Night time's the right time for snapping Warsaw in late autumn

Above: Rondo ONZ One, as seen from ulica Emilii Plater, looking down ul. Pańska, which runs all the way west to ul. Towarowa, and is truncated by the building you see in front of you. Incidentally, rare is the Polish street name that always uses first name and surname; it's usually surname only.

Below: The Palace of the Youth, on the north side of Stalin's Palace of Culture, facing ul. Świętokrzyska.

Below: my favourite stretch of Świętokrzyska, where the two competing shops, both selling kitchenware, compete for the same clients. If one hasn't got exactly what you're looking for, the other one well may have. And note the trees that now line the street; they were planted last autumn. Can you spot Ziggy Stardust? He's in several of my photos of this street...

I quite often see film shoots happening in central Warsaw; here's one on the corner of Świętokrzyska and Emilii Plater.

Left: lovely neon, marking the current location of the museum of modern art (Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej). To the left, a sheet-metal fence marks the site of the old Emilia building, former home of the museum and before that the location of Stołeczne Przedsiębiorstwo Handlu Wewnętrznego 'Meble Emilia' (The Capital City Enterprise of Internal Trade 'Furniture Emilia')


Below: down underground, looking into the transversal railway tunnel. This is the main line tracks running east from Warsaw Central station (W-wa Centralna). In the distance an InterCity Pendolino train crosses over the points.

Below: also looking east along the transversal railway tunnel, but this is the suburban line. The long-distance tracks lie beyond the wall to the left. Photo taken from the end of platform 3, W-wa Śródmieście station.

Two London Stock Exchange FTSE 250-listed companies are present in the new Sezam building (opened June 2018). They are recruitment firm Hays, and Spaces, part of IWG (International Workplace Group, better known under its old brand, Regus). Between the footpath (foreground) and ul. Marszalkowska (beyond which is Sezam), there will soon appear a new 20-story office building, Central Point, right outside my office window (to the left of this frame). Fitting, as I spent years working at Centre Point in London.

If you think Warsaw looks good now - wait until the Christmas lights come on later this week!

Bonus shot: Three generations of Warsaw architecture

This time last year:
Autumnal travel woes

This time four years ago:
Thoughts on Polish hypochondria

This time seven years ago:
Blogging resumes as Orange gets its act together

This time eight years ago:
The meaning of Clarkson 

This time nine years ago: 
A bad day on the railway

This time ten years ago:
In which I walk to work

This time 12 years ago:
Act 1, Scene 1, a blasted heath

Perfect weather week in Warsaw

Oh how wonderful - so much blue sky, clear and  fresh (on Tuesday and Wednesday). Perfect weather in Warsaw. Below: morning, Palace of Culture.

Below: dusk falls over Warsaw; the Palace of Culture seen from the south, looking up ul. Emilii Plater.

Left: the Palace of Culture across ul. Świętokrzyska, photo taken from the pavement outside my office.

Below: view from my office window looking down over ul. Świętokrzyska and Marszałkowska. Note the construction site just behind the top of the neighbouring building; this will be 22-storey Central Point tower, also known as CBD One (Central Business District). It will be the same height as the building on the opposite corner of the crossroads, the one over McDonald's. Note too the newly-opened Sezam building next to it facing Marszałkowska. The black dome further along Świętokrzyska belongs to the Polish post office; before the war my grandfather Tomasz Dembiński worked in the post office savings bank (PKO) in that very building.

Below: Sezam on the day before its somewhat low-key opening. A very nice piece of neo-modernist architecture, light and airy. It's just under four years ago that the old Sezam (see post about it here) closed for the last time and the old building was demolished.

Below: some balloons - and a new neon just like the old one. The store is open - nothing in the windows, no one inside. No doubt it will soon take off. Will visit. [Update - the store is at level -1, so you have to walk down the steps.]

Below: another former icon of the Warsaw retailing scene about to re-emerge after a major remont - though not as a shop - is the former Dom Handlowy Smyk (before that Centralny Dom Towarowy). The original 1951 modernist facade has been preserved, though the insides are all new. It will be office co-working space when reopened.

Below: Is this Rome? Are we in the Eternal City? No, this is the church of St Antony of Padua (the patron saint of lost things) on ul. Senatorska. Under this sky, we could indeed be in Padua.

And out in the countryside, the same Mediterranean klimat prevails. Below: Jakobowizna, a new house nears completion between the orchards

Below: Jakubowizna, where fruit seems to be exploding out of the earth. This will be a year of bumper crops, cheap produce and complaining farmers.

Weather set to continue sunny on Saturday, then storms will brew up on Sunday. Rain is needed after a hot, dry week.

This time two years ago:
Street art, Piotrków Trybunalski

This time five years ago:
Quality engineering from half a century ago

This time six years ago:
Fans fly in to Warsaw for Euro 2012

This time seven years ago:
Cara al Sol - part II

This time eight years ago:
Still struggling with the floodwaters

This time nine years ago:
European elections - and I buy used D40

The time ten years ago:
To the Vistula, by bike

This time 11 years ago:
Poppy profusion

Plane disappears while smog lingers

What goes up without planning permission must come down; the Ilyushin Il-14 that appeared on the corner of ul. Marszałkowska and Świętokrzyska last summer was yesterday removed by the authorities. As I was coming to work, around half past eight, a small group of workmen and police were busy dismantling the vestigial wings and tail, ready to take the fuselage away.

And by this morning there was no sign of it. Rather sad, I must say, but on the other hand as a restaurant it failed. The small cluster of Middle- and Far Eastern restaurants on this corner of the crossroads could not compete with Ming Wok to the north (13zł for copious amounts of pork fried rice - hold the surówka) and the Scottish Restaurant to the east. Plus two really good kebab places to the north-east of the busy crossroads.

I can honestly say, that passing by it daily, neither was I ever tempted inside, nor did I ever see anyone actually dine within its fuselage. As a tourist attraction - it worked, so many people taking selfies with it in the background - but as a dining experience - failure. Below: how it looked in September. My office window clearly visible in both shots.

Meanwhile, the smog stands over Warsaw; as soon as there's high pressure, no wind and a frost, out it comes, out of the fireplaces and chimneys of old homes around the suburbs and out of the exhaust pipes of short-distance, one-per car commuters. The rest of us are having our health endangered. The city authorities - which took eight months to dismantle a plane that was doing no one any harm - will have to act quickly because anger is growing.

By way of contrast - photo below taken in December 2016 shows what I then considered to be a smoggy day.... The chimney at Kawęczyn relatively clear. Visible at least.

The face of the smog - a cyclist in a Warsaw office building yesterday. It is outrageous that the very people whose transport habits are making the air cleaner should imperil their lungs because of the stupidity and selfishness of a small percentage of Varsovians.

This time last year:
Walker's London

This time last year:
Deconstructing political graffiti - London and Warsaw 

This time four years ago:
Europe's peripheral woes

This time five years ago:
Winter returns to Warsaw

This time six years ago:
Babcia vs. Roma action, Centrum 

This time seven years ago:
Reasons to be cheerful

This time eight years ago:
Skiing in the Beskid Wyspowy

This time nine years ago:
What's to be done about Warsaw's unmade roads?

This time ten years ago:
Jeziorki in the fog

Warsaw by night, early winter

This time three years ago:
Burn less gas and do Ukraine a favour

This time six years ago:
Early evening atmosphere

This time eight years ago:
Toponyms - how many names has Jeziorki?

This time nine years ago:
On the road to Białystok

Billboard spirituality

This billboard, on ul. Widok (just off ul. Marszałkowska, near the Rotunda) intrigued me to the extent that I returned to photograph it. The slogan Odróżniaj radość od przyjemności i raduj się też w cierpieniu means "Distinguish joy from pleasure and rejoice too in suffering".

What does it mean? Is this a tease-and-reveal advertising campaign? After two weeks, we learn it's for a beer, a mobile phone network, a life insurance company or a chocolate-coated snack bar?

But no - this is for real. A genuine individual, reaching out with a genuine message - and...?

Not a whole lot.

Googling the slogan I found a Facebook page with five photos of this billboard, one video and four likes. The person who paid (a billboard in this location is not cheap) for this has also previously put up three more in the same convention. One, with the words Nie denerwuj się, Masz kontrolę nad sobą ("Don't get angry, you have control over yourself"), appeared on Al. Jerozolimskie near Blue City retail centre in February 2014. And one bearing the anti-consumptionist message Zwiększając dochód, nie zwiększaj swoich potrzeb ("Increasing your income, don't increase your needs"), appeared in July 2015.  One month later, a further billboard appeared. This one said Przygotuj listę różnych, codziennych intencji. Módl się i obserwuj efekty ("Prepare a list of different, everyday intentions. Pray and observe the effects").

So - four billboards, four Facebook pages. What have we learnt?

Well, I must say I like all four messages. They do tend to square with my personal spirituality. I was rather hoping that a reclusive billionaire from another planet, living in a room in the Novotel Centrum, is buying billboards with cash to promote a more mindful, ascetic and spiritual way of life among Varsovians.

The truth is less exotic - the author, on their Facebook page, mentions the Catholic Church and the Ten Commandments, so a traditional religious approach lies behind this mini-campaign.

The edict to distinguish joy from pleasure is Most sound. Short-term gratification as a substitute for moments of genuine spiritual uplifting - yes. Joy comes from pleasure well earned, truly deserved. A great human truth to ponder. Thank you, whosoever you be, for this message - it has stayed with me.

This time four years ago:
A post about a book about a film about a journey to a room

This time six years ago:
Mr Pheasant trumpets his presence

This time seven years ago:
Balancing on the Edge of Chaos

This time eight years ago:
Zamienie and the encroaching tide of Development

Deconstructing political graffiti: London and Warsaw

Exhibit One, below: photographed on the wall on the overpass as ul. Złota passes under ul. Marszałkowska, across the road from those temples of consumerism, Domy Handlowe Centrum. To all orthodox economists, this logan is heresy, anathema. Yet I can see some sense in the slogan - it alludes to posts I wrote recently (here and here). Much of what passes as 'growth' is merely the sale of a thing to a person that can't quite afford and doesn't actually need. And this is not good for our planet.

However, economists - and indeed politicians - would recoil from this sentiment as it would inevitably lead to a growth in unemployment and with it social unrest. Left and right, politicians would agree that it's better that the economy ticks over (even if only barely) than begins to contract.

I must say, graphically, this would make a wonderful album cover for a 1976-vintage punk band.

Exhibit two, below: on the bridge taking the A40 Western Avenue over the Grand Union Canal Paddington Arm at Greenford. Again, I have alluded to this thought in recent posts (here and here). This is the slogan of populists the world over, from Trump to Le Pen. Until they get into power. And then just look at Venezuela.

The thing with this slogan is the person voicing it is not in any position to offer any alternative 'game'. Nor is he even aware of how complex the 'game' is, and how, when attempting to implement ill-conceived ideas, often gets its quite wrong. Even when an intellectual like Karl Marx devises a new game, the result is so botched, so murderously awful, that the detached observer has to admit - OK, let's leave the game as is, let's stick to changing the players.

Other political graffiti I have snapped in recent months in Warsaw does not bear propagating, suffice to say that graffiti featuring crude unpleasantness directed at the new Polish government outnumbers that aimed that the old government by a ratio of three to one.

Having said that, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, or looking in the wrong boroughs, but I've not seen any rude epithets directed at Mr Cameron sprayed on the walls of London.

This time two years ago:
Europe's peripheral woes

This time three years ago:
Winter returns to Warsaw

This time four years ago:
Babcia vs. Roma action, Centrum
[A classic bit of photo-reportage, if you don't mind me boasting]

This time five years ago:
Reasons to be cheerful

This time six years ago:
Skiing in the Beskid Wyspowy

This time seven years ago:
What's to be done about Warsaw's unmade roads?

This time eight years ago:
Jeziorki in the fog
[some lovely photos]

From city centre to suburb in the snow

Homeward bound at the end of the working week, having popped by for an ale or three with the lads at The Alchemist Gastropub (Pl. Piłsudskiego 3). Well recommended - my third visit there this year (!). Coming back across an Ogród Saski touched by the magic of a heavy snowfall, I am transported to the sublime plane, a different reality takes hold (below).

Across the Saxon Axis, the lights of Marszałkowska in the distance and a searchlight in the sky, the beauty of Ogród Saski comes to the fore, statues, fountain, geometry.

Approaching ul. Królewska as it crosses Marszałkowska, the park yields unto city centre (below). The temperature is only just below zero, the snow wet, so it sticks to branches and wires.

Below: Marszałkowska is quiet, the snow has been removed, the liquorice-slick asphalt reflects the street lighting. From Świętokrzyska Metro station I'm transported swiftly to Wilanowska, from where I board a 709 towards Jeziorki.

The magical appearance of Jeziorki clad in fresh snow prompted me to carry on southwards on the bus so I could walk home the long way, from Dąbrówka along ul. Katarynki and Pozytywki. Below: the car dealerships flanking Puławska - Lexus, Renault, Volvo have their stocks covered in snow, the different coloured street lighting give a strange otherworldly cast to the snow.

Below: ul. Pozytywki (lit. Music Box St.), the electricity cables coated in snow. Here in the southernmost parts of Warsaw the atmosphere is almost rural, farms and small businesses among the new houses.

Below: wrought iron fencing and trees covered with a heavy layer of wet snow, now setting firm as the temperature falls. Klimat.

This time two years ago:
The simple, useful beauty of Gov.uk

This time three years ago:
A warm blanket of snow

This time four years ago:
Tinker, Tailor - the allure of film-going

This time eight years ago:
Trundling Tamara

September song

"But the days grow short when you reach September..." Hang on - there's plenty of sunshine left in the year yet - there will be a golden autumn, though the rain clouds pass and the temperature drops.

Left: view east from my office, with the iconic PAST-a building - scene of some of the most hard-fought battles of the Warsaw Uprising - to the left. Heavy rainclouds hang pregnant over the city. The heat waves of August are a distant memory.

Below: view south from my office, looking at the Ściana Wschodnia ('Eastern Wall') development along ul. Marszałkowska, stretching from ul. Świętokrzyska to Rondo Dmowskiego in the distance. It's wet outside, though there is the prospect that the dark clouds will go scudding by and more clement weather will approach from the west.

It will soon be dark when I get home from work - and by the end of October it will be dark when I leave the office. Below: Corner of ul. Puławska and ul. Karczunkowska. It's been raining all day and the drains can't cope with the volume of water.

But the westerly wind blows the clouds away, and a glorious sunset is on the cards. Below: looking west along ul. Karczunkowska.

I need my exercise - time to do several laps around the pond on ul. Pozytywki, below. One lap = 580 paces; nine laps ensures that I'll reach my target of 10,000 paces for the day if I include my total walking for the day so far and the short walk home.

Below: a quiet end to a September day, the ducks and gulls dotting the pond as though it were a seaside harbour.

This time last year:
Putin will not heal Russia's tortured soul

This time two years ago:
A traveller's tale (reading this shows how fast Poland has progressed in transport infrastructure over the past 24 months!)

This time three years ago:
One for the record - hot September day (30C)

This time four years ago:
The half-closed airport

This time six years ago:
Last of the summer bike rides to work?

This time seven years ago:
My own Polish Adlestrop

This time eight years ago:
Laurie Anderson's chillingly prescient 'O Superman'

Winter begins in earnest

This morning was the first one this season where I opened my bedroom windows to see snow outside. Yesterday was different - I woke around six am, looked outside, saw white fields, went back to sleep, and when I finally got up around eight am - the snow was gone.

Although the temperature has not formally dipped below zero, the wind-chill factor generated by winds gusting up to 70kmh (45mph) made it feel very cold today. Worse, the unprepared roads and pavements were turned into skating rinks as the meltwater froze and turned to black ice.

The winds are the tail-end of Orkan Ksawery (Hurricane Xaver) which brought mayhem across north-west Europe.

Below: half past six this evening, and a blizzard going on; snow on the roof of the Novotel lobby being blasted around Rondo Dmowskiego. Traffic northbound along ul. Marszałkowska at a standstill as snow ploughs clear the roundabout.

Left: the pavements are treacherous. Szklanka - glass. One has to move with caution. Time to abandon my  smooth-soled Chelsea boots (sztyblety in Polish) for something with more grip. I witnessed an extraordinary sight - a man and his eight or nine year-old son on the pavement by Metro Politechnika station; they were standing quite still, yet they were sliding backward on the smooth ice as the wind pushed hard against them.

Below: chaos at Wilanowska bus station. The bus timetable was randomly distributed about the retail establishment (all over the shop) by this time. After a 20 minute wait for a 709, three of them turn up at once along with a 739. But no sign of the bus I wanted - a 715. This would mean a 1km walk home...

Below: ul. Karczunkowska. Another winter without pavements; up to one's ankles in snow or mud. Time to crank up the campaign - this time using the 19115 phone line and website. Neighbours! Join me and bombard the service with e-mails and phone-calls for something to be done about this situation.

Below: Karczunkowska looking east. Note lack of street lighting (temporary I hope) and the pedestrian's dilemma: walk on the roadway (smooth asphalt, might get hit by a car) or walk by the side of the road (will get wet in puddles, might trip over uneven surface). And with pram or in a wheelchair? This is totally unacceptable.

This is it then - winter proper has set in. For the weekend at least. On Monday, it will all melt as the temperature is forecast to rise above zero, and the snow will turn to rain.

This time last year:
The 2012 Transparency International results (Poland advances again)