I recently took a short trip to Gdańsk with friends. Here are some of the sights I saw around this incredible city!

A huge monument, made up of three concrete crosses and each topped with a ship's anchor. On its sides at the base are murals of battles, and it is surrounded by flowers that receive regular tender care. In any other country, you might think this to be a war memorial, perhaps of some great naval engagement or the heroism of merchant seamen. Poland is not any other country.

In 1970, government proposals to hike food prices coupled with existing shortages sparked massive protests among the workers at dockyards across northern Poland. The largest of these being at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, where workers commandeered police cars, set fire to the provincial headquarters of Poland's ruling communist party, and took policemen who tried to quell the uprising hostage. The response from Warsaw was swift and brutal - within three days, the protests were quashed, with 44 people dead and hundreds injured.

In 1980, the independent 'Solidarity' trade union which had been set up by those same workers at the Lenin Shipyard was formally recognised by Poland's communist government, as part of an agreement signed in August that year. Another part of that agreement was for the government to construct monuments in the port cities which saw scenes of such bloodshed 10 years prior. In December that same year, the monument you see above was unveiled, as the first monument to the victims of communism to be unveiled in a communist country. Ten years later, in 1990, the chairman of 'Solidarity' and native son of Gdańsk, Lech Wałęsa, would become Poland's first freely elected president since 1927.

Hope you enjoy!