Gdansk Getaway: From bagels and pirogies to free art and spring blossoms
In mid April me and Dan travelled to Gdansk. We spent four days in the city enjoying everything it had to offer: Spring in full bloom, delicious pirogies, refreshing beer, beautiful architecture, loads of art and some history. It was a very relaxed trip where we had not planned a lot and let our feet steer us each day. In my opinion a great way to travel.
Here’s my personal, curated guide to a Gdansk Getaway covering everything from food and cafés to art and history. At the end of the post I have attached a curated map containing all the locations mentioned in this post. Enjoy!
Sunshine, bagels, free art and good vibes
We started our visit in Gdansk by going for a walk to find breakfast / brunch. It was a Monday and Gdansk greeted us with sunshine, blue skies and rows upon rows of colourful houses! After wandering for a bit, and keeping an eye out on Google Maps, we made our way to Balans Coffee Speciality & Breakfast – a small but modern café that boasts 4.9 stars on Google! Bagels and excellent coffee made in the most stunning coffee machine I’ve laid eyes upon? Count me in!
All the photos in from this trip were shot on the OM-5 paired with the M.Zuiko 20mm F1.4.
It is honestly a great kit for travel, lifestyle and street photography as well.
They were edited using my preset collection that you can purchase here.
After a good, hearty breakfast and delicious cup of coffee we set out wandering again. Enjoying more stunning buildings, cool doors and storefront decorations as well as blooming trees. It was nice to be in a new city and engage in street photography a little bit again. Even though I primarily use the OM-5 paired with the 20mm in nature, it’s great for this kind of photography as well! It’s so small and light, and looks kind of retro so people don’t pay a lot of attention to it.
Eventually we made our way down to the harbor where we found an urban garden project that seemed super interesting. We read a sign that just made me feel happy and full of hope:
“By creating a place where people meet, we enable communities to rise and to initiate a positive change. PLONY Urban Garden is an open place for the exchange of experiences and ecological knowledge, created by and for residents of Gdansk. From May to October you can grow your own vegetables and herbs in the shared garden. Lectures, workshops and discussions on broadly understood green topics are held here.
Most importantly, you can spend your spare time well and actively among the PLONY community. Yoga, vegan barbeques and open meetings – we invite you to join our events!”
@plony.gdansk on Instagram
I wish we had something similar for people back here! Bigger cities and urban areas definitely need that in this time and age, for peoples mental health especially. To get in touch with nature a little bit and feel that you can grow some food even if you’re leading a city life, as well as get to know new people and form a community.
The reason we had made our way towards the harbour was to look at some sea sculptures by the old shipyard, that a friend had told us about. To our surprise we found the art gallery Mleczny Piotr right next to them. It was several stories tall and completely free of charge to enter. I love when art is made available to everyone like this. The gallery had a huge variety of interesting art from different artists and mediums, and we spent quite a bit of time in there. It left quite the impression on us and highly recommend visiting it!
After unexpectedly enjoying art for a while, we slowly meandered back into the city centre, following the water. In the meantime we talked about the art and enjoyed the sunshine. As we got closer towards the city we came upon a small park by the water. The cherry blossoms where blooming, the sun was out and it was bumping with people. It was such a good vibe there that we decided to make a stop.
A café / restaurant named Guga Sweet & Spicy was located there and we decided to have a sit down in the grass with a beer. It ended up being so lovely to just sit there, sip on a cold one and people watch, that I think we ended up having three? We stayed for quite a while, interacted a bit with people, kids and dogs around us and just had a great time. When I think back to Gdansk, this moment is often what I reminisce about. We were relaxed, happy and had no where we needed to be. Pure bliss.
Pirogies – Polish Dumplings
Our bagel brunch had carried us far, and knowing us we probably had energy bars in our bags that we had snacked on. But after all our walking around, and then having a few beers in the sun, we needed to get some food. It was time for polish dumplings, or pirogies! So, we left the park and headed to Stary Młyn, a traditional pirogi restaurant located on Święta Ducha Street, one of the most famous routes in Gdańsk. Right next to the restaurant, from the 15th to the 18th century, a Bread Market was held every Saturday, enabling residents to purchase bakery products. Today, they continue this tradition, inviting their guests to baked dumplings prepared according to a long-standing recipe.
“Pieroganie Stary Młyn means legendary taste and cordiality of meetings with those who are important to us. We weave local traditions, local flavors and centuries-old history into one delicious whole. We have strong foundations: proven recipes, always fresh and top-quality ingredients and an atmosphere that brings to mind the warmth of family. And we serve all this with constant passion and commitment.
Each of our restaurants combines the best of Polish cuisine with the best of various regions of Poland. The leader, of course, is our legendary oven-baked dumplings: prepared based on a proven recipe that has been the same for years, made on-site and fresh, always from the highest quality ingredients.”
https://www.pierogarnie.com/
We truly enjoyed our dinner experience here, the venue was super cozy, the staff friendly and the food excellent. We both really love pirogies! After this, we slowly wander through the streets on our way back to the AirBnb. It had been a great first day in Gdansk and we felt ready to relax, wind down and prepare for the next one!
because it was early april, they we’re still on their fall / winter menu
We ordered a mix of dumplings to try both the oven baked, and “regular” ones as well as with a few different fillings. If you are a group I really recommend that in order to have the opportunity to try many different flavours!
Modern, hip cafés, good food and history
We did a lot at the beginning of the trip, and the rest of the days blur together a little bit. We strolled amongst the colourful buildings, popped into interesting stores and cafés, tried out a lot of different food: Tacos, modern dumplings with an asian twist, bao and more traditional pirogies. We enjoyed craft beer in the evenings, went for a climb at a neat climbing gym and found a nice record store, ate a lovely vegan lunch and bought art of Gdansk from a man on the street on our last day, to remember the trip by. It currently hangs in our living room.
On one of our outings we grabbed lunch at Woosabi, an asian fusion restaurant we had walked past a few times. We ordered a few different kinds of bao and shared among us. I really enjoyed the vibe of this place, it was very modern and trendy. The food was okay. Definitely not bad by any means, but we have had really good bao in Toronto and our bar is set too high I think. But, I do think it’s worth a visit, and I can see this being a nice place for dinner or drinks in the evening!
Sonar Record store is further away from the city centre, we walked there and took a tram back. If you are into music, vinyls and art I’d say it’s worth the trip though. We bought two records and a piece of art. I think it’s good to see a different part of a city and not just the hub where all the tourists are. This area had some vintage stores as well, and a nice vegan restaurant where we had lunch.
If you want to enjoy a coffee break with high quality coffee, interesting magazines to flip through and a nice, inspiring interior, I would recommend a stop at Drukarnia Cafe, located in an old printing house. The locale was super cool and they were doing some good stuff with when it comes to coffee!
We also got quite sad at the Museum of the Second World War. Which was important. But it was rough. I really think everyone should go there though. It is one of the largest exhibition areas in Europe, and shows the history of the civilian population living during World War II, presented using not only artifacts, but also modern technologies, and the uniqueness of the Polish experience compared to other nations.
It was an incredibly well put together museum and the sets they had built, the stories told… It was well done. But moving. Be prepared for the fact that it will affect your mood quite a bit, so plan your day around that fact.
Our last evening was spent at the pub Pułapka – a craft beer & pizza bar. We enjoyed some good quality polish craft beer, chatted with the owner and played chess (we’re so cultural, I know). It was a lovely, relaxed way to end what had been a wonderful trip. We really enjoyed taking the days slow, not planning much and just wandering through the colourful city exploring art and food.
I know there are some mixed feelings when it comes to Ryan Air, but a flight from Stockholm to Gdansk is fast and fairly inexpensive with them, and I would 100% go back for a weekend and just enjoy some good pirogies, beer and art.
I made a map showing the locations of all the spots mentioned in this post,
plus a bonus Pirogi Restaurant that was so good that I forgot to take photos there!
