The last weekend in October, a group of 8 of us MSLSers took the 12-hour Stena Line cruiser ferry from Karlskrona over to Gdańsk, Poland (I'm more familiar with it's German name, Danzig). Although the majority of our fellow passengers were drunk truckers, we rocked the Hallowe'en disco like none other. Mistake? I think not.
The city itself felt very different from what I've seen so far of Sweden. Very few people spoke English; everyone smoked. German occupation is woven into the cultural fabric of the region, but the crumbling history of Soviet rule was everywhere apparent in the buildings and underground tunnels. The town has dozens of fortresses, adn almost as many churches.
The food was delicious! Pieroski and wodka. Pumpkin or fish soup. Yum.
The second night we went to the largest cemetary in the region to "celebrate" Hallowe'en the way the Polish do - by walking around the graveyard for a few hours, observing the incredible care given to the dead-beds. Thousands of candles sweept up the hillsides; the grave-tops were meticulously cleaned and decorated with flowers and wreaths.
The next day, we visited a castle an hour's train away. Unfortunately it was closed (being Sunday) but we walked around the perimeter and goggled at the brickwork and ironwrought drawbridge.
On our last day, we went to Gdynia; beautiful, moody port town on the Baltic sea.
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