Life On The Road

So, the visit itself was great albeit very rushed. Although a bus+tram from the airport would have been cheaper, my limited knowledge of Polish was against me as was the knowledge that I had limited daylight so I took a taxi which actually wasn't bad value considering the distance involved. Checked in, very quick freshen-up then another taxi to the rail station which was over the road from the shipyard, Stocznia Gdanska.

I went to the wrong gate at first then found my way to the visitors centre/main entrance. I showed the guard my papers and wandered off into the industrial complex. What struck me initially was the sheer size of the place and the fact that most of it resembled a wasteground-certainly no sign of ships but I could see cranes not far off so I headed towards them photographing decrepit buildings as I went. The actual working shipyard itself was compact and there were a couple of vessels half finished. I was suprised at the level of access i'd been given but stopped short at venturing under the hull. Thank god for my hard hat too-it was mandatory in the working area and I could see why. I wandered around taking pictures as the light fell, casting long shadows over the mass of metal and thought how different it must have been back in the 80s when the strike changed the course of Polish and Eastern European history: I did actually find a Solidarity poster in a shed entrance but resisted the urge to take it..

I sent an e-postcard to a friend as I sat having a rest in the paint yard, surrounded by paint tins and the sickly smell of fresh paint: the cold breeze was coming in off the Baltic and chilled me-sadly I had no hot drink to warm me up. As the sun finally went down, the yard lights came on and the photographs took on a whole new appearance: I have to say that the shoot as a whole was very challenging as the light was so different in a small area but I feel I got a result though and won't have any qualms about sending a selection to Baltic Properties who manage the yard.

5 hours after entering Stocznia I made my way back pausing to watch the kitten colony that lives (somehow) at the yard and eventually found myself at the Rail Station once more. I found a taxi easily and we headed off back to the hotel, at breakneck speed I might add, the journey made even more 'exciting'by the fact that the driver was watching a series of pop videos on his dash-mounted DVD player screen! Good quality though and some very hot chicks to watch ;-) I loved the way he was track-hopping with the little remote too :-) And then it was off for a meal followed by the bar.

The journey back was long, slow and unmemorable but it didn't spoil a great weekend in Gdansk.