Gdansk Warnings Or Dangers

If you are being approached in the street to change money - decline! Most likely you are going to be given false or old Polish banknotes as it happened to a few of my colleagues in Poland recently. The Polish Zloty was changed recently from old notes to new notes - and you may purchase notes that were only valid in the 80's. If in doubt of the money you receive one simple comparison works: On the old notes the Polish Eagle does not have a crown - on the new and valid ones it has!

There is one thing I have to tell you. The crime in Poland is not that low as we wish it could be. Anyway if you are careful nothing will happen.

In the worst situation are tourists. Especially when leaving expensive hotels. The "Bad" people can wait just behind the corner for attacking you and taking away your money.

Just use taxi when leaving an expensive hotel, don't walk alone in the dark, empty streets, always take only a bit of money and a credit card, the documents leave in the hotel. Watch out where you hide you wallet and how you carry your bag.

I am really sorry of that fact but I understand that a lot of people in Poland are unemployed right now, have no money but ... have dreams of owning expensive staff and having a reach life.

***
If you found the tip useful, please RATE it.
It took time to collect the data and publish it here for you to use it :-).
***

Amber is hardened tree sap is essentially natural plastic as far as chemistry is concerned: they are long chained hydrocarbons. amber is as light weight as plastic, can be translucent like plastic, can be melted and formed in molds like plastic...you get the idea. Now:

The fakes:
one of the most rare and scientifically important types of amber that can be found are those pieces containing other plants, insects or animals. Listed in order of increasing rarity. I saw hundreds of examples of all three forms available for sale including some that contained whole perfectly preserved lizards. these are fakes. the amber was melted and poured over some
unfortunate animal, unless those too are fake and then set in a mold for commercial sale. If they were real, they would be in museums and would be nearly priceless and of enormous scientific value. The fact that these 'expert' amber salespeople have lizards, or cockroach or even an ant on sale for 200 zloty is proof enough they are fakes. If I had a lizard encased in amber I would take it to a museum or be selling it for hundreds of thousands of euros/dollars...and I would get it...if it were genuine. But then some intelligent paleontologist buyer might ask how many lizards were living in a boreal forest at 54 north latitude during the Pleistocene...hmm, good question. Might as well put a Bengal tiger in amber and sell that. Entrapment and preservation of insects and of all things...macrobiotic animals were the RAREST of events and are certainly not available by the dozen for bargain prices in Gdansk. Not to say that some of these true pieces dont exist, but amber with so much as an ant in it, a legitimate PLEISTOCENE ant, will cost thousands.

How do you tell a fake? Thats the scary part; without destroying the sample its nearly impossible. Price is probably the best way to know a genuine from a fake.

For the most part I didn't see many homeless people or beggars on the streets of Poland. There are nowhere near as many as I see in Washington, DC...to be sure. Be certain you always keep a little extra money somewhere so you don't find yourself penny-less on a street corner.

We made a reservation for 3 days via Hostelworld and payed 15,51 euro for the reservation.
When we arrived in Gdansk (before 17 o'clock) the girl said : Sorry, the other girl sold your room this morning to other people.She would'not give the money back.It was the weekend of "Baltic Sea" so you know that Gdansk was overcrowed, we had also big problems to find another place to stay!
Back home I wrote to Hostelworld to have our money back, they didn't answer!!!

4 more images

There are very few Baltic shells to collect on the Jelitkowo beach along the Bay of Gdansk. Well, there are many more of them along open seashore behing the Hel Peninsula. Just in case you have to bring some shells back home you may buy them in almost each souvenit store all over the city.

If your kids are boring looking for shells unsuccessfully they may want to build something on the sand while you may watch them sitting in a beach restaurant or just doing nothing.

4 more images

If you are going to drive a car around city of Gdansk and it's your first ever driving in Poland take a deep breath and read the tips below.

1. There are a lot of one-way, narrow streets in downtown Gdansk with cars parked along, often partly on a sidewalk. Passing through and navigating may be horrible for you unless you have a very smart navigator in the car and... your car is narrow.

2. There are dead-end streets which end up with a sidewalk. You are usually allowed to park with two side wheels on a sidewalk but driving on a sidewalk is forbidden even if you see some crazy drivers doing it. Do not follow them.

3. Parking is difficult at all due to shortage of parking space. Do not park on a street unless your car is inattractive for thieves (cheap or rare model or the one with... an automatic transmission) and unless you can park quickly between the two other cars. We don't have many car thefts in Poland now, but thefts of car luggage are still a problem.

4. Leave interior of your car empty (no valuables, no boxes, no bags, nothing).

5. Better to be thin and athletic than over-weighted in case of parking on a crowded parking lot. Otherwise you may not open the car door wide enough to take off in case the other car parked very close to yours. It almost happened to me on a parking lot opposite to an entrance gate to the Oliva Park. Navigate around the parking very carefully.

KEEP SMILING and HAPPY DRIVING :-)

4 more images

Whenever you visit the Oliwa watershed (details in my off the beaten path tips) and go along a bridge over the stream watch your head unless you are of average Japanese height. Transversal, concrete girders which support the roof, make the ceiling low. Although my guide to the watershed warned me and despite light black-orange paint of the dangerous places I almost hit my head againt the girder.