Torun and Gdansk

We (Ali and I) decided to head north to Torun instead of south to Krakow as most people do as we had heard all the hostels were booked up over the weekend. Torun was a quaint little town on the Vistula river with a ton of history. It actually changed hands a number of times between the Poles, Germans and Prussians and Teutonic knights.
It was also home to Nicolas Copernicus the astrologer and mathematician. We went to a museum housed in his old house and what amazed me most was how he pioneered so much with so little and that other great geniuses would take up where he left off. It had a lot of character but it still wasn't what I was looking for. We stayed for a few days, checked out the old Teutonic Castle ruins, shot a bow and arrow (pictures pending) and then left for Gdansk.
Another few hours north to Gdansk and we had lengthened our return trip to Krakow considerably. Not looking forward to that trip!
Gdansk was part of a "tri-cites" network along the Baltic sea. On the way to Gdansk on the train a couple with an adorable 5 month old named Jacob sat in our car. After some interesting sign language and slow and loud English we had made some new friends. They decided that since we hadn't booked a hostel they would find us a good deal and help us find it. It was a nice offer but ended up in the end leaving us in the middle of nowhere and in hotel that was too expensive. Oh well, the intent was there. After a day we moved to a much cheaper and central hostel.
The new town wasn't much to see but the old town along the river was quite nice, and had been left a little unscathed by the Germans. I got to see the Baltic sea for the first time which was cool. Along with the Baltic, we visited the largest brick castle in the world just outside of Gdansk. Malbork Castle. It was huge. It had also been destroyed by the Nazis during the war (not so nice people). Poland had sunk millions into rebuilding it to it's original stature and had done a tremendous job. Though not quite finished on the inside, it was pretty wild to see. They even had medieval plumbing (sorta) and central heating. Not bad considering the castle was built in the 1300's by Teutonic Knights.
Gdansk didn't help to fill the void, despite the large quantities of beer and nice people so it was time to get on the long train to Krakow.