Legitimate Weasel
Mar. 4th, 2018 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeIt's been a rather quiet weekend, largely on the need to save money. The main reason behind this is our attempts to pay off as much of the mortgage as possible before we enter into another fixed term at the end of the year, but there have also been a few special purchases we have made because things we have coveted for quite some time have turned out to be cheaper than expected right now. The main one was a fucking machine for the dungeon, but I have also ordered some bespoke shackles from a gentleman who makes such things in his shed along with a plush Lupe from the same person who made my fursuit, who I met at Gdakon. Some of these things I have wanted for a long time so I am quite excited to be getting them, but of course we must focus on the mortgage too.
With things largely up-to-date, the only days I'm yet to write up concern our trips away from the convention when we were in Poland last week. We did two trips, on the Thursday to Sopot and Gydnia and on the Sunday to downtown Gdansk. The former we did by ourselves, but Jaywuff accompanied us on the latter. We had intended to meet Tuxedo down in Gdansk too but our schedules didn't really coincide and we ended up missing each other (apart from bumping into each other on a street corner). The thrust of the Sunday trip was to show Jaywuff around the sights of Gdansk and to drop by the Solidarnosc Museum, as we ran out of time when we went three years ago. The weather was bitterly cold, down at -6/7C, so it wasn't much fun walking around. Highlighting just how cold it was, the wheel at the old mill was frozen solid, while the vast number of museums and buildings were closed. Still, it was great walking around the old town again as it is rather beautiful, not to mention compact. However, we could only really last an hour before the bitterly cold weather really got to us, with us searching for refuge. Jay wanted some good, so we ended up in the same pierogi place we went to back in 2015. I remember the pierogi here being rather good and so it proved again, with the black pudding ones I opted for particularly pleasing. Wolfie got Zurek, which was another top choice, especially on such a bitterly cold day.
Jay had never been to the Solidarnosc Museum and we were in two minds whether to go, due to the distance we had to walk and the fact we only really had ninety minutes to enjoy it. In the end, we decided to do it, and it proved to be the right call as Wolfie and I managed to do the remaining sections pretty swiftly. We had split up from Jay, who obviously wanted to start from the beginning, but he got a lot of enjoyment out of it too. We ended up with about half an hour to spare so we managed to retrace some of the stuff we had seen three years ago too, and it was great to finally complete such an important museum. However, with the rise of the far right in Poland since our last visit, the transitory nature of social change was at the forefront of my mind and it did make me fear for the future. The museum is perhaps a little too teleological in this regard, presenting the fall of communism as progress but not really addressing the systems that replaced it. Maybe this was progress, but is the direction Europe seems to be heading in a step backwards? Is it better or worse than the communist days? It's really hard to say and incredibly complex, perhaps more complex than this museum gives it credit for.
Thursday saw us visit Sopot and Gydnia. I had only been to Sopot on the fursuit walk three years ago, meaning I hadn't really had chance to look around. It's a rather charming spa and seaside town albeit one that isn't overly pleasant in the middle of winter. Indeed the guidebook clearly highlights that there is more to do here in the summer months, but there were still a few good things to look at. Upon leaving the station, we noticed a craft beer and upon turning onto the main street, Monte Cassino, we noticed a microbrewery. This was the one that was advertised over the carousel at the airport - one whose advert we got to see quite a lot of, as the carousels were broken for about fifteen minutes and we had to wait for our luggage. Before trying some of their excellent beer - four 250ml samples in a flight board - we decided to walk around the seafront area.
The first thing to see is the Crooked House, which houses a Costa Coffee for some reason. The building is modern avant-garde in style and was completed in 2004. It looks a little like a structure which has been partially destroyed by an earthquake and is certainly distinctive. Moving on from here are two main squares - Plac Przyjaciol Sopot and the smaller Plac Zdrojowy. Off the latter are the buildings associated with the spa, with Sopot's first spa house, complete with ballroom, having been built here in 1824. A second and third house were built in 1881 and 1909 respectively, but everything was destroyed in World War Two. The fourth spa house, built in 2009, an octagonal building with deep orange paint and white columns punctuating it, and wouldn't look too out of place at a British seaside of the same era. Tucked inside is Sopot Brine, a water station which contains water of 4.4% saline bromide, iodide and maganesium with potassium. It's situated in a cafe overlooking the sea, one level above the tourist information place. We noticed it as we climbed to the tourist info area, on the second floor of this building. We didn't get anything from the cafe in the brine room, but we did leave a tip as they let us taste the rather sulphurous, bitter and acrid water. The view from up here was lovely too, and made up for the fact that Wolfie didn't fancy paying for the privilege of climbing to the top of the lighthouse on the other side of the square. At 30m tall, this was slightly higher than the room where the cafe was, but the vista was largely the same. Furthermore, the lighthouse is no longer a lighthouse which was a bit rubbish.
When we came with the fursuit parade in 2015, we walked along the pier right to a little white building towards the end. Here, you had to climb up some steps then back down some other ones to get to the end of the pier. Since then, the pier has been extended sideways for some reason, creating a little harbour. The wood of the decking was slippery and the wind bitter, but we decided to venture along this new breaker. Looking at the graffiti, we deduced it was opened towards the tail end of 2016, and looking out to the choppy Baltic Sea was quite a desolate experience. However, the new breaker did avoid exceptional views of the Sopot skyline, which not only included all the aforementioned buildings but also the Grand Hotel, one of the finest hotels in Poland. Done in French chateau style, this traditional building is breathtaking, and we decided to take a closer look once we had finished our promenade across the pier. It was even more stunning close up, with wonderful gardens and a stunning view out to sea. It was a great way to end the tourist part of our trip before we headed up to the microbrewery for a few beers.
Gdynia is the port city in the TriCity area, and so it probably isn't much of a surprise that there's less to do here than in Gdansk or Sopot. Upon disembarking at the train station, we needed to find the toilet pretty quickly, and then we headed down to the dock area which is currently being revitalised. As we headed down there, we noticed that Gdynia is a pleasant if unremarkable city, but certainly a good place to live. As we walked towards the seafront, we noticed some odd shaped towers looming into view. These turned out to be the Sea Towers, built from 2006 to 2009, the geometrical shapes were certainly quite striking. It's now a residential building but interestingly a hotel is here too, which looked a little out of place due to the lack of tourists around.
Upon arrival at the port, we noticed that it was very much a summer destination as there were a number of mobile concessions and restaurants which would clearly be open for seasonal traffic. This was highlighted to me on our return to England as it turns out the Polish guy in our local Sainsbury's is from Gdynia and he told us that in the summer it's a great place. He also told us about a microbrewery near the shore which we hadn't noticed, which was most frustrating. The wind by the quayside was incredibly bitter, uncomfortably so, but this didn't stop us from enjoying a wander around. There were a couple of museums here, including the Polish Naval Museum, but alas we didn't have time to visit. However, we did get to see the ORP Błyskawica. Built in Cowes between 1935 and 1937, it's the oldest preserved destroyer in the world and one of the most heavily armed and fastest destroyers during the Second World War. Two days before Hitler invaded Poland, the ship was withdrawn to Britain, from where it fought most of the war. It's certainly an impressive beast when you are up close to it, and you can still see the torpedos and mine-laying equipment at its stern. At some point, it would be great to have a look around.
Next to the destroyer, there was Dar Pomorza, a completely different kind of ship. Built in 1909, this is a full-rigged sailing vessel and definitely looks like something from another era. Indeed, it was great to see this ship right next to the destroyer - two different examples of seafaring vessels used for two completely different purposes. It's whiteness constrasted with the grey naval ship and it was a pleasure to see them both in the harbour. Walking past these ships, we noticed another one which wouldn't have looked out of place in Pirates of the Caribbean, such was its intracately carved wooden frontage. This was dark brown in colour and I believe it was a restaurant. After this, we spied the aquarium in which we weren't particularly interested followed by a sailing monument towards the end of the dock, which we walked towards. However, the wind was getting increasingly unpleasant so after a quick look, we decided to head back to the city centre and a bar we had noticed en route called AleBrowar Gdynia. We had seen this bar as we walked down Starowiejska towards the harbour. This turned out to be a fantastic find, with fourteen craft beers on tap and small sample sizes, meaning we could try a fair number of them. We ended up going for seven - the seventh having run out halfway through the pour so we were given it for free. The bar didn't do food, but they have a relationship with Czerwony Piec, the pizza place next door, so I headed over there to grab something to eat. They cooked it on site and told me to be back in eleven minutes to collect the order. I then just brought it back to the bar next door. It was a great system and a great pizza too - I had local spiced salami while Wolfie went for nduja.
It was a shame to leave the bar - it was clearly a family-run affair as a kid was walking around as if he owned the place, while there was a lady who was clearly one of the owner's wives there too. The staff were all knowledgeable and friendly, while the beer was incredibly strong indeed. We didn't get to try an awful lot of craft beer in Poland this time but what we did try suggests the scene has gotten a lot stronger there since our last visit. It's also quite ubiquitous in the shops, as the delicatessan over the road from our hotel stocked quite the selection. Still, we needed to head back to the hotel after our pizza and drink at AleBrowar so we grudgingly left the place shortly after 7pm and made it back to the con. We resolved to come back with some furs who expressed an interest for a few drinks later during our trip, but this never transpired. We will be back again though, that's for definite.
With things largely up-to-date, the only days I'm yet to write up concern our trips away from the convention when we were in Poland last week. We did two trips, on the Thursday to Sopot and Gydnia and on the Sunday to downtown Gdansk. The former we did by ourselves, but Jaywuff accompanied us on the latter. We had intended to meet Tuxedo down in Gdansk too but our schedules didn't really coincide and we ended up missing each other (apart from bumping into each other on a street corner). The thrust of the Sunday trip was to show Jaywuff around the sights of Gdansk and to drop by the Solidarnosc Museum, as we ran out of time when we went three years ago. The weather was bitterly cold, down at -6/7C, so it wasn't much fun walking around. Highlighting just how cold it was, the wheel at the old mill was frozen solid, while the vast number of museums and buildings were closed. Still, it was great walking around the old town again as it is rather beautiful, not to mention compact. However, we could only really last an hour before the bitterly cold weather really got to us, with us searching for refuge. Jay wanted some good, so we ended up in the same pierogi place we went to back in 2015. I remember the pierogi here being rather good and so it proved again, with the black pudding ones I opted for particularly pleasing. Wolfie got Zurek, which was another top choice, especially on such a bitterly cold day.
Jay had never been to the Solidarnosc Museum and we were in two minds whether to go, due to the distance we had to walk and the fact we only really had ninety minutes to enjoy it. In the end, we decided to do it, and it proved to be the right call as Wolfie and I managed to do the remaining sections pretty swiftly. We had split up from Jay, who obviously wanted to start from the beginning, but he got a lot of enjoyment out of it too. We ended up with about half an hour to spare so we managed to retrace some of the stuff we had seen three years ago too, and it was great to finally complete such an important museum. However, with the rise of the far right in Poland since our last visit, the transitory nature of social change was at the forefront of my mind and it did make me fear for the future. The museum is perhaps a little too teleological in this regard, presenting the fall of communism as progress but not really addressing the systems that replaced it. Maybe this was progress, but is the direction Europe seems to be heading in a step backwards? Is it better or worse than the communist days? It's really hard to say and incredibly complex, perhaps more complex than this museum gives it credit for.
Thursday saw us visit Sopot and Gydnia. I had only been to Sopot on the fursuit walk three years ago, meaning I hadn't really had chance to look around. It's a rather charming spa and seaside town albeit one that isn't overly pleasant in the middle of winter. Indeed the guidebook clearly highlights that there is more to do here in the summer months, but there were still a few good things to look at. Upon leaving the station, we noticed a craft beer and upon turning onto the main street, Monte Cassino, we noticed a microbrewery. This was the one that was advertised over the carousel at the airport - one whose advert we got to see quite a lot of, as the carousels were broken for about fifteen minutes and we had to wait for our luggage. Before trying some of their excellent beer - four 250ml samples in a flight board - we decided to walk around the seafront area.
The first thing to see is the Crooked House, which houses a Costa Coffee for some reason. The building is modern avant-garde in style and was completed in 2004. It looks a little like a structure which has been partially destroyed by an earthquake and is certainly distinctive. Moving on from here are two main squares - Plac Przyjaciol Sopot and the smaller Plac Zdrojowy. Off the latter are the buildings associated with the spa, with Sopot's first spa house, complete with ballroom, having been built here in 1824. A second and third house were built in 1881 and 1909 respectively, but everything was destroyed in World War Two. The fourth spa house, built in 2009, an octagonal building with deep orange paint and white columns punctuating it, and wouldn't look too out of place at a British seaside of the same era. Tucked inside is Sopot Brine, a water station which contains water of 4.4% saline bromide, iodide and maganesium with potassium. It's situated in a cafe overlooking the sea, one level above the tourist information place. We noticed it as we climbed to the tourist info area, on the second floor of this building. We didn't get anything from the cafe in the brine room, but we did leave a tip as they let us taste the rather sulphurous, bitter and acrid water. The view from up here was lovely too, and made up for the fact that Wolfie didn't fancy paying for the privilege of climbing to the top of the lighthouse on the other side of the square. At 30m tall, this was slightly higher than the room where the cafe was, but the vista was largely the same. Furthermore, the lighthouse is no longer a lighthouse which was a bit rubbish.
When we came with the fursuit parade in 2015, we walked along the pier right to a little white building towards the end. Here, you had to climb up some steps then back down some other ones to get to the end of the pier. Since then, the pier has been extended sideways for some reason, creating a little harbour. The wood of the decking was slippery and the wind bitter, but we decided to venture along this new breaker. Looking at the graffiti, we deduced it was opened towards the tail end of 2016, and looking out to the choppy Baltic Sea was quite a desolate experience. However, the new breaker did avoid exceptional views of the Sopot skyline, which not only included all the aforementioned buildings but also the Grand Hotel, one of the finest hotels in Poland. Done in French chateau style, this traditional building is breathtaking, and we decided to take a closer look once we had finished our promenade across the pier. It was even more stunning close up, with wonderful gardens and a stunning view out to sea. It was a great way to end the tourist part of our trip before we headed up to the microbrewery for a few beers.
Gdynia is the port city in the TriCity area, and so it probably isn't much of a surprise that there's less to do here than in Gdansk or Sopot. Upon disembarking at the train station, we needed to find the toilet pretty quickly, and then we headed down to the dock area which is currently being revitalised. As we headed down there, we noticed that Gdynia is a pleasant if unremarkable city, but certainly a good place to live. As we walked towards the seafront, we noticed some odd shaped towers looming into view. These turned out to be the Sea Towers, built from 2006 to 2009, the geometrical shapes were certainly quite striking. It's now a residential building but interestingly a hotel is here too, which looked a little out of place due to the lack of tourists around.
Upon arrival at the port, we noticed that it was very much a summer destination as there were a number of mobile concessions and restaurants which would clearly be open for seasonal traffic. This was highlighted to me on our return to England as it turns out the Polish guy in our local Sainsbury's is from Gdynia and he told us that in the summer it's a great place. He also told us about a microbrewery near the shore which we hadn't noticed, which was most frustrating. The wind by the quayside was incredibly bitter, uncomfortably so, but this didn't stop us from enjoying a wander around. There were a couple of museums here, including the Polish Naval Museum, but alas we didn't have time to visit. However, we did get to see the ORP Błyskawica. Built in Cowes between 1935 and 1937, it's the oldest preserved destroyer in the world and one of the most heavily armed and fastest destroyers during the Second World War. Two days before Hitler invaded Poland, the ship was withdrawn to Britain, from where it fought most of the war. It's certainly an impressive beast when you are up close to it, and you can still see the torpedos and mine-laying equipment at its stern. At some point, it would be great to have a look around.
Next to the destroyer, there was Dar Pomorza, a completely different kind of ship. Built in 1909, this is a full-rigged sailing vessel and definitely looks like something from another era. Indeed, it was great to see this ship right next to the destroyer - two different examples of seafaring vessels used for two completely different purposes. It's whiteness constrasted with the grey naval ship and it was a pleasure to see them both in the harbour. Walking past these ships, we noticed another one which wouldn't have looked out of place in Pirates of the Caribbean, such was its intracately carved wooden frontage. This was dark brown in colour and I believe it was a restaurant. After this, we spied the aquarium in which we weren't particularly interested followed by a sailing monument towards the end of the dock, which we walked towards. However, the wind was getting increasingly unpleasant so after a quick look, we decided to head back to the city centre and a bar we had noticed en route called AleBrowar Gdynia. We had seen this bar as we walked down Starowiejska towards the harbour. This turned out to be a fantastic find, with fourteen craft beers on tap and small sample sizes, meaning we could try a fair number of them. We ended up going for seven - the seventh having run out halfway through the pour so we were given it for free. The bar didn't do food, but they have a relationship with Czerwony Piec, the pizza place next door, so I headed over there to grab something to eat. They cooked it on site and told me to be back in eleven minutes to collect the order. I then just brought it back to the bar next door. It was a great system and a great pizza too - I had local spiced salami while Wolfie went for nduja.
It was a shame to leave the bar - it was clearly a family-run affair as a kid was walking around as if he owned the place, while there was a lady who was clearly one of the owner's wives there too. The staff were all knowledgeable and friendly, while the beer was incredibly strong indeed. We didn't get to try an awful lot of craft beer in Poland this time but what we did try suggests the scene has gotten a lot stronger there since our last visit. It's also quite ubiquitous in the shops, as the delicatessan over the road from our hotel stocked quite the selection. Still, we needed to head back to the hotel after our pizza and drink at AleBrowar so we grudgingly left the place shortly after 7pm and made it back to the con. We resolved to come back with some furs who expressed an interest for a few drinks later during our trip, but this never transpired. We will be back again though, that's for definite.
