Dobre Pies

I thought it would be hard to beat our con experience at Rusfurrence in 2013 but Gdakon ran it pretty close. I've always said I prefer smaller cons and this one proved my point as with around 140 attendees, it was far easier to meet people, both old friends and new. Our experience was undoubtedly enhanced by the presence of the Russians, whose partying ways and general shenanigans made our stay in Moscow so enjoyable two years ago, and it was fantastic to see them again, particularly at the room parties, which were frequent.

Indeed another point was proven at Gdakon - cons are far better when you know people there - while the three of us staying together (Wolfie plus Taneli) did make it feel more of a holiday. With the Amber Hotel just a 20 minute walk from the centre of Gdansk, it made touring rather simple, meaning when there was a gap in the schedule, we could go off and do our own thing. As is often the case with smaller cons, the schedule wasn't particularly extensive, giving us ample time to go exploring and facilitating my view that I tend to choose cons these days based on their location above anything else. In fact we probably spent around half our time at the con and half our time exploring, making for a nice balanced trip.

The times at the con were largely geared towards room parties although the opening day BBQ on Thursday was a huge success as it enabled us to get to meet some furs we had never met before. The snausage was exquisite - traditional Polish, plump and tender - while there was free beer all evening with a help yourself tap for convenience. This made it very easy to talk to people while we all marvelled at the intricate fire dancing and drumming performances which accompanied the food, being situated in a little grassy area next to the BBQ outside the main floor. Later on, there was karaoke which was actually done rather well, and we got in on the action as the Russians were going through their full repertoire. Wolfie in particular really got into the swing of things and was singing away, aided by the free flowing drink. The tap had long run out by this point, so we were resorting to the beer we had bought from Carrefour over the road, where there always seemed to be a mean dog tied up outside who spent the duration barking at us. He was interested in Wolfie's crisps though, and got a nuzzle out of him for that. He barked at me though and that made the puppy sad.

The range of Polish beer on offer was one of the surprises although a lot of it seems very similar mass-marketed pilsner type stuff. There is a developing craft scene though and at least one microbrewery, Browar Piwna on the aptly named Ulica Piwna in the heart of the city. We discovered this place as part of the guided tour of Gdansk which was organised by the con on the Wednesday. This wasn't advertised and we were quite lucky to discover it - a crisis at work necessitated a phone call which I took outside on the hallway, where I bumped into a Russian fur who told me about it. The tour was conducted by a fur who was an official guide in his professional career so it all went quite well, with around 25 furs heading towards the old town to see the sights. I've always said that cons should offer something like this, if only to encourage reticent furs away from the hotel. We walked into the city and on the way, some furs stopped to buy an MLP magazine while I was amused by the dog magazine with the word Pies for the title - puppy doesn't like the sound of puppy pies. Also the main women's weekly here is called Tina, something I also found amusing for no particular reason.

Our first stop was the Fortu Gory Gradowej, from where you could see a stunning panorama of the old city and the docks at it's northern point, with huge steel cranes plunging into the water. Here there is a large brown metal cross which overlooks the city, which I think commemorates the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Gdansk, which took place in 997 AD. The cityscape was rather grand too as we surveyed it from its south-western fringe, where a fort has been placed for at least 400 years. Through a series of 12 bunkers, inside which are a variety of scenes, we explored the history of the fortress from the seventeenth century to the present day. This area had always been a busy thoroughfare into the city but the danger from a Swedish invasion made them fortify the area. The exhibition also dealt with the military engineering and cartography of the time before detailing the effects of the sieges on the city in 1734 (in the war of the Polish succession), 1807 and 1813 (the latter two when Napoleon came and left). Modern history was also covered, detailing the barracks built by the Prussians in the late nineteenth century and the role of the fort during the Second World War, when the Germans occupied the area. During the communist era, a jamming system was installed here aimed at blocking the broadcasts from Radio Free Europe. Walking over the crenellations and looking into the bunkers, with the barracks contained in the middle of the formed circle, made for an interesting experience and a nice introduction to the city.

Our next stop was along one of the main streets, Ulica Dluga, which culminates in the long thin square of Dlugi Targ. Considered one of the most attractive streets in the city, they are lined with Baroque style houses not dissimilar to those in Amsterdam with their narrow tall frontages of intricate colour and design. These were the homes of the city's wealthiest citizens but now have largely been converted into restaurants, with the streets drinking avenues which were once used for parades, ceremonies and public executions, with aristocratic prisoners being killed on Dlugi Targ. Royal processions started in 1457 while the Main City's most important buildings, particularly the impressive and imposing Main Town Hall, are situated here. Much of Dlugi Targ was destroyed in the Second World War but the houses with their stepper terraces were faithfully reconstructed, creating a square with an astonishing amount of colour. This cannot be said of Ulica Dluga as only the most important buildings here were reconstructed. At its centre is the Fountain of Neptune, which was installed in 1633, with the God of the Sea understandably having an important place in this major Baltic seaport (indeed on the wall of the houses facing the hotel there is a giant dark blue mural to Neptune). The streets are flanked at either end by two gates - the Golden Gate and the Green Gate. The former was built in 1612-14, designed by Abraham van den Blocke, and was our principal access point into the city. Styled like a traditional triumphant Roman archway in Mannerist style, it is surmounted by allegorical sculptures in quite intricate fashion, highlighting the golden age of the city. These were carved by Piotr Ringering in 1648 but had to be reconstructed after World War Two. The statues depict peace, freedom, prosperity, glory, prudence, piety, justice and harmony while inscriptions in Latin and German detail the importance of civic virtue. At the other end sits the Green Gate, a Mannerist building which was the official residence of the Polish kings when they visited the city. Designed by Johann Kramer and built between 1564 and 1568, this palace like building has an intricate pinnacled roof. This is situated next to a canal upon which currently sits a large boat called Onyx, which cannot proceed further upstream due to the presence of a bridge. We walked around this area before heading onto Ulica Piwna which runs parallel to the Dluga streets and is where the majority of the restaurants are situated.

Our final stop on our mini-tour was the Church of St Mary (Kosciol Mariacki) which is the largest medieval brick-built church in Europe. Taking 150 years to complete, work began in 1343, with the long nave the final thing to be completed. It was a Protestant church up until its destruction in 1945, after which it was rebuilt albeit with a rather plain white interior which is rather stunning in such a large space. There is also a beautiful stained glass window at one end, built in 1963 and with deep vivid coloured glass and scenes from the Bible depicted in raindrops. The highlight of the church is undoubtedly the astronomical clock, made by Hans Durunger between 1464 and 1470. It shows the hour, days, dates of moveable feasts and phases of the moon and is quite complex to read. We also saw a significant number of memorial tablets to local families and internal furnishings in a range of styles, particularly Mannerist, Baroque and Gothic. After an extensive wander around the church, there was a desire to visit a pub, with a few conveniently placed just up the road.

Founded in 2012, Browar Piwna is a fantastic micro pub, with five of their regularly rotating beers available (three on tap and two in bottle). However, this wasn't the highlight of our time here, with the food being absolutely stunning. The whole group of 25 furs came here for a little tipple but most of them left soon afterwards, wanting to get back to the hotel to catch the tail end of dinner, which was only served from 4-6pm. This meant only Wolfie, Taneli and I remained despite some Russians initially offering to stay with us. We had ordered food though and wanted to try a few beers before heading back to the hotel, with nothing scheduled for the evening anyway (the con ran from Thursday evening to Saturday evening, just two days, but there was an early arrival and late departure option). Suffice to say the food was stunning. Lard on bread, warm black pudding served with bread and a meat and cheese platter which was an excellent example of fresh local Polish produce. The black pudding in particular was the finest I have ever tasted, real melt in the mouth stuff while the lard too was a fine example of quality local cuisine. Indeed, we have found all of the food in Poland to be of the highest quality and I was shocked by just how good it is - I don't remember it being this good when I visited the country back in 2003 and 2005.

Feeling a little bloated after the food, we decided to head back to the hotel, where we met up with the Russian furs who were having a party. Our good friend Kamsirius's room was next door to ours on the third floor which was convenient, although being inflatable fans, there was an awful lot of balloon popping going on, which we could hear through the walls. Indeed they had bought eight packets of 16" diameter balloons which they blew up sort an electric blower at industrial speed. We had a few inflatable parties as a result, which were great fun, with fursuits in particular invited to join the fun. This is what I did on Friday evening interspersed with dancing at the first of two discos in the main hall, which was so hot that it became prohibitive quite quickly. The doors had to be shut and the Fursuit lounge wasn't particularly cool, meaning I was out of suit almost as quickly as I was in it. This is what I tend to find at cons though - I always go with the intention of suiting loads and then I get dragged into the social aspect and end up suiting hardly at all. I did suit a little in the end, on Friday night and most of Saturday afternoon for the Fursuit walk (which I'll detail later) but in the end this was another drinking and largely social con. Nothing wrong with that of course. Anyway, inflation and popping was a common theme and I did a lot of this in and out of suit while on the Wednesday evening we also had a flashmob style party in the landing of the third floor, which we filled with balloons. This lasted a good half hour before we were told to move on, but it was fun while it lasted. Aside from this, a lot of time was spent next door in Kam's room where we chatted with all of the Russians and I stole numerous dark chocolate and strawberry flavoured chocolate drops, the latter of which were pink. I introduced Taneli to the Russians too, which went very well, and they were the go to people whenever we were in the hotel as they were such fun. I'm looking forward to renewing their acquaintance at EF and maybe even CeSFuR should we decide to go to the latter convention - Gdakon was so good we are seriously consisting it, particularly as we spent so little in Poland (literally half of the zlotys we took out with us - this whole trip cost us about £220 all in). This is something to consider next week.

Pierogi Puppy!

As I mentioned earlier, I was quite surprised with how much touring we managed to get done in Gdansk. It had always been my intention to visit some of the sights of the city, but in the end we found ourselves having a considerable amount of freetime, resulting in us visiting the city centre on all four days we were there. I have already detailed Wednesday's official furry guided tour and Saturday was a trip into town to grab some food - excellent black pudding pierogi for Wolfie and pierogi russkie for me - but there is still a great deal to detail about Thursday and Friday as we extensively explored one of the most historical and wealthiest cities of Poland.

We got up rather late on Thursday on account of partying with the Russians, not to mention a general lack of sleep from the previous night as we had had to get up early for our flight on Wednesday. Craving food, we managed to stumble into the centre of Gdansk by about 2pm, initially thinking we would go to Subway and pick up something quick. However, upon passing through the Golden Gate, we saw a tempting sign for a bar offering tantilising pierogi and so we opted for something far more traditionally Polish and headed there instead. It turned out to be a wise decision, something we noted as we approached the place as it was a beer and bagel bar, a combination I had hitherto never come across before. Upon entering the place, which was called Amsterdam Cafe, we were shocked by the phenomenal range of craft beers on offer, many of them locally sourced. We had to get sampling, which we did as we waited for our pierogi to be cooked. Nothing here disappointed - the beer was sufficiently hoppy and of high quality while the dumplings were cooked to perfection, melt-in-the-mouth gorgeousness and full of flavour. There may not have been an awful lot of choice regarding pierogi but the spinach and feta ones I had were particularly sublime, while the general friendliness of the staff, who spoke impeccable English, only made us want to come back to the bar again. Indeed, this is what we did, once on Friday and again on Saturday, just to plough our way through their extensive range of bottled beers.

Time was already starting to become an issue as it was approaching 4pm by the time we left the cafe, with the darkness set to start around 90 minutes later. Consequently, we decided to head over to the Reduna Canal part of the city, the other major historical zone in Gdansk having already seen Dlugi Targ the previous day. This was just a short walk away from where we were, but even then we got distracted by the range of interesting buildings in the vicinity. We dropped into a large covered indoor market on the way, where we used the facilities and I bought a rather pleasant apple tart for Wolfie and I, while we also laughed at the Mad Dogs Biker Pub, which looked rather mad and perhaps not the best place for tourists to stroll. The approach to the Reduna Canal area from this part of the city is dominated by the imposing Gothic tower of the Church of St Catherine (Kosciol sw Katarzyny) with its square green belfry (with four points on each vertex) sat atop a tall brick tower, which is 76m in height. This church is the oldest and most important in the old town, dating from between 1227 and 1239, although it underwent major renovation work a century later. The tower came afterwards, in 1486. Like with many of the churches here, the entrances were guarded by huge doors and we were unsure whether we could go inside or not. There were no other tourists about and we didn't want to cause offence, so we opted to play it safe and just look at the wonderous exteriors of these dominant buildings. As it turned out, the Church of St Catherine is rather stark in its interior as many of its treasures were pillaged in 1945.

Our next stop was the Great Mill (Wielki Mlyn), which is just to one side of the Reduna Canal and was one of the largest medieval industrial buildings in Europe. Constructed during the period of the Teutonic Knights in 1350, it is a distinctive brick building with a very steep pitched roof. It's not a large structure, certainly by modern standards, but it was clearly a technological triumph of the age. A two story bakery stood at the front of the complex - you can still see the brick foundations of this inside the building - with first 12 and then 18 large poles to which millstones were attached, powered by the water which flows quickly in the adjacent canal. The whole complex was destroyed by fire in 1945, but was restored shortly after World War Two. It now contains a rather soulless shopping centre, which doesn't really befit the grand history of the place. There is also a small mill which sits opposite the grand one, a quaint wee building which straddles the canal and appears very much to be in its larger brother's shadow. There was an interesting wine bar, the smallest wine bar I have ever seen, just down the footpath from here in an old Tudor-style building.

A couple more churches were on the agenda too, with the Church of St Bridget (Kosciol sw Brygidy) well-known for providing sanctuary for members of Solidarność in the 1980s during a period of Martial Law in the country (a lot more about this in a future entry, but there is a monument inside the chapel to Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was murdered by the Polish security services in October 1984 due to his association with the trade union movement). It is situated behind the Church of St Catherine and was built on the site of a fourteenth century chapel. The church itself was built in 1514 and acted as the main worshipping place for the nearby monastery of the Sisters of St Bridget, which was set up here as the remains of St Bridget had been displayed in the old chapel here in 1374. The belfry sticks out a little here as it's far later, built in 1653, and clashes a little with the simple brickwork of the rest of the church, largely because the brickwork of the belfry is far lighter and the window structures more intricate.

Walking around this area, we also managed to take in the Old Town Hall, which sits further up the Reduna Canal beyond the Grand Mill. Built by Antonis van Opbergen between 1587 and 1595, it's a perfect example of the Dutch Mannerist style. It's a rather compact building, perhaps a little plain, and yet it has an imposing air about it as it looks down at a park containing an interesting nautical statue which I couldn't quite make sense of. The Town Hall, interestingly, contains a defence tower and aside from the interior, which again we couldn't get to see, the main highlight is the stonework around the doorway. This was probably designed by Willem van der Meer and beneath each bracket there are two faces, one pair of distorted masks symbolising vice and a more cherub-like pair of masks which represents virtue. There were also a few other churches around the Old Town Hall - the Church of St Elizabeth (which was built in 1417 beside a lepers' sanctuary, it's distinguishing feature being a tall singular tower at its front topped by a pointed green cone which looks a little like a missile) and the Church of St Joseph, which dates later, having being built in 1482 but was once again rebuilt after World War Two. We also saw the stunning modern red-brick building that now houses the main library of Gdansk, which represents something you may see in a Victorian city in England. Indeed, with all of the industrial heritage around, and some of the minimalist brown brickwork of the churches, Gdansk does have a slight Northern English city quality about it, a quality which was aided by the continually overcast skies and biting sea wind.

Our final stop of the day before dinner was the main railway station in Gdansk, again an imposing and remarkable brick building analogous perhaps to St Pancras in London. There is a KFC in one of the old-style buildings, an example of the reappropriation of historical structures for contemporary requirements I guess, but the platforms themselves aren't particularly grand. There are only five of them, which seems quite minimal for a city the size of Gdansk, but then it is a little bit at the end of the country, being a coastal destination. Getting onto the platforms was easy and we watched a few trains pull in and out of the station before heading back to the hotel and the BBQ, which I have already described in my previous entry.