Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is an important event for the people in Poland. For this catholic country the day is an official holiday and most businesses are closed. Throughout the country towns and villages will close roads as processions make the rounds from the local church to temporary shrines that were put up the night before. This procession, in Gdańsk, began around 11a.m. at St. Mary's church. A huge crowd of people followed the procession as it weaved its way through the streets of the Old Town. While they were walking, the people were singing hymns. The priests stopped at the different temporary shrines to pray and parishioners would kneel down when the Holy Host passed by.

Słowiński National Park

After a 2-hour drive from Sopot to Zwartowo and dropping our luggage at the hotel, the group headed out again for the sand dunes at Słowiński National Park, Łeba. The national park is well-known for its moving sand dunes. The sand dunes have been moving towards the forest and are slowly destroying it.

With the sun out, the group took out their cameras.

Streets of Kraków

After a 8-hour train ride, we arrived in Kraków while the rain was pouring hard. We set out the next day to enjoy the scenes in Kraków and take pictures. Tourists crowded the streets in Kraków. The Square was full with people - tourists buying souvenirs or little trinkets from stalls; people basking in the sun while having a cup of coffee; street performers having their pictures taken by tourists and so on.

Day 4

The pace of life in Sopot is relaxing. A lot of locals take walks in the morning and evenings. Around 4:00 p.m. people were out and enjoying the sun as it has been cloudy and rainy for the past few days.

The Canine

While exploring Sopot, you cannot help but notice the amount of dogs in the city. Owners bring their dogs out for walks during the day. Dogs are required to be on leashes while they are out about in the city and in most cases they are. In Sopot most people live in smaller apartments, by American standards, and the dogs are often small too.

Day 3

Krzysztof, a close friend of Dennis', went to Gdańsk with us. Gdańsk is larger and busier than Sopot. Instead of posters for local cultural activities, there are posters for the movie - Robin Hood. Sopot also seems to have a more relaxing atmosphere than Gdańsk. One can see people walking their dogs at anytime of the day in Sopot but in the center of Gdansk there were not many people on the busy streets with their dogs.

After visiting the Solidarity Museum and getting to know more about the recent history of Poland, we visited the Old Town city center. It is the part of town where the buildings are from a different century. Gdańsk was part of the Hanseatic League of cities and the architecture looks a bit like what you see in Amsterdam. According to Krzysztof, the original buildings were destroyed at the end of World War II, but the town was rebuilt to look like it did before the war.

There was a huge crowd in Old Town Gdańsk. There were a lot of children in the streets and a group of children were feeding pigeons near the Neptune fountain in the main market square . There was another group of children buying ice-cream from a Gofry stand. Some children were taking pictures and looking around. It was lively and full of sound.

Day 2

It was a warm morning when we left the hotel to venture the town. There's a lot of restaurants on the beach. What caught my eye was this Chinese restaurant which stood out among all the other restaurants with its Chinese characters on the sign.

After getting to know the neighborhood, we headed off to attend a play. Fortunately, it was in English with little parts of monologues in Polish. In Sopot, one can find many cultural activities to attend. One can see many posters around the town informing people about all the performances.