I learned early on that it makes little sense googling 'Zamienie' because the search engine ignores Polish diacritic marks and capital letters. As such, Google mistakes this Warsaw exurb with the word 'zamienię', which means 'I will exchange' or 'I will swap'. Or at least it used to. Indeed the first search result that appears on Google offers me an XBox 1S in exchange for an XBox 360. But the search engine has becoming cleverer in the intervening 20 years since I first tried looking for Zamienie online. The next two results are both links to the Wikipedia pages in English and Polish respectively for "Zamienie [zaˈmjɛɲɛ], a village in the administrative district of Gmina Lesznowola, within Piaseczno County, Masovian Voivodship, in east-central Poland." And only then do we get back to the small ads: "Swap BMW E36 for a motorbike."
While local residents wait for the new footbridge to connect Zamienie to Jeziorki and thus to Warsaw, I take a stroll to see the latest development, heading down towards Nowa Wola, before returning via Nowa Iwiczna and Mysiadło to Jeziorki.
Below: emblem of the old Zamienie, the remains of what was once a dwór - a landed estate with outbuildings in parkland; nationalised after WW2, turned into a vaccine plant, sold in the early years of this century, now partially abandoned, on its fringes new housing developments are rapidly springing up.
Highways running through communities split them apart; mentally, Zamienie will become 'across the S7' in the mind-maps of Jeziorki residents, more remote. Below: completion of the S7 is but one winter away. Local motor traffic will soon be directed across the viaduct in the distance, while pedestrians will have no alternative but to use the footbridge which is being built immediately behind this viewpoint.
And in Zamienie, just outside Warsaw's borders - new blocks of flats, below. I wonder what the attraction is. Surely it's better to live in a flat in Warsaw proper, in a suburb like Ursynów or Gocław, well connected to the city centre by public transport, and forego car ownership?
I walk through Zamienie, crossing ulica Raszyńska to reach Nowa Wola, a village that's turning into an full-blown exurb as new housing developments take over from fields. At least the infrastructure is catching up. Ul. Płonowa (lit. 'crop street', below) is no longer full of crops, but it is now asphalted from end to end. And it is busy, being the only way in or out of this development of new estates (with a further three under construction). But where are the shops?
If there's a new Nowa Wola, there's also the old one, strung out in typical Polish-village fashion along one road (ul. Krasickiego), which runs into Piaseczno via Nowa Iwiczna. Traditional rural housing.
Marian shrines along ul. Krasickiego speak of local devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The one to the left is on the corner of ul. Płonowa, the one on the right is on the corner of ul. Postępu.
My father's last (written) words
This time four years ago:
Kolej Grójecka
This time six years ago:
PIS, thinking wishfully about the village
This time eight years ago:
An unseasonably warm autumn in Warsaw
This time nine years ago:
Shedding light on an unused road
This time ten years ago:
S2-S79 Elka from the air
This time 11 years ago:
Fish and chips in Warsaw
This time 12 years ago:
Spirit of place - anomalous familiarity moments
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