At the age of 37, I finally went to a bachelor party. (It just so happened that my closest friends haven’t exactly been rushing to get married, so I never had the chance before.)
On May 10th, I hopped on the IC 3560 “Witkacy” train, which showed up 45 minutes late. I brought along a brand-new sketchbook I plan to fill with whatever catches my eye. I decided I’m only going to use black and shades of grey inside (except for a brown fineliner I use for labeling the drawings). I’m doing the linework with a dip pen and black indian ink from Renesans brand. Sometimes I leave it as plain ink, but I also have a tiny Roman Szmal metal watercolor palette with six different shades of black: Roman Black, Ivory Black, Velvet Black, Mars Black, Vine Black, and Aquarius Black. I’ll be mixing some of those in with the ink as I go.
The bachelor party kicked off at Pixel XL – a kind of interactive game room with a floor that responds to movement. You have to wear these special socks with rubber grips on the bottom (not sure if they also help the sensors pick up your steps or if it’s just to keep you from slipping). It was my first time in a place like that – and I don’t just mean Pixel XL, but any kind of interactive/escape-room-style spot. I had a blast. My favorite part was a dance game we played at the end – kind of a mix between Guitar Hero and Beat Saber.
Then we headed over to the 32. piętro (32nd Floor in Polish) restaurant in Olivia Star – the tallest building in the Trójmiasto at 180 meters. It was my first time there and I loved it. The food was great, but honestly, the real showstopper was the view from the windows and the observation deck.
After dinner, we started bar-hopping around the city: Bunkier club, Lumi shot bar, Wiśniewski bar, Miasto Aniołów club, and the “new” Cafe Absinthe.
While we were standing outside Wiśniewski, a street musician came up and asked if we wanted some live music. It started out low-key – just him singing a few songs for us – but it turned into a whole scene with a crowd forming, including our group of six, some random Swedes, and a bunch of passersby.
We started in the evening, and by the time we were politely kicked out of the last bar, Cafe Absinthe, it was already daylight. I see my friend Rafael almost every time I’m in Gdańsk, but I rarely get to see his brother Alfi – the man of the hour – and I almost never run into Janek or Artur, so I’m really glad I came. I had an awesome time!
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.
I’m living with one foot in two different lives – the one with Ola in a small village near Łódź, and the one I left behind in Gdańsk. Sometimes it feels painful, sometimes it’s inspiring and kind of magical. As usual, it depends.
I came to Gdańsk for Easter. My family’s not super religious; some of us don’t believe in God at all, though honestly, I’m not even sure what the proportions are because we’ve never really talked about it. Still, we all enjoy those moments during the year when you sit around the table, slow down a bit — eat and just be together. Everyone’s on the same page about that.
I brought my notebook where I’m keeping a Final Fantasy 1 game diary (I’ve already filled up most of the pages; soon I’ll be starting a second notebook), and my watercolors, so I could keep working on it. I also brought a foldable, portable sitting pad I ordered from Aliexpress — it’s an awesome accessory if you’re someone like me who’s always wandering around and sitting everywhere. You can keep it in your backpack or bag, or clip it onto something. It folds out fast. It’s waterproof and it keeps the cold out.
I arrived the day before Easter. Hung out a bit with my family, then went for a walk in the seaside park that stretches across two neighborhoods — Przymorze and Brzeźno. On the beach, I ran into a couple walking their black cat on a leash and without one, and a lady who was the only person brave enough to swim in the (probably still really cold) sea.
During the whole walk, I kept playing Final Fantasy 1; sometimes walking, sometimes stopping and sitting down here and there. The game’s got a lot going for it, but for me, the best thing is that it doesn’t hold your hand. In modern games, whenever your character does anything — picks up an item, finds a new place, gets a clue — the game updates your journal automatically, figures stuff out for you, and changes the instructions for your quest along with the map markers. Basically, you can just follow the arrows without even reading any dialogue if you want. But when Final Fantasy 1 came out (1987), it was assumed that you’d read and figure things out on your own. It’s honestly a much cooler experience, traveling around different locations, exploring them, and gathering rumors about places you’ll visit in the future.
I only brought one handheld with me to Gdańsk, the Anbernic RG40XXV, and two accessories for it: the tiny 8BitDo Zero 2 controller and a miniHDMI to microHDMI cable. Whenever I stay at my parents’ place, my dad lets me borrow his projector — a Samsung Freestyle — so I can watch YouTube at night and in the morning. Thanks to the cable and controller, I could also play GBA and NES games projected onto the wall. It was pretty cool — I’ll write more about that in later posts.
In the evening, I wanted to visit Derkacz, a small bar near the beach in Brzeźno, where I used to always get this amazing veggie sandwich, real late-90s street food style, but unfortunately they were closed the day before the holidays. So instead, I dropped by Bar LED next door for a pizza.
Before going to sleep, I played a bit of Contra on the projector. I love that game — I spent a crazy amount of time on it as a kid. It’s one of the hardest games I’ve ever played, though I think I actually beat it back when I was little.
