An Unexpectedly Educational Trip to Gdańsk

Gdańsk! I cannot overstate how much I loved Gdańsk. It first came onto our radar last summer as we began to plan some travels within Europe. For some reason, no matter what dates we had available, Gdańsk was always far and away the cheapest place to fly from Trondheim. So it seems going there was our destiny.

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I think Gdańsk might be the most underrated place in Northern Europe. One reason I think it stays off the radar is because the name “Gdańsk” is impossible to pronounce. It sounds something like guh-DYNSK, with the y sounding like the y in sky. Here’s a close approximation.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0QTTJhtiQQ&w=560&h=315]

Below are some reasons to be enthusiastic about Gdańsk.

1. It’s affordable and has a goose

Having waited too long to make plans, the only affordable option for the weekend of November 4-5 was a $88 round trip direct flight to Gdańsk.[1] Gavin was skeptical since we had never heard of it (in retrospect, this makes us feel uneducated), but I won him over (or rather he won himself over) by finding a package deal at a five-star hotel that included a cooked goose. For me, the selling point for the hotel was the spa. If Gdańsk was a bust, we could luxuriate, stuff ourselves with goose, and get massages.

(So how was the goose? It was good, but as you’ll note below, it was not quite as advertised. Gavin was disappointed not to get a whole goose. I feel like I had the right amount of goose.)

 

2. It’s really beautiful

Gdańsk has kind of a magical quality that was immediately apparent upon stepping out on our first morning. It was sunny, the air was crisp, and the scenery was both stunning and in a style that’s totally different than anything in Norway — more Russian/Eastern European influence and less of a need to maximize protection against harsh winter weather. All the buildings are well maintained because the downtown was mostly rebuilt after it was destroyed during WWII (more on that below). But most striking was the sense of quiet. It was peaceful. Serene. It seemed empty.

3. It was the site of two of the most important events in 20th century European history. 

And part of what made the trip so amazing was stumbling upon these facts. World War II started in Gdańsk, as did the Solidarity movement, led by Lech Wałęsa, that led to the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. So in a poignant and elegant way, it represents the beginning of great violence, and the beginning of great peace.

Gdańsk’s history centers around the friction between a German-populated city in a Polish-populated country.  After World War I, Gdańsk was known as “The Free City of Danzig,” and was a largely autonomous Germanic city surrounded by Poland, who had been granted access to the port by the League of Nations.  On September 1, 1939, Germany “rescued” them by invading Poland and kicking off World War II.

One of the first acts of war was to attack the Polish Post Office. In what is viewed as an act of bravery and heroism, Polish postal workers held out against the German SS troops for almost a whole day. Our city walking tour casually and unexpectedly ended at the site of the original post office, which allowed us to explore the memorial and a nearby excellent WWII museum. The pictures below show the Post Office exterior, then and now.

 

During the war, the German city was destroyed by the Russians, leaving it to be rebuilt with a new population and the Polish name of Gdańsk.  It’s possible there are more chapters to be written about this cultural clash, as our Polish tour guide made sure to list many historical and cultural reasons for why Gdańsk is the more appropriate and accurate name than Danzig[2].

On a more inspiring note, the Polish non-governmental trade union Solidarność was formed on August 14, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyards. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country. Solidarność gave rise to a broad, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that, at its height, had over 9 million members. It is considered to have contributed greatly to the fall of communism. Lech Wałęsa, one of the founding members, won the Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts and later became Prime Minister of Poland.

Gdańsk is home to the European Solidarity Center, which commemorates these events. It is located at Gate 2 of the Gdańsk Shipyard, where Lech Wałęsa stood to announce to the waiting crowds the deal that had been struck with the Communist government in 1980.

 

Its collection includes the plywood boards listing the trade union’s 21 demands for better working conditions. It’s no wonder this museum won the Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2016.

 

5. It gave us a chance to try out some night photography. 

Enjoy! And if you ever get the chance to visit Gdańsk we highly recommend it.

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[1] Gavin is taking over this footnote to rant at you about the garbage that is W!zz Airlines.  W!zz Airlines is the king of making things worse so you’ll pay to make them normal.  Our carry-on luggage was taken from us and checked seemingly merely because we hadn’t paid to guarantee that they wouldn’t be.  They call this “providing choice,” I guess because you can choose to be even more miserable than you normally would be on an airplane.  W!zz Airlines’ hidden fees include: putting a bag under the seat in front of you (100 NOK), getting updates on flight delays (10 NOK), and checking in at the airport (95 NOK). W!zz also has a deal where you can pay 190 NOK ($23.16) up front, and if your flight is delayed more than an hour, W!zz will give you €100 ($117.65).  It’s just awful, and when the revolution comes, the W!zz executives should be the first against the wall.

[2] There remains a long-standing dispute over the city’s name. This naming controversy even manifested itself in Wikipedia’s Lamest Edit Wars. From Vox: “The debate dragged on, but ultimately a Gdańsk accord was reached (editors agreed to use Gdańsk for periods in history when the city was part of Poland, and Danzig for when it was part of Germany). In 2010, the edit war had a happy coda when the Wikimania convention was held in beautiful Gdańsk.”