Boom-town on the Baltic (Gdynia)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Gdynia
Date:	01/10/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some minor attractions, new city with dynamic history, maritime connections

Disadvantages: not conventionally attractive

Gdynia, the youngest and least visited of the Tri-city towns is often overlooked in favour of the historic Gdansk and fun-orientated Sopot.

As it's often the case, there is a reason for that: there is enough in Gdansk and Sopot to occupy even a casual visitor to a Tri-city for several days.

And yet, Gdynia is worth a day's visit if you spend more than a few days in the area.

*
Located north of Gdansk and Sopot, but still very much a part of the conurbation, Gdynia is one of the youngest if not the youngest city in Poland, built from virtually nothing in the period between the wars. Although there had been a fishing village here since the middle ages, the time for Gdynia came when Poland regained its independence in 1918 and was granted a 20 miles wide access to the Baltic (known as the "Polish corridor") without any port facilities. A massive development programme started in 1921 and led to a rapid growth of a something of a boom-town, and by the late 30's Gdynia was one of the most significant ports and the only "window onto the world" of the pre-war Poland.

Invading Germans destroyed the harbour (and renamed the city as "Gotenhafen") but it was rebuilt and further developed after the war, and, despite the competition form newly Polish Gdansk, Gdynia retained its status as a major Polish port, naval base and shipbuilding centre. If you are detecting a there here, you are right: until this day, Gdynia, now nearing its 90th birthday and quarter of a million inhabitants, is all about the sea.

It's a workaday city - in places, even in the centre, a bit seedy - but it is also a dynamic, no-nonsense kind of place, even brash in many ways, but with a an openness to the world, a spring in its step and wind in its air (even if the wind occasionally brings unsavoury smells from fish-processing plants by the harbour).

A mercantile streak is strong among Gdynianie (as inhabitants of Gdynia are known). After the change of the system in 1989, Gdynia's centre was one of the first dynamically developing shopping districts in Poland, and the first purpose-built upmarket shopping mall in Tri-city was also sited here (Klif, in the suburb of Orlowo). Now Gdansk has certainly caught up, but people still come shopping in Gdynia from the whole of the Tri-city and many surrounding areas.

Many of the outlying districts, like in most Polish cities, consist of communist-era concrete blocks, although there are also noticeable suburbs of comfortable detached houses, some dating to the pre-war boom, some to the time when anybody with access to the "abroad" - like merchant sailors - had also access to the ready source of significant income. One of the parts of Orlowo district used to be know as "Zegarkowo" ("a wrist-watch-town") , in reference to the houses built with the smuggling profits in the 60's and 70's.

*
The modernist architecture of Gdynia lacks the historical interest of Hanseatic Gdansk or fin-de-siecle charm of Sopot villas, but among the modern concrete there are many reminders of Bauhaus-influenced 30's , with clean lines, large windows and balconies and curved corners. The maritime background even led to a development of a specific style named Gdynia Modernism of ship-like buildings with quarter-decks, porthole-like windows, masts and curves. Look out for the PLO building in 10 Lutego street and the Maritime Academy Department of Navigation near the end of the pier.

The Southern Pier is the area to head for: if you arrive by boat (in the summer from Gdansk, Sopot and Hel peninsula), you are already there, if you come by train (about 30 minutes form Gdansk), it's a brisk 20 minutes walk from the train station, straight down Starowiejska or 10 Lutego street to Kosciuszki Square and Aleja Jana Pawa II beyond. Most of Gdynia's attractions are located on and around this pier, and fitting with Gdynia's short but extremely enthusiastic maritime tradition, all are sea-related.

In the harbour to the left of the pier there are two museum ships: destroyer "Blyskawica" (which served in the UK during the WW2) and the 1909 frigate "Dar Pomorza" (particularly beautiful one, which used to be the training ship for the Polish merchant naval college, but has now been replaced by a newer vessel and acts as a museum).

Other tall ships can be occasionally seen in Gdynia, including several school ships (Dar Mlodzierzy, Pogoria, Iskra and Zawisza Czarny) and every few years the city is part of the Tall Ship Races, when scores of the most magnificent sailing ships can be seen and visited - the last time was in July of 2009.

The pier is also the location for the Gdynia Aquarium, not perhaps a world-class attraction, but by far the best of its kind in Poland. It has undergone extensive refurbishments in recent years and has now a pretty impressive collection of sea and freshwater creatures, including Blacktip Reef Sharks, Giant groupers, piranhas, octopus, seahorses, a living coral reef with appropriate fish, the Red King Crab, Dwarf crocodile, snakes, jellyfish, amphibians and more.

The sailing theme continues on the right side of the pier, where Gdynia's marina (the biggest in Poland) where you can walk ogle the yachts in season, and walk unimpeded around empty and strangely desolate, frozen basin if you happen to come in the winter.

Large concrete building with hangars attached that line side of the marina are sailing clubs: now increasingly host to many of the privately-owned Polish boats, but their names betray their origins in a more collective era: Polish Scouting Union Centre for Maritime education, Yacht Club "Stal" ("Steel"), originally Yacht Club of The Gdynia Shipyard Workers, Polish Navy yacht Club and similar. They still organise sailing courses for children and adults (you can see little ones as young as 5, zooming around the basin in their bucket-like Optimist dinghies), and they still own sea-going sailing yachts for the use of the members who contribute labour to the maintenance.

Some of the clubs have bars open to the public: Wilk Morski at Yacht Club Gryf, Al. Jana Pawa II 11, has a bar counter fashioned of the superstructure of a real old yacht, a beautiful 30's land-cruiser, slim and graceful even in its last berth (on which, incidentally, your reviewer underwent her first sailing trials when it was still afloat almost 40 years ago).

Gdynia is the sunniest city in Poland and has several beaches, the one adjacent to the marina is the smallest, busiest and not particularly clean, as it's very much a locals' place, full of families, children and Gdynianie catching an hour of sunshine after work: still, it's not a bad place for a play in the sand or a quick swim if you fancy one. Off-season, it's as good a place for a stroll as any other, though it ends rather quickly where sand is replaced by the concrete sea-wall.

All along the beach and further along the sea-wall stretches Gdynia's promenade, Bulwar Nadmorski. It's where the locals come to walk their children, dogs, wives and lovers, and in a good weather makes for a good walk, hot and sunny in the summer, bracing in the winter, with views stretching across the bay all the way to Gdansk, shipping lanes and even - on a good day - Hel peninsula in the distance.

At the beginning of the promenade there is an outdoor Naval Museum, for those keen on seeing more arms and armaments: from 18th century anchors and cannons to large guns form the WW2 period and even some naval helicopters and aircraft.

*

Out of the centre, Gdynia's suburb of Orlowo, nestled under the high (by Polish standards) sand cliff of Redlowo is a minor gem in its own right. The beach is small, but has some good stretches, especially towards Sopot (you can easily walk all the way from Orlowo to Sopot along the sand in about an hour). At the centre of Orlowo seafront sits a wooden pier (a scaled-down version of Sopot's one) and next to it some fishing boats provide a picturesque background.

Orlowo gets very busy in the summer, as it has several hotels and holiday homes, and many locals rent out rooms to visitors. Gdynia's Municipal Theatre has an open-air stage on the beach in Orlowo, and there are several cafes and restaurants on the seafront. Orlowo is the location of legendary (in Polish terms) night-club Maxim, which in the 80's and 90's was a playground of the Polish rich: from film stars to foreign businessmen, writers to gangsters, mariners to black market currency traders, wheelers and dealers of Tri-city did business and played "U Maxima w Gdyni" ("In Gdynia's Maxim Club"), as immortalised in a hit song by one of the most popular Polish bands of the 80. Maxim is now defunct, gone to seed in the years following late 90's, a building awaiting demolition, a site a resale.

Off-season it's quiet and picturesque, with shaded streets full of 30's modernist houses (check out Hotel Villa Lubicz at Orlowska 43 for a well restored example) and this wonderfully melancholic air of an out-of-season resort.

Galeria Debiut at Orlowska 8 showcases work of the students and alumni of Gdynia's Secondary School of Art, which is located in Orlowo.

To the south of the pier, beyond the residential area, is Kolibki, an old manor house and park complex, now housing stables and a riding school (casual riding also possible).

*

Gdynia is certainly not among the top tourist destinations in Poland, unless you are particularly interested in its historical or current specifics. If you are staying in Tri-city for more than few days, it's certainly worth a day trip - take a boat in the summer, a train in the winter or just walk along the beach from Sopot.

Summary: worth a day if you get bored with Gdansk and Sopot