Berlin to Helsinki Day 7: Elbląg
Our last day in Poland!
A summary of this leg of the trip:
* Pirogies Consumed: 63
* Polish words learned: 37
* Polish words correctly pronounced: 0
* Number of confused people staring at our bikes and getup: >100
* Total km biked: 705
After hanging out with our host in Gdańsk until late last night, we still managed to get up and out (relatively) early. We received an insider tip from our couchsurfer in Elbląg (pronounced elb'Long) on which route to take, which ended up being even better than we could have imagined; one of the bridges was out for the cars so they had to cross the river in a tiny ferry that could only fit 3 or 4 cars at each passage. Even though the bridge was under construction, we snuck underneath the barriers to cross.
Mylène sneaking under the barriers closing off the bridge on our way to Elbląg.
The road was great despite being so remote and the next crossing was 15km away. So we basically had the road all to ourselves. Then we had to dismount once again to take a ferry.
Sometimes we have to get off the bikes to move forward.
In Elbląg we met our host, Anna, at the marina where she runs a scout organization that also keeps and rents boats. The body of water where she sails is also partly in Russia and she was once held overnight after having accidentally crossed the ambiguously marked border a little further north.
After dinner, Mylène was a bit wrecked after all of the activity and stayed home. But Anna and I went out on the town in Elbląg, which meant that we almost had the town to ourselves since nobody was out.
The town is under some impressive construction, while it's not a big city, it is still home to about 100-150,000 people and almost all roads are being overhauled. So much so that Anna, a local, lost her bearings several times after being turned away by several major intersections that no longer existed. At one, she claimed to have been there literally the day before and it had been torn up by the time we got there. Apparently there had been some kind of Mayoral scandal with how the mayor had budgeted the roads and he was forced to resign. But basically the town is only just now under reconstruction from World War II. After Elbląg was bombed and destroyed during the war, the remaining bricks from the buildings were transported to the capital, Warsaw to rebuild due to a shortage of bricks. Which left many cities without any resources to rebuild what once stood in some of these medieval old towns.
We grabbed a beer at a microbrewery called the Czarny Kot and headed back home where her husband was just getting home from work (at 1am). He is a helicopter paramedic and flies all over Poland to do rescues. He told us that the operation, which includes 17 helicopters nationwide, is covered by the government and if you have an emergency in a very remote location the helicopter will pick you up and take you to a hospital for free.
Tomorrow we will go to the third country on the trip and hopefully continue the Slavic words we've learned in Poland will not get too lost in translation.
At the entrance to Elbląg. They also had some sculptures (not pictured) that were made from recycled machine parts in the 1950's since artists had no media to work with after the war)
A summary of this leg of the trip:
* Pirogies Consumed: 63
* Polish words learned: 37
* Polish words correctly pronounced: 0
* Number of confused people staring at our bikes and getup: >100
* Total km biked: 705
After hanging out with our host in Gdańsk until late last night, we still managed to get up and out (relatively) early. We received an insider tip from our couchsurfer in Elbląg (pronounced elb'Long) on which route to take, which ended up being even better than we could have imagined; one of the bridges was out for the cars so they had to cross the river in a tiny ferry that could only fit 3 or 4 cars at each passage. Even though the bridge was under construction, we snuck underneath the barriers to cross.
Mylène sneaking under the barriers closing off the bridge on our way to Elbląg.
The road was great despite being so remote and the next crossing was 15km away. So we basically had the road all to ourselves. Then we had to dismount once again to take a ferry.
Sometimes we have to get off the bikes to move forward.
In Elbląg we met our host, Anna, at the marina where she runs a scout organization that also keeps and rents boats. The body of water where she sails is also partly in Russia and she was once held overnight after having accidentally crossed the ambiguously marked border a little further north.
After dinner, Mylène was a bit wrecked after all of the activity and stayed home. But Anna and I went out on the town in Elbląg, which meant that we almost had the town to ourselves since nobody was out.
The town is under some impressive construction, while it's not a big city, it is still home to about 100-150,000 people and almost all roads are being overhauled. So much so that Anna, a local, lost her bearings several times after being turned away by several major intersections that no longer existed. At one, she claimed to have been there literally the day before and it had been torn up by the time we got there. Apparently there had been some kind of Mayoral scandal with how the mayor had budgeted the roads and he was forced to resign. But basically the town is only just now under reconstruction from World War II. After Elbląg was bombed and destroyed during the war, the remaining bricks from the buildings were transported to the capital, Warsaw to rebuild due to a shortage of bricks. Which left many cities without any resources to rebuild what once stood in some of these medieval old towns.
We grabbed a beer at a microbrewery called the Czarny Kot and headed back home where her husband was just getting home from work (at 1am). He is a helicopter paramedic and flies all over Poland to do rescues. He told us that the operation, which includes 17 helicopters nationwide, is covered by the government and if you have an emergency in a very remote location the helicopter will pick you up and take you to a hospital for free.
Tomorrow we will go to the third country on the trip and hopefully continue the Slavic words we've learned in Poland will not get too lost in translation.
At the entrance to Elbląg. They also had some sculptures (not pictured) that were made from recycled machine parts in the 1950's since artists had no media to work with after the war)
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