– We have a trailer divided into three bedrooms and a vestibule, but it’s still a small space for a family. You cook on a small stove and then have to wash the dishes. You have to empty the toilet, wash the clothes and then dry them, which is difficult when it’s raining. And there’s sand everywhere – dry from the beach, wet from your feet after windsurfing. It gets applied to both the vestibule and the trailer, says Joanna.
It’s been almost a quarter of a century since they first arrived here. It used to be cheap, then it got more and more expensive. Tents used to dominate, now trailers. They sit side by side, in rows. The most expensive seats are in the front row, right next to the bay.
– Once, friends who were vacationing in a luxury hotel in Jurata came to our campsite in Chałupy – the doctor recalls. They said they wanted to be served during their vacation, not to cook, wash or clean. They thought that those who wanted a cheap vacation came to the campsite. They sat for a while and were amazed that they were so close to the water. They really liked the view of the bay. When they found out about this, they had to pay 20 thousand PLN to park a trailer on the beach. They groaned.
– And our campsite is not one of the most expensive. There are some places where the price of a seat in the first row this season is as low as PLN 35,000. – says Joana.
There is no wind
When I look for accommodation in Chałupy in the last week of June and find a trailer for rent, they tell me I’m very lucky. PLN 400 per day. The trailer is located next to the toilet. Around me there are only ones like the one I got: placed next to each other. The distances between the trailers and the toilets are so small that when I go to take a shower I’m afraid I’ll hit someone who’s trying to get out of the trailer with the door.
I can’t sleep at night, it’s hot in the trailer. I wake up in the middle of the night, tired of breathing hot air. I go to the bay because I heard that those who want to swim the most go out with their boards right after sunrise. However, the bay is empty. There is no wind.
– It wasn’t windy yesterday either. Tomorrow will be better – say the instructors at kitesurfing schools. 12 hours of lessons with an instructor plus rental of equipment and a wetsuit cost PLN 1,850, but when there are days like today when there is no wind, they have nothing to do. Unless someone wants some theory.
– How many lessons do you need to take to be able to handle water? – I’m asking.
– 10, 12 individual lessons and you can swim – says Piotr (he graduated from medical school last month, has been coming to Hel for years to have fun and earns money teaching others during the holidays). Children and adults, including those over 50, have lessons. However, not everyone is here to swim.
– Honestly? When I look at some of them, I wonder why they came here, says Piotr.
Ola (second year psychology student) says she often hears from the people she teaches that there is no other place as nice in Poland. They claim they are free from worries here.
“They certainly have no money,” says the third instructor, Kuba. He comes from the Czech Republic, a backpacker type – here today, there tomorrow, windswept, hair disheveled. “When I arrived in Chałupy and saw these trailers, half a meter apart from each other, I thought: are they crazy? It’s a horror story,” he says. He hates getting lost in this maze of trailers. He would never want to spend his vacation here. And he would have left here a long time ago, but he fell in love. And he’s sitting here because of the girl. “Love keeps me going. But what keeps the others here?” he says. Sometimes it’s windy, sometimes it’s not, and some people worry about the wind, others don’t care, because they didn’t come here to swim.
– I often wonder why they want to be here? They sit in the middle of this crowd, uncomfortable, because after all, camping is camping. And they spend so much that you could spend your vacation in a hotel in the Caribbean, says Kuba.
The surfers’ mecca
– There are no studies that allow us to assess what percentage of Poles like Chałupy and why – smiles Dr. Michał Lutostański, sociologist at the SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences. We can only imagine that many people are attracted by the semi-subcultural atmosphere. – Although the Polish coast is full of characteristic places: Władysławowo and Mielno are associated with entertainment, the area around Jantar and the Vistula Spit – with families, there is no other place like Chałupy. Called a surfer’s mecca, it attracts those who want to stay in that environment – explains Dr. Lutostański.
“It was really a surfing mecca in the past. But not anymore,” says Wojtek, a windsurfing instructor. For more than a dozen years, he has been earning money here every summer by giving lessons to tourists. He looks at them and sees how much this place is changing.
– It used to be Polish California. People on this sand surrounded by water wanted to come and have fun, and it was like in Wodecki’s song “Chałupy Welcome To, Bahama mama luz”. To surf on a board you need patience and a lot of time to find the best conditions, that is, the right wind and a good wave. Initially, those who came were those who had a lot of time, some freelancers who organized their work so that they could wait for the conditions. Or backpackers who didn’t need to arrange anything, just waited for a good wind. Casual, colorful, interesting, walking barefoot all day, laughing, smoking cigarettes. Behind them came those who were curious about the world that was emerging here. They started encouraging their friends. And so – besides the surfers – a lot of random people came here who don’t even want to get on the board. When more people started arriving than the campsites could accommodate, prices had to rise, and tents, which could not be set up for PLN 20,000 or PLN 30,000, began to be replaced by trailers. Now trailers are replacing trailers – the older ones, bought for PLN 50,000, are being replaced by newer ones costing almost a quarter of a million. The middle class, which used to occupy the first or second row, is being pushed ever closer to the toilets by the upper class, says Wojtek.
And he adds: – Here you can find the latest Audi and BMW models, but also Porsches, Aventadors and Maseratis. Owners of these comfortable cars don’t want to feel uncomfortable. Some people buy two caravans to have more space. They build terraces in front of the caravan, in the caravan. They are installing a jacuzzi. There are more and more caravans with a stylish bathroom so that you don’t have to use shared toilets, a comfortable sofa, heated floors in case it gets cold, a dishwasher, a washing machine and a 50-inch TV.
Children’s Republic
“We don’t have a TV, we don’t use computers, we read and play board games,” says Joanna, who tries to maintain the camping atmosphere with her family. For many years she resented her husband for still coming here. “Now I see that those were good years,” he says. “Well, especially for the children,” he explains.
My son, when it’s windy, gets up at five in the morning because, sorry, the waves don’t wait. Then, at nine o’clock, he stops by for breakfast and heads towards the bay. My daughter goes to classes at nine o’clock, she’s a windsurfing instructor and, when the wind is good, she works until 6 p.m.
– It’s great that they were able to grow up here – says Joanna. In real camping conditions – if they weren’t taking a windsurfing or kitesurfing class, they were on their bikes, trampolines or playing cops and robbers. There was never any need to look for activities for the children. These are some of the children from Bullerbyn. These 6 or 7-year-olds were no longer attached to their mother or father, but to their friends. Moving between trailers. It happened that one “aunt” would feed them dinner and the other would feed them dessert. We still have that atmosphere at our campsite, you can arrange a meeting with the family from the neighboring trailer: I’m going to do yoga or ride my bike now, go check on my Johnny. And then I’ll go check on their son, he says.
Friendships have developed over the years. – My daughter has two friends she has known here since she was born, year after year. They wait until the holidays just to see each other again.
– I came here with my parents and I feel attracted – says Martyna (she is 28 years old, works in a recruitment agency), who goes camping in Chałupy every year with her friends. Now she has a son and they have children. In a 2×6 trailer, second row from the road. Cramped, without luxuries and they pay 3,000 a week. Out of sentiment, for the sake of the old years we spend here. – My husband said: this is crazy. He wouldn’t participate, says Olga, Martyna’s friend, a lawyer. Her husband doesn’t understand: 3,000 for such a cramped space? And that’s still not enough, a friend of mine rented his trailer for them and it was cheap.
Absurdities of the new times
– Probably just because there are still people who have been coming here for years, who created or at least remember the atmosphere of the old Chałupy, this place still has something of that time. However, I am worried about the absurdities of the new times. These people who come here only pretend to be surfers, because you won’t see them in the water, but rather drinking Moët champagne – says Wojtek.
– I expect there to be a counter-trend at some point. People will realize that all they have achieved is to turn a cool surfing spot into a banana stand. Maybe they will start moving elsewhere, and only those who have been coming here for a long time will stay. And those who would like to be here but can’t afford it now will start coming. There will be new energy, not even more money. For now, those who want to surf are increasingly moving and looking for new places. When it comes to water sports, Żuławy Wiślane, Stara Wisła and the area around Elbląg look promising. These places are just waiting for their time. People with passion and a tent will arrive first. Once the word gets out that things are getting interesting there, people will come after them in Passats and then in Ferraris.
