Rent a tourist guide
Guide to Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia
Introduction
Tri-City (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia)
Tri-City, Tricity
– or in Polish Trojmiasto” – consists
of three Polish towns on the Gdansk Bay, characterized by a close
cooperation between the towns and a common infrastructure. Housing 750,000
inhabitants, the agglomeration is one of the largest joint urban areas in
Poland, and including the surrounding areas and towns the agglomeration
reaches 1.25 million people, which forms a power centre with direct access
to the Baltic Sea – a power centre which may not have exploited its entire
potential yet.
However, what is special about Tri-City is the huge variations in
architecture, mentality and even language between different parts of the
agglomeration. Gdansk is the oldest of the three towns – actually one of the
oldest Polish towns --with a history going back more than a thousand years.
The town was razed to the ground during WWII, but was re-erected after the
war with respect for the historical traditions. The harbour front resembles
the channels of Copenhagen, Stockholm or Amsterdam, and the large main
street – Dlugi Targ – maintains a ban on motor traffic and is filled up with
activity and people. The area between the harbour front and Dlugi Targ is
packed with alleys and passageways broken by occasional architectonical
masterpieces, such as e.g. the Maryacki Church, the Opera and the Post
Office, which forms the framework of essential parts of the novel The Tin
Drum written by the German Nobel laurate Gunter Grass.
East of the city centre we find the harbour area Westerplatte, where the
Germans started off WWII with an attack on Polish troops.
Slightly north of the city centre stands the shipyard, which in the
seventies and the eighties formed the framework of the unrest which would
later lead to a change in the political system in Eastern Europe, under the
leadership of the electrician Lech Walesa, and as a consequence,
reorientation of the political situation all over the world. Further ahead
we see other neighbourhood-centres with a completely different character
than the centre of the Old Town. North of the medieval centre we find
Wrzeszcz with the Technological University and parts of the university,
further on Oliwa with residential areas, old villas, parks and Poland’s
largest zoo, which rather resembles a wildlife park.
From anywhere in the central parts of the town, north of the suburban
railway, there are only a few kilometres to well developed beach areas with
small restaurants, housing and residential areas as well as camping sites.
Gdansk has grown together with Sopot – an old German holiday town housing
part of the University of Gdansk, a forest opera, an extraordinarily long
wooden pier and also some of the hottest atmosphere in Northern Europe.
Because of the University things are happening all year round, but in the
summer period especially the town is besieged by happy holiday visitors from
all over Poland and even more guests from other European countries. Hundreds
of bars, pubs, clubs and excellent restaurants cater for the guests and the
40,000 residents. You may find accommodation in any price range from elegant
five star holiday hotels by the seaside to modern hotel chains and pensions
to private rooms in villas and cheap camping sites.
At
the very north end of Tri-City lies Gdynia – a modern trade centre with a
fish market, container port, marina and office palaces in glass and steel.
The shop windows leave an impression of quick turnovers of luxury goods, and
in general one may find oneself in another world, arriving from Gdansk or
Sopot – a place where money is not only something you spend, but also
something you have to make, and preferably it shouldn’t be moving to slow
with the money making.
The
entire area is bound together by the commuter rail, running non-stop and
quite frequently during the day and early evening hours. Furthermore, the
agglomeration has a fast ring road, a good network of local roads, efficient
tram connections and loads of bicycle paths. An excellent international
airport ensures connections to London, Edinburgh, Malmo, Copenhagen and
other German and European airports. You may also take the ferry to Sweden or
Finland.
From Gdansk, as well as
Sopot and Gdynia, there is a ferry connection to the Hel peninsula, which is
mainly inhabited by
Kashubians
– an old Pomeranian people with its own language and traditions.
Historically, Hel mainly consisted of fishing hamlets and navy units, but in
the summer time it is now a holiday area with a unique atmosphere and a more
relaxed way of life than in Sopot. Further down the peninsula you will find
loads of small pensions, specializing in lazy family holidays. You may also
get to Hel by car or by train.
