Poland’s lakes start at Ełk - what a FANTASTIC LAKE side community and city 🇵🇱

Oh hey guys, how you doing? Can you tell that we must be hitting the road? The beautiful hum of the ladies. And look, look at this. We're on an old school train today guys, right here, old school. Come on, let's go get on. So you can see the excitement of hitting the roads. All right, here we go. We made it at what looks like the newest train station here in Aleppo, which is very ironic because the drive here, the ride here, I felt like we were in like a time zone. It's right on a time zone, but I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. I mean, look at the pictures I took of some of these stations. It's completely different. So yeah, so we're in Elk. More details to follow. Join me, let's see what Elk is all about. Well, this is already different. I saw a sign for the narrow gauge. I didn't realize that they still do narrow gauge here, but I guess they do. I wanted to see what the main terminal looked like and show you, but you can't easily get to it. And now I'm on some other street. I don't know if you have to pay for tickets first or what, but we won't do the whole thing. But I'll just show you that, uh, look at the old trains they have right here. It's pretty cool. And then like, look at this one right here. Now, what I know about like the narrow gauges is just that in different parts of the world, they have the tracks are different for the wheels. And I know like, for example, uh, I have a friend who in her town, uh, they'd have to stop off at one part to switch to the train with the narrow wheels. And now they don't have a train at all running there because they're tearing up that track to replace it with the more modern ones. But, uh, yeah. So if you're ever in Elk and are curious about the history of this, uh, here's a museum for that. Wow. All right. Thank you, Elk. I'm still walking on the perimeter of this thing. I did find though, here's a little, uh, here's a bathroom hack. If you go to that museum, right on the side are free bathrooms. Always important. Always important. All right. Let's take a look at where the heck we are. Now, the reason why we're in Elk is because I have to catch a bus from Elk to another town, to the heart of the lakes, the lakes region, if you will, big tourist area. So we're staying here for a day, a night, a little less than a day, about 24 hours. So this will be a little bit different for both of us, for all of us. I have no idea what to expect. I do know though, I purposely didn't run this morning in Viela Estuca because I was like, you know what? I'm going to run here. We'll run here in the morning and see what enjoyable awesomeness this area has. As you can see, they recycle well here. Well, I'm pretending that this town is user-friendly to figure out. As I've just taken some turns, I'm trying to will myself to the lake. The whole reason, well, one of the reasons why I came here in this direction, as opposed to going up through a different cities, group of cities. What I can tell you about Elk, not that you've seen that much so far as Elk. Elk, I think has a population of like 60,000 people. It sounds about right. It wasn't always this big. And it didn't always have this name either. I forget what the other name was. I was going to say the German name, but I'm just going to refer to it as Elk because it just rolls off the tongue. Here's an older apartment building right here, or older relative to the one I'm walking by. We're getting closer to like the downtown area that I was trying to get to, but I stopped off because I want to show you this apartment building right here. Do you see their outdoor space? Are those cages? I know they're not, but geez, they look like them from a distance. It's so weird. Everything, it's not weird. Sorry. It's just, it's a very, it's a different style because even those ones look different than like the newer building right here, but it's like, I don't know, they just look like these metal bars. Here's my weeping willow that I don't think is a weeping willow, but I'm calling it one. I don't know, guys. Interesting, right? Always interesting. Pretty building there. Now, I don't know if, I didn't do any research, so I can't tell you if there's an old town here or not, but these buildings look older. So this is Gdansk Street, and I do see a little shopping plaza here. As we wait for the light to turn green, look, we got some dresses. Not wedding dresses, but I'll take them. I swear I just passed like a crematory right across the street from like a medical place, but anyway, look at this building right here. Interesting architecture directly on the side. The birds tell me we're close to water, but even though stuff is torn up right here, look at this beautiful park. Isn't it nice? With a statue. It's a war, World War II statue, I believe, and I know it's not the rooster. It's actually a better rendition of the eagle, I believe. Let me take a look. There she is, and look at the soldiers on the side. Like the buildings, though. Cool little architecture. Reminds me a little bit of Gdansk and Sopot, and here's where the decision is. You know what? We'll go this way. I did look at a grid earlier, but what I'm trying to find... I won't say trying because we will find it. There's like a walkway out onto the lake. There's like an island you can check out and other goodies, if you will. Looks like all the old people are out right now, meaning sitting in their benches, enjoying themselves, and there's a church I've spotted, but I don't know if I can get to it due to construction. It's a beautiful park. I like it. I like the dark colored brick right here. This is awesome. Goes for quite a bit, and what they do is they just put in a bunch of circles, so what we're going to do, seeing now how it is in our favor, we'll cut right over here. Not yet. See? I see the church. It's just crying. It's right here. Look at this. I really should learn some Polish. Looks like there was a jazz tour here. I wonder if it's unlocked. So the Baptist church will not let us in. Not surprised. I'm sure the acoustics are cool. I thought, if anything, instead of seeing a Baptist church, maybe seeing the Lutheran one instead. I mean, we are in a more predominant, at least through history, was a German population, German-speaking population. I know back in the early 1900s, I think it was only 35% of the population was actually of a Polish background. In between the apartment buildings here and our park, I have spotted another church. That is where we will head to. Good idea, guys. If you're new to the channel, this is how we usually do this. This is how we usually walk. I just look for landmarks, and that's where we make a beeline to. Although, with it being a little bit afternoon right now, I'm a bit hungry. So we're stopping off for food, too, while we're at it. Look at this building right here. It's kind of cool. Actually, this whole street. Again, I like the vibe. I like the energy now that we've gotten off that one spot. Ah, construction. But look at the nice colors. I can always tell when I'm farther north in Poland, because the architecture style for a lot of the different houses is similar to the Baltics. Fresh strawberries. Kebab Amigos. Nice. Good name. Good strong name. Look at the blue. Very pretty. It's really cute, actually. I might have already said that already, but it's true. There's an apartment hotel right there to our right. I'm not even sure what I'm staying at. I'm staying at a Pensioneer's. It's a pretty building. All I'm hoping for, for tonight, in all seriousness, is give me a room that isn't a thousand degrees. Now, granted, we're farther north than when I was in Warsaw, so it's going to be cooler to begin with. But even last night, what I'm finding is, with the efficient Polish construction, the higher apartments, even if you have the windows open, they still get pretty hot. And I think we are at the base of my church. Yeah. I'm sorry, we're on the back side of it. It's right here. Boom. We don't want to bring bad luck to our tour today by not going into a church. It's very important. I did pass on the train coming in here a couple of cemeteries, but they're on like the far end of town. So not so sure that's going to happen. They're in the middle of a mass. I don't know what's worse, being locked out or having a mass going on. But cool little history, cool little fact about this church is the original one burned down during World War One, and then they rebuilt it in this neo-Gothic style. And it was actually handed over to the Catholics in the 1940s, I think, maybe 1950s. Because originally, even though there's been a Catholic presence in this area since the 19th, sorry, since the 15th century, when the Reformation hit, it became a Lutheran stronghold. And so it wasn't again, handed over to the Catholic Church until the 20th century. So there you go, there's your church again. Maybe we'll slide back in later. So with the sacred heart of Jesus behind us, looking both ways, we're going to go down to the embankment, and hopefully to some food choices. Ah, the lake. Now I'm feeling like I'm home. I don't know, I'm serious. It is my home. Oh, look at this, I think I found exactly what I was looking for. Awesome. Well, this is pretty neat. So down on the water right here, you got your apartments, I guess, some little restaurants. And then across the way on the water, oh, I feel so nice after being in that train, is a path. Look at this. And this is why I wanted to come. Oh, this is pretty. Not as pretty as this statue right here. So there's Jazz Club right there that we, I don't know what the heck that is. I'm sure it's something nice. Apartments, restaurants, keeps going. All the way down, you can see you can follow the embankment. I'll end up running down here tomorrow morning. But yeah, so what do you guys think? It's just the beginning of the water. And the beginning of the natural culture. Looks like Gandalf. Looks like one of the mean dwarves. Here's a little girl with a fish on her head. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, it's not a fish. Hello, good looking. So across the way, so literally right across the street, I don't know if you guys can tell, but there's a stage where they must do concerts and other good stuff right there. I don't know if you can see it. We're going to head that way momentarily, but let's go be tourist and jump on the bridge. So if you look in the distance, there's, I wonder if that's a church actually. Directly ahead right there. I might even be on that being a church. See in the water, there's some kids. I'm assuming they're kids learning how to sailboat. It's like a paddle boat group right over here, right there. And what a peaceful day, a peaceful place. Restaurants directly across the way as well. And then for us, pass underneath this bridge, this footpath, if you will. See, you got the lake on both sides. And because this area doesn't want to be left out, look what we have, the love locks. Oh, thank God. Thank God. I was afraid that people from this part of Poland, they can't attest to their relationships. They can't prove it because there was no place to put So just across the bridge, again, with the church in the background, I have found the ruins of a Teutonic Knights castle. Not to be confused with Malbork. A bunch of elitists over there, by the way, kicked me out. Story for another day. But look, it's right here, right here. At least I hope it is the ruins or I'm going to feel really stupid. I don't know. This wall right here looks pretty significant. Doesn't take a historian to say something important was here. Although I feel like with the gate closed, honestly, this could just be an old apartment complex. I'm kidding. Not really. You know, one thing that continues to piss me off is this cyclist right here. So he could have just stayed on the lane, but instead he decided to jump right up here and ride up on my ass. Thanks, buddy. Thanks. Well, if this was a Teutonic castle, it's pretty cool. At least knowing in some regard that it had some history. I think more important, though, being the nature lover that I am, is I like just this. You know what I mean? This in itself is just great until the bugs get me and then you'll hear me cry a different tune. Very pretty. And you know, it's kind of cool, actually. You can see there's a path down here. People must come down here. Here are the old steps. Hello, Mr. Duck. You see the duck right there? It's pretty. We're going to head back towards the promenade now. Just want to show you, though, clearly the locals take advantage of this area. Litter bugs. All right, so we're off the bridge now, back in front of the history lesson of important people in Polish history and just walking along. But what you'll see there will come into view momentarily is the ruins of the castle that we walked by. But the backside. Yay, right? Yeah. All right. I see. So again, this is where we walked and then where they're doing the fixing up, remodeling. There's the ruins right there. So we have a couple of food options. We have a pierogi place. Geez, I really could go for some sauerkraut right now. Not. So the lake's right there. I ordered my food. I got a traditional beer and a pancake pie. Sorry, a potato pie. Traditional dish. See how it goes. I saw like a huge group of kids come out of here, so I figured it must be OK. And I had a friend with the same name as the restaurant, so I figured it's a good start. Their local brew. A little bit bigger. It's funny, I didn't tell her the size. They got me the bigger one. I wanted the small. Nice hearty mushrooms. Good. I like the cheese, I like the cream, potatoes. I feel like I'm eating healthy. Very hot. Cheers. Well, as you can see, I really, really didn't like this meal. So that was a really good meal. I was pleasantly surprised. It was awesome, actually. I would definitely get that again. Look at this right here. A cotton candy machine. Haven't seen one of those before. It looks like I might actually be coming back down this way later this evening when it's dinner time because right next to where we just ate, the Janish place, there's a pizza place, ice cream place, and then there's another ice cream place, I think, and another restaurant. So we're like at the hub. Oh, this is their dock, too. Go figure. No, that was good. Good meal. It hit the spot. It's exactly what I needed. And now I'm going to walk this off. Yeah. Or maybe not. We'll see. Now down this way, and I'm going to hit it after we go check out the church, is a beach because we've got to see what our swimming possibilities are because clearly right here does not look as inviting as it should be. There could be a shark in this water, for all I know. But what I want to show you is where I'm staying for the night, which I think is kind of cool, actually. I think it's this building right here, actually. It's one of these. I don't know which one. Oh, wait, I can read. It's right there. It's the far one on the far right. I'll stay there for the night. And it's pretty inexpensive. It's like $55 for the night. Right on the water. So that was the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church that was turned over to the Catholics in August 1945. You do the dates in your head as to why it was that day. So August 1945. Definitely a darker style. Reminds me of a Lutheran church. Now there's one thing that I haven't done here in Poland since I've been back, and actually I didn't do this before either, and I think it's important because it's summer. So I think we're gonna get some ice cream. As you see there are so many choices that we can choose from. It's right here. I'm gonna call it ice cream heaven. Stepped out to stand in the shade to get out. Sorry, to get in the shade. We're in front of what looks like a vegetable place. The laser tag is down here as well, but look what I have. A small chocolate. A small chocolate. There's no laser tag. It's down there. It's kind of funny, I know. Well, you don't know this, but. So I went up. I can say what I wanted in Polish, but because I was standing there for a moment, maybe it's the ball cap, even though more Polish people are wearing the ball caps, I said this word for small, which is moly. Anyway, I said small, or I tried to, and she's like, do you want to say it in English? And I was like, okay, small chocolate swirl. How can I practice my Polish if you won't let me struggle through it, you know? And this isn't very good. Now, it's interesting. We're walking back on a main street, on the main street from the church, the ice cream place, and you have like the older farm buildings right now on one side, but they threw up and have this different style to our right that we're on. Interesting, that's all. This looks interesting right here. Kogomogl, pierogi place. I bet you it's inexpensive. Did I just write this? Is this a picture place where they take photos of sweets? Or is this, well, I think this is what they specialize in. Don't mind me, I'm trying to find some red velvet cake. I hear they don't have it in this region, and I want to prove that they do. So now we're going to cross over this little bankman area, if you will. There's that church again, the one that I couldn't get into earlier. I now have a pretty good idea where we are. You need to check out the mural they put right there on the side of the building. It's been out 100 years, since 1918. Right over there, and we're in this park with this woman who's calling me over to sit next to her. I don't know if I feel comfortable with that. Now my beach is somewhere near here, because I thought it was. Oh, oh, that's so nice. The clouds have covered up the sun. Thank you, God. Thank you. It looks like we've come across some kid area. All these inflatables and a dress shop, I think, at a park across the street. Huh. As we take this park area that eventually swings down to the beach, I want to point this out right here, this wet paint bench. Yes, it's very wet, and I know why. Not because I sat on it, but because I literally passed the guy who was wearing a black glove and carrying, I think, a gallon of paint in his hands. So it's fresh. Like, the last 10 minutes. Maybe 15. Maybe. And literally, it's funny, they put these on all of them, because clearly they know that people are stupid and will sit on the wet paint. It's life. I figured I'd show these plants for my mom. I know how you're a big fan of, are these hydrangeas? Are they? It's so weird hearing people cut grass and trim. It's like up here in Elk, they're still civilized. Huh. Look at this skate park over here. Where to go, guys? Where to go? Despite the hum of the equipment, I'd just like to stress, because we're back in Poland with my vlogs of late, I love a good public outdoor space. And this whole area right here, they have a water park, they have a skate park, and they have benches everywhere. It's very family-orientated. And they even have athletic equipment as well. It's nice to see a good use of space. And I've spotted some local wildlife. A giant swan who's taking shade. It's not in the water, I don't blame the swan for not being in the water. It's a little bit green. But let's see if we can get closer. What is going on with this guy right here? Oh my god, that's awkward. I think this is a hedgehog house. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe not. All right, now look, we're gonna be very quiet. Look right here. Here she is. Hi, buddy. Hi, you're cute. It's a good spot for you. I don't want to get too close, because I know that swans can be a little aggressive at times. But yeah, so there's a swan. I'd ask it some serious questions, like has it seen the movie Black Swan? I'm just curious. Some of you know I complained in a lot of previous Poland videos about how the grass is not cut. Well, why today when I come by do you have to cut it today? So here we are. We're at the beach. Or what they think is a beach. Oh, I can't wait to get in the water. This is what I've been waiting for the whole summer. Well, on a positive note, it's not mobbed. Certainly not the Moroccan beaches when I was in Tangier, though, that's for sure. This is brought in sand. And this guy has a buoy attached to his back. So this guy is swimming with a buoy attached to him. I guess that's smart. So here's the beach. It looked bigger on the Google Maps. Maybe there's one farther down. But hey, let's feel the water. I haven't been in the water up here yet. I've been in the Baltic Sea, but never here. Never here. All right, guys, let's take off these shoes, take off my socks, and feel a bit of home. You know, what's crazy is back up in New Hampshire and stuff like that, I didn't really take advantage of the water before I left. Now, granted, it was the first week of June, but I'm in. I'm in. Not in deep, but I'm in deep enough that if a shark came in, I could run out of the water in time. So this is Elk. I'm sure there's more to show you. I'm sure there's museums and more churches and cemeteries and all that other good stuff. But yeah, this is what we got time for in our stay. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. And yeah, so until next time, peace. The lakes region of Poland. It's only going to get better, folks. Only going to get better.