Foo fighters

Thursday in Gdynia, we awoke late head still buzzing from the Radiohead set, setting out to grab breakfast from Trafik we ate lazily and anticipated seeing the Foo Fighters later today.

Feeling quite tired we had a lazy afternoon, taking the funicular to Kamienna Góra. There is a great view out of the city and out to the sea.

We headed out to the festival in time to watch the start of Jimmy eat world at the tent stage, before heading to the main stage to catch the Kills, then back to the tent stage to catch a bit of MIA. I can't say I enjoyed MIA it seemed to me she turned up the base to cover the fact she couldn't sing. We left before she made her announcement that she had deleted her twitter account. All before Foo Fighters.

Foo fighters were incredible, this is the forth time I have seen them and they never disappoint. We managed to get a lot further forward than at Radiohead. Their set was really nice with fan favorites including the Pretender and Monkey wrench. Dave Grohl even did a solo from their new album with the Kills front women Alison Mossheart. Titled 'La Dee Da' Grol and Mossheart shared the mike to sing the chorus.

 Grohl gave it everything but by the last couple of songs his voice was going, he joked that Radiohead had played a 6 hour set but he didn't have time for that!

Gdynia Plaża Orłowo & Radiohead

Orlow cliffs

Another glorious day in Gdynia, we eat breakfast in Traffik working our way through their festival menu. We deicided to head for the beach for a walk before the start of the festival in the afternoon. So we took an Uber to Plaża Orłow. Once there we took a walk along the cliffs, rounding back through the forest. Followed by a short stroll across the pier.

Festival selfie

After a cold beer and sit at the Pizzeria it was time to get back to Gdynia so we could head out to Open'er! The festival ran a bus services from the station in Gdynia direct to the festival. It was busy but well organised with plenty of buses so we didn't have to wait for too long. Arriving at the festival entrance there was a short walk past the camping area to the main festival area. 

We headed past the main stage to the tent stage to watch Michael Kwianuka, after hearing some of his songs in big little lies its was quite nice. Then we had a bite to eat and a beer before James Blake then Radiohead on the main stage.

Radiohead were amazing there set covered pretty much all their albums with favourites like Paranoid Android, Lucky, Nude and an amazing encore ending on my personal favourite Street Spirit.

I was scared getting back from the festival would be awful thanks to the large number of people queuing for the buses, but actually they organised everything really well so we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get onto a bus.

Arriving in Gdnyia

Its been a whirlwind since we arrived back from the Opener festival in Gdnyia Poland last Sunday (2nd July 2017).

Arrival, tall ships and great weather

Dar Młodzieży

Thanks to the flights we arrived in Gdyina a few days early for opener. Taking an early morning flight from Manchester to Gdansk then a short train ride we were in Gdynia in time for lunch. We checked into the Hotel Mercure Gdynia, a 70s era concrete pile. There were plenty of follow festival goers checking in, indeed there was some deal for the VIP holders. Then headed out to eat lunch at Pyra bar. A potato themed place that did great potato babka.

We then spent the afternoon enjoying the good weather, and a few beers around Gyndia.

Tuesday we ate a fantastic breakfast  at Trafik. They were doing some festival specials which were very tasty, so tasty we ended uop returning nearly every day for a post festival breakfast / brunch.

Pyranha

After breakfast we headed to the pier and had a wonder around the aquarium. This was quite good, most of the sections had dual language descriptions so that I could understand what I was looking at.

They was also some big sections on the dangers of ocean pollution.

After the Aqurium we had a wonder around the ORP Błyskawica a second world war era destroyer originally build in the UK for the Polish navy. It saw service in the war then was used by the Polish navy during the Soviet era. It is the oldest preserved destroyer in the world, and provider a fascinating time spent wondering around.

Open'er Festival bands

We went to pick up our festival bands, a day early but it avoided the large queues that appeared later in the week. We got our from the train station not realiseing that there was an open'er festival station right outside the hotel. Indeed there was an open stage for the festival where bands were playing for free in the city.