It says that march comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This feels particularly this month, when I walk through my favourite park of Gdańsk - Park Oliwski.
Whenever I come back from work, I can hardly resist taking the route through the beautiful historical park in Oliwa. When I moved into that borough, I had absolutely no idea about topography of Tricity.
How ignorant it was of me not even to bother about such exquisite spacial green treasure that is located just within 5-minute-walk from my house! Marvellously designed routes, streams and little ponds are enchanting not only in summer, but also in winter. It was one Friday, when my supervisor asked me - what were I doing still at work (Go home it's Friday!). So I started the weekend in the best way I could have imagined - taking a walk through the Oliwa's park that makes it remarkably relaxing - as the weekend should be. I couldn't resist that rare opportunity to use the perfect light around. I sat next to the bridge and started to sketch.
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Park in Oliwa, February 2015
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| February in Park Oliwski |
Now the photos may look as if they have been taken out of the spring mood that crawls slowly (definitely too slow) towards the Baltic Sea Area. Nonetheless, I was happy enough to catch the last glimpse of snow that winter! Already two days after, snow was gone and warm beams of sun uncovered all the hidden shades of humble green.
Some accidental passer-bys gave me a bit awkward look when they saw me in front of the bridge. The temperature was just below zero and I did forgot my gloves! Freezing cold hands were the main reason why I decided not to go into too many details with that picture. Same basic colours I added already home (picture at the bottom). As devoted as it may be seen, 30 minutes of sketching were just enough to make me dreaming about hot green tea back home!
Admittedly, I love this waterfall in Oliwa's park. The magical atmosphere here is created by this cascade, however this is just one part of that stream.
Potok Oliwski (Oliwa's Creek) goes from
Złota Karczma (Golden Inn), follows through the Valley of Joy (hence some call it "
radostna struga", joyful creek), crosses the park and has its end some kilometres away, directly at the Baltic Sea (that part is also called
Potok Jelitkowski - Jelitkowo's Creek).
For those fascinated with history, it may be interesting that before the IIWW the name of the creek was
Glettkaubach (
Bach=creek,
Glettkau= a German word for Jelitkowo, that was phonetically formed after the Kashubian name of that sea-side village - and now a district of Gdańsk). If you take your time and look closer at the historical map of that part, you may notice, that not far away was the border of the Free City of Gdańsk that existed here as a result of Treaty of Versailles (1918) until the end of the IIWW.
Under this link you can find couple of historical maps of this region Pomorze/Pomerania, where on some Oliva or polish Oliwa are quite visible.
Let us take as an example this one
(link), where just at the orange border you see
Oliva and one of the historical streets of the district
Pelonkenweg (ul. Polanki), where also Schopenhauer used to live.
Glettkau (Jelitkowo) is just at the Baltic Sea.
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Source: www.mapy.exploracja.pl "Q55 Danzig" 1:300 000 Übersichtskarte von Mitteleuropa, 1925, Ze zbiorów Marka Zielińskiego. In this region Polish people use now the old names only unwillingly (if they even know them). Names as those above are just an old reminiscence of the war. Particularly since old German generations are gone, Poles use only original Slavic names and only sentimental German tourists and historians remember the old once. If you happen to go to Gdansk, make sure you are able to speak the name "Gdańsk" and "Sopot" in the Polish and not German way, and use google maps or any other map that is up-dated with proper names (definitely not the one above!)
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The map above is 90 years old and presents a status quo that no longer exist. The orange border of non-existent Free City of Gdańsk (
Danzig) separates area inhabited in the past mostly by Germans (including a popular cure location of
Zoppot or current Sopot) from the to-be-build Polish harbour of Gdynia (1926). After the IIW all Germans had been displaced to Germany and their houses were taken either by Russian soldiers or by Poles displaced from above all the current area of Ukraine. Uprooting people's history that is what politics can surely cope with very well.
During the war Oliwa avoided the scent of destruction. No wonder that many people find this borough as the most beautiful district in the whole Tricity! The old villas are still there and entice people with their wind of history (I am one of those victims who fell in love with a build in 1907 villa that I currently live in).
In the oldest literature Oliwa was mentioned already in 1188 (and remember that the first Polish king was coroneted just over 150 years before!). Although the bridge and waterfall on the photograph are definitely not that all, personally I find them the most beautiful parts of the creek.
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| Stones at that day were still covered by the last snow of the winter. |
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| Temperature below zero and no gloves! Sketchers my be sometimes crazy... |
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| The spot that I sketched from. The palm glass house in the background is opened during the summer |
Already two days after, I was taking my scroll over park and snow was completely gone!
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| The historical cathedral of Oliwa, next to the park and abbey.. |
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| Colours added later, ink + crayons, sepia pastel, Moleskine sketchbook. Click to make it bigger |
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| The park is closed at the evening. Make sure you finish your walk before 8 p.m in winter. In summer, it's opened much longer. |
A bonus of this part is the sky. Who will tell me now, that spring is not coming?
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| Last week from in front of my house |
Being sick for the last weeks, I really wait for sunny spring days, first buds of flowers in the Oliwa park and of course, for chilly day of sketching in the park. Then more sketches of Oliwa will come for sure.
Keep warm!
that girl with a sketchbook
