Hey y’all, the last time I posted an update was on Monday night when I was in Gdansk. I’d just had a good evening of busking and was contemplating which direction to head the next day.
On Monday night I did some reading and decided that I would have Szczecin be my next major destination. Szczecin is on the Baltic coast and practically on the border with Germany. I figured I’d head there first because then I could start working my way south through the other cities in Poland I’m planning to visit without having to return north. While I was doing my planning, I got a PayPal notification from a guy in Kentucky saying his friend sent him a selfie of us and he wanted to send me $10 to buy myself a coke. I don’t think I’ve ever got a tip from that far away before, and it kind of made my night!
This was really cool to receive on Monday night.
On Tuesday, I checked out of my apartment and walked over to a nearby cafe to get a little breakfast before getting on the road. The old town was packed with people at about noon already!
A piece of quiche for breakfast from a cafe in the old town. It was ok, but had some very strong tasting cheese on it that kind of put me off. A piece of cake to go with the quiche. I seriously considered grabbing the rig after breakfast on Tuesday and making some money before I left Gdansk, but ultimately decided just to get on the road.
A wild old man dancing to a radio on his shoulder in Gdansk. He got a few coins from me.
After breakfast, I snaked my way out of the old town in the Fiesta and headed for my first stop on my northwesterly route – the port city of Gdynia – supposedly about 30 minutes to the north. Traffic was absolutely miserable (Poland, especially the Gdansk area has had by far the worst traffic of anywhere I’ve been in Europe) so it would up taking me more like an hour and a half to get there.
So long Gdansk!Bumper to bumper traffic leaving Gdansk. Absolute gridlock on the northern outskirts of Gdansk. It appeared that this construction project was to blame, as things began to thin out after getting past the work zone. Hitting the outskirts of Gdynia. A pier in Gdynia I did a minor detour to check out. The beach near the pier. The water here was muddy and gross looking. I wouldn’t have wanted to swim in it. The other side of the pier. I was surprised to see graffiti for Eintract Frankfurt, a German soccer team, in Poland on this building near the beach. I was hungry after sitting in all that traffic so I got a shitty burger from one of the beach food stands. Headed into central Gdynia and back to the traffic after checking out the pier. Downtown Gdynia. A Ukranian and Polish flag in Gdynia. The seaport area of Gdynia. Some lumber waiting to be loaded on a ship. A classic boat all “decked” out in Gdynia. A Polish navy museum ship docked in Gdynia. An anchor memorial of some kind at the port of Gdynia. Heading out through the central business district of Gdynia. Some more lumber I saw stacked up on the roadside on the western outskirts of Gdynia.
After spending around an hour and a half checking out Gdynia, I got back on the road to the next place I wanted to stop in. It was a city called Slupsk, and it was about 90 minutes to the west. The drive was mostly through urbanized areas and then a little forest and farm lands closer to Slupsk.
Leaving Gdynia. The terrain looked like this for quite a while. A random church. It started to become more forested as I got about halfway to Slupsk. Scenery from Gdynia to Slupsk Scenery from Gdynia to Slupsk Scenery from Gdynia to SlupskScenery from Gdynia to SlupskScenery from Gdynia to SlupskScenery from Gdynia to SlupskScenery from Gdynia to SlupskScenery from Gdynia to SlupskSome windmills approaching Slupsk. A roadside church just outside of Slupsk. Hitting the Slupsk city limits. A detention facility of some kind I saw in Slupsk. A big church in Slupsk. A very nice city park in Slupsk. The other half of the park. A WW2 memorial in Slupsk. The cathedral in Slupsk. I’m not sure what this is, but it looked medieval. Some communist era apartment buildings on the outskirts of Slupsk.
After spending about 30 minutes checking out Slupsk, I got back on the road for my destination for the night – Koszalin. I chose it to stay in not for any particular reason – just because it was a pretty good distance from Gdansk and would only leave with about an hour and a half drive to Szczesin on Wednesday.
Scenery between Slupsk and Koszalin. Scenery between Slupsk and Koszalin.A roadside religious shrine between Slupsk and Koszalin. You see a lot of these in Poland. Scenery between Slupsk and Koszalin.Scenery between Slupsk and Koszalin.Another windmill between Slupsk and Koszalin.Hitting the outskirts of Koszalin about 830pm on Tuesday. An impressive structure close to downtown Koszalin.
After finding the cheap hotel I booked in Koszalin and checking in, I set out to have a look around town and get a snack. It was kind of a gritty and dirty town with not a lot of interesting things to see.
The Fiesta chilling in the free parking near my hotel room in Koszalin. This was kind of interesting though – it turned out this building had been the Soviet command headquarters at the end of WW2. Info about that building. Some interesting architecture in Koszalin. The Koszalin cathedral, built in the 1300s. Info about the cathedral. The Koszalin town hall square. Ukranian, Polish, and EU flags flying at the town hall. I’m not sure what the flag on top of the town hall represents. Some bar food for dinner on Tuesday in Koszalin. Not too shabby! I see these everywhere in Poland. I know we have them from place to place in the US, but they are all over the place in Poland.
The biggest news from Tuesday was finally getting my wife Anna-Maria’s ticket booked to come visit me in Europe for 11 days at the end of July. We’d been waiting to book to see where I would be closer to the timeframe that she was able to come. We finally settled on a flight to Krakow, Poland and out of Ljubljana, Slovenia 11 days later. I’m excited that she’s definitely going to be able to come and that we know the details now.
On Wednesday, I checked out of my room in Koszalin at about 1130 and then got back on the road. It was an hour and a half to my destination for the next two days – Szczesin – but I made a quick stop along the route to have a look in the city of Kolobrzeg .
A memorial to the Katyn massacre just outside of my hotel in Koszalin on Wednesday morning. This was a massacre of Polish army officers and other social elites committed by the Soviets after the invasion of Poland. They intended to get rid of anybody capable of organizing a resistance to the Soviet occupation and they killed thousands of people. Back on the road – destination Kolobrzeg. A big stand of windmills west of Koszalin. I must have seen at least 150 of them in this area – a higher concentration than I’ve ever seen anywhere else. Some scenery on final approach to Kolobrzeg.Entering Kolobrzeg. Downtown Kolobrzeg. A kayak rental on the river running through Kolobrzeg. Back on the road to Szczesin. Scenery between Kolobrzeg and Szczesin. Scenery between Kolobrzeg and Szczesin. Scenery between Kolobrzeg and Szczesin.Approaching Szczesin and actually not far from Berlin. Hitting the outskirts of Szczesin.
When I arrived to Szczesin, I drove around to a few sites I was interested in seeing before checking in to my apartment in the “old town”. You see, Szczesin used to be called Stettin when it belonged to Germany, and it was almost completely destroyed during WW2. 60 percent of it’s buildings were destroyed, including 90 percent of the old town. It has been totally rebuilt since the war. So there really is not a genuine old town there. My first stop was to the central cemetery in Szczesin. I had read that it was the biggest one in Europe, so I was “dying” to see it. 🤣 I spent about an hour walking around in there and maybe saw 1/6 of it.
The tree-lined entrance to the Szczesin central cemetery. A chapel inside the cemetery. I believe these are unknown Soviet soldiers, based on the star and no name on any of the markers. I was curious what was under the green rug, but certainly didn’t check. This was a marker to the Polish resistance from WW2. Here’s a little info about the cemetery.
After the cemetery, I kind of zigzagged my way across town checking out some interesting buildings and things that I’d read about prior to arrival and then went to my room in the old town.
The cathedral in Szczesin. This is Szczesin city hall. Hitler once had a giant rally here back when it was Stettin city hall. Evidently there was also a big riot there in 1970. I read further that these riots were in response to a sudden increase in the price of food and other basic necessities under the communist regime. There were major demonstrations in several seaport cities of Poland in response. A pedestrian walkway in front of Szczesin city hall. A typical street in central Szczesin. The Szczesin cathedral. Heavily damaged during WW2. A naval monument of some kind outside of the cathedral. Inside the cathedral. Inside the cathedral. Inside the cathedral. Inside the cathedral. A memorial to the Polish home army (resistance forces during WW2) inside the cathedral. A cross just outside the cathedral. My apartment in old town Szczesin. My apartment in Szczesin. It was comfortable and affordable but the old town of Szczesin is absolutely dead. So I picked a bad area to stay in as far as busking goes.
When I checked in to my room I asked the girl working the desk about places other than old town with a lot of foot traffic and she gave me 3 suggestions of places to check out. So I headed out to take a look around old town on foot and get some dinner and then I got back in the Fiesta and drove to the 3 places she suggested to investigate if any of them would be worth trying to play at.
Old town Szczesin. Here you can see that the buildings are new and the ornate fronts are simply a facade. Everything was destroyed in WW2, mostly by allied aerial bombing. I saw a few of these around the city. I was wanting to get some Polish food for dinner but the place I went to informed me it was a 90 minute wait for food. So I settled for the Asian joint next door and had some sweet and sour pork. It was good but I was hungry again an hour later. Just kidding 🤣A very old church in the old town that is now a museum. Making my way to check for a busking location in the Fiesta. After checking all 3 spots, I found this pedestrian street to be the most promising. But none of them were very good really. I decided to hang it up for the night and come back here earlier the next day to give it a go. A big church I saw driving back to the old town Wednesday night. A cool looking bastion. Goodnight Szczesin.
On Thursday, I slept in just a little bit and then set out with the mission of possibly getting the oil changed in the Fiesta. It doesn’t really need it yet, but I had some time to kill during the day and I thought it could be a useful thing to get done since I’ve still got a lot of miles to drive on this trip. I had found a few possible places online, but all of them were booked solid until the following week. So that turned into a big waste of time. Afterwards, I went back to the street that I had settled on the day before and got some dinner and then set my stuff up to play.
One of the car repair areas I went to looking for an oil change. None of the shops there could fit me in without an appointment. A cool looking building I saw on the hunt for an oil change. Lunch/Dinner on Thursday. It was excellent. The waitress sold me on dessert. It was so so. My rig set up and ready to rock at about 5pm on Thursday. It really was an ideal location (at least as ideal as a place in Szczesin can be). I had foot traffic from both directions and a fountain with seats in front of me. A lot of people gave me nods and thumbs up, but the tips never really materialized on Thursday. I quit after 90 minutes and only had about 15 euros worth of zloty in my case. It was a bit of a bummer
After the disappointing busking effort, and having seen everything I cared to see in sleepy Szczesin, I decided to head back to my room and just chill for the rest of the evening. I worked on the blog and did some research and booking for my next destinations. I made the plan to head to Poznan for the weekend and booked myself a room in the old town there for Friday and Saturday nights, hoping it was going to be a lot more lively than Szczesin had been.
Heading out on Friday morning and passing the seaport in Szczesin. It is one city I definitely will never need to come back to. Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan. Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan. Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Another big grouping of windmills between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Scenery between Szczesin and Poznan.Hitting another traffic jam on final approach to Poznan. Finally made it. About 3 hours on the road Friday afternoon. Riding through the Western outskirts of Poznan. Western outskirts of Poznan. It’s always so strange to be driving a car right next to a moving tram. It’s kind of terrifying when you see the tracks curve in front of you when you are continuing straight. So far I’ve managed to avoid getting hit by one.
Arriving in to the center of Poznan at around 5pm, I decided to check out a few of the points of interest I’d read about that were situated outside the old town before finding a place to leave the Fiesta long term. That turned out to be a smart decision as I’ll explain later. My first stop was to see the imperial castle that was built for Kaiser Wilhelm in the days that Poznan was a German city.
A partial view of the castle. Inner courtyard of the castle. Inner courtyard of the castle. A monument in the inner courtyard of the imperial castle. A neat looking fountain in the inner courtyard of the castle. A cool building in downtown Poznan near the castle. I think it may have been a theater. A statue near the castle decked out in the colors of Ukraine. A city park in downtown Poznan.
After seeing the sights I was interested in downtown, I headed over to the citadel park on the outskirts of town. I couldn’t find the actual citadel I was interested to see, but the park was nice to check out either way.
Climbing to citadel park. I think this was possibly part of what’s left of the citadel. I was interested to see it because I’d read it was the location of the last stand of the German garrison during WW2’s battle of Poznan.
After seeing citadel park, I took the short ride over and checked out the Poznan cathedral. I then headed into the old town to find parking and check in to my room. I found the old town to be absolutely torn up from a renovation project that was underway. Another potential bad sign for my busking effort.
Poznan cathedral. Another view of the cathedral. A statue of Pope John Paul outside the cathedral. He visited Poznan and did a service there back in the 90’s. This guy was interesting. As soon as the light turned red, he went out to the crosswalk and put on a 30 second juggling show and then spent about 30 seconds gathering tips from the cars – all before the light turned green. I hooked him up with 5 zloty. You gotta respect the hustle lolArriving the the old town and finding it absolutely destroyed. I drove around for a while looking for parking but there wasn’t anything to be had so I had to settle for a garage that was about 12 bucks a day. But.. The car was safe and secure.. And out of curiosity I checked the pay machine and found that the price for a lost ticket was the same price as one day’s parking. So when I left two days later, I accidentally lost my ticket. Not my most ethical move ever, but saved myself 12 bucks. Arriving to my room in the heart of the busted up old town. But 5 minutes walk from the parking garage and only about 40 euros a night. Really not too bad. The renovation project has apparently been going on for a year already and isn’t scheduled for completion until 2023. The main market square. Poznan city hall.
After checking in to the room, I spent a couple of hours walking around the old town area to look for potential busking spots and get some pics of anything I found that looked interesting for the blog. Here are some pics from old town Poznan
First time I’ve ever seen a CBD vending machine. This is the shopping street just outside of old town where I’d do some busking the following day. Another Polish punching machine. This crew was really in to it. An old tram car that was being used as a dining room by one of the restaurants on that street. Pretty cool. A kebab shop ripping off McDonald’s name. Things getting busy on a Friday night in old town Poznan. This street was on the edge of the old town and was lined with bars. It was not torn up like most of the rest of the old town.
As I was walking around old town, I came across a couple of guys playing drums on the street. I dropped by to listen to them for a couple minutes and throw them a tip and while there I got to talking to a guy who was also hanging out there. He turned out to be from Belarus and his name was Vlad. When he suggested we get some drinks, I wasn’t too hard to convince. I’d never met anyone from Belarus and I’d had about 5 days off the booze so I figured busking could wait another day.
Meeting Vlad from Belarus. We wound up having a fairly big job on Friday night. It starts with “let’s get a beer”And then “hell, let’s do some shots”The next thing ya know, we were at a Latin dance club acting like idiots 🤦After the dance club we went to the bar across the street and met a guy named Mike who was also a musician. So at about 2am Vlad and I went and got my equipment and we decided to do a little drunken busking on the street with all the bars. We even made a couple bucks, but I know we sounded like shit. 🤣Mike, Vlad, and a random guy playing egg shaker. Mike and his buddy. Then a guy with a bongo drum showed up to our location.
Mike playing some “born to be wild”Then a British guy came by and asked to play a couple. He was actually really good.
The British guy jamming some soul music. Vlad feeling it after the busking event. Getting some late night kebabs before bed. Vlad’s hostel was like 7km away, so he asked to sleep on my floor. How the hell could I tell him no? 🤣
On Saturday, me and Vlad woke up at about noon and he took off to go back to his place and I slowly got myself mobilized to get a shower and head out on to the town for some food. I have to admit I was hurting just a bit from Friday night’s shenanigans.
Starting the day Saturday with a coffee and some cake from Starbucks. This is Dave. I had met him early on Friday when I popped in to a place that advertised itself as a steakhouse and whiskey bar. He was a hell of a nice guy and gave me some recommendations of places to check out in Poznan and told me to come back on Saturday to say hi and have a steak. So that’s what I did on Saturday afternoon. This stuff was a hangover killer and Dave gave me a nice employee discount on my meal.
Mike, the guy I’d met on Friday night and played music with on the street, and I had connected and he was interested in meeting up with me on Saturday afternoon to do some sober busking together on the shopping street I’d found Friday afternoon. So after my late lunch at the steakhouse I went to get my gear and met up with him to go play.
Meeting up with Mike on Saturday afternoon. We had to pop in to a bar and wait out a passing rain storm before we could set up to busk.
Here’s a short clip of me playing “hallelujah”Getting her done Saturday afternoon. Mike only wanted to sing a couple – most of the time he was playing lead electric guitar for me while I sang. He did a great job, especially playing music that was pretty unfamiliar to him.
Mike doing some singing on Saturday. Tips were a little tough to come by on Saturday afternoon. We pulled in about 30 euros worth of zloty in 90 minutes of playing, which we pretty much split. Mike didn’t want to take any money, but I forced him to lol
After Mike and I parted ways, I took my gear back to the room to recharge the batteries and chilled out there for a while. Later on, I stepped out to get dinner and then decided I might as well get the gear back out and do some more busking for the Saturday night old town crowd.
Some mushroom soup I had with dinner on Saturday. A schnitzel-like dinner on Saturday. A free shot the restaurant gave me with my bill. I wasn’t too much in the mood to drink on Saturday lolAnother fire show I saw on Saturday after dinner. I picked a spot near my room so I wouldn’t have to carry the gear so far. It was a pretty good spot because I had foot traffic coming from 4 directions and everyone was corraled in due to the fencing from the construction work. A bird’s eye view of my busking location on Saturday night.
Here’s a cool video Mike took of me playing “knocking on heaven’s door” as he walked by and heard me playing again. Dave from the steakhouse brought a couple of his buddies out to listen to me play a few songs. He’s a great guy! One of several guest musicians I had on Saturday night. A guest singer named Angelica that sang a couple acapella songs and then a couple more with me on guitar. She was a nice gal. Angelica and her friend and a guy from Ukraine that was hanging around listening to me play for a while. Not the greatest – not the worst on Saturday night. 192 zloty (about 40 euros) for 2 hours of playing. It was enough to pay for my room for the night, so I guess everything is relative. I was pretty tired after playing on Saturday, so I called it a night early when I got back to the room.
On Sunday, I checked out of my room and got on the road for my next destination of Bydgosczcz (pronounced BID-GOTSCH) which was about an hour and a half northeast. I just booked one night there as I was planning on just being a tourist and checking out the sights and then moving on. I got to town about 5pm and checked in to my room and then headed in to town to explore.
Bidding farewell to Poznan on Sunday afternoon. It has been a great place where I made some good friends. A VW factory I saw as I was leaving the Poznan area. Scenery between Poznan and Bydgosczcz Scenery between Poznan and Bydgosczcz Scenery between Poznan and BydgosczczHitting a roadside KFC for some lunch. KFC is not great – but it is quick, easy, and cheap. It’s kind of funny because when I tell people I’m from Kentucky the first thing they say is “oh, like KFC?”. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve explained that KFC is probably the worst chicken that a person can get in Kentucky. 🤣Scenery between Poznan and BydgosczczScenery between Poznan and BydgosczczAnother set of windmills between Poznan and Bydgosczcz.Scenery between Poznan and BydgosczczScenery between Poznan and BydgosczczI saw this sign upon entering Bydgosczcz. I know that it means no pedestrians, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that it could be adopted by a feminist organization as a no men allowed sign. My mind tends to wander to the absurd sometimes 😜A canal park in Bydgosczcz. My room in Bydgosczcz. 30 bucks, free parking, and a 10 minute walk to the old town. Not too shabby.
After checking in to my room, I set out to walk to the old town to check out the sights and find some food. It turned out to be a very pretty town on two rivers. Below are some pics from my mini-tour of Bydgoszcz.
Couples often put locks on bridges all over Europe as a symbol that they’ll stay together forever. A statue of a 1700’s river raftsman. The main market square of Bydgoszcz. A memorial in the market square to commemorate the hundreds of poles executed there by the Germans in 1939. This is a photo I found online of that very action in Bydgosczcz. One of the more gut wrenching WW2 photos I’ve seen because of the look on the guys face in the foreground. Another WW2 memorial in the main market square. People having a lazy Sunday at the park in old town Bydgosczcz. Some type of music performance was being held at an amphitheater near the river. Tons of people watching. A pretty good pizza for dinner on Sunday night. Another performance of some kind that I saw on my way back to the room Sunday night. They were pantomiming to music but I have no idea what it was about. The Brda River at sunset. Bydgosczcz opera house. A tightrope walker statue over the river, decked out in Ukranian colors. Historically, Poland and Ukraine have not been that friendly to each other. But the threat of Russian aggression has been enough for many of these countries to at least temporarily bury the historical hatchets with each other. It’s kind of like – my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
After checking out Bydgosczcz, I went back to the room to book the next few nights, work on the blog, and generally recharge my social battery. I checked out of my room on Monday at noon and went to a nearby shopping mall to get a couple of hygiene items I needed and some lunch and then got back on the road for my next destination of Wroclaw (3hrs Southwest) at about 1pm.
I got a poster Sunday night from a bar that I booked with this upcoming weekend in Czestochowa. I told them I’m solo but for whatever reason they said it’s gonna be that Kentucky Hotheads there. Whatever 🤣. I have two shows this weekend in Czestochowa and one show this coming Wednesday in Lodz lined up. Lunch at the mall on Monday. Another dose of Chinese food. This time I really was hungry again about an hour later. Fighting traffic again on the way out of Bydgoszcz. Scenery near Bydgosczcz. Scenery near Bydgosczcz. I told you I was hungry again after the Chinese lunch!
So that brings me up to the current moment. I’m sitting at a gas station cafe and putting the finishing touches on this post for y’all. After I get it uploaded I’ll be driving the other two hours to Wroclaw and getting checked in to my place there for the next two nights. After that I’ll be headed to Lodz on Wednesday to play my gig there and then to Czestochowa on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for my two gigs there. Then on Tuesday Anna-Maria will arrive in Krakow and I’ll be there to pick her up! So you guys, I will sign off for now and get back on the road. Thanks again for following my travels and I’ll do another update soon. Take care for now!
Zeb. I’m get so much enjoyment reading your blog and seeing the beautiful architecture/food over there. I’m so happy Anna-Maria is coming over to join you. I’m sure that will be wonderful spending time with her while you touring the countryside. Keep up the great blog and stay safe! ❤️ Betsy
Betsy
Zeb. I so enjoy your blog and the beautiful architecture/food that you’re enjoying. It’s wonderful that Anna-Maria is coming to be with you and the two of you will enjoy the countryside together.
Keep up your great blog and stay safe!!! ❤️ Betsy
Zeb South
Thank you Betsy. Always happy to hear from you. I’m looking forward to seeing her and hanging out for a while!
William Schwab
A nice slow pace drive. Excellent scenery. Lots of KFC and chinese cooking. You and AM will have a lot of fun.
Zeb South
Thanks Bill. Looking forward to seeing her soon.
Betsy
Sorry for the double post. Didn’t think the first post went through because I received an error message. Betsy
Bonnie Bingman
Wonderful photos and great towns!
Zeb South
Thank you Bonnie!
Betsy
Zeb. I’m get so much enjoyment reading your blog and seeing the beautiful architecture/food over there. I’m so happy Anna-Maria is coming over to join you. I’m sure that will be wonderful spending time with her while you touring the countryside. Keep up the great blog and stay safe! ❤️ Betsy
Betsy
Zeb. I so enjoy your blog and the beautiful architecture/food that you’re enjoying. It’s wonderful that Anna-Maria is coming to be with you and the two of you will enjoy the countryside together.
Keep up your great blog and stay safe!!! ❤️ Betsy
Zeb South
Thank you Betsy. Always happy to hear from you. I’m looking forward to seeing her and hanging out for a while!
William Schwab
A nice slow pace drive. Excellent scenery. Lots of KFC and chinese cooking. You and AM will have a lot of fun.
Zeb South
Thanks Bill. Looking forward to seeing her soon.
Betsy
Sorry for the double post. Didn’t think the first post went through because I received an error message. Betsy
Zeb South
No worries! I was double glad to hear fun you 😁