Hotel Jantar Szczecin

The Plan today was to take the train from Berlin to Gdansk, Poland. I had carefully researched different routes and times. In the end, I decided it would be easiest for us with our entire luggage and such to make as few transfers as possible even though it meant leaving a little earlier than I would have liked. SO, promptly at 7:59, we are waiting for our train at Berlin's Hauptbahnhof. Wow, last ...

... cases fields! I wish I was exaggerating but when a guy in his combine harvester looks at you in astonishment and a dear then jumps out into your path on what can only be described as mud tracks along grass we knew the sat nav was out of its depth.

Even going back to the old map was a challenge, we had hoped to drive along the baltic coast but there were no roads which gave you any views, you could drive for miles to a seaside town only to have to drive straight back out ...

... had Polish currency, if we needed help with our bags...the list goes on. After he was content with our one word answers and awkward sidelong glances at each other he told us to follow him and he would point us in the direction of our Hostel. This seemed sketchy enough as it was, but things went downhill from there. After he got us off the platform and out of the big crowd he told us to just wait there for a minute, he then disappeared. We were all trying to see where ...

... 1085;и до Москв 99;, ни до Минск 72;... пришл 86;сь ехать в Калин 80;нград!

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From Szczecin we planned to go home, but... visa expires, and tickets to Moscow or Minsk was not... we went to Kaliningrad!

... 1079;а день до отъез 76;а... неуда 95;ница)))
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We spent several days in Rostock... We went to the sea, walking, cycling, and everything would be good, but I fell and injured knee the day before departure... I am a failure)))

... eventually located the restroom and got into the stall. After losing nearly 10lbs to the toilet, I looked to my left for toilet paper. None. Look to my right. None. I begin to pray to God, and look behind me. None. Apparently the toilet paper is not kept inside the stalls. There is only one roll that is kept outside, a heads up from my cousin or her family about this situation would have been nice. I won't go into details how I solved that problem.

... the train station. After some initial greetings we headed to their place for some food before doing some sightseeing. I really love having this kind of local support when getting to places unfamiliar to me. As for the city itself, Sczecin was a great positive surprise to me. I was expecting something gray and dull with lots of these terrible soviet like residential compounds. What I found, actually, was a city very much alike German cities with nice historical buildings ...

In the morning Kinga took us for a healthy walk through the woods north of Gdansk. She lives in a residential area, in one of those grey block of flats which you may remember from the old documentaries during the Cold War, but the forest starts only 5 minutes from her house. And when we left the forest, we were in the middle of dunes and then the Baltic Sea ! Such a surprise, and it was beautiful. I took 10 copies ...

Polen!
Etter å ha spist frokost på båten, ankom vi Swinoujscie i Polen kl.07 om morran. Vi satt oss pent på bussen igjen og begynte på en ny laaang kjøretur - denne gangen gjennom Polen. Vi stoppet og spiste middag i Sulechow. Vi var ikke framme i Krakow før seint på kvelden. Vi innkvarterte oss på et hotell som vi skal sove på i 3 netter.

A daytrain trip to the Polan countryside. A round up of friends and other guests to the wedding. Installed us in the castle, at Maiwecko. Had a few beers. Got to see the area, the naighbouring town. Had a few beers Played some tennis. Had a few beers. Rowed on the lake Had some beers. And so on. Then there was the wedding. Bente was beautiful and Kjetil stylish. Party, drinks, dinner and speeches. Lovelly. Great time. Castle weddings rule !