Do it in the Tri-City! Alternative guide - part one
Monte Cassino st. in Sopot / Fot. Kamil Gozdan / Agencja Gazeta
Sopot, Bohaterów Monte Cassino St.
This is one of the most popular streets in Poland. A true place of pilgrimage for residents of the Tri-City, and above all tourists, who are drawn here from all over Poland and abroad. Some joke that soon you will have to queue to stroll down this street and there is something in that - just as soon as it starts to get warm, no, as soon as the heaviest frosts begin to lift, swarms of people gather on Sopot's pedestrian zone.
The Heroes of Monte Cassino Street, popularly known, if somewhat less elegantly, as Monciak, of course runs right through the centre of this spa-town. And though it would seem to start in the main square by the church of St. George, it's sometimes worth going a little further up to another part of the street, short but picturesque and separated from the rest of Sopot by two underpasses (under the train tracks and Niepodległości St.). Of course, it only gets busy lower down, between the church and Friends of Sopot square, from where you can reach the pier by crossing over the newly-built tunnel.
This stretch contains many cafés, restaurants, clubs and elegant shops, in summer almost all of the locales open up little gardens, which are a real fashion arena, on one hand, and a stragetic point for observing the passing crowds, on the other.
And in the crowds you can see a familiar face with every glance, here a TV star on a short break, there musicians relaxing after a concert and post-concert parties, which often go on into the morning and finish on the beach, here politicians, who also like to show up. The greatest number of stars appear when Sopot, or another part of the Tri-City, is hosting a big event: one of the Sopot festivals, Open'er or the Polish Film Festival, both in Gdynia. It's a good time for notching up points in the "spot-a-celebrity" game. When the season's over, the traffic practically comes to an end, and Bohaterów Monte Cassino Street, like the rest of Sopot, turns back into a quiet, peaceful and half-empty spa-town.