Gdynia - Gdansk - Sopot

Originally I decided to stay with Jowita and Jakub in Gdynia because that city is not completely overrun by tourists and the beach is closeby. I was planning to have some "relaxed days", not taking into account that if I stay with them for two nights, I'd basically only have one day for everything, for all the three cities. But you know the story of the donkey that is always smarter afterwards.. ;)

Anyway I had a beautiful evening with J&J strolling along the seaside.

The next day both of them had to get up very early, and as my mattress had lost it's air overnight, I as well went outside at 7am. In spite of my hosts warning that the water would be quite cold, I took my swimsuit with me, and once by the sea I couldn't resist and took a swim. Not cold at all, and the water really almost wasn't salty. I like!

I also tried building a sand castle using the dripping method I remember from my childhood - is it just me or were they more beautiful when we were younger?! :D

After I had dried in the mild morning sun, I took the train from Gdynia to Gdansk. Spending quite some time on finding the tourist information just to receive a very small and shitty map, I already realized that I would find any relaxation here. After one step into the old city, where a big annual market is taking place as well, one cannot escape the droves of guides tours all over the place.

Nevertheless I was quite alone when I decided to climb the tower of the Basilica and could enjoy the view.

Then I walked around a bit, taking more pictures - I guess the many people were contagious.

Thanks to the free wifi that is provided in central parts of the old town I found a quiet bit nice place to have lunch: Nova Pierogi. I chose the most popular version: the Russian one with potatoes, cheese and onions. There were good, but after Pierre and Monika had made me promise to eat some, I had expected more. Maybe I'll give it another try ;)

After this heavy lunch and because of all the people that even seemed to increase in the afternoon, I didn't really want to continue walking around in Gdansk, so I took a ferry to Sopot. Lazy me had wanted to go directly to Gdynia, but according to the tourist information, there was no such thing.

One hour layer we arrived in Sopot, where I just ran into a supermarket and bought some fruit, because the place was literally exploding. Then I started what turned out to be a 3-hour-walk along the beach (sometimes on a shadier bath in the woods) all the way until Gdynia.

It was really nice, although at one point I was really frustrated, because I was sweating all over the place and finallyyyy wanted to go swimming, but there was yet another bay I had to overcome, which I hadn't seen from afar. Ugh.

Oh, and there also was this sand cliff.

So yeah, completely exhausted I kind of fell into the water, which was still not salty at all, and enjoyed the last sun rays I the day. Awesome!