Dziwaczne Odkrycia: Touring the Obscure Polish Micronation Królestwo Dreamlandu

So for those of you reading who are new to my life, my world, my blog and my long standing travel blogging “career”, which was born and died on http://dontstopliving.net/ you may not be aware that I don’t really enjoy backpacking the popular tourist resorts. I prefer off the wall stuff – wacky republics like Karakalpakstan, obscure towns like Shahr e Kord, villages nobody wrote about like Kokoszkowy, micronations like Austenasia, unusual cultures, crazy people. It makes me buzz, a point missed by the Guru God Stalker and the serial liar who led me to a year of depression. I tried to blank it all out and find a home in Piekny (Pretty) Poland. And after writing about Leblandia and touring the very real Province of Kashubia, it was time for another wacky adventure. I headed for a tour of Krolestwo Dreamlandu/The Kingdom of Dreamland. A Polish Micronation and officially country 151 on my travels around this sphere we reside on.

Where is Królestwo Dreamlandu?
Despite being a fully real and legitimate country, Krolestwo Dreamland officially doesn’t claim any real liveable land on planet earth, it’s more of a virtual world, a virtual country! However, on my tour of the country, I was supplied with a map, a link to which can be found here: http://dreamland.net.pl/tutorial/ilustracje/prowincje/mapadreamlandupo2015.png

However Królestwo Dreamlandu, was formed in the Polish port town of Gdynia in 1998 by TomBond. This is his internet name, we don’t know his real name. However, I got in touch one of the main men behind Krolestwa Dreamlandu, Mateusz Kulewicz, who is the vice King of Scholandia, and the Minister of Internal Affairs for Krolestwo Dreamlandu. It had a real cool touch of irony as well, as Mateusz hails from Tczew, a town which I loved from my journeys of 2016. So realistically, somewhere in Kociewie and Trojmiasto lie the genius behind this micronation.

I backpacked through Gdynia in July 2016 while based in Gdansk, and I also covered a Polish Food Tour there. It is a beautiful port city, one of three cities that make up Poland’s classic Trojmiasto (Tri-City). An interesting recent fact is that the city’s football team, Arka Gdynia won the Polish Cup this year and will be in the Europa League next season.

Mateusz himself is actually from Scholandia. Here is a map of Scholandia, once its own country but now a part of Krolestwo Dreamlandu:

How to Get to Królestwo Dreamlandu
As Krolestwo Dreamlandu is very much a virtual micronation, you can visit it from your compute, tablet or phone! It is online, with not just one website but multiple websites. However, I don’t think I could class visiting their website as a real visit to the country. http://dreamland.net.pl/index.php

So I got in touch with Mateusz and organised a real life meeting and tour. I headed to Gdańsk. Gdańsk can be reached easily – by flight, train, bus etc. It’s a popular port city in Poland and I spent five months living here, including a lonely time in my flat in Brzezno. Gdańsk itself is beautiful and a perfect in-between city to backpack the sights of Królestwo Dreamlandu as it is between Tczew and Gdynia.

Backpacking in Królestwo Dreamlandu
As Krolestwo Dreamlandu is a virtual micronation with no physical land actually claimed, the best way to tour it is to meet one of the vice kings of a Province in Krolestwo Dreamlandu and go walking where they suggest. On this particular day, I met up with Mateusz Kulewicz, who is the vice King of Scholandia, and the Minister of Internal Affairs for Krolestwo Dreamlandu. We toured Gdansk’s Stare Miasto, Dolne Miasto and watched a live football match!

The Crazy Coincidences
This trip to Krolestwo Dreamlandu coincided with an Arts Festival called Corners, which itself tours lesser recognised regions and countries!! On their list as well as Poland, is Northern Ireland (my country), Kosovo, The Basque Country.

ON top of all this, we are in Gdansk, which itself once had its own borders and currency and was known as the Free City of Danzig! A country with a border and its own currency. I kid you not!

And I also met a Northern Irish lady who also works as a writer, Deirdre Cartmill!

http://www.cornersofeurope.org/art/artists/deirdre-cartmill/

The Flag of Krolestwo Dreamlandu.
The flag of Krolestwo Dreamlandu has a flower in the middle and is red, white and blue. Presumably the wavy line represents the nation’s birth in Gdynia, Poland’s flagship (pun intended) port city.

An explanation of the flag, an act on how it should look is here:

http://dreamland.net.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4641&p=19972&hilit=flaga#p19972

Facts About Krolestwo Dreamlandu
Formed – 1998 in Gdynia (Poland)
Official Language – Polish
Residents/Citizens/Active Population – 25 (June 2017)
Type of Country – A peaceful Country Kingdom
Head of State – King Alfred
Officially Recognised Countries that Krolestwo Dreamlandu residents live in – Poland, Scotland
Products – Text, Words, Websites
Currency – Dream
Capital – Dreamopolis (though government and king reside in Ekorre)
Borders – physical border with Sarmacja, maritime with Solardia. Elderland also borders Trizondal, Rotria, Austro-Hungary, Ciprofloksja, and Mikrosławia (maritime).
Visa – no visa needed, for citizenship and residence permit one needs to apply through the website

Provinces
Krolestwo Dreamlandu is split into three main provinces and one crown dependency, each of these provinces have their own websites and their own laws:

The Province of Unia
The Province of Scholandia
The Province of Domena
The Crown Dependency of Elderland

As Mateusz mentions to me during my tour, the main product of the country is words and websites and he is not wrong. When I checked it, there are over 30 websites for this one country alone, a huge number for a country claiming a current population of 25. They have their own radio station, political parties, media and football leagues.

Meeting the King of Krolestwo Dreamlandu
I didn’t actually get to meet the King of Krolestwo Dreamlandu, currently Alfred is the King and I am told that sometimes members of the country like to keep themselves private and secretive. To make up for this, I was a rare tourist at the top of the table (2nd v. 3rd) football clash in the Polish Eight Tier, after a quick walk through Gdansk…

Watching Football in Krolestwo Dreamlandu
After touring Gdansk’s Stare Miasto for a bit, we arrived in the Dolne Miasto (downtown, old town, if you like) of Gdansk and it was here we attended the match between GKP Wybrzeze and Gryf Goręczyno. Wybrzeze won 2-1 and also missed a penalty. It was a thrilling match for my tour of  Krolestwo Dreamlandu, and as such I covered the match in my popular Śmieszne Historie o Piłce Nożnej w Polsce series.

These two teams are not part of Krolestwo Dreamlandu of course, but Dreamland has its own league and website:

http://xperteleven.com/standings.aspx?Lid=248703&Sel=T&Lnr=1&dh=2

At the time of publishing this, Ajax Nowy Amsterdam were top of the league, and unbeaten:

Drinking in Krolestwo Dreamlandu
After the football, we went to a local bar for a drink, again more twists were to come. With politics always on any agenda whackpacker visit to a country, I feasted my eyes on my first beer of choice in the Kingdom of Dreamland. We arrived in the bar known as Rzecz Jasna: https://www.facebook.com/rzeczjasnacom/

Touring Gdansk’s Dolne Miasto in Krolestwo Dreamlandu
To finish off the trip, we tour some more of Gdansk’s charmaday Dolne Miasto on a busy weekend where I also backpacked in Kokoszkowy, toured the sights of Starogard Gdanski again and attended the special Kazimierz Deyna 70th Birthday Match. This tour involved an old tram converted into a cafe/resource centre as well as a walk by the river and a look at some buildings which haven’t changed for years. It’s a cool part of Gdansk and a perfect end to an incredible tour:

As you can tell, it was a thrilling day out and organised to perfection by Mateusz. At the time, my visit also coincided with the Corners of Europe Festival – http://www.cornersofeurope.org/art/artists/deirdre-cartmill/ as I mentioned, I met Deirdre Cartmill (but rather quickly and no selfie together!). However, in life’s cannon, it can be hard to squeeze in so many sights in one day so I didn’t linger long for the arts festival as I had lined up a stay at Hotel Ren in Starogard Gdanski, a tour of Kokoszkowy and the famous enthralling Kazik Deyna 70th Birthday Bash.

http://deirdrecartmill.com/ http://www.deirdrecartmill.me/

Finally a photo of the “Micronations World” compiled by Daniel von Witt from Dreamland Kingdom’s Cartographic Institute…

Królestwo Dreamlandu Links:

Krolestwa Dreamlandu Main Website – http://dreamland.net.pl/index.php
Królestwo Dreamlandu na Facebooku – https://www.facebook.com/KrolestwoDreamlandu

The Province of Unia – http://unia.dreamland.net.pl/serwis/
The Province of Scholandia – http://scholandia.dreamland.net.pl/
The Province of Domena – http://ww1.dreamland.net.pl/domena/
The Crown Dependency of Elderland – http://elderland.dreamland.net.pl/serwis/

Dreamland’s Football League – http://xperteleven.com/standings.aspx?Lid=248703&Sel=T&Lnr=1&dh=2
Polish Micronations Meet – http://www.rp.pl/storyimage/RP/20090714/KRAJ/307149781/AR/0/AR-307149781.jpg&MaxW=980&imageversion=MainTopic1
Micronations World Map – https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2ohOb5Ic7YlN0NqWUZBVjBBbHM/edit

My HUGE thanks to Mateusz Kulewicz for this tour and an insight into one of Poland’s Micronations. If you own, or are a member of ANY other Polish based Micronation, please please get in touch with me and if I can meet you, I would love to feature your country in this series. Remember, we’re a long time dead…

Email – jonnyscottblair (at) hotmail (dot) com or through my social media links:

http://www.twitter.com/jonnyblair/

http://www.facebook.com/northernirishmaninpoland/

https://www.instagram.com/jonnydontstopliving/

And here are some videos of me backpacking in Krolestwo Dreamlandu: