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GDANSK TRIP * 16 - 21 FEBRUARY 2005 / Part 1

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - Our Delta flight was set to depart at 2:40 p.m., so, at about 11:30 a.m. Ted arrived at the Baltimore Airport to find his niece Terry already there. Terry had arrived by train from her home in Pennsylvania, and Ted was dropped off at the airport by his friend Marietta after Ted had called Eva to see how his dog Socks was behaving during his absence.

We checked in at the Delta counter after the long-winded lady at the counter had stopped chatting with her customer, and we were easily checked through to Frankfurt, Germany. Thanks to Terry having the foresight to check her boarding passes, she quickly found that she was given two boarding passes to JFK airport in New York, and none to Frankfurt. We had to go back and straighten out the mess.

We had time for some refreshments and food, which Terry treated Ted to, after which we headed to security with our passports and boarding passes and tickets. Security was a nightmare, with long lines of passengers wending back and forth, snakelike, through the maze that security personnel had set up.

Despite there being over a hundred people backed up in the slow lines, we did manage to find a shortcut through a defect in the maze, and we arrived near the security screen where we were told to take off our boots and coats and place everything in baskets and then onto the conveyor belt. This was very inefficient since the security people were idle where we were following their orders.

Finally, we went through the security checkpoint with only a minor skirmish or two; Ted was told to walk through the metal detector again because he shuffled through it the first time and was then told to walk "normally" through it again, which proved nothing. In addition, Ted's briefcase was sniffed for explosives by a hand held device.

Ted told Terry that he thought that this security method was ineffective and stupid since it was done by $9.00-an-hour low life who enjoyed telling people what to do and who really weren't trained inspectors in the first place. Later, Ted wondered how he got through security without removing his Pulsar watch which had a wide and heavy metal band.

At the appointed time we boarded our Comair flight to JFK Airport in New York. The flight took about an hour and we were served light refreshments. Ted fell asleep as soon as he sat down in his window seat, but Terry remained awake the entire flight.

At JFK we had about two hours to relax before boarding our next flight to Frankfurt, Germany. So we wandered around, looking at shops and then stopping to have some pizza and drinks at Sbarros before continuing on to our departure gate.

The flight to Frankfurt-Main departed, with us on it, at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. The plane was a Boeing 767 wide body, with both of us having window seats. This was especially good for Terry since she was a camera buff and enjoyed taking photos of clouds.

With the plane in the air, we knew we were about to lose six hours on our watches, so it was really 11:45 p.m. Frankfurt time when we departed. The flight was excellent, and Ted slept the entire time except when he smelled the food cart approaching. Terry stayed awake, mostly, until we arrived in Germany eight hours later at 7:40 a.m. Thursday morning.

Thursday, February 17, 2005 - The Frankfurt "A" Terminal where we landed was very nice with plenty of shops and many, many passengers milling around, quite a few of them appearing to be from India which confused us a bit. Terry stopped one of the Indians and questioned him, and he advised that he was an Indian selling "fragrances" to customers in Texas. We thought this odd, but accepted his explanation and continued to observe all the Indians about us. The plane we had taken from JFK to Germany was to continue on to Mumbai, which we thought was a village in India, but later found out that Mumbai was the modern name for Bombay!

The Frankfurt-Main terminal had billboards and signs posted everywhere, stating that this airport was a "smoke free" airport; however, everywhere we looked, people were smoking cigarettes, especially in the dining areas and in the "rauchen" (German for "smoking") areas located every so often. Terry went into the duty free shops and noticed that they all sold cartons of cigarettes, but that each carton was plastered over with large stickers that said: "Smoking Kills" or "Smokers Die Younger" or "Smoking Causes Total Lung Cancer" and similar large-print sayings.

While in the shops, Terry did purchase some minor items since Ted fortunately had on him sufficient Euros that he had received in payment from a German customer on EBay.

It was surprising to us that, if you did not speak German, that was no problem, since most signs were in German and English and practically everyone spoke English anyway.

We had three hours to spend before our flight to Poland, which departed from Terminal "B" which required us to take the Skyway train to get to our departure gate. There, we eventually found a clerk who could give us boarding passes to Gdansk. The only problem was that Gdansk was not listed on the board since the Germans refuse to call it Gdansk, and prefer to call it by the old German name of Danzig, a name it enjoyed during hundreds of years of German occupation of one sort or another.

When departure time for Gdansk occurred, we were led outside into the frigid air -- a snow flake falling occasionally -- where we boarded a special type of bus (mostly stand up) which was to take us to our plane. The bus ride was over a mile to the outer limits of the air field where a line of commuter aircraft were lined up in a long row. (During the ride we passed a very large number of huge planes of every nationality, including what appeared to be a large collection of green military bombers that probably belonged to NATO. This airport is HUGE !!!)

Before boarding our Polish LOT aircraft, Ted inspected it and noted it was a Brazilian-built Embraer jet which was in the news lately because of Embraer crashes caused by lack of wing de-icers. However, there was no ice on the wings, and it wasn't that wet, so Ted's fears were allayed for the time being.

We had window seats as usual (one seat, aisle, then two seats on the other side) and the plane was full to capacity. The flight to Gdansk was uneventful, with a sandwich (each half different on white bread) and drink, and took over an hour.

We arrived at Lech Walesa Airport at 12:35 p.m., went through customs with noting to declare, getting our passports stamped in a nice shade of cerise in the process. The weather was still about zero Centigrade and the ground outside was covered in several inches of snow and ice, and Terry immediately noticed through the window of the small airport that our cousin Darek Kardas was in the airport, waving back at her.

In Germany everyone shakes hands when greeting a person; but here we found the greeting custom quite different and somewhat unexpected. You are expected to kiss the other person on the right cheek, then the left cheek, and then embrace on the right side cheek-to-cheek. This was a little discomforting to Ted, especially, since he does not usually kiss men as an ordinary practice.

After greeting Darek and telling him how glad we were to be here and to meet him and his family, we took our bags to his car which was parked only a short way away (since the parking lot was small but sort of empty of cars). Darek's car is an Opel (he likes German engineering) and, after loading up our suitcases, we departed for his flat in Gdansk.

Car theft is the "major" crime in Poland (and some other European countries) since it is easy to drive a stolen car across the border and sell it in another country -- especially in Eastern Europe -- that does not bother with car VIN registration. Darek does not have an installed car theft alarm system, so, as a result, in addition to his ignition key, he has another key lock on his fuel line, this being located somewhat hidden down on the floor of the car.

(A few days later, when Darek was showing us around Gdansk, we went back to his parked car, where he started it with his ignition key. Ted was watching and wondered why he didn't unlock the fuel line, but didn't say anything. After backing up about twenty feet, the car died in the middle of the street!)

(Terry also noticed that most of the cars here were very small; Darek explained this that this was customary since gas was so expensive -- about $5.00 per gallon. Terry also commented on the lack of SUV's here, virtually none except for an occasional, but rare, box-shaped Renault, which appeared to serve the same SUV purpose.)

The ride to Darek's flat was short. His flat is on a hill in what would appear to be a group of modern apartment complexes. (Gdansk is a very hilly place.) Parking is underground and across the street, with garage doors opening on command after descending a sleep icy slope, making Ted wonder what would happen if your car slid on the ice and into the doors. However, there were no dents in the doors.

Inside the flat, which was very small, we deposited our bags and removed our boots, after which Darek fixed us a light lunch and coffee since his wife Ania was still at work and the children, 12-year-old Kuba (pronounced "Kuba") and 14-year-old Maciek (pronounced "Magic") were still at school.

Since the apartment was very small -- Darek was "lucky" enough to purchase it 10 years ago, it now being worth about five times the purchase price since modern flats are very hard to come by in Gdansk -- Ted had told Darek that he intended to stay at a hotel and that Terry could stay at the flat; however, Darek's friend Jacek volunteered that Ted could have his flat, located across the street in another complex, during his visit. So Ted trudged across the street with his bags and set himself up in Jacek's flat which was small, but very nice and modern with an expansive view of the gardens down below.

(Jacek, like Darek, works at the "Institute," and is a high level PhD, as is Darek. Darek has a PhD in fluid dynamics as well as degrees in thermal dynamics, but does not earn very much in salary since he works for the Polish government. He appears to earn very much less than he would in the States. and he works on government and commercial contracts obtained by the Institute. Ted suggested he network with his commercial customers as he could earn a lot more; but, Darek explained that just now he is tied up with planned post-doctoral work, but would keep that advice in mind.)

Ted traipsed back to the apartment where, when Kuba and Maciek returned from school, we gave gifts to the children (Terry gave them a magnet set and Ted gave t-shirts) and to Darek. When Ania arrived, we again had to do the kiss-both-sides-of-the-face-and-embrace thing which Ted did not mind since this was for a woman.

Terry, while unpacking her bag, thought she had brought with her several Philadelphia newspapers to give to her relatives in Poland. However, when she inspected her bag, the newspapers were missing, and, eventually, she found a paper in her bag stating that her bag had been opened and inspected by security in the States. Terry was very disappointed by this and speculated for some time on reasons why security in the U.S. would remove her newspapers and not replace them in her bag. Ted said it was probably just sloppiness on the part of security, but Terry felt that there were more profound and serious implications to the matter.

At 5 p.m., Ania fixed a large "lunch" after which Terry, Ted, Darek and Maciek (who speaks very good English as do his parents) drove in the Opel to the Old Town district of Gdansk.

It was cold, wet, and windy and dark, as it was now evening, and we strolled this interesting area of century-old buildings and churches and cobble stone streets. Because of the freezing weather, there were not many tourists walking around this evening. We stopped at a couple of places, including the post office where Terry purchased post cards to send to her friends and family.

Back at the flat, Ania was busy preparing "supper" which was served after 8 p.m. as is customary in Poland. We spent the evening exchanging news and views as this was the first time that either Terry or Ted had met the Polish Kardas family in person.

After dinner, Ted headed back to his flat, leaving Terry to her own devices, which included Darek letting her use the Internet to email her husband Kirk, back home, an accounting of the events of the day. Darek and Ania, watching her, were amazed that she typed with ten fingers, making it appear that in Poland one customarily uses the hunt-and-peck system.

Friday, February 18, 2005 - Since it appears that no one is up before 9 a.m., Ted left his flat and took a walk through the snow and ice to see what the neighborhood looks like. He was prepared to say "Dzien Dobre" ("good day") to anyone whom he met, but never had to do so, since people here tend to avoid looking at people passing in the other direction. At one point, he cornered a passersby and said "Dzien Dobre" and got a grunt from the man in reply. Ted reported this to Darek, who said that is not the custom, but, later, Terry found the same to be true.

At the flat, Darek prepared a 9 a.m. breakfast, after which we departed for Old Town to attend the Transalpine Influence of Art at the Muzeum Narodowego w Gdansku. This was basically an art museum with a fantastic exhibit of art from the most famous painters in transalpine history, including the most famous painters from Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, and so on.

The museum was packed, and many of those attending were children and young people who apparently were very much interested in the paintings exhibited here during this exhibit. Poland has a Ministry of Culture, which the Polish take very seriously.

Security was not as it would be in the States. There was no metal detector at the door, and the only security provision was that you had to check your coat. Inside, multi-million-dollar and priceless paintings, such as those by Rubens, Caravaggio, van Dyck and others, were displayed within arm's reach, separated from the viewer only by a velvet cord strung about a foot from the wall. Terry at one point almost touched a painting, but then withdrew her finger.

As a precaution, however, there was a uniformed security guard, usually seated in a chair, in each room watching the viewers, but everyone was well behaved and very much interested in the art.

(On a later Old Town tour of a magnificent church that had escaped bombing by the Soviets, while other churches around it had been bombed, Ted noted the beautiful paintings, statues, carvings, and other works of art, and asked Darek if there had been any danger of looting during the bombing. Darek responded that such things like looting was not possible as the churches were too important to the Polish people.)

Back at the flat, Maciek was back from school, so Terry, Ted and Darek decided to drive to Kuba's school to pick him up. While there, Darek obtained permission for us to tour inside the school, which was full of kids in their lockers, happy and noisy, getting dressed and ready to leave for home. We walked the halls and noted that there were many presentations on the school walls honoring various American presidents and events. (Darek later told us that America can do no wrong, according to the Polish people, despite anti-American sentiments in other parts of Europe. Darek noted that the Polish people are confused why the American government requires them to obtain a visa to visit the States, when Poland is such a friend and does not require a visa from visiting Americans.)

Both the students and the teachers and administrators seemed very happy and busy in this brightly painted school. You got the feeling right away that this was a good place to be, where it was fun to study and learn, unlike the feeling one might get in an American public school.

With Kuba in our possession, we drove back to the flat, and then Darek drove us (Terry, Ted, Kuba and Maciek) to the historic district where he wanted to show us a museum that showed the before-and-after photos of the Soviet bombing of Gdansk in 1944. (The Soviets were bombing the remaining Germans that had not yet escaped from the city.)

So, at the Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdanska at ul. Dluga 47, we were impressed with this record of reconstruction of this historic city. Photos showed ruins of building, with only some walls left standing, that have been perfectly restored, using as much of the applicable rubble as possible. Also shown in this museum, were some of the damaged components, such as burned doors, pieces of rubble, and other debris caused by the bombing and subsequent fires.

The museum also contained a collection of impressive looking furniture from the district, much of it from the 17th century with exquisite workmanship that can not be duplicated today. The walls were adorned with ancient and huge paintings and tapestries. As for security, we were followed by one or two young girls who kept an eye on us while we browsed the rooms. Fantastic stuff!

Outside, we continued our walk through ancient streets and huge German-built buildings, realizing that the brick walls we touched with our fingers were put in place by a bricklayer four or five hundred years ago. Strolling through these stone streets, byways, and large enclosed plazas made you, the tourist, feel small.

Darek noted that this reconstruction, which is ongoing, is very important to not only the Polish people, but to the Germans as well, as both are proud of this city. In fact, Darek said, this reconstruction could not have proceeded at the fast pace that it is currently maintaining without the large amount of funds being provided by the German government and the Germans themselves!

This reconstruction is an interesting current development under the "new" post-1989 Polish government. Under Communism, money was in short supply, and the bureaucratic Communist government was busy trying to construct housing for the "worker" class.

(Under Communism, large housing projects, consisting of small flats, were built and painted gray. Such housing was substandard and below the level of what cities in the States build as "projects" for the poorest class of Americans. Currently such housing is still in use, but is inefficient and unsafe, and can be replaced only after money is found for new construction to replace it.)

Terry noted that Polish houses she saw were brightly painted like those in the Bahamas (she meant to say Bermuda). Darek laughed and said that, under Communism, you had to be brave to paint your house in a color other than gray, as this would call attention to yourself, something you would not want to do In a classless society of equals.)

After wandering down timeless streets and ways, we decided to stop at ul. Dluga 31/32 at the Maraska Marek Krzuska, where we decided to treat ourselves to some ice cream, but ended up with apple pie with ice cream topped with whipped cream, all of which is good for the body in coping with the cold and ice outside.

Darek then decided on driving us to the Gdansk Shipyards, where the Solidarity Movement in Poland started, telling us on the way of how he had been arrested three times while demonstrating peacefully against the Communists. (You needed a permit to demonstrate, and that was hard to get, for political and bureaucratic reasons, from the Communist government.)

At the shipyards, which were now closed for lack of work -- with much of the shipyard work now being accomplished in the nearby Polish port of Gdynia -- we looked at various monuments built in honor of the Solidarity Movement and for those that fought and died for it.

We noticed that flowers were still being placed by visitors at the shipyard wall and memorial, along with candles. While standing by the memorial, we noticed a woman approach through the snow and ice and bring with her a candle which she lighted and left there. It was almost like a silent movie, leaving you to contemplate and appreciate its meaning and importance to the lady.

Nearby the shipyards is a steep hill with a large metal cross on its top, with the cross, split in the middle, extending up into the gray sky. We went there and climbed the snowy hill, which was somewhat treacherous because of the ice, but we did manage to get up on top, where we admired the view of not only the shipyard below us, but much of the old city off into the distance.

Ted's granddaughter Brandy Brown had climbed this hill in 2001 and had her photo taken at the bottom of the cross, between its two sections. Back then, the bottom of the steel cross had been covered in graffiti, but now it was newly painted. Ted climbed between the two sections of the cross and Terry photographed him as he stooped there with the inscription plate before him.

There were some World War II German bunkers nearby, and Terry asked Kuba and Maciek to climb on top of them so that she could photograph them. Terry had brought with her a state-of-the-art Sony digital camera that could take stills as well as short videos (MP3's), and spent much of her time photographic events as they occurred, as well as photographing anything else that interested her, such as plates of food, doors, floors, and the like. It was fortunate for us tourists that Terry had such a camera as it proved indispensable documenting our fast moving events.

When we had finished our picture-taking, we headed back on down the hill. The steps were icy and dangerous, so Ted walked through the snow alongside the steps. Terry became stranded on the way down, until she discovered the steps in the snow, which she followed safely down to the bottom.

For some reason, during our visit, Darek and the children never slipped on the ice, but walked and, in the case of the children, ran over it deftly with no problem at all, while Terry and Ted occasionally started to slip while marveling at the skill in ice walking their relatives possessed.

Darek drove us back to his flat, stopping outside of his complex to let Terry and Ted out, as Terry wanted to see Ted's flat. To open the door to the flat that Ted was staying in required a large old fashioned double-sided toothed key six inches long that opened the main lock and another key that opened the bottom lock.

When we finally opened the door, Terry was amazed that the door contained five deadbolts: three for the large key, one for the small key, and another dead bolt at top which allowed the door to be opened a few inches while still firmly attached to a dead bolt. Terry wondered why a door would need all these dead bolts, and Ted said they would be useful for a drug dealer. When we walked back to Darek and Ania's flat, we inspected the door and found that it, too, had five deadbolts. We asked Darek If there is a crime problem in Poland, and he said, no, just car theft.

(While walking around outside, Terry and Ted noticed that most cars had factory installed burglar alarms. However, there was that Renault boxy SUV-type that not only had a factory installed anti-theft device, but it would also turn on its emergency flashers if you got too close. Unfortunately, its flashers were on most of the time since there were plenty of cats around, and even a cat passing the Renault would result in the flashers coming on. Ted wondered how long the car battery would last under such conditions.)

(We also noticed that everybody in Poland had a dog. You could always see someone walking their dog. If you passed a house, a dog would bark ferociously through the fence. Terry asked Darek if the law required people to carry "pooper scoopers" to pick up after their dogs, and Darek said, yes, but that no one seemed to do so. He then explained that people in Poland don't particularly like laws that infringe on what they can and can not do.)

Back at the house at 4 p.m. Ania had a "dinner" ready of cheese pierogy which were very good. We then became occupied in various things, mostly talking, until "supper" was ready at 8 p.m. It seemed that every time we turned around, there was another meal, and Ted as well as Terry were concerned about their caloric intake, as both of them did not want to put on any extra weight.

However, there are exceptions. While Terry was occupied on the Internet, Darek was giving Ted a taste-test of different bottles of Polish beer, with each beer coming from a different part of Poland. All were excellent and unlike American lager beers, and each had its unique flavor and taste.

After supper at 8 p.m., which consisted of nicely wrapped pickled herring (sledz) over a tomato center, we watched video of the large house that Darek's father is building in the village of Jednorozec, Poland, which is in the interior of Poland and far from Gdansk. (Jednorozec is the original village of the Kardas family, and is the town in which Ted's mother -- and Terry's grandmother -- was born in 1905,) Darek's father has suggested that, once the house is built, Ted would be free to come and live there for an extended period of time.)

Terry, our official photographer, had accumulated, by now, a large quantity of digital photos and MP3's, which we were able to view on Darek's computer. The photographs were quite nice and, before we leave for America, Darek will transfer Terry's photos and videos onto

several CDs for Ted to take with him as a security measure in case anything happens to Terry's camera.

Later in the evening, an email arrived from Linda, Ted's daughter, and Terry continued to send emails of the day's activities back to Kirk in Pennsylvania.

Then Ted to his flat, and Terry to sleep in her little room.

M a i n

Gedansk Trip 1 You are here

Gedansk Trip 2

DNA History

L I N K S

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