An American Economist in Gdansk: Torun

Although I have now lived in Poland for about a year cumulative, there are still many places I have yet to see. Poland is a great country that has the Baltic Sea on one end of the country, and high mountains on the other. It has officially been a country since 966.

About 2 hours south of Gdansk (between Gdansk and Warsaw) is a medieval city called Torun. Every time I hear “medieval city”, I get all history horny and have to go. Torun is probably most famous for being the birthplace of Copernicus (the guy who showed the earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. The Catholic church was none too please with him).

Torun was also untouched my WWII (a rarity) so all of its medieval buildings are original. Torun is a place I really wanted to visit last year. That said, this is not really a place that my family would enjoy. After the third medieval city we went to (and we went to several)- they seemed to think all 1,000 year old buildings look alike. So in deference to them- we did not make this trip last year.

I took the 3 hour train ride down on a Friday and had stayed at nice little 20 room hotel (the Petite Flower) right in the middle of Old Town. Torun has grown up over the years, the Old Town is still surrounded by the medieval fortification walls. But then new town has grown up on the outside. Great contrast of 700 year old buildings on the inside and modern 20 story office buildings on the outside of the walls.

The Petite Flower Hotel is the building in pink

I arrived about noon and spotted a coffee shop right across the street, called Kona. I thought that was a little odd as Kona is a coffee term we associate with Hawaii. I went inside to get something and began my rather poor attempt at ordering in Polish. The gentleman at the counter (probably late 30s), immediately recognized me as an English speaker- and started speaking English. Now this is not overly odd. I get that all the time if the other person knows English. However, instead of speaking a European second language English (called Euro speak)- he broke out in perfect American English.

I quickly asked where he was from- he said born and raised in Boston. How fun. He said he met a Polish girl (it is still politically correct to refer to women as “girls” over here). She did not care for the US and wanted to return home. She must have been quite a girl- as he followed her to Poland (and now is his wife). Anyway, he opened an Island themed coffee house. Over the next couple of days I stopped in a couple of times just to chat and compare an American in Poland notes.

Kona Coast Cafe

I toured the house (now a museum) where Copernicus was born. Walked the streets to see all the old buildings and walls. I went to the old Cathedral that was built in the 1240s. Copernicus was baptized there in 1473. And Pope John Paul II said Mass their twice in the 90s. I also went to Mass there on Sunday. It was rather cold that morning and 13th Century churches do not have heat. The holy water (inside) was frozen solid.

Had a great french dinner (yes, a french restaurant, eaten by an American, in a Polish city, across from a Pacific island themed coffee house).

Woke up the next day and walked through several other of the old museums and buildings.

After getting in about 24 hours of good medieval history- I got back on the train and left for Gdansk.

Now for the slide show.