Wanderings: Sunset Paddle on the Motlawa

June 9, 2022

The Vistula River drains much of Poland. At the Vistula estuary, the city of Gdansk developed around the Motlawa River where goods were trans-shipped from river boats to sea-going vessels. The city was at various times controlled by Polish Monarchs, Teutonic Knights, The Hanseatic League, etc. Eventually, the city became part of Prussia, and thus became part of the German Empire in the late 1800s in the province of Pomerania (1) (2).

The kayak tour starting point was in a rather derelict part of the shipyards that developed here (3), about a 20 minute walk from town. I was rather uncertain about the whole endeavor as I approached, but eventually saw a shipping container with the company logo. The view was of heavy industry and thenm noise was the racket of loading ships. There were two of us on the sunset tour tonight, myself and a woman from Belarus who had never kayaked before (4).

In about 10 minutes (quicker than the walk), we were paddling on the Motlawa River through Gdansk's revitalized old town (4). Each of the town's waterfront buildings was adorned with a symbol to help the mariners find their way (5). The town's most iconic building, with a hook to move goods between vessels is adorned with a weathervane shaped like a crane (the bird) (6). The story goes that the seamen referred to the building simply as "the crane" which came to mean both the bird and the hook apparatus to move goods, and this practice of referring to the apparatus by the same name as the bird spread throughout Europe.

Heading back, the guide asked if we were afraid of swans. While they can be nasty if they feel threatened, I have no particular fear of them. We poked under a low bridge into the Stepce canal and soon encountered a very puffed-up (7) cob (male swan) that chased the guide's boat for quite a while to protect his pen (mate) and their cygnets. This happens every night apparently; you would think the swan would be used to the kayaks by now.

A apocryphal story is told of 2 boys playing on the Baltic Sea Ice in the communist days. The boys became separated and one began to float away on a piece of ice. The coastguard and local fire and rescue were called; "We're sorry he's too far out, there's nothing we can do." The boy's friend knew what to do. He called The communist government's Border Patrol: "A boy is trying to escape from Poland to Sweden across the ice." The border Patrol had the boy back on land (and in custody) within 20 minutes.

I walked back to town with the woman from Belarus, which I had visited. "Before 2020?" She asked. "Yes" I replied. While living and working in Poland now, she had been very active in the 2020 movement protesting the claim of electoral victory by Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' leader since the 1990s (8). She was visiting the Polish coast from her home further inland for a Ukraine benefit concert (9) by exiled bands from Belarus (10).

She explained my confusion about the Belarus flag, which I thought was horizontal stripes of red, white, and red. That was the official flag in the 1910s, but was changed to red and green during Soviet days. Back to red, white, red in the 1990s, but Lukashenko then changed the flag back to the Soviet colors (red and green). Nowadays, the red and green are seen as the symbol of the regime, while red/white/red is the symbol of the anti-Lukashenko movement.

(1) When trying to dissuade Russia and The Austro-Hungarian Empire from going to war in the 1800s over a dispute in southeastern Europe, Chancellor Bismarck is reputed to have said: "The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier," reflecting both his disdain for the Balkans and respect for Pomeranian soldiers

(2) The area is still known as Pomerania, "Pomorse" in Polish, which adorns the local trains in stylized script.

(3) Lech Walesa founded the independent trade union Solidarity (Solidarnosc) in the shipyards here, challenging communist rule and eventually becoming president of post-communist Poland. The local airport, to which I flew from London this morning, is named in his honor.

(3) She took to the paddling well, and we had no incidents. The guide said he had pulled four people out of water already this year.

(4) There had been a heavy downpour this afternoon (as I was walking from the train), so the water was turbid from the runoff.

(5) The city (then called Danzig) was almost completely destroyed by the Soviet Red Army in the Second World War. Unlike many other cities, which were redesigned and rebuilt, Gdansk tried to maintain the pre-war plan and architectural feel of the city.

(6) On a train ride across Panama a few years ago, I unexpectedly sat in a rail coach filled with building contractors from New York State. I remember one of the contractors excitedly saying "look at the cranes." I scanned the skies and the water to no avail. The contractor was referring to the construction equipment, not birds. Definitely a busman's holiday.

(7) Puffing oneself up to look bigger seems to be a common defense strategy in the animal kingdom.

(8) Sometimes known as Europe's last dictator, although Russia's Putin might dispute the title.

(9) Poland has accepted more Ukrainian refugees than any other country. In a show of solidarity, buses and trams in Gdansk fly both the Polish and Ukrainian flags.

(10) I made the mistake of saying "Belarussian." She chided me. "Don't say it that way, we are not Russian, say Belarus" with a long u. To emphasize the point, she said the Belarus language is much closer to Polish than to Russian (a).

(a) The idea of national languages with fixed boundaries (i) is a relative modern invention. Many nation-states picked the dialect from a certain region to be the official language (e.g., Florentine for Italy, the Gabrovo dialect for modern Bulgarian).

(i) In contrast to more fluid boundaries as the local dialects (*) gradually changed from one language to another as one moved across geographic space. Such an effect can still be heard today in Corsica, which still uses a distinct dialect combing elements of Tuscan and French.

(*) The French have a word for the concept of a local dialect: patois.