[ Aug.2016 ] When we arrived in Gdansk in Poland, we found that they were having St. Dominic’s Fair.
We were surprised to see so many people in the town because we did not know about this fair.
Apparently, this is one of the three biggest open air markets in Europe (other two are the Christmas Market, and Oktoberfest in Munich).
I did not know this at all. Our main purpose of visiting Gdansk was to show the numerous amber shops to my mother who is a first-rate amber lover, but because the fair happened to be held, first we decided to look around the market.
There were so many kinds of stalls from foods to handicrafts.
Apparently there were as many as 1000 stalls all over the town.
It is like a dream.
One problem was though, most of them accept only cash.
Our cash was limited, so I did not get thoroughly satisfied.
In the pedestrian street where our hotel was, there were many street performers.
Just below our hotel, there was a man who wrote people’s names in Japanese and he was fairly popular.
He was charging 5 PLN ( about ￡1 or €1.15 ) per name written with brush.
We could not make out what kind of person he was.
There was also a pretty blond girl who was playing flute.
I felt a bit sorry for her because I felt her parents are making money using her.
I read that this fair has a long history.
It started officially by a Pope’s decree in 1260.
They had this every year apart from the 33 years during and after the World War 2, but it resumed in 1972.
It lasts 3 weeks from late July and everyday an average of 70,000 people visit here.
Because we were with my elderly mother, we could not visit everywhere.
Someday I will go back there with a lot of cash.
