“Travels to a Different Time” : 21June1975: Gdansk, Poland: Polish Party: The Most Incredible Fish Market!

Was in bed at 02:00 as a big yakfest. Up at 10 and we had a breakfast of eggs and bacon with stale bread and butter. It seems I have become a Polish university student taken under their wings. As I will be attending McGill University in Montreal in September I guess I have the credentials. We took the train to Gdynia the port city about 15 kms away. The fare was 7 cents. We went to City Market Hall the most impressive public market I have seen in Eastern Europe. The fresh fish stalls were incredible. I bought a kilo of mushrooms hoping to make my Tuscan poor man’s mushroom sauce to have over spaghetti but believe it or not no onions or tomatoes. Not in season. It is often difficult to find the right food in Poland. It seems they eat locally available produce. We headed back to the dormitory and had some delicious smoked sprats with a mushroom tomato sauce and vodka. We played some frisbee after. My Brazilian friend Ricardo was quite adept but another Polish guy was a spaz. A nice guy but a spaz. We then went to a tail end of a party. It was the end of the semester so there were parties everywhere. There was only some awful warm Polish beer and no one spoke much English or French so I felt out of place. Stayed for an hour and played Frisbee in the dark. Played some harmonica then washed my filthy feet and crawled into bed.