The weather is finally changing for the better, we had no snow and it was sunny today! This means that the snow and ice is starting to melt. The streets are becoming soupy and you can hear the water dripping from the buildings.
Zbyszek has wanted to go visit his old neighborhood, but there have been reports of trams and busses getting stuck due to the weather. Today seemed a safer day to go, so we took the tram out to where he used to live. He was in a huge apartment complex outside of Gdansk. We did have a bit of a delay on the way there – an ambulance had stopped in an intersection to remove a patient and their mirror was sticking out just enough that the tram couldn’t get by without clipping it. The poor driver tried to ask the ambulance driver to move it just a few cm and for his troubles, he got yelled at. We sat for about 8 minutes before being able to continue.
The building hasn’t changed all that much since when he lived there. It’s older and shows more wear and tear, but we’ve seen the interior through AirBNB searches – a lot of renovation of the interior has happened. He showed me all of the places he used to play – the little playground, the hill where he used to go sledding, the store he used to go to in the hopes of getting something interesting. His apartment was the one with the yellow and black horizontal stripes on the balcony.
After that, we went for a walk over to the coast. There is a large forest/park near his apartment where he used to play. He showed me the different places where he made memories – typical little boy memories, getting in trouble and nearly killing or maiming himself. It’s a nice park, and would be a great place to walk a dog. We did see a woman with her Beagle. The beagle was off-leash and she wanted to keep walking near a canal, but the dog had other plans. There was a dog park, and the dog went to the gate and barked until she came over to let him in.
We got to the beach and it was still covered with snow. It’s a lot easier than walking on the sand! There were quite a few people walking out there and even one person was getting ready to go swimming. It was funny to see – the swimmer was wearing a cap and a speedo, and not 10 feet away there was a toddler, completely bundled up by her mom with full snowsuit, hat, mittens, scarf, etc.
A couple of weeks ago, the water had started to freeze. It’s not frozen any more, but there are still huge chunks of ice. It’s crazy how thick the ice is/was. If you’ve watched the Netflix show Heweliusz, this is not so far from where that happened. I have been to this beach in the summer, and it’s so different in the winter time.
We were near the mall and the large (French) hypermarché, so we stopped to stock up on some of the things we could use in our final week in Poland. They had chicken and jalapeno pierogi, so I got some of those. It will be interesting to try them. They had some other interesting things – Peeps left over from Halloween, and frozen black and red currants available by the kg.
On our way home, we ran by the “official” lock bridge. I guess it’s not such a problem as the one in Paris, as the authorities haven’t done anything to stop people from putting the locks here.
