The Shifting Sands

05.08.2018

0855 Flight to Gdańsk

1440 Train from Gdynia to Lębork

1530 Bus to Łeba

1615 Arrive at Villa Nautica.

Plane, train and bus; nine hours from start to finish. Not bad I’d say. All connections arrive on time. Arriving at Lech Wałęsa Airport in Gdańsk and finding your onward connections is a breeze – the floor from Passport control is marked in yellow, red and blue lines for you to follow, depending on your mode of transport for your onward journey. Mine is to Gdynia for the train to Lębork. And so starts my first visit to Poland as a Polish citizen. My father never visited the coast when he lived in Poland, but to be honest, the Polish coastline was tiny, just the stretch around Gdynia, between 1919 and 1945, Gdańsk was known as the Free City of Danzig, nominally independent of Poland and Germany.

Why have I come to Łeba ( pronounced ‘Weba’)? There is no family connection here that I am aware of. Łeba was recommended by a number of my Polish connections in Northern Ireland. I’ll explore the air and do nothing constructively, whether it is walking along the beaches or woods or just eating the delicious Polish ice cream, then that’s fine. What Polish I had acquired from last year has slipped away a bit, as might be expected, but with a bit of effort I will be able to get around fine. I am very reluctant to rely on English. Some German is understood here and so that can be a standby. I find it useful to read what’s on the advertisements and that can be a way of acquiring useful vocabulary. Today I learned that the word ‘wybor’ means ‘choice in English, hence Wyborowa vodka (popular in Britain) means ‘choice vodka Łeba, besides being a holiday resort is also a very active fishing port. Before WW2 is was part of East Prussia in the German Reich, but historically it has ping-ponged, as a vassal territory, between Poland and Germany. Today it is well and truly Polish. In comparison with some of the coastal resorts of Northern Ireland, it’s streets ahead.

Poland certainly knows how to provide a service whether it’s transport, information or catering and I have no issues on that score. The owner of Villa Nautica, Kinga, has recommended Bar Kogo as the best fish restaurant, Café 54 and Zakątek Klary (translates as Claire’s Corner)  for coffee. After experiencing a different take on baked cod, Kinga’s first recommendation passes with flying colours.

My first thought is that this is another good place (as yet unknown in Britain) to chill for a few days. I may try to take a trip to Sopot, the best known of the Polish coastal resorts. Perhaps I might get some fictional short story ideas while I’m here or seize the chance to catch up on my proposed blog ever since I lost six pages of it in a software glitch.

06.09.2018

As a very active fishing port, restaurants are situated alongside the docked fishing boats, thus the catch is offloaded transported straight to the kitchen, ready for that evening’s dinner plates.

The beaches’ outstanding white sands stretch for many kilometres in east and west directions whilst bordering Słowinski National Park. I’ve hardly been here one full day but I love the place so much so that I’ve forgotten the problem waiting just round the corner – I can’t get my suitcase open! Either the case has forgotten my number or it’s reset itself to something else altogether. Another delicious fish dish at Kogo.

07.09.2018

Walking on the beach today, I have never seen sands stretch so far over the east and west horizon in either direction. Who needs Spain when you can have beaches like this? Less warm obviously than Spain but you can walk about without having to take compulsory shade break between noon and 14.30. Temperature is around 25-26°. These are sights my father never saw because as far as I know, the first time he ever saw the sea was in France in 1940.

08.09.2018

A surprise every day and the first one of the day is that I can remember how to ride a bike. But seriously, I have never seen sand dunes quite like these ‘Ruchomy Widmy’ or ‘Shifting Dunes’. Located 8.5km from Łeba, they are quite immense; like a range of hills of sand. If the Baltic coastline throws up surprises like this, it’s worth further investigation. There is an FKK Strand, nudist beach, which also surprises me as this is supposed to be a devout Catholic country, until I learn that the Poles are less prudish about nudity. Less fixated about it maybe than the British. I have asked people to guess where the photos you see in this blog were taken. Dubai? Australia? everyone is astonished that it is Poland’s Baltic coast.

I’m tempted never to eat another British cake again. What’s on offer here and in Germany is way better. Italy and France are not too bad either and I’ve yet to touch on the ice cream. Britain should respect it’s real bakers, their own produce is very good, but we seem to buy prodigiously from supermarkets, which they are less inclined to do in mainland Europe.

09.09.2018

I’m still absorbing the atmosphere here, so another lazy day walking along the beach, stopping now and again to paddle before going for it – for a swim in the Baltic Sea. It is shallow as I have to walk out a bit before it even reaches my waist. It is quite safe as long as you pay attention to those areas where it suddenly deepens. It has insignificant tidal activity for reasons that I will not go in to because it sounds boring, unless of course that’s your hobby.

10.09.2018

My last full day in Łeba. I’d like to come back as the Villa Nautica has been so relaxing and welcoming. Now that I seem to have exhausted the possibility, for the time being, of discovering family history on my own, I will just be a normal citizen and who knows, it may just have been one of the best decisions I ever made. I just need to get on with learning the language rather than get by.

I will always remember and I repeat what I have already written about what my father said on his return from Poland in 1974 after his only trip back – ‘It’s full of Poles’. His Poland was a shared country with large numbers of Ukrainians, Belarussians, Germans and most important of all the Jews. Jews comprised 10% of the population of Poland. Centuries of contributing to the culture and history of the country. They were Poles and whatever small part I can play in this never being forgotten I will be honoured to do.

11.09.2018

After Zakopane, Kraków and Auschwitz, Sopot is probably the best known destination for visitors from the United Kingdom and so here I am, in the third of the ‘Tricitys’ sandwiched between its sister cities of Gdańsk and Gdynia.

A long wooden pier (the longest in Europe at over 500metres), sand and of course excellent ice cream but I’m more interested in learning a little of the historical background to Sopot. As Zoppot in the German Empire, it gained a justifiable reputation as a spa town and as such it developed from its historical significance as an important monastery centre in the Kingdom of Poland.

Behind the sea front sit rows of fine buildings, once houses and in the typical style of the Baltic towns which stretch from Germany all the way to Russia. It has also made modern day architectural contributions such as ‘the Crooked House’ a commercial centre.

I’m only touching briefly on Sopot but like all cities in central Europe, its synagogue was burned to the ground in 1938 by a gang of local the Nazis.

Don’t avoid Sopot if you are in the vicinity. I have felt a sense of invigoration on this visit and it’s back to Ireland tomorrow.

Ends