Sanctimonious

As I had been ill last week, I was not able to go to Gdansk. This weekend I caught up with my plans and spent a day in the old part of the city with a friend.

Gdansk is definitely a nice town - old buildings, relaxed atmosphere and around this time of year the number of tourists is diminishing. Nonetheless, there were many tourists - in particular elderly Germans - who loved the guided tours. One of the tour guides we passed by sounded very familiar. I listened in for a second and, yes, he did sound a bit like Hitler doing one of his infamous speeches...

A favorite of mine was St. Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the city. Although the white painted interior was not to my liking, it had some impressive art work and a beautiful organ. However, putting all that energy and money into 'a house of God' seems very stupid to me. Couldn't that money have served better purposes? Couldn't the church have helped the poor? The church remains one of the richest institutions in the world and in the middle ages, when the Cathedral was built, it also must have had an almost unconceivable amount of wealth. So why waste it on the glorification of God, if God is supposably so just and merciful and good and helpful? This is probably one of the reasons I never really got Christianity or religion in general.

We were starving when we arrived in Gdansk, so we hurried down to the old town and looked for some touristy restaurant. We ended up in some small bistro near the Cathedral. It wasn't too bad, but I would recommend searching a bit longer for a nicer restaurant if you have enough time.

On another note, the trains here in Poland are somewhat uncomfortable and make my ass hurt...