Warsaw's progress to normality

It was on a Saturday night in August 1989 that we ventured into Warsaw's Old Town square. The place was almost deserted and dimly lit. Only one restaurant was open, U Fukiera. We ventured in. Most of the tables were taken. A surly waitress showed us one for the four of us; we sat down and were given menus. Several pages of onion-skin paper in a black leatherette binder. Typed out through sheets of carbon paper, the board of fare. Every single item except for just four had been crossed through. All that was left were the following: Coca-Cola (33cl); mineral water (33cl), black unfiltered coffee (no sugar), and some Georgian (or Armenian, can't recall) brandy. We ordered the mineral water; the cap was rusty. The coffee was 100% Robusta, cheap-tasting and filled with sediment. At least the brandy was somehow OK. This, you will understand, was the height of the tourist season in the capital city of a country of almost 40 million people. Communism was falling, and with it the Marxist notion of a planned economy. 

And yet within five years of the transformation to free-market democracy, life had returned to the Old Town. In the summer of 1994, the City of Warsaw had inaugurated Jazz na Starówce (Jazz in the Old Town). This year marks its thirtieth anniversary. Every Saturday in July and August, there's a free jazz concert in the square. 

As a tourist destination, Warsaw is no longer jaw-droppingly cheap. But nor is it rip-off expensive. Quality is good, prices are reasonable. The city is clean and safe. No signs of drunkenness or aggression; tourists from all over the world, young folk, old folk. A normal city in other words. 

Below: early evening, and the pavement cafes, bars and restaurants are filling up. The weather is optimal – dry, blue skies, not too hot. The corner of ulica Nowomiejska ('New-Town Street'), which connects the Old Town to the New Town, and ul. Mostowa ('Bridge Street') that leads down towards the Vistula. On the walls of the Barbakan to the right, the shadow of the tower of the Church of the Holy Ghost. 

Below: live on stage last night was Piotr Schmidt and his quartet. Quality jazz; reminded me mood-wise of Miles Davis in his Kind of Blue phase. The square was filled with people appreciating the music. An hour-long set, one encore – and that's it, but one has to remember that people live on all four sides of the square.

The concert over, the crowd drifts off, but the bars, cafes and restaurants remain full; a sense of contentment in the air as night falls over the city.

If anyone should suggest to me that communism is better than a democratically regulated market economy, I would respectively tell them that it absolutely isn't.

Left: the corner of the Old Town square. Time to drift back, remembering visits here in years gone by. Good-natured crowds mill around this way and that; I'm not (yet!) getting that over-touristed vibe that spoils cities like Kraków or Prague. Yes, there's a wide variety of places to sit down to eat and drink, but it's not over commercialised; Warsaw seems to be in that sweet spot between being attractive to tourists but not a tourist trap. 

On the way back to Chynów, my train is delayed by a full half-hour, in the end it was overtaken by the last timetabled train of the night, which terminates in Warka. Below: an interstitial view of W-wa Służewiec station, between the stairs and the lift. Proper electronic signboards have been promised for this station sometime soon, as well as for Piaseczno and Warka. Good. The more information about delays etc, the better.

This time three years ago:
Summer winding down

This time seven years ago:
My Mazovian roots

This time eight years ago:
My father revisits his battleground

This time ten years ago:
Over the hill at Harrow

This time 11 years ago:
Behold and See - the Miracle of Lublin - Pt 1.

This time 13 years ago:
Quiet afternoon in the bazaar

This time 14 years ago:
The politics of the symbol