My stay was punctuated by running tracks both in Gdansk and Warsaw due to the Sports Centres being supposedly unused during the summer. The accommodation is cheaply rented to those who can find out about it. These Centres are large, unpretentious, made in an architecture which is generic and approachable to apparently but not actually all. A pared-back kitchen offers short and often non-existent interactions with other visitors. A hello is sometimes not reciprocated. Likewise, brief remarks made in Polish are often ignored by me especially when these strangers seem to walk the words out the door or into another room. One morning I smashed a plate incidentally cutting the edge of my little finger as I somewhat stupidly attempted to catch a section of the cheap plate that appeared to bounce. Of course, this was more of a reaction than an actual desire of mine. It would be unimpressive to catch a section of a smashed plate inches from the ground for a stranger whom I had no previous interaction with. The finger has since become mildly infected due to failing to find a plaster and adequately clean the cut, instead, it became a small irritating flap for a few days which would soil garments and bed sheets with an inoffensive but still noticeable modicum of blood.
The food I tried in Gdansk was good. Fried fish, sometimes vegan, actually rarely vegan, Israeliesque, piergogi, heavy, starchy. One afternoon, we ate on the top floor of an Arcade with three sets of tables and chairs it was modest. A highlight was the sour beetroot soup served in a paper cup. Other shops in the arcade were shut or unpopulated by consumers it was hard to see if this was because we had visited during a quiet period or it was regularly like this. A hum of delivery drivers would come to pick up takeaway lunches waiting with their helmet placed on the counter.
(originally written circa 16/8/2023 opened and revisited on 20/02/2024
