If you have 10 dollars and you are in Gdansk
After joining the European Union and many other trade and financial associations, Poland was able to preserve its own national currency - the zloty. Many economic experts believe that this decision has partially helped to overcome the recent financial crises that affected the countries of the West and Europe much softer. The Polish economy continues to grow to this day, although not as actively as 10-15 years ago, its inhabitants feel stability, and foreigners go here to work. Labor migration is a cyclical process: immediately after the fall of the communist system, the Poles themselves eagerly went to work in England or Germany, thereby freeing up jobs in the country for migrants. Gdansk is not an exception; rather, on the contrary, this city is now in many ways symbolizes modern Poland, its financial stability. This is facilitated by developed shipbuilding and machine building industries, intellectual and creative centers and hubs, in particular, from the IT sector, as well as port infrastructure.
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10 dollars here is about 37-38 zloty, an amount that can be spent in very different ways. For example, to get for this money by taxi from Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport to the city will not work, but it is easy to be done on convenient trains - you can get up to 5 tickets. You will get the same amount of travel tickets if you are talking about trips to the nearest cities - Gdynia and Sopot where you can look at the Baltic Sea at any time of the year or take a swim in the summer. The average ticket for the train or bus in the region will cost just 7-12 zloty, so public transport here is excellent in terms of price-quality ratio. What is interesting, even if we talk about longer distances, our 10 dollars are also valuable. Many low-cost flies fly from the airport, which sometimes sell their tickets to Scandinavia or to Britain for just 10 dollars. And inside Poland, our 10 dollars is generally a solid amount, since the Poles have such a wonderful company as Polski Bus, which today is part of the giant FlixBus. This bus carrier with a large and developed base only in Gdansk, is famous for the fact that for 10 dollars you can sometimes buy 2 or 3 tickets at once from here to the other end of the country or even to neighboring countries, for example, to Germany or Lithuania.
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We reach the city center and begin to spend our money. Traditional museums, galleries, observation deck on the Town Hall - our budget is excellent enough for 1.5-2 tickets to almost all such places, even without showing a student or retirement ID. To those tourists who prefer active walks in the fresh air, especially in coastal cities, we recommend to spend our ten dollars not on museums, but on a daily bike rental.Excellent infrastructure with lanes, stations where you can leave or take a bike, polite motorists - all this makes cycling trips around Gdansk a wonderful pastime, also useful and cheap. You can ride through the historic center, you can take a ride through the interesting areas of Wrzeszcz or Stocznia, you can drive along the water with the cries of gulls.
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Of course, after such activity, the appetite is easy to get up. Well, it’s not going to be a good deal for 10 dollars, but you definitely won't stay hungry either. If we talk about traditional Polish cafes not of the highest level our amount of money will be enough for a full meal for one person, which will include the first course, the second, a glass of bison or a glass of beer and maybe even dessert or coffee at last. If you move away from the tourist routes and look into the “dairy bars” (bar mleczny) - cult folk caterers, we will be able to eat well even together almost forty of our forty zloty, which is definitely good news. If you prefer supermarkets and homemade food, our budget is approximately: 14 liters of milk or 5 liters of beer or 2 bottles of wine, if we talk about drinks. We move to other departments and see that we can take almost 3 kilograms of chicken for our money, twenty potatoes, about ten kilograms of tomatoes, but beef or good sausage - so called symbol of Poland, we may have a kilogram of each. Apples, oranges, cucumbers, bananas and other popular fruits with vegetables cost on average between half a dollar and a half per kilo, depending on the season. At the same time, such prices are in ordinary urban supermarkets which are situated in the central parts of Gdansk. Those who want to save some money can search on the map the network "Lidl" or "Aldi" that are famous for their promotions and discounts.
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It seems we sorted out with food, we will not be hungry, it's time to think about an evening stroll through the bars. For many centuries, the former Danzig, a typical German city, Gdansk, of course, is famous for its breweries. Almost all of them are located on the central streets, one of which, by the way, even the name is symbolic, because it is called Pivnaya Street. The most famous brewery is located there. But snacks are expensive there, but here’s a beer worth sane money - our amount is just enough for 3 glasses. After them - fresh, tasty and quite strong, you can actually end the evening and go to a hostel or hotel. Speaking about the prices for accommodation, it is worth remembering once again about the “sea nature” of the city, which means about such a concept as “season”. If in the winter for 10 dollars you will most likely be able to rent a bed in a dormitory room in a hostel relatively close to the center, in the summer this money will not be enough - both hotels, apartments and hostels try to earn a lot during the short beach season.
Photo holidayguru.ie
Finally, a few prices from the "ordinary" life of the locals:
Monthly subscription to the fitness club - 25-35 dollars.
The average salary in Gdansk is about 1500 dollars, one of the highest in the country.
Monthly rent of a one-room apartment in the center is about 500-600 dollars, in less prestigious areas - 300-400 dollars.
Municipal monthly services for an average apartment are approximately 170-250 dollars.
A movie ticket costs 6 dollars.
Monthly subscription to the fitness club is 25-35 dollars.
Cover photo itinari.com
