Arrival in Sopot
Sopot Thursday evening Aug 11th, 65 degrees and drizzly...
It is so dejavu all over again to be here at the Grand Hotel (where Hitler lounged after he took Gdansk to start the 2nd world war). I have a huge old fashioned room with a balcony overlooking the steel gray Baltic. A bathroom big enough for a convetion and the oddest bidet of my travels. So all is still right in the world.
I will write about my trip to Northern Poland in sections.
I feel as though I have been as close to the edge of the earth as I felt in Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas. Northeast Poland is a glorious/evocative/often troubling/quite riveting place. First of all, the driver was a friend for life. His name is Adam Serbenowski, 36, who is recently separated from his wife and 10 year old son, a guy working now as an actuary (and making semi big bucks) but who was an English teacher for 3-4 years and misses using the language. He showed up in a splendid Nissan hatchback....all up to snuff. Adam is average height, slighter but with a strong build, a roman nose, a shaved head, good strong eyes...good looking but modest.....and his English knows all of the idioms and even latest sayings like "designated driver" and older ones like "move it or milk it." The only caveat is that his sense of direction is terrible...but we had good maps and I am a dandy navigator. We took only BACK roads...little 1 1/2 lane (at most) pavements which wandered through the Masury lakelands and into the borderlands with first Russia (the Kaliningrad district), Lithuania and finally Belarus. We saw sights from Hitler's assassination spot to the memorial for the Jewabne pogrom to the largest muslim village in Poland and I want to write about these places in a day or two to come. MASURKAS did a fabulous job of hotels...and in finding Adam....I really NEED to sleep and reflect before I can be remotely cogent. It is fun after just over 30 years to be in Sopot again...all grown up and oddly chic (especially after the ultra boonies of the last few days)...and I so remember such a happy family time here then. All goes awfully well...the Grand is dedicating a computer room to me at no cost (Poles continue to floor me with their frequent little courtesies)...so prepare to be bored beyong screaming.
- FRED
It is so dejavu all over again to be here at the Grand Hotel (where Hitler lounged after he took Gdansk to start the 2nd world war). I have a huge old fashioned room with a balcony overlooking the steel gray Baltic. A bathroom big enough for a convetion and the oddest bidet of my travels. So all is still right in the world.
I will write about my trip to Northern Poland in sections.
I feel as though I have been as close to the edge of the earth as I felt in Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas. Northeast Poland is a glorious/evocative/often troubling/quite riveting place. First of all, the driver was a friend for life. His name is Adam Serbenowski, 36, who is recently separated from his wife and 10 year old son, a guy working now as an actuary (and making semi big bucks) but who was an English teacher for 3-4 years and misses using the language. He showed up in a splendid Nissan hatchback....all up to snuff. Adam is average height, slighter but with a strong build, a roman nose, a shaved head, good strong eyes...good looking but modest.....and his English knows all of the idioms and even latest sayings like "designated driver" and older ones like "move it or milk it." The only caveat is that his sense of direction is terrible...but we had good maps and I am a dandy navigator. We took only BACK roads...little 1 1/2 lane (at most) pavements which wandered through the Masury lakelands and into the borderlands with first Russia (the Kaliningrad district), Lithuania and finally Belarus. We saw sights from Hitler's assassination spot to the memorial for the Jewabne pogrom to the largest muslim village in Poland and I want to write about these places in a day or two to come. MASURKAS did a fabulous job of hotels...and in finding Adam....I really NEED to sleep and reflect before I can be remotely cogent. It is fun after just over 30 years to be in Sopot again...all grown up and oddly chic (especially after the ultra boonies of the last few days)...and I so remember such a happy family time here then. All goes awfully well...the Grand is dedicating a computer room to me at no cost (Poles continue to floor me with their frequent little courtesies)...so prepare to be bored beyong screaming.
- FRED
posted by ultimatetraveler at 6:53 PM
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