our last stop in poland was the city Gdańsk, located next to the baltic sea. we spent about three days in the area exploring and enjoying the city. unfortunately, it was pretty rainy the days we were there, so i didn't take as many photos on my camera as i would have; but luckily i remembered to snap some on my iphone (hence the lack of quality in the images above). i really liked Gdańsk - the plaza was fun to walk around and window shop. we tried out a few of the restaurants there and walked around the waterfront.

this castle was incredible! we did the self guided tour and it took us about 3 1/2 hours. my parents went on the tour with a tour guide and it took them even longer. the crazy thing is that we only got to see a small portion of the castle during that time. the malbork castle is the largest castle in the world by surface area, and the largest brick building in Europe!

after visiting warsaw, we drove our rental car through the town Toruń on our way to northern poland. it rained on us while we were there, so we walked through the town and explored for a bit before getting back into the car. i didn't know this, but nicolaus copernicus was born in toruń! we stopped and took some pictures in front of the statue of him in the main square.

warsaw was a fun place to visit with so many sights to see. we stayed at an air b&b apartment very close to the main square. we enjoyed walking around the streets exploring and trying new restaurants. i loved the variations of colorful buildings. 

the next city we visited after zakopane was Łódź. we spent the night at this amazing hotel that was made in an old textile mill building. this was the nicest hotel i've ever stayed at! when kevin was living in poland, he made a goal to one day bring his wife here. (check!)

today has been a gloomy, rainy day. 
which reminded me of this photo i took while in Gdańsk, Poland.
i seriously love this image. we were walking down this street, everyone around us had their umbrellas up (something we didn't pack...), and we were headed to the Neptune Bar for lunch. i didn't want to get my camera soaked, so i pulled out my iPhone and snapped this image. 
btw, i promise that all the travel posts will be coming soon (!!!) i'm trying to find the time to go through the million images i took.