I received two main reactions from people when I told them that I was going on holiday to Hel, Poland. Swedes tended to say “Poland?”, as in “Why?”, while English speaking people instead, picked up on the fact that Hel is pronounced Hell – as in opposite to Heaven.
It turns out that it is quite difficult to talk about Hel without making episodes of the holiday sound ironic. Like “The first day in Hel we experienced a thunderstorm”, “The only church in Hel has been turned into a museum”, “Most people in Hel are Polish”, “Hel is a small fishing village”, “The fish is great in Hel” etc and so on – the list is never ending.
So anyway – enough about that.
First we flew from London to GdaÅ„sk. The pre and post flight experience was horrible. I don’t blame this on the airports (Luton and GdaÅ„sk) or the airline (Wizz) I blame it on the security procedure now put in place for flying. Flying feels less glamorous then eating a egg and mayo sandwich. Surely it’s for safety. But I bet it’s not for our (the passengers) safety – since then the same procedure should be employed on all collective transports (train, buses). I bet it’s for the safety of people who are not in the plane. I bet it’s for the safety of the people the plane might crash into. Now, I wonder, statistically, how many people get killed from bombs on buses and cars in comparison to hijacked airplanes. And I also wonder what kind of security more important citizens have, and can have, against a threat from the ground vs the threat from the air. Im sure they have radars and military on stand by but… just some thoughts. Enough about that.
So after we had landed in GdaÅ„sk, which is the sixth-largest city in Poland, we took bus 110 to Wrzeszcz train station. Bus 110 was, as the travel guide mentioned, very very slow. What the travel guide didn’t mention was that the buses on monday mornings might be dominated by the female gender. At least that was something that struck me that day on that bus at that time. They were everywhere. And they looked very very healthy and the majority, I would say, fall way over the standards of what the media has developed as the beauty standard of 2006. That was then something that just stayed with me the entire time – people from Poland look so much healthier – and the girls, young and old, are very attractive. Izabella Scorupco (Poland). Eva Herzigová (Czech). Anna Kournikova (Russia). They have all shown the world that east European women are very attractive. But who knew that a Tuva Novotny would be average in Poland. Now I am in a very happy and wonderful relationship but back in 2002 I was miserable and single living in a town in Sweden called Karlskrona with the slogan – ‘a short cut to Poland’… not once did I take the boat over. Hows that for rubbing salt in the wound!
The train we got, which seemed to be the trains you get, was one of those old cute classical trains with a hallway next to the windows on one side and with booths on the other side of the train. The type of train with passenger car you have seen in old James Bond movies, the kind you see on old steam trains. The town Hel is located on the tip of the 35 Km long sand bar peninsula with the same name – Hel Peninsula. So the train out there is very nice and runs mostly right next to the sea, with a road on one side of the track and a sand beach on the other. The whole journey from the airport to Hel took about 2 hours. When the old and very classic train rolled in to the 84 year old train station it set an atmosphere that would maintain throughout the holiday. A feeling that we had travelled back in time.
My choice of travel literature also turned out to be a travel back in time. Back to 2000, Naomi Klein and her No Logo. Reading it in Hel definitely added depth to the book that I probably wouldn’t have noticed or reached if I read it in London. Not a lot of things in the book had relevance to Hel. Except maybe two sentences on page 118, which say:
Of course not everyone is equally amenable to the idea of treating culture and nationality as fashion accessories to be slipped on and off. Those who have fought wars and survived revolutions tend to be more protective of their national traditions.
Many people in Europe are aware of the fact that Adolf Hitler triggered the outbreak of the Second World War by invading Poland on the 1st September 1939. That was almost exactly 67 years ago. The 1st September was actually our last day in Hel. But I was unaware of Polands heavy involvement in the First World War. And the rest of their rollercoaster history. A short extract from wikipedia.org
It regained independence in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War as the Second Polish Republic. Following the Second World War it became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union known as the People’s Republic of Poland. In 1989 the first partially-free elections in Poland’s post-World War II history concluded the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement’s struggle for freedom and resulted in the defeat of Poland’s communist rulers. The current Third Polish Republic was established, followed a few years later by the drafting of a new constitution in 1997. In 1999 Poland acceded to NATO, and in 2004 it joined the European Union.
What I also didn’t know, is that the Hel Peninsula, together with the town of Hel, was one of the longest-defended pockets of Polish Army resistance against the German invasion.
So in Hel you are far away from the plastic lifestyles and the fast lanes of the west. And the only persons wearing anything branded was probably myself. The No Logo as a concept, and a book, to be honest, came out as transparent as an empty cd jewel case. But it still is a good read. I will write a long review on the book when time allows.
Most people live under the impression that if you can speak English you can be understood in most places around the globe. Well I don’t believe it’s true (and most of you have probably experienced it).
I find it really refreshing to visit countries where you either speak their language – adapt and learn – or bring out the guide book, the lexicon or you bring out your old charade skills. But even if the locals couldn’t speak or understand English, most of them were very helpful.
I must say that the Polish language, in rhythm and tone reminded me a lot of the Italian. I was quite surprised by this.
The food in Hel is good. Even though I don’t eat fish, which is supposed to be amazing in Hel, I found that the food was very tasty and well done. The portions were very small… or, the correct way to say this is probably that they served healthy-sized portions.
What was a bit weird was that they sold portions by their weight. Like 100g or 200g portion. At one restaurant we went to (outside of Hel), they couldn’t tell us the price of the dish before it was made and weighed. One place even sold wine by it’s weight. Now that can’t be right.
I don’t think Hel is a place for everyone. I don’t think everyone would appreciate it as much as Willow and I did. But if you are looking for a place where you can unplug from plastic lifestyles, and shallow end values; a place with brilliant sea food, a lot of small restaurants and a 35 Km long sand beach, then maybe you should go to the Hel Peninsula and it’s cute small towns.
When we got back to London Luton airport, we stood in the queue for passport control. The passengers from our flight got mixed-up with some fat annoying kids with english accents, wearing Umbro sports gear – well, I took that as a welcome home.
