24th and 25th July 2016

When we woke in Gdansk the campsite began to clear and as pitches became available we moved to a new larger and nicer area with two pitches, two picnic benches and near the bar. Once settled and now comfortable we decided to pay for an extra night and stay on until Tuesday.

Vickey investigated the laundry facilities and returned with a key, it turned out the key was for the washing machine itself which lived outside under a wooden lean to. The domestic laundry chore turned out challenging as the machine could wash for hours literally spinning with no warning when it might stop. The drying was even stranger as even though it was 30+ degrees with a slight breeze the washing stayed damp in the washing line for hours on end.

A short tram ride from the site and Gdansk was a great little city. The main Street through the town was full of street entertainers from men with snakes to Pirates with parrots and even fortune telling budgies. We strolled around for a few hours and did laugh when we realised most entertainers had two prices one for the polish and a dearer price for English 😂

With the biggest ice creams you could eat for less than £1 each we were really starting to enjoy Polish life.

The end of the main Street was full of electric sight seeing carts and mini buses, as everything else was sooo cheap we decided to take a look and before we knew it we were onboard a cart and off round Gdansk for an hour tour. We’re not sure we learnt a lot from the tour but we saw a statue of The Pope, a few churches and places of memorial for murdered Polish by the Germans in the War, we had Germans on the tour with us. As we disembarked the tour we realised the hour trip only cost us £2 each (10zlotys) so had been well worth it.

After our tour we located the Hard Rock Cafe to purchase our keeper Hurricane glasses. The cafe was unlike any others we’d been to around the world and certainly the cheapest so we opted to stay for a very enjoyable dinner.

The evening saw us back in the resort beach bar which had loud and very funny karaoke. While the kids played on games and ran round the kids area we sat and made some Polish friends turned out they were on the next pitch along from us back at the site!

Monday morning saw us all wake with thick heads, what a day to spend baking on the hot sticky beach. We all prepared for the beach with swimwear, sun cream and inflatables and took the short stroll to the very sandy beach.

It soon became apparent at the beach that no-one, even though there was a few hundred people there, were in the water. Every time someone dared to enter the lifeguards would ferociously blow a whistle. Neil went to see the lifeguards and found out that the water was out of bounds due to algae. He advised Neil that the algae would most certainly cause skin irritation and stomach troubles, could even lead to death! We would be staying firmly on the land!

At the beach the lifeguards had set up a water area for the kids with tap water. The children paid a massive 5zlotys (£1) to hire a surf board type thing and slide along a massive tarpaulin. It would turn out it was harder than it looked and 30 mins later Lucy arrived back saying it was rubbish!

After a few hours and now hot and bothered we left the beach in search for air conditioning, the dogs had it easy back in the cool air conditioned van.

After showers and dinner in the van we headed out once again back to the beach bars. Turned out it was feeding time for the mosquitos on Monday night and the bars were much quieter but every now and again people would preform the mosquito slapping dance, I became very good at this dance and was slowly eaten to bits. A scratchy uncomfortable night followed as more and more bites erupted.

Tomorrow would be on to a marina still in Poland hoping for less mosquitos.

 

Overnight Location– Gdansk Camping

Coordinates – 54.37071°N 18.73122°E

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