Our trip through Poland helped me realize how much of Michigan culture has been influenced by Polish culture and the Eastern European immigrants who have settled in the Detroit area in the last 200 years or so. Below are some authentic pierogies, a type of dumpling that I ate frequently as a child.


Above: Europe's longest wooden pier. Located in a town called Sopot, Poland, on the Bay of Gdansk in the Baltic, which we just happened upon, but which ended up being a big tourist destination and a great place to stay.

Below: the view opposite the pier.


Above: local pigeon in Gdansk.

Below: "Lody" is the Polish word for ice cream, and there were stands EVERYWHERE in Gdansk selling Lody Amerykanskie: 'American-style' soft serve in towering cones. I hadn't ever seen anything quite like it, but I'll take their word for it.


Above: rustic pharmacy sign.

Below: those sunflowers were the size of large dinner plates. They were being sold at a farmer's stand for about a dollar, and people were buying them, carrying them around, and picking out the seeds one by one to eat as they walked.


Above: we saw lots of multi-colored row houses.

Below: lots of tourists.


Above: part of the harbor in Gdansk. The tall building in the back that sticks out above the water is actually a Medieval port crane built centuries ago that's a symbol for the city.

Below: waiting in line for pictures.



Above: this is actually a working mechanical calendar that we happened upon in a cathedral. It would have been incredible technology when in was installed hundreds of years ago--and amazingly, it's still working.

Next up: central Poland.