Solidarity in the shipyards of Gdańsk, Poland

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You can’t visit Poland without visiting Gdańsk up on the Baltic coast. And you can’t visit Gdańsk without strolling around the shipyards and reflecting on Lech Wałęsa’s Solidarity monument nearby. Today was a day of walking for Masayo and I, and my blood sugars were decent if not great – I even got through Indian food and beer without too much trouble.

We woke up a little later than usual. My BG (after the high last night) was 143. I’ll take that.

The hostel breakfast buffet was depleted when we got there and we only had cereal and coffee. Back in the room, our Scrubba laundry from yesterday still wasn’t dry at all because the room was so cold, but then I realized there was a radiator in the room I could turn on. Amazing what you see when you open your eyes 😛

I turned it on, it got warm, and I put some of the laundry on top of it to dry faster. Wish I’d noticed it yesterday.

Gdańsk is just a really nice town and every part we saw was interesting. First we walked along the seaside, with its restaurants and shops, big gates leading to the Old Town streets, and large boats moored alongside the wide walkway.

We went through one of the old gates and walked along a street with its weird gargoyles, amber vendors, and curious building entrances, and then over to the main walking street. My BG there was 193. A tad high, but OK for a walking day.

At 1:00 we stopped in at a Costa coffee shop and I got a big piece of carrot cake. Not a healthy, full lunch, but big and filling for now. I took a shot through my Bluff Works pants at the table. The coffee was good too.

We had been walking a little while, and had seen most of Old Town. We decided to walk further to the edge of town to see the actual shipyards, where there were monuments and tributes to the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement started by Lech Wałęsa in the 1980s. The city is proud of its early role in bringing about the end of Soviet rule in Poland (and in Europe).

On a nondescript corner there was what looked like an old piece of concrete from a disused bus stop. A plaque explained that it was in fact a piece of the Berlin Wall, pieces of which are on display in hundreds of places around the world. It’s the first time I’ve seen one.

It was on the way to the Roads To Freedom, some kind of museum or something that turned out to be closed. But the big Solidarity Monument nearby was impressive, and the area was really interesting — half regular shipyards with people working, and half monuments and displays for Solidarność, including depictions of its famous red-letter logo.

We wanted to walk back to town and the hostel and ended up on some obscure back roads. Not knowing quite where we were, we cut through a courtyard between some building and came upon a strange display: along a brick wall were several rectangular pieces of concrete with impressions of fingers in them. I thought it might be some schoolkids’ project or something. It reminded me of fingerpainting.

Then we saw a large photo on another wall, showing a bunch of people being lined up along that wall. A caption was in Polish, and it said “1939” – not a good year for Poland. What was this display?

It turned out to be right around the corner from our hostel, and when we got in the room Masayo looked it up. It commemorates an event very early in World War II, when workers in a post office were rounded up by Nazis and killed. Such an important historical event, hidden away in this tiny courtyard.

My BG, at 3:30, was only 74 so I had a couple cookies and we took it easy. Later for dinner we again had no ideas, and stopped at a supermarket. They didn’t have anything suitable for our dinner, though we did buy some carrot sticks to snack on later.

We actually ended up back on the main Old Town drag and a touristy Asian restaurant called Buddha. I ordered mutton biryani — very thick, high-carb rice, but oh so good. And sparkling water, naturally. I tried to take a lot of insulin but it’s tough to handle biryani. I’d keep an eye on it, but you can’t let diabetes dictate everything. It’s possible to eat Indian rice and have good blood sugar, and worth trying!

I didn’t eat all of it, but back in the room I made it worse by still being hungry and taking more insulin for a few cookies (and carrots). Then, having been given a ticket for a free beer from the hostel reception desk, we went across the street to the attached bar.

I sipped my beer while Masayo (who doesn’t drink) and I talked about where to go in the coming days. We seemed to be spending a lot of time in Poland, and my budget was wearing thin. And we’d only seen a small part of the large nation. But we didn’t want to skip everything.

We decided that tomorrow we’d spend a night in nearby Malbork, to see the famous UNESCO World Heritage castle there. After that we could make a decision about where to go.

My BG at 11:30 was 244. Not too terrible, for biryani, cookies, and beer, I thought. If I eat like that only occasionally I’ll put up with it. I took a little Humalog. We had to wake up a little early tomorrow so we went to sleep early.

Thanks for everything Gdańsk, you were great (if overcast and grey)! I do feel a kind of solidarity with you.

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