Sopot’s Ogrodowa (Garden) Apartment

Sopot is the trendy place in Poland where every year during the summer holidays, millions of Polish people go to. Since some years the place also have been discovered by people all over the world. Sopot is just like Gdansk situated in northern Poland and together with Gdynia they form 3 cities which are closely cooperating: ‘tricity’ or ‘trojmiasto’.

My first article about Sopot is dedicated to my new friends, a couple Joanna and Sebastianwho have an apartment that they are renting out in Sopot to tourists/travelers or for foreigners who are seeking to stay longer due to their work in this region of Poland. Their story is worth sharing.

Joanna and Sebastian, your hosts

Their hobby is travelling the world. They have slept in hundreds of hotels, hostels, homestays and apartments in 45 countries all over the world so they perfectly realize what guest’s needs are and what a host should provide.

They worked for a big American bank for 15 years but last year decided to quit and start their own business, the Travel Agency Fan Tour, a Travel Agency mainly focused on travelling to Asia. Having been travelers it enables them now to fully dedicate to deliver the best quality of service to other travelers as well.

The Ogrodowa ‘Garden’ Apartment

In 2004 their story begins when they acquired their first of meanwhile two apartments they are renting out. It took them a year to find the place of their dreams: a former laundry place and storage room for the inhabitants of the building where the apartment is located. They were charmed by its high ceilings and spacious living room.

There are beautiful wooden construction pillars, 2 brick chimneys and wooden floors. It had an unconventional building plan: slopes, each bedroom totally in a different shape, long corridor… They just bought it like that. Even empty, you could inhale old Sopot’s soul. Modern design did not seem right in here and they experimented to find the right fit. They tried to select nontrivial, old furniture or at least they made all their efforts to make them look nontrivial. They decorated it with paintings made by one of their best friend and oriental objects referring to their hobby i.e. travelling. As result, a very cozy and original apartment is created.

An old building dating from 1895

This apartment is located in an old building that was built in 1895 to replace small fishermen houses. It was a typical example of contemporary modern architecture: very heavily decorated with a lot of ornaments, reliefs and stained glass windows.

Renovating the building requires per regulations of Sopot to stick to the original project that aims to refurbish buildings in their original state. These discussions were ongoing for years and as result the building where their first apartment is located, looks dilapidated from the outside. In these kind of buildings even the wall colors on the staircase must be approved by the town architect.

‘Stories from Garden Street’

There is a book written about Ogrodowa Street (‘Garden Street’), ‘Opowiadania z Ogrodowej’ (‘Stories from Garden Street’, not sure whether it was ever translated into English). The author, Marek Idczak, used to live as a child in their building.

The book tells stories from a 10-year-old boy’s perspective about the childhood at Ogrodowa and surroundings. The author writes amongst others about the life in the neighboring fishermen houses. The first buildings dated from 1823. Initially the street was called ‘Fishermen’ Street. The name was changed to ‘Garden’ in 1904. Currently there is only one small fishermen house left next to their building on the right.

Joanna read this book as they moved in and remembered facts outlined in the book very vividly.

Garden’s Apartment is overlooking ‘Sopot’s Friends square’

If you like busy city life their apartment’s location is perfect. You can reach the ‘Sopot’s Friends Square’, the main square at the famous Monte Cassino Street in a 2 minutes’ walk.

The seaside is located at 250 meters from their door so you can get there within a 3 minutes’ walk. The distance to the longest wooden pier in Europe with its Marina is 400 meters so 4 minutes is enough. The famous ‘Forest Opera’ is located 1,8 km so the easy walk will take 25 minutes.

All interesting places are reachable at max 30 min walk from their apartment with most places within less than 10 minutes walk.

The neighbourhood

The apartments in the building on the opposite side of the street from the Garden’s apartment belong to many famous Polish actors and celebrities, who come there for holidays only. Most of time during the year, the building is empty. It was described in Newsweek article as the best and more expensive location in whole of Poland.

There are plans to build a hotel on the parking next to the building.

Now the last fishermen house next door is being renovated and there will be a restaurant opened soon just behind their fence.

Is the ‘Garden’ Apartment taken? No problem, you may be lucky enough to have a place to stay in their other apartment, the Grunwaldzka Apartment.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
• Sopot Apartment SA – FanTOUR

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