Oldschool Włochy

There are parts of Warsaw that I really don't know - because I have no occasion to go there. Yesterday morning, I had a business meeting in Włochy. Incidentally, Włochy in Polish also means Italy, although the two proper nouns decline differently . 'I'm going to Italy' - jadę do Włoch; 'I'm going to Włochy' - jadę do Włochów; 'I live in Italy' - mieszkam we Włoszech; "I live in Włochy' - mieszkam we Włochach*. It's confusing I know.

Getting to Włochy was easier than I thought. Koleje Mazowieckie train from W-wa Jeziorki to W-wa Zachodnia, platform change and a westbound SKM train (above) one to W-wa Włochy. Zachodnia is as bad as it ever was. Half the passengers on Platform 3 were asking the other half if this was the right platform for wherever they were going - zero signage, zero passenger information other than a crackly megaphone system.

Below: I arrive at Włochy station, built in the 1930s; here I come upon this lovely original signage with characteristic pre-war Polish typeface (note how the letter 'O' is wider than a 'W').
Unfortunately, there are no signs as to where the bus stops to different destinations are to be found.

[UPDATE 2023: the major revamp of Warsaw's suburban stations has led to the removal of the above sign. Fortunately, someone at PKP PLK has a sense of history, and the new dark-blue-on-white signs in the underground passage between platforms maintain the same typeface as the originals.

Włochy is as much a part of Warsaw as Ursynów, Żoliborz or Wilanów, and yet parts of it possess a very provincial atmosphere. Below: a two-story tenement, partially occupied by a police station. I learn a new Polish word: rewir (click on the pic below and zoom in on the red plaque). A rewir is a local beat, as in police. This police station would not look out of place in Kozienice.


Picking up on Paddy Ney's perennial subject of the Polish Babcia, here's a fine portait of fortitude and sub-zero stoicism walking past a bus stop in Włochy. The things she must have seen; the times she's lived through. Yet in her demeanour an indefatigable spirit - Hitler and Stalin had not cowed her, and neither will old age nor a -18C morn.

*This is like Praga, Polish for the Czech capital, and Praga, Warsaw's right-bank district. 'I'm going to Prague' - jadę do Pragi and 'I'm going to Praga' - jadę na Pragę. 'I live in Prague' is mieszkam w Pradze; 'I live in Praga' is mieszkam na Pradze.

This time three years ago:
Intimations of spring