Already hungry, we head for the nearest bar and order a couple of Pierogi, and Okocim beers to go with it. Karolina believes this to be some kind of pasty filled with something. When it arrives, it's actually a strange looking desert, with blueberries and cream. It's actually nice, but not what we expected. The guy behind the counter looks miserable, smokes, and picks his nose whilst watching the TV, he also speaks just a few English words. We use the toilet here, knees touching the door if you need to sit! We leave the bar at around 16.00, and take a look further into Gdansk, looking at the interesting old buildings, and scouring the shops for bargains. We also need to find a currency exchange, and after some time searching and asking directions, we do.

Hungry again, we decide to treat ourselves and find an extremely upmarket looking restaurant called Palowa, on ul. Dluga (ul means Street). We feel a bit underdressed as we walk past beautifully decorated tables and furnishings, a grand piano and waitresses dressed in long red velvet dresses. The restaurant has a German/Polish feel to it, and we find it hard to understand the language spoken by the waitresses. They find it hard to understand us too, as later events will tell. We order Polish Sour soup, which contains polish sausage, potatoes, onion, leeks and sour cream, as well as other basic ingrediants. Karolina has Parisian Chicken (not exactly Polish), and Sean had turkey breast. Both dishes came with a lovely display of vegetables, and an extra bowl of salad. Karolina's salad came with an extra fly, which wasnät mentioned on the menu. Presentation was very good indeed. The main meal was brought to us whilst still half way through the soup, which was unusual we thought. On to desert, and Karolina asks whether the chocolate cake contains nuts...bit of a blank look, but yes. Asked again in another way, the answer was no. Karolina tries to tell her she is allergic to nuts, and a few minutes later a nice looking piece of chocolate cake appears with whipped cream and....a large selection of peanuts and walnuts all around. In disbelief, we both stare at the plate, the waitress already out of sight. We attract the attention of another who seems confused by our request to take it away untouched. They do seem to understand clearly however that we now wish to pay, and so we leave, with just a small tip.

We manage to do a fair amount of souvenir shopping for ourselves, which is quite unusual for us. Amongst our purchases are 3 wooden mushrooms, 2 wiggly purple candles and a holder, a half liter bottle of Goldvasser (vodka with gold leaf in it), a Gdansk fridge magnet, a handmade doll in local dress, another candle in the shape of a human leg bone, and of course lots and lots of chocolate and sweets. One of the stranger souvenirs is a bottle containing bits of amber, which you add a spirit to, leave for 10 days, then apply to your body as a soothing lotion, you can also drink a small amount of it in tea. We also buy a handmade glass angel, from the maker, who speaks enough English to have a bit of conversation with. He can make about 20 a day (but it depends how drunk he gets). There seems to be no shortage of public toilets in Gdansk, with very clear Toilaty or WC signs everywhere, telling you how many metres they are from you. Unfortunately they don't seem to be too accurate, and actually finding one using these signs can be quite tricky. We did manage to find one, which was marked **** WC, where we had to pay a little old lady 1zl each to use them, still a bit puzzled what the four star rating was all about. We also buy some postcards and stamps from a lady in the street, write them out and put them in the postbox next to her, all very convenient.

Evening now, quite a bit of shopping done, we spy an '80's Bar' on ul. Stagiewna. Needing a rest, a Polish vodka and perhaps some nostalgia, we head inside. A bit disappointed to find a distinct lack of 80's decor or in fact any thing remotely 80's, apart from the music playing. We discuss ways to improve the bar, over a few vodkas, and some Baileys. The barman must go upstairs to get the Baileys each time, so Karolina kindly tips him for his trouble. One of the cocktail stirrers has a top which looks like a penis. Karolina tries to buy some crisps, but are told "they are finished". Before the place really starts pumping with the 80's DJ "Slawek" due in an hour or so, we leave and head off to find a taxi to take us back to the ship. Having done this once earlier, it wasn't too difficult, and we manage to negotiate the same fare as earlier. We arrive back at the ship, and are able to walk straight back on without any requirements for tickets, passport or boarding card, which we thought a bit worrying.

The ship is quiet, we guess many people are spending the night in the town. The bar area is almost empty, the gambling machines are turned off (due to the ship being docked), and the duty free is closed. Karolina continues to drink Baileys, Sean vodkas and beers. The three piece Polish band starts to play, a mixture of Polish and English songs. Sean makes a request for a Beatles song, and after some discussion they manage to play Obladioblada, with limited lyrics, but they make a reasobable job of it. We seem to be the only ones clapping (much like our Estonia experience the year before). Sean goes and sits with the band and discusses how good they are, at least one of them can hold a reasonable conversation in English, which is useful. As the bar is so empty, we are invited over by an Argentian called Angel (now living in Sweden), and his newly found friends Eva, who is originally Turkish and John, a Swedish policeman, with a German background - so bit of a mixture of cultures all around one table. The polish barman serves drinks to our table, so we tip him well, and he's really friendly from that moment on, taking our photographs too. We dance a bit and while away the hours with our new found friends. Completely and utterly drunk, we stumble back to the cabin in the early hours....... what we did on Sunday