Desert Flower’s time in Gdansk

We felt as if we belonged. They received us with open arms and made us feel at ease when we were with them and when we were in their homes. We also made trips around the Old City and heard many new things about Polish culture and we learnt about the way of life of the Poles. On one of our trips, we had the opportunity to see the “girl in the window”, a mythological ancient figure in Gdansk who appears every hour in a window of a building in the central square.

During these days, we had discussions with the youth who served as out hosts and despite the difficulty to communicate, we did manage to understand one another.

In the free time we had with the families, they also took us site seeing in special places in Gdansk, like the large courtyard of the bishop and they even took us to the highest look out point in the night light, an unforgettable panorama.

On one day, we spent a number of hours in the Malbork Castle, a fortress built in the Middle Ages by the Teutonic knights.

After a Taize prayer in the church, a meal was held in our honor in the garden of one of the families. The five priests of the community and the young people were all there and the atmosphere was joyful. There, after songs, dances and words of farewell, we departed from some of our new friends.

On the last morning, we celebrated the first mass in Hebrew in the history of Gdansk. From there, we went to the train station in order to take the train in the direction of Szczecin, our next destination.

If I must sum up the experiences of our stay in Gdansk in one sentence, I would say that we had an incredible experience and that this visit will stay in my heart for a very long time.