Zamienie and Nowa Wola - changing fast

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.

Nowa Wola has a fair-sized pond, an attractive water feature when all around is flat fields. Across the water looking east is the local voluntary fire service (OSP) station.

Below: looking north across the pond towards ul. Krasickiego. A nicely maintained park with exercise equipment and swings. I fear this pocket of rural quiet will soon be subsumed to the roll-out of exurbia as further estates spring up in nearby fields. And the roar of the S7 extension, muffled and hidden by acoustic screens, will remind residents that they have been cut off from Nowa Iwiczna to the east.

Here it is - the march of progress. Four-story townhouses emerging from fields once full of cabbage, carrot or potato. High-tension power lines strung out across the sky. Before too long, this will all be housing. But will there be the local amenities - the shops, cafes, restaurants? Public transport?

Back in Jeziorki, the fields between Mysiadło and ul. Karczunkowska. I fear these too will be filled with new homes before too very long. It is a sobering thought that the same percentage of Poles (68%) live in Poland's towns and cities as British people lived in British towns and cities 150 years ago, according to the census of 1871, when 32% of the population was still rural - as in Poland today. There's still much urbanisation ahead for Poland - and I fear that this is where it will be happening.

16,000 paces (12.8km) walked today - I made the most of the weather. Rubbish yesterday, rubbish tomorrow.

This time two years ago:
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