My 65th Year on Earth

It was a fitful night, as these first nights after overnight flights tend to go, but I think we're on track today, Saturday the 16th of August, my 64th birthday.

We had PIZZA last night if you can believe it… sort of by accident. We got the perfect table for two in a restaurant we had walked by and thought, oh how perfect this would be to have dinner at later! And when we went back there was this ONE table.. and before we knew it… there we were having pizza! (Who knew it was Italian?) We were BLIND tired… should have napped, as is our habit, but we didn’t — it was really too late when we got here, so we went to bed at 6:30. I woke up at 8 pm thinking it was 8 am and thought.. hmm.. I’ll sleep a little more and at 9 pm got up thinking, This is AMAZING! This will give me two hours before my tour at 11 am, and I walked into the main room only to realize it was 9 pm. I had slept for 2 1/2 hours, not 14 1/2 hours.
A few "Karen" comments: First AirBNB ever that has no shampoo, no bath soap, no coffee. And this place has all 5 stars. Oh, and an email signal says "Temporarily blacklisted IP Address - try again later." So that’s fun!!!!! I have to use my phone’s hotspot to get my emails. So that's fun, too. I don't have it in me to ruin their all-five-star rating across the board in all categories, so this will be the first time I don't rate my stay at all.
My tour was very entertaining. It was on a very long golf cart and began with just me in the center of Old Town. From there, Michael, our historian tour guide — who I determined to be about 58 — and I went to pick up two American women from San Diego. At one point, Michael began to explain a few things about communist Poland and interjected — your country will never be communist. This sidetracked us for a good two minutes as the three of us tried to one-up each other with comments like, "Well, last I checked we weren't!" Or, "What makes you so sure?" "When I left yesterday, we were still a democracy, but who knows what today brings!" It was nice to know we were all on the same page, and this was early on.
Later, he took the damned cart on the highway, much to the annoyance of the car and truck drivers, and to the consternation of his passengers. It was a white-knuckle trip for sure. The honks and glares were actually fewer than you'd imagine, but geez. One pothole and the first day of my 65th year on Earth could be my last.

This was on a person's front stoop on a street called Dog Street.

Silly placement for this photo, but if I didn't put something more appealing here, the photo below would be the one representing this whole post...

I always take these tours — per my mother's advice, a history major — to get my footing in a new city, but sadly this tour was mostly about history, so I will still wander around aimlessly with no I idea what's around the next corner. I will, however, know in what century it was built. It's a beautiful city — very much like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, in its architecture and that it's build around waterways. And there's a reason Denmark is Dansk in Danish and Gdansk is Gdansk. Michael told me... if you're interested, click this link.

OOPS, apparently the idea of a correlation is quite controversial so why bother looking into it. Might be just a linguistic coincidence. ARGGHH.

Gdansk was destroyed in WWII and completely rebuilt from rubble using salvaged materials. Also, after the War, many of the Germans were forced out and new people came in and populated the "new Gdansk," which became a sort of melting pot. Our guide told us there has never been a conservative party voted in, in Gdansk. Yes, in Poland, but never in Gdansk. They are all very welcoming and forward-thinking here. Both our taxi-driver and tour guide think Trump is a clown and made no bones about it. I've noticed in the past, Europeans have tip-toed around the subjects, as if we might like him. Now, or here, anyway, it is assumed he is such a buffoon, how could anyone?

Here's a photo dump with captions when necessary. If there's no caption it's because who knows what is!

This is Long Street. Main walking street.

Very cool designs on many of the houses/buildings.

This image is on the most Gdansk postcards. (Better one, of course.)

TONS of brick in this city — similar to those other cities I mentioned.

This is their train station — a source of great pride.

Not everything is picturesque. 🤪

This is Saint Brigid's Church — the altar is all amber. Amber is a huge deal in Gdansk. Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. came here to visist. As did Margaret Thatcher. The Poles LOVE Ronald Reagan.

This was a shelter. Michael/Tour Guide lived across the street from a woman who was in a work camp who helped build this. She never told him until she was dying. He called her auntie and said she was the most beautiful woman he has ever know.