Sunday 23 June 2024

Big Walk to Zalesie Górne

It's been a busy week at work, and a week devoid of inspiration. No great dreams, no ideas triggering new avenues of thought. Never mind; such is life.

Today I set off on a 12-mile (20km) walk with one aim – to buy some beer. Non-alcoholic beer that is; Perła 0,0%, which I came across in the Żabka convenience store in Zalesie Górne last week. Excellent stuff – hoppily bitter. Just the thing to extinguish thirst on a hot day. Having liked the taste of it, I looked it up online; the 33cl aluminium cans are only available in Żabka and in an online supermarket  called Delio (of which I've never heard). So my mission to Zalesie Górne was all about buying every last can of the stuff on the shelves. Which I did – all three of them.

My route – Jakubowizna-Chynów-Nowe Grobice-Sułkowice-Kiełbaska-Julianów-Krępa-Nowinki-Zalesie Górne. And back by train. Time taken: Three hours and 15 minutes to the shop, then back to Zalesie Górne station and a short walk home from Chynów station.

Below: the tiny settlement of Kiełbaska (administratively, a part of Julianów). Note to non-Polish readers; kiełbasa = sausage; kiełbaska = little sausage. Out of curiosity, I looked up the origin of the name – the word kiełbaska was also an archaic slang term for 'four morgas', a morga being a unit of area, a little over half a hectare.


Below: barracks? Battery chicken sheds? No, these are homes – the Chojnów Park development in Krępa. As I pass, I am minded of Malvina Reynolds' 1961 song, Little Boxes. By another one of those synchronicities that so often pop up in my 'This time x years ago', I see I had exactly that same thought on this day 17 years ago – back then, exurban sprawl had just started to spill over Warsaw's southern border into the fields around Zgorzała. This, dear reader, is a further 20km south (or 13km in a straight line) from Zgorzała, and represents the furthest-flung outpost of large-scale housing development. From here it's 40km by car from central Warsaw (alternatively a 12-minute walk to Ustanówek station and a half-hour train ride to town). Indeed, from the office district of Warszawa Służewiec, it's a mere 21 minutes by train from Ustanówek.


Approaching Zalesie Górne from the south, following the footpath alongside the railway line. I am overtaken by some form of mobility scooter.


Below: entering Zalesie Górne, I come across another one of those full-on Polnische Romantizmus street names – here we have 'Street of the Enchanted Rose'.


With the solstice passed, it's now astronomical summer – the hottest months of the year. The third quarter will soon begin. A total of 24,725 paces walked today, a ver, very good rezultat. One tin of beer supped back.

This time four years ago:
My return to central Warsaw after lockdown

This time five years ago:

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