Gdańsk

Everyone needs a trusty friend who is both spontaneous and organised. Luckily I have one, and she managed to sort out a weekend of exploration, food and plenty of drinks for less than a night out in London. So, on Friday evening, we went straight from work to the airport and boarded our flight for Gdańsk, Poland.

We stayed in the centre of Main Town, lined with colourful buildings, and typical Eastern European architecture. On Saturday morning we joined a free walking tour and soaked up some of the sights, history and culture of the city. I always love walking tours – even more when they’re free. I’ve yet to have a bad experience with them; the guides are always informative and funny, and they always seem to have a passion and patriotic pride when they talk of their cities. We spent a few enjoyable hours in the cold and misty outdoors, but with the fog settling over the roofs, creating an ethereal atmosphere and extinguishing the little daylight there was, we decided to embody typical Brits on holiday and found a bar. While day drinking is never a great idea, we were excited to find a bar on the river bank which offered a range of coffee based cocktails and mulled wine. After being suitably warmed by our beverages, we ventured out to find some vegan food.

Now, there are a few vegan restaurants that we did try to visit, but as this weekend was 100 years of Polish Independence, we struggled to find anywhere that would seat us without a reservation. Luckily however, a few minutes walk from Main Town, sits Pierogarina Mandu, which works on a first come first serve basis. Decorated with soft lighting, wooden furnishing and being dog friendly, this restaurant really is a hipster haven. After waiting for 20 minutes (worth it), we were in the warm perusing the menu.

I ordered the deep fried dumplings. They were crispy on the outside and stuffed with a flavoursome mixture of tofu and spicy paprika, and complimented nicely with a serving of vegan mayo. For less than £5, I was happily sated, and we made our way back to Main Town and bar crawled our way through. After margaritas, cinnamon whisky, rum tea (yes it’s a thing and it’s lethal) and more coffee based cocktails, we almost literally crawled back to our hotel and stayed in bed until our blissfully late checkout at midday.

Hungover, and in desperate need of carbs (although I woke up next to a half eaten loaf of bread I didn’t remember buying), we wandered back through Main Town and ended up at a diner – unfortunately in my haze I forgot to make a note of the name. This was one of the few places that served potatoes that weren’t covered in meat and cheese and in typical hangover vegan style I had a huge plate of chips to myself.

In an attempt to make the most of the rest of our trip, we made our way to the Amber museum (cool name), recommended by our walking tour guide. The museum featured wonderfully intricate and varied uses of amber, including an electric guitar and chess set. We learnt about the different types of the fossilised tree resin and the different healing properties it holds. I would definitely recommend visiting. However there is another section to the museum, the torture part, I wont go into any detail but I’ll just say it’s not the best place to be when hungover.