First days in Gdansk

We had a very early morning after that piano flop, which meant we had a very early arrival in Gdansk since it’s really not very far from Berlin. Gdansk is a city of about 580,000 on the Baltic Coast of Poland. We landed at 7a.m. but weren’t able to check into our place until the afternoon, so we had a few hours to pass. We had a nice breakfast and even managed to get a few haircuts taken care of (haircuts can be pretty interesting when we aren’t really sure if what we’re requesting is being understood–thankfully, so far so good). We were all exhausted but excited to be in Poland. Poland is a country we were especially looking forward to so we gave it 15 nights split between three cities, starting with Gdansk.

On our second night in Gdansk, we saw a performance by Jordi Savall at the Polish Baltic Frederic Chopin Philharmonic. Savall is a Spanish conductor and viol player. (A viol is played upright like a cello, vs under the chin like a violin… viols were popular from the 15th-18th centuries.) He both performed and conducted, which I had never seen before… Sometimes he would leave the podium empty and sit down and play the viol. It wasn’t always the cleanest musically but it was such a relief hearing music (even medieval music, as it was) after the concert from a couple nights prior!

Drukarnia Cafe — Michael and I loved this little cafe! They had such good coffee and the place was quirky–like so many coffee shops at home. We walked there each morning while the little guys stayed behind to finish getting ready for the day and to start their schooling. We enjoyed sitting with our drinks for a few minutes to talk uninterrupted–such a treat!