffed and pleased, I headed back to my hotel where I watched some CNN before comfortably falling asleep in my Business Class bed.
Monday September 10th 2012
The morning rays of sunlight hit my face as I woke up from what could best be described as the best night's sleep I've had in years. Those beds are REALLY comfortable. At 8.30am I was showered and dressed. An extra hour was spent drinking Nespresso, watching CNN and enjoying the beautiful weather outside. The welcome fruit came in handy as breakfast.
Enjoying a light breakfast by the window.
The view from my room. Suppose it summarises what there is to see in town.
At 9.30am, I decided to get some more breakfast, so I headed across the street to a nice café where I had the best banana pancakes I've eaten in years. By the time I got back to my hotel, the cleaning lady was already busy tidying up the room. I figured I'd better get going then, so I quickly got my stuff from the closet and dropped off the keycard at the reception.