Cycling in Northern Poland
After volunteering for the whole month of July in Przywidz village, I decided to spend a few days of relaxing in Gdansk with one of my coworkers. Another friend of mine, Hanna, messaged me whilst I was there and asked me if I wanted to join her for a cycle trip. The way I read her Facebook chat with was something equivalent to, "Hey, I want to cycle to the Russian border! It isn't that far! What do you say!?" Me, not actually doing any research (or exercise), says, "Fantastic Idea! Let's do it!"
So, we start out on our journey around midday with nothing but a small backpack and our bikes. As we were planning the trip, we had a dilemma because there was a cycle path that led from Gdansk to Stogi Beach but once you get to Stogi, there is a canal so unless we wanted to swim, we would struggle to cross. Thus, we decided to go the road less traveled - at least in terms of cycling, aka, the highway. The first 15-20 km of the trip was on a highway/rough patches, and it even led us to hopping over four highway barriers with our bikes / running across the busy highway. After the first 15-20 km, we found there was a huge line of cars trying to get to Sobieszewo by ferry. Luckily, there was a pedestrian/bike bridge so we hopped on over and rode through the little town! Around this point, there was a beach and according to Hanna's map, there was a bicycle path. We decide to follow it and we eventually found ourselves on uneven, rocky concrete and then in sand. Well, bikes don't really work in sand so there was a lot of walking involved, lol.
I'd say after another 6 km, we stopped for lunch at a shack near the beach off this so-called "bike path." I got myself some delicious fish and fries! (As pictured to the left! ) It was lovely! I did, however, see a suspicious looking organ type thing in it which terrified me and forced me to beg Hanna to remove it before I could finish it. Yeah, I'm never daring with food.
Right next to this fish shack was the entrance to the beach on the Baltic Sea. As we walked towards it, we saw a beach library! What a great idea! (As pictured above. ) The sand was steaming hot so we quickly left and headed back to the awful yet shaded bike path. So, yada, yada, we cycle and cycle and eventually get to a village called Swibno. This village had a ferry that takes you across the water to…you guess it, more road. It was extremely slow and not really exciting - really nothing to write home about. The picture of my bike at the top of the post is the bike on the ferry.
Up the road a ways, we stopped for a drink and at the restaurant we found a bunch of kittens and obviously, because we're hopeless girls, were distracted for about an hour, lol. (As pictured below). So, as I am writing this, I am realizing how uninteresting it is to describe cycling... - "and so we cycled..., again”. I'd say after probably 10 more km, my bottom became so sore that I had to beg for Hanna's bike (which had a saddle meant for women). I really DO NOT recommend cycling such a long distance if you don't have the proper saddle!! I was using a men's bicycle so my ass screamed, "I hate you!" for most of the ride. With our planned route, we knew to expect to ride along a peninsula. In our happy little world (at least in our minds), we would be cycling along the sea on both sides and enjoying the trip. Nope. Nope. Nope, definitely not in practice. We basically shared the road with traffic that was surrounded by trees the entire time and were generally really annoyed. Whatever, these are the things I do to lose weight!! FML.
We got to Krynica Morska around 8 PM after officially doing about 60 kilometres. It is a Polish tourist beach town similar to Virginia Beach or Myrtle Beach with a variety of Russian, German, and Polish tourists. It has limitless beach shops, overpriced food, and an array beach clubs. We found ourselves a guesthouse called Victoria, (it was on the main stretch). It cost us 20 bucks each with a giant breakfast that included crepes and sprinkles (why sprinkles on crepes?)- so that was justifiable for the price. In the morning, we then decided to head on over to Russia - at least Russia’s Kaliningrad. The border was about 12 km from Krynica Morska so we left excitedly and about 2 km up the road we were soared down an enormous hill. I immediately looked at Hanna and said, "oh fuck..., we have to cycle it on the way back..." Shortly after 5 more hills, we realized it was nothing but hills to the border and hills are not my friends. Nope, Nope, Nope. Russia was going to be a failed journey because of the guaranteed torture promised on the return journey. We quickly forgot this idea and re-routed our trip back to Krynica Morska. With our new plan in place, we decided we would take the next ferry across the peninsula towards the mainland to Frombork.
Frombork is a quaint town with a Malborkesque medieval castle. It had a stunning cathedral, a tower with a planetarium but historically is known for Copernicus' (the astronomer) time spent there for studying the night sky.
When leaving Frombork, I was already ready to quit. I complained and whined and was probably the worst cycle partner. My legs were dying from the day before, my butt was numb, and my wrists were killing me. We checked out the bus schedule to Gdansk or Elblag (the next closest city with a train station). Because we had bikes, we were stranded/screwed until we found a train station. We called the Polish Rail and they told us that your only choice is Elblag in that area so cycle another 30 km to Elblag was our only torturous option.
So, on we go, cycling down more roads that we shared with cars and these roads were definitely not flat. It was constant hills which didn't help the soreness. We cycled for what seemed like hours and then I see a sign that translated to, "YOU'VE ONLY DONE 3 KM, YOU SUCK." After this discouraging sign, I decided it was time to give up and wait at a bus stop and beg a bus to take me. We flattened one of the tires to further convince a bus driver that we were stranded. Basically, we waited for 45 minutes and no bus came. We weren't even in a village, we were on the side of a forest-lined road next to a sad excuse for a middle of nowhere bus stop hoping for the best.
Okay, so we give up, pump the tire back up, and go. 5 minutes later the damn bus comes and won't stop because we weren't at the bus stop….. We cycle to the next village and find a small shop. Hanna goes up to the people working there and says, "If I throw 50zl at you, will you take us to Elblag..." (15$). They definitely considered it but ultimately didn’t know anyone who had a large enough car for two bicycles. All hope was lost. As we continued this doomed trip, it started raining on us which was really all we needed. After more trudging down the road, we managed to find a gas station. We're around 30 km past Frombork at this point (and 90 from Gdansk). I am seriously exhausted and at my pace on this awful saddle guarantees us missing our last train to Gdansk. Hanna again tried to find someone to take us to Elblag. Alas, the guy working there has a friend who lived behind the station with a giant utility van! My first attempt at hitchhiking I guess, lol. The guy was incredibly friendly and refused to let us pay him. We were elated that we had found a ride because one thing we didn't calculate was that Elblag is a city and it was a further 30 km to the city borders from the gas station and even if we had made it to the outskirts of the city, we would have had at least 3 more km to the train station.
All in all, we had a happy ending, we made the train, went back to Gdansk, and I took the most lovely bath on Earth.
Below are some pictures of Frombork and stuff I saw along the trip, at least the part that wasn’t of forest-lined roads or highways.
