My friend Rafael recently moved from Przymorze district to Wrzeszcz district. That day, he showed me around the neighborhood where he’s living now. I didn’t really know that area too well, apart from the Günter Grass roundabout — years ago, I once ate at the vegan spot Avocado nearby.
We wandered past a bunch of old townhouses, cozy little alleys, Gdańsk’s “Little Venice,” and some pretty weird courtyards (in one of them, someone had even used a toilet as a flower pot!). There was surprisingly a lot of plants too. It was a short walk, but a really nice one.
We stopped for a beer at a place called Lang.fuhr (Langfuhr’s the old German name for Wrzeszcz), which Rafael already knew but was new for me. The inside felt like a mix of an old-school communist-era apartment, a doctor’s office, and a thrift store — totally my vibe. We both went for the same thing — a classic Polish craft beer: Pacific from Artezan brewery. I hadn’t had it in ages — man, it was good.
We wrapped up the day at their place, playing one of my all-time favorite board games — Neuroshima Hex.
Later, back at my parents’ apartment, I fired up my dad’s Samsung Freestyle projector to hook up the Anbernic RG40XXV and play some retro games on the wall. While chilling on the couch, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realized how cool it looked with the game light hitting my face. Snapped a few quick pics while playing Advance Wars (GBA), Contra (NES), and Final Fantasy 1 (GBA).
Whenever I crash at my parents’ place, my dad always lends me his Samsung Freestyle projector so I can watch YouTube on the wall. But this time, I came better prepared — I brought my tiny 8BitDo Zero 2 controller and a microHDMI to miniHDMI cable I ordered off AliExpress, so I could hook up my Anbernic RG40XXV console to the projector. And that’s exactly how I kicked off the day — playing the awesome Advance Wars (the GameBoy Advance version) on the wall.
Honestly, I’m pretty blown away by how good the image quality is for such a small, portable projector. The colors are nice, everything’s sharp and clear, even when the spring sun starts leaking through the blinds. Because of how the furniture’s arranged in my parents’ guest room, the Freestyle has to be set up at a really sharp angle to the wall, but it still manages to auto-correct the image shape like a champ. Sure, the room’s a bit too small to max out the image size (it can go up to 100”), but for retro games with low resolution, it’s not a big deal.
This Easter was pretty special for me, too, because my little niece suddenly became totally obsessed with me. Before, she used to be kinda scared of me — just this random uncle who shows up once in a blue moon — but out of nowhere, that all changed. She wouldn’t leave my side. She kept telling me everything, wanted to play all the time — staging toy battles, kicking a ball around, painting together with brushes and crayons. We even went out just the two of us around the neighborhood, playing soccer, picking flowers, drawing with chalk on the playground, and playing with a little remote-controlled car (my job was to drive it around and make voices for it, because it was a “real creature” nicknamed “Little One”).
We had a family breakfast and lunch, and after that, I headed out for one of my long walks. The day before I ended up by the seaside, so this time I wanted something different — the vibes of Oliwa, one of my favorite parts of Gdańsk.
On the way, I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the tank sign still stuck to the fence at Villa Rekin (shark in Polish). One of my favorite Gdańsk stories, honestly. For years, there was an actual T34/85 tank parked in front of the house until the authorities made a fuss about it. The guy who lived there, Jerzy Janczukowicz, was a diver and co-founder of the Rekin diving club. He spent decades pulling WWII stuff out of the Baltic and local lakes — whole plane wrecks like a Messerschmitt, an American B-17 bomber, and yep, that tank.
Near the tram depot in Oliwa, there’s this little yellow booth that’s both fascinating and a little intimidating. It’s a beer bar called… Bar Piwny (Beer Bar in Polish). For years, I’ve been meaning to go inside because it feels like it’s a portal to an alternate Gdańsk, but I never quite had the guts. This time, I was dead set on it. Buuut… a sign taped to the door brought me back down to Earth — it was Easter, and they were closed on the 20th and 21st of April (they were open the day before, when I was at the beach, of course). So that adventure’s gonna have to wait.
Oliwa Park is, like, the most cliché spot for a walk in Gdańsk, but honestly, I don’t care. I love that place. It’s got its own kind of magic I like to revisit from time to time. Shady alleys, ponds, rare trees, the palm house, a little waterfall, statues, and a palace — it’s just a vibe.
On my way back from Oliwa, I passed a certain spot. There’s been a pub there for years — different names, different owners. First it was Troll, which I never went to because it had a bad rep among my friends. Then came RockOut, where I used to hang out a lot back when I still lived in Gdańsk. Now it’s called ProRock. I wasn’t even planning to go in — I was heading back to my parents’ place — but when I saw that little brick building, all the memories just hit me. The door was open, so I thought, “Alright, I’ll pop in for one beer.”
Over the years the place has gotten a bit nicer inside, but it’s still not what you’d call fancy. It’s tiny too, although when it’s warm outside, the sidewalk space and garden really help. Inside, there’s only one bathroom. And in winter, it can get freezing (people actually gather by the fireplace to warm up). Still, I really like that place. You can meet a lot of interesting people there, and they’re what make the vibe. The brick building itself has its own charm too. The pub’s right next to the tracks by Oliwa station — trains zoom past just behind the fence. It always sparks my imagination, thinking about all those people on the trains, catching a glimpse of us outside the pub for just a second before heading off to totally different places. It kind of makes being there feel even more special somehow.
Of course, I didn’t end up just having one beer. I stayed until late. I played a bit of Final Fantasy 1 (I’d accidentally lost my save and had to rebuild my progress with my notebook in hand). Then I hung out at the bar, chatting with the bartender and another guy. Later, this couple came in. She’d been playing chess for about a year and lost a match to her boyfriend, who’s been playing for way longer. She decided to make up for it by challenging random guys to games and beating them one by one. And yep, I’m proud to say I was one of her victims.
Later on, a friend of mine showed up — I’d texted him earlier where I was. We hadn’t really had a chance to hang out just the two of us for a long time, like we used to. I really needed that.
This trip to Warszawa (Warsaw in english) was so spontaneous that when I went to bed the night before, I had zero plans. Woke up in the morning and thought, ‘I really should visit the capital someday.’ A few minutes later, I decided that ‘someday’ was today. And just like that, I went—with no plan whatsoever.
It was my third time in Warszawa, though the first was when I was a kid, and I barely remember anything. The capital interests me, but it also intimidates me because it’s such a massive city. After stepping off the train at Warszawa Centralna, I decided to check out the Vistulan Boulevards. I got myself a 24-hour ticket, looked up which bus would take me to the river (the app said 127), and then… spent 40 minutes just trying to find the right bus stop.
By pure accident, I stumbled upon the University of Warsaw Library—a really cool and photogenic building! Then, I finally made it to the boulevards. I know this place shows it’s true magic in the middle of summer, when it’s packed with people late into the night, but even a springtime stroll was nice.
Funny thing—I had a feeling there might be some street art under the bridge, maybe a mural or something, so I went to check it out. And sure enough, there was a huge collection of posters from different artists on the wall. The quality of these works was insane! Honestly, you could probably find poster exhibitions in museums much worse than this under the bridge gallery, which is constantly being torn up and tagged over.
Then, I ended up in the Old Town. Not even planned, I just followed whatever streets looked interesting. It’s a nice Old Town—well-kept, atmospheric, definitely worth seeing. Though personally, I think Gdańsk’s Old Town is more beautiful.
By that point, I was starving, plus my phone was about to die, so I needed a place to sit, eat, and charge up. But for the longest time, all I could find were spots selling Polish pierogi. Don’t get me wrong—I’m Polish, so obviously, I love pierogi. But when I’m wandering around a city, I’m not looking for dumplings. I’m looking for my greatest culinary obsession—pizza.
Eventually, I found a place called Same Krafty (which roughly means ‘Only Craft [Beer]’), serving pizza and burgers. The interior was super cozy, with cool artwork from Trzech Kumpli (Three Buddies), one of Poland’s best craft breweries, all over the walls. For the first time in my life, I had pizza with oscypek (Polish smoked cheese)—and it was amazing!
The bartender was a really friendly guy who told me a ton about Warsaw. I even took notes on my phone for my next trip. I’m definitely coming back to that place!
I took the metro back to Warszawa Centralna, which was an experience in itself because, for some reason, I’ve always been kinda scared of the metro. It was my first time riding it, and honestly, it was cool. Since I had to head home that night—to a village near Łódź—I had to be careful not to miss my train. I spent the rest of my time near the station, listening to two young girls from Belarus performing outside the Palace of Culture and Science—one playing guitar, the other singing beautifully. I also stopped by Złote Tarasy mall, mostly just to check out that crazy glass roof. And finally, I grabbed a beer at Hard Rock Cafe.
I guess I was so caught up in the scale of the city that I played way less on my handhelds than usual during my walk. At Same Krafty, I played a little Final Fantasy 1, and at Hard Rock Cafe, a bit of Advance Wars—both on my tiny Miyoo Mini. But I only really sat down to game later in the evening while waiting for my train. I was on the station steps, playing The Urbz: Sims in the City on my Nintendo DSi.
I highly recommend this game—even if you’re not into the main The Sims series—but you gotta play the handheld version on Nintendo DS. It’s different from the one on PS2, GameCube, and Xbox.
To give you an idea of how fucked up this game is (in the best way possible!): It starts with you working on the rooftop of a skyscraper as a bird poop cleaner. (Yes, there’s a whole mini-game about scrubbing bird crap—and it’s surprisingly fun.) Then you immediately get fired. Instead of leaving, you decide to squat in the building, eating snacks from a broken vending machine that gives out food for free, sleeping on an office couch, and showering on an unfinished floor.
That lasts until you eventually get caught and… get arrested. You spend the next few in-game days in jail. Eventually, you convince the cop to let you out on probation, but you’re now stuck in one district. Then, you start regretting it because jail was actually easier—you could max out all your character’s needs in one place. So for the next few days, you keep sneaking back to the jail cell to sleep, shower, and watch TV—until the cop finally locks you out, forcing you to rent a crappy apartment.
I’ll definitely be writing more about this game in future!
