szczecin photo diary + guide. part ii.

See my Szczecin Part i blog post to read my travel guide for this city!

It was towards the end of our few months of living in Gdansk, Poland that we hopped on a train to Szczecin to visit and stay with Dan’s aunty and grandma for a week. The train ride took just under 5 hours and just like our train ride to Krakow, I loved endlessly gazing out the window at the deer roaming through the fields and the country houses in the middle of nowhere, smoke rising out of their chimneys at dusk to warm themselves from the cold nights that have already started to fret at the end of summer. We arrived at night and were greeted warmly at the train platform to Dan’s aunty who hadn’t seen Dan for more than 10 years. We spent the rest of the night eating a wonderful home cooked meal, flicking through photos and listening to stories.

Our week in Szczecin was sunny and warm and we spent our days being shown around the city, exploring all of what it had to offer. Szczecin to me seemed to be older than all the other Polish cities I’ve visited. The buildings are bigger, engrained with character and the streets are busy with mostly locals either working or running their daily errands. It felt to me that Szczecin was filled with people who live more of a city life. We made new friends, with Piotr who is Dan’s aunty’s son and runs his own computer store in the city, spent our days road tripping, walking and even visited Berlin for a day!

Anxiety started setting in while we were in Szczecin. We knew that it was soon time to say goodbye to everyone we love and had spent so much time with. It was soon time to call this adventure around the world that took us four months to an end. We had the most amazing time in Szczecin and Poland itself, but deep down there was a nagging feeling that we just didn’t want to go home. After all these months, where we were at that moment already felt like home.

The train ride from Szczecin to Gdansk was one of the longest in my mind, filled with tears and heavy sighs. I mostly remember the sight of the trees blurring out the window at dusk from where we were sitting, then standing, then sitting again in our restlessness. We had a going away party in Gdansk at night with all our family, next door neighbours and more people than I can remember where the vodka flowed freely and we were all huddled under blankets and heavy jumpers to warm ourselves from the cold. The laughter and the chatter was loud that night, but nothing was louder than the deafening anxious pit in my stomach that I knew we were going to leave this all behind once again. 

We stayed up all night, slowly one by one people retreated back inside or back home. But we sat outside, talking and enjoying our last few moments until the morning sun started trickling back over the horizon.

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.”

The beautiful Szczecin Opera House.

Dan and Majka.

Exploring the sights around Wały Chrobrego, just in front of the marina.

Szczecin Old Town.

One of the prettiest and most quirky building I've ever seen! 

Catching the train home from Szczecin to Gdansk. 

all photos edited with my Gdansk Lightroom Preset.

szczecin photo diary + guide. part i.

This is my personal travel guide to Szczecin. If you'd like to read my story about my time spent there, click here to go to Szczecin Part ii!

Chrobrego by the Oder river // Spend a morning or afternoon, or anytime really, walking around the Chrobrego area. Here you can find the Fontanna Wały Chrobrego, some beautiful old buildings covered in vines along Wały Chrobrego Road as well as many restaurants and cafes. Once you finish walking down the huge stone steps and spent some time by the fountain, make your way down the road by the Oder river for another stroll to see the city by the marina.

Jasne Błonia Park // There are many parks in and around Szczecin, but we personally spent a little bit of time walking around Jasne Błonia which is located just off the Szczecin Municipal Office (this green building). Here you can find an avenue of Plane Trees, planted in rows as well as a statue of Pope John Paul II.

Pomeranian Dukes' Castle // This castle in the heart of the city of Szczecin was built in 1428, damaged in World War II and rebuilt again. You can visit this castle at anytime and wander around the grounds. There are a few restaurants and cafes, and I personally had some amazing Pierogi at Na Kuncu Korytarza! You can also pay a small fee of around 5zł to visit the elevated open-air viewpoint.

Cathedral of St. James the Apostle // This is a large church located in the Szczecin old town. Here you can purchase tickets to take two elevators up to the highest level in the bell tower to see 360 bird’s eye views of Szczecin. 

Szczecin Concert Hall // Also known as the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall, this is a must-see in the city if you have half an hour to spare to walk by. The Hall’s architecture stands out to anything else that has been built in Szczecin and is just as stunning inside as it is out. This attraction would be even better if you have tickets to a show so you can see the inside of the theatre. Unfortunately while we were there they were undergoing maintenance construction so we missed out by a few days!

Szczecin Old Town // Like any Polish city, visiting the old town is a must-do for me! Compared to cities such as Gdansk and Krakow, Szczecin has the smallest old town to visit, but it’s still a well-spent afternoon to take a walk around. There are plenty of restaurants and cafes to spend your time having lunch or dinner.

Crooked Forest // The Crooked Forest, known as Krzywy Las in Polish, is located about an hours drive away from the city of Szczecin, right on the border with Germany. You can read more in detail about my trip to the Crooked Forest here.

Emerald Lake // Also known as Jezioro Szmaragdowe, the Emerald Lake gets it’s name from the emerald colour of the water, created by a collapsed mine. Here you can spend your time walking on the various hiking trails around the lake, and also receive a free tour of the mines that were built during World War II that are still largely unexplored to this day. Once again, you can find more detailed information on the Emerald Lake and my personal trip there in my blog post about the Crooked Forest here.

Make a day trip to Germany // Szczecin is located right on the Poland to Germany border, meaning at 30zł you can take a two hour train ride to Berlin. Dan and I decided to go to Berlin for one day, so we could have the chance to visit a new city but ultimately come home at the end of the day. We rose early to catch the first 6am train out of Szczecin to arrive in Berlin at 8am, and we were back at the train station at 8pm and home by 10pm. My blog post about Berlin is coming soon! 

The Planetarium by the Szczecin marina.

Driving around the suburbs.

Visiting Jasne Błonia park. 

Purchasing our train tickets for our day in Berlin. 

Visiting Pomeranian Dukes' Castle for one of the best Pierogi lunches in town. 

At the top of Cathedral Basilica of St. James the Apostle, getting a bird's eye view of Szczecin.

all photos edited with my new Gdansk Lightroom Preset.

crooked forest, poland

One afternoon while hanging about in our sun-filled home in Szczecin, Poland, Dan’s aunty and grandma took us for a drive to visit the Crooked Forest. The Crooked Forest, known as Krzywy Las in Polish, is located about an hours drive away from the city of Szczecin, right on the border with Germany. We drove through the countryside and I marvelled out the window at the wild sunflowers growing on the roadside as we listened to stories of how the stalks fly south in the winter and return to the very same home they built atop the electricity poles every season. 

I’ve heard many theories as to how the Crooked Forest came about while researching online. From aliens, to war tanks, to ideas that there is perhaps a fluctuation of gravitational forces in this particular area. Regardless, I couldn’t wait to visit this place! There are also many concepts that this forest is haunted due to it’s particularities. I personally don’t really believe in places being haunted, however the minute I stepped foot in the Crooked Forest I started feeling slightly anxious which later went away as the day progressed. It could have been just a coincidence but that was part of my experience of being here. The forest itself is so beautiful, I’ve never seen a sight like that before in my life!

There was a board up at the entrance of the forest which mentioned that these trees were planted before World War II by a carpenter to make furniture. The trees were bent for the furniture he wanted but when the war started, he fled and never returned and the trees stretched back towards the sun. 

The Crooked Forest itself is very small, so we only spent a short time here taking some pictures before heading onwards on our adventure. We stopped for ice cream (of course) in the town of Gryfino and next at a place where Dan’s aunty used to visit regularly when she was younger called Emerald Lake, Jezioro Szmaragdowe in Polish. At Emerald Lake (the name comes from the emerald colour of the water, created by a collapsed mine) we spent the rest of our day walking on the hiking trails around the lake, taking pictures in the lush green shade of the towering trees. We also went for a free tour of the mines that are home to bats in the winter. The mines we explored were apparently built by the Germans in World War II and had carvings on the walls of Swastikas and soldiers names who used to spend time down there. Most of the tunnels are still largely unexplored to this day, however we do know that they run from Germany all the way into Poland. It was extremely interesting to be present in something that was created so long ago and we still know so little about today. 

If you want to check out what else you can do while you're in Poland, you can see my travel guide for Gdansk here and Krakow here!

all photos edited with my Gdansk Lightroom Preset!