Danzig, Poland

🧵🐞🌙🔮🐦‍⬛🧤

Did I really chose a destination to travel to just because the name of the city is the name of one of my favorite bands?

Yes, yes I did.

And I don’t know why you would expect any less of me. This is a blog to share my love of travel and music, after all. The metal band Danzig was founded in the late 1980s by one of my favorite artists of all time, Glenn Danzig. Glenn Danzig is responsible for many musical projects which I love, namely the bands The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig. With a diverse taste ranging from the harecore horror punk of The Misfits, to the bluesy heavy metal of Danzig, both of these bands have been in my Top 10 for many years. I even saw The Misfits up close and in person a few years ago in Chicago and it was an incredible experience.

While Danzig is just a stage name for Glenn (real last name: Anzalone), it is a real place in Poland. I found this fact out a few years ago when I was really at the height of my Misfits phase. I never thought I would visit it until I had to pick a last minute destination before my visa expired during my semester abroad.

See, Purdue had done a fine job of warning me about all of the culture shocks I was sure to experience in a semester abroad (like no duh, that’s why I signed up for this) but failed to mention after the 90 days of my Schengen Visa expired, I wouldn’t be able to reenter Germany if I left. Americans can visit most European countries in what’s known as the Schengen zone visa free for 90 days. That’s a great deal, as most American holidays don’t last that long with our extremely limited allowed vacation days, but if you are studying there for five months it proves a problem. Of course, my American friends and I only discovered we wouldn’t be allowed to reeenter Germany if we left after this 90 period about 30 days before that period expired. So not only did I have significantly less time to travel internationally than I originally planned, I also only had a month to plan and execute any last minute travel.

But anyway, enough about my woes with the German bureaucratic system. That could be a whole blog post in and of itself but that’s not very fun. I decided my last international trip would be to Poland. I was already scheduled to visit my brother in Spain the last week in May, and my visa expired the first day of June, so I figured I would have to squeeze in a quick trip to Poland in between,

The last week of my visa availability looked like this; I got back from Spain on Monday, went to my classes in Munich on Tuesday, and left for Poland on Wednesday with my visa expiring on Friday. I covered all three main European langauge families; Romantic, Germanic, and Slavic. One for each day. But I loved it, this was exactly what I signed up for when I decided to pursue a career in tourism. Bringing my travel backpack instead of my bookbag to class, I left directly to the Munich airport as soon as my last class got out on Wednesday.

I landed in Danzig Wednesday evening and went to find my AirBnB. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting this small city in a post-Soviet country to be like, but the city is utterly gorgeous. 97% of the town was destroyed in World War II, as the city is close to Germany and serves as one of the countries main harbor ports through the Baltic Sea. Yet the buildings as so colorful and the city meshes multiple eras of it’s history together into an aesthetic dream. Historic facades have been rebuilt in their pre-war glory with all of their ornate detailing and fit right in with the sleek, modern buildings propped up in recent years. Old, brick ruins, skeletons of buildings which were lost in the war also blend right in with colorful graffiti all melting together into a pretty picture. I’m sure it’s just my American ignorance and bias, but I expected all post-communist and ex-Soviet cities to be drab corners of grey concrete and brutalism. Yet Prague and Danzig, the two ex-Soviet cities I’ve visited have been two of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.

I made my way to the AirBnB, in an old communist era apartment building which was cool to see. Then I walked into the city, which was essentially right across the street from my accommodation. I had booked a river tour through the city online so I didn’t waste my first evening there and as a way to familiarize myself with the city before I explored more on my next full day. When I got to the dock, I ended up being the only person who had booked. So, for 14€, I got a private boat tour of Danzig with two tour guide to my own person. They were both so kind, both natives of Danzig with a lot of pride for their city. They even gave me free Prosecco since I was the only one who booked.

The boat driver, a man in his 40s or 50s, told me they usually play an audio tour for passengers as they drive through the waters, but since it was just me he asked what kind of music I like so he could play it. When I told him I like a lot of heavy metal, he got really excited and asked if he could play his metal playlist since he never gets the opportunity to play the music he likes while on the water. I said of course, and then asked him if he had ever heard of the band Danzig, since it’s named after his city. He said he hadn’t, which makes sense since it is an American band, but I was a little surprised. So there I was, on my private boat tour with free Prosecco, blasting Danzig through the city of Danzig.

The other guide was a female university student about my age who told me all about the history of Danzig and pointed out important buildings along the way. It was a really cool experience, especially for my first night, and I enjoyed their kindness and hospitality.

I got off the boat a little tipsy, since they kept refilling my Prosecco glass whenever it got near empty, and went to find dinner. I settled on one of their recommendations, a nearby food hall with lots of different options. I settled on a pizza, not the most authentic Polish dish but it was getting late and I wanted to get back to my apartment.

For my full day in Danzig, I started off with some delicious Polish pancakes for breakfast. I didn’t have much of an itinerary, just to explore the city on my own. It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky and fluffy clouds which matched perfectly with the red, brown, yellow, white, and green townhouses. I really did just walk around most of the day. The Old City is so beautiful and every street I looked down I wanted to explore their ornate buildings. I made a stop at the townhall to learn about the diverse history of the Danzig and walk up their bell tour for vast views of the city. I also attended Mass at their church, a tradition I picked up on my travels to attend Mass in the local language of where I’m visiting.

For such a small city, Danzig surprisingly has a Hard Rock Cafe in their city center. Even more surprising, they don’t have a single artifact from the band which shares their name. When I asked a manager if they had anything from the band Danzig that I had missed, he had never. even. heard of them. So if you visit Danzig and find any Danzig memorabilia in their Hard Rock Cafe, I’m probably the cause of that.

One of Danzig’s main attractions is their Museum of the Second World War. As the war played a crucial role in the history of the city, they have much to discuss. It was a beautiful museum, very modern and very well done, with a variety of exhibits. And it was really interesting to learn about the war from a different perspective. I find World War II to be very interesting and I’ve been to my fair share of museums. As an American, we are fed a victorious narrative of World War II; yes it was hard, but our triumph shows the resiliency and strength of the American people. While Poland also fought hard to defeat Nazi Germany, their country and people suffered a great deal more and this museum allowed me to better see and fully understand this perspective. I’ve learned my fair share about World War II, even visiting Pearl Harbor and the Dachau concentration camp, but no museums has had such an impact on my understanding as this one.

I finished my day with a Polish classic, pierogies for dinner. Mandu Pierogi was where I went, recommended to me by extensive research on TikTok. The pierogies were amazing, and I even got Oreo stuffed pierogies for dessert. Maybe not the most authentic, but delicious nonetheless.

My last day in Danzig I took a bus out of the city and to the beach. Danzig is a beach town, located right on the Baltic Sea and I wanted to be a Balts in the Baltic. And I was. Despite the overcast weather and nature of northern Poland, the water was surprising not as cold as I expected. I think all those years of living in the Central Coast of California and having my toes turn blue prepared me for this moment. Or maybe it’s just in my blood as a Balts.

After spending some time looking out at the vast grey sea (it was weird to think I could probably see Russia, as Kalingrad is a short 1 hour drive from Danzig) I got back on the city bus and returned to the airport. Despite my visa expiring that day, I made it through all my travels with no issues. In fact, I had my passport checked negative times because I was told to put it away the one time I did pull it out. As much as I wish I had more international travel on my semester abroad, this was the perfect solo trip to finish it off.