Night at the Museum

ESC and the Monument of Three Crosses 

This weekend I went for Night at the Museum. However there was no Ben Stiller, or exhibits coming alive at midnight. You might ask, how is that possible? The answer, as always, is simple. I went for the real Night at the Museum.

Emigration Museum and a ship as big as the building itself

Every year museums around Poland open their doors to visitors at night (from around 5pm to 2am). Not only the entrance is free (in majority:), there also are extra surprises that are one-off kinda thing.

You might see suitcases there

I had very ambitious plan. I wanted to start in Gdynia, at Emigration Museum as it was its opening day. Then I wanted to stop by European Solidarity Centre, as I never been since it opened. I also wanted to see Tower Clock Museum (who wouldn't! right?) and finish of at Westerplatte.

Or, a picture of modern supermarket

We got to the Emigration Museum around 6pm to discover a bubble-shaped queue in front of entrance to the main exhibit area . No worries, we got in in a blink of an eye (about 40 minute blink:). Main exhibit area reminded me of a maze, (the "road" was twisty:) each room was so different from the previous one. I did try to read about the exhibits and gain the knowledge of polish emigration, however I had others museums at the back of my head, so I read about 50% information, but I saw 100% of pictures :)

You definitely gonna see that and you will love it even more :)

By the time we got out the queue quadruple in size and transformed into a line, and I couldn't be more pleased with myself:) So I grabbed a bagel from food truck upfront and hit the road. The only problem was the time. It was 10pm already (how????). So, of we rushed off to European Solidarity Centre.

You might be able to leave a message here...

As we entered from side door and headed upstairs to the exhibition rooms I was amazed and very happy that there is no queues. Until we were stopped at top of the stairs and directed to cash desk to purchase tickets. Then I saw it. The queue writhed like a snake. Estimated waiting time: 1,5 hrs. As the bets on waiting time started rolling in a miracle happen: a lady came over and offered her tickets. I almost lost the tickets as I was so surprised I didn't respond to her and there were plenty of people that were more than happy to take advantage of the offer. Thankfully the lady had her heart set on me, for which I am more than grateful :)

and enjoy show here.

The next thing we did was speed touring. Even with our almost running pace it took us around 2 hours to walk though all the exhibition rooms. However I am not sure if I got them all, as I got a little bit lost in the meantime. I guess it doesn't matter as much, as I would have to come back because I got around 5% information and 40% pictures.

Resistors

Purposefully I am not describing any exhibition pieces and I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who will go see it. For anyone interested in history, especially polish history both of the places will be interesting. Otherwise go to the beach instead:)

And you can admire rooftop view :)

Although I didn't "make the plan" I consider this year's Night at the Museum as successful. Did you ever got to experience the real Night at the Museum yourself?

Marine Station

Panorama, Museum of Emigration

I am so exited I can barely contain myself. I was very fortunate to take part in Instameet in Gdynia. We were visiting soon to be open Museum of Emigration. It goes without saying that I was more than happy with the whole tour. Mostly it is due to Mr. Marcin, who was our tour guide.

Entrance Hall

I can admit that I am not familiar with history of Gdynia, or it's - too see places. But whenever I ask any Gdynia native what there is to see in Gdynia, I don't get any more info than what I know already (sometimes even less).

Emigration Museum and the Sun

We got nice warm up walk with quite few "details" that I'll share with you later. But everybody knew that the museum was the real deal. I'll just add that this was my first InstaMeet, so I had no idea what to expect. I will also say that till last week I had no knowledge whatsoever of Museum of Emigration. Open or not.

"Emigration" wall

The museum is based in a station, that was in use between 1933 and 1987. Silly of me, but brave to admit that the whole time of the tour I thought it was a train station. I had it all figured out. Since it was the emigration museum and a station I figured it was used during WWII to ship people out of danger. The idea I had was that people where brought by trains to the station and then put on ships to emigrate. I was wrong there. My imagination fails me so often!

Original track from the crane

The museum is set to be open in early summer, so since they aren't quite ready we didn't see any exhibits. That didn't bother me. The building itself is a gem. They restored the original building that was open on 8th of December 1933. The building was enriched with beautiful glass that adds so much to experience and it is consistent throughout the building. You have the sleeve that is mirrors what is was there before (which was a fully working sleeve). Clever use of glass gives you so many reflections and angles. I was amazed. Truly.

Cafe, see beneath you :)

I promise you, I will get all the facts about the actual station by the time it's open. But for now I can't get over how it was restored and made into such a gem. I'll say people of Gdynia start spreading the word that such beauty is around the corner. The museum is very close to main town, but to get there one has to go through industrial area, also big surprise that such terrain still exist so close to main town. You even get a feeling of village-like life. I would live there if I could.

Waves at  French Harbour in Gdynia