Trip to the UK, Day 4: Gdansk, Poland

After sleeping on the bus to the airport, I got my flight back home via Gdansk, Poland. The flight to Poland was very loud. I hadn't slept in over 24hrs at that point and when I sat down I realized that there were two babies in the row ahead of me, and two in the row behind. There is a page in the little notebook I've been keeping as a sort of travel log that just shows my state of mind during the flight, it reads: BABIES SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED ON PLANES- EVER!! This is underlined angrily several times. But by the end of the flight (after I had managed to get a very very short nap in) it was pretty cute having all the babies and toddlers running up and down the aisles. There were at least 10 kids under the age of 4 on the flight.

Once in Poland, I had five hours to kill so I decided to go to the city center and walk around for a while. I got a taxi, and found out at the end of the ride that I hadn't converted enough money at the airport. After arguing with the driver (who didn't speak a word of English), I was able to get her to take a 5 pound bill I had left from the UK to make up the rest of the amount.

Gdansk is really beautiful, it reminded me a bit of Prague, but not as crowded. It was a nice break from the flights to be able to just walk around for a while. The great buildings and nice weather was an added bonus!
I stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the most touristy section of old town, mainly because they had an menu that had both Polish and English. After my experience with the taxi driver, I wanted to make sure that I would know what I was ordering. I had traditional Polish dumplings called Pierogi, filled with potato and cheese and served with sour cream. I also had a Polish beer to go along with it, which was pretty good. It was a great meal, and a wonderful diversion from the airport.
The taxi driver on the trip back to the airport was really nice and actually spoke a few words of English, but not much. He knew a few phrases, but I'm not sure that he understood my responses.
Back at the airport, I checked in and waited around for a little while before I could go through security. Security at the Gdansk airport was the most intimidating security checkpoint I've gone through. Every person in the checkpoint was wearing a military uniform and they all had guns. It was the most amount of firepower I've seen at airport security in Europe.

The flight to Malmö was great- I slept from takeoff to landing. I also found that there is a bus that goes directly from the Malmö airport to Lund Central bus station. I slept for the entire 40 minute bus ride and then made the 20 minute walk back to my dorm, where I passed out and slept for 14 hours.