Had a wonderful day today with Abi (the English girl I met in the hostel) in Sopot, a lovely beachside town. We wanted to take the boat, but it wasn't running since it was Sunday. So we took the train. However, I almost didn't get there. I also had a little trauma on the way back...

Sopot, however, was lovely. It has the longest pier in Europe, for the privilege of walking on which you are pay 3,30 zloty...each time...as in no return visits. We visited today, a Sunday, so there were lots of families and people about and a real festive, holiday spirit in the air. It was terrific seeing the ocean again...feels like forever since I've seen it, although of course I haven't even been gone two weeks.

So the trauma in getting there was that first, I bought my ticket and the conductor wouldn't let me on the train. Evidently I hadn't bought an express ticket. Fortunately Abi had run into this sort of thing before, so she asked the conductor if we could pay an additional amount to upgrade to express. This worked. Good news. We got to our stop in record time, but had some trouble getting off the train.

< interlude to describe the ocean...hey, I have to keep you reading somehow >

The Baltic sea was very beautiful, with green hills and pretty natural beaches. Other than a big hotel and the pier, there wasn't much development (reminded me of Oregon *sigh*). Some differences, though... no driftwood. I mean none. That was odd. And lots and lots of algae in the water (eeewww). But also there were swans! In the ocean! We sat on the beach and enjoyed watching them drift along and then fly, somehow managing to gracefully lift their huge bodies up out of the water and into the air.

< end of interlude >

So the problem getting off the train was that we couldn't get the door to open. We pushed, we pulled, Abi kicked it. A short, old woman on the platform saw us frantically pounding on the door and panicking. So she pulled from the outside. Finally, between the three of us, we managed to get it open and get off before the train pulled away. The old woman let out a stream of Polish, something to effect of (I think) where was the conductor at a time like this? We were exclaiming in English and profusely thankful to her for her help.

The return train trip wasn't much of a problem, but not entirely trauma-free. When I bought my ticket I just asked for Gdansk, and the woman handed me a suspiciously small piece of paper. I went back and asked "pochonk" (train) and she said no, it was for the tram. Aha! So I got the got the pochonk bilety and was all set.

After a nice lunch (I had some greek chicken salad thing, Abi had 'turkish pizza' which looked suspiciously like thin focaccia) we tried to go to Hel. The peninsula (only one l in Hel). However, the train ride was long and we'd missed the last one, so we walked back onto the pier, did some shopping, and took the pirate ship for a 3-hour tour. Actually, it was just a 40 minute tour, although the boat master gave us a scare at the end because he had some difficulty lining up the boat with the dock.

After our boat tour we hightailed it back to the train station to make sure that we could get our train (my ticket was only good until 6pm - another little oversight - and Abi had to catch the evening bus to Vilnius, Lithiuana). So we huffed and puffed up the hill. I was totally out-of-breath and fumbling around with my bag and packages (I bought a cheap new shirt since I kind of need an additional warm weather one) and I dropped my glasses.

They shattered. I don't mean just a little, I mean the entire left lens is split in half. So, I talked to a Polish friend of Phillippa, a girl from New Zealand who is staying in my hostel room, and she told me of a place called Vision Express that will do them in a hour (like LensCrafters I guess). So if my prescription works okay, hopefully by tomorrow's blog I should be able to report success. I am using my spares now. I kind of wanted a new pair, anyway, so other than that the money and the sunglass loss (I LOVED those magnetic sunglasses), it is okay. Fortunately, too, Abi was with me, as I couldn't read the signs, so she helped me figure out where to get off the train. (Actually, I have a hard enough time getting off the train when I CAN see - like the Szczein Gumience incident and the Marlbork incident. Abi jokes that I am train jinxed. I am glad that I am FLYING to Russia).

All in all, a full day, and a terrific one. Was sooo nice to be back on the beach, and after all the excitement, to be tucked back safely in the hostel. Please all be thinking of Abi for her bus trip to Lithuiana, that she arrives safely, okay? She is a terrific person, and a lot of fun to chat with. Give me blessings for my glasses too. Love you all...good night!