Until the Vistula freezes over

I wrote several days ago about the prospect of the Vistula freezing over, saying that I'd read somewhere that it would take nine days at minus nine and below for this to happen. Although we had a week of -15C to -20C, more recently daytime highs hit -5C on Wednesday, -7C on Tuesday and yesterday, so that condition has not been met. However but I guess that even it it were -20C for a fortnight, it would still be impossible to walk across the Vistula.

Above: looking south from Most Poniatowskiego (most = bridge). Note the ice-free west bank. The water here has not frozen because of water from sewer outfalls and from hot water emerging from the Siekierki power station downstream.

Left: Let's zoom in on the chimneys of Siekierki - the power station is working flat out to provide the fair city light. If you click on the picture to enlarge, you will see little white dots in front of the Most Łazienkowski. These are gulls.

Has the Vistula has frozen solid across its entire breadth downstream of Siekierki - out by Kępy Zawadowskie? I feel an expedition coming on...

Looking north from the bridge towards the Most Średnicowy (temporarily named the Coca-Cola-Carlsberg bridge in advance of the football championships), the expanse of clear water dominates the width of the Vistula, largely as a result of a sewer outfall. Although at lunchtime today it was -9C, the waste water (treated, it must be said) was steaming into the river and flocks of gulls and ducks were enjoying the warmth.

Above: the National Stadium, resplendent in strong winter sunlight. The Vistula has not frozen over by the east bank either, but the ice is closer to the shore.

The next three days are poised to remain icy, with daytime highs of -9C expected.

Meanwhile, the koksowniki (braziers) have been removed from central points by the city authorities. A shame, they were a notable feature of the current cold spell, and cost peanuts to run.


This time last year:
Of sunshine, birdsong and wet socks

This time four years ago:
Dziadzio Tadeusz at 90

The sad end of Andrzej J.

For five years, the City of Warsaw has had a tenant in one of its flats, not paying any rent, not responding to any letters, not opening the door to anyone. And finally, the authorities decided to pay him a visit - bust into his lonely nest off ul. Okopowa, and found... a skeleton. He'd been dead since 2007.

The story's here in the Warsaw edition of Gazeta Wyborcza. It's a harrowing tale which suggests that the city authorities have only just begun to take the issue of rent arrears seriously. Could something like this happen in the UK?

The last time the world had had any contact with Andrzej J (born 1926) was in September 2007, that was when his neighbours had last seen him, that was the date of his last rent payment.

It was only when Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (second term in office) decided to get the ZGN (the city's property administration authority) to engage more directly with its tenants did they discover this situation.

Apart from the human tragedy of a man without family or friends who died and was missed by no one (did the neighbours not notice or even care?), there's the issue of how the local authorities could be so remiss as to allow this situation to continue for five years, despite letters to the courts, eviction notices, futile visits from bailiffs etc. How many other surprises could turn up in flats owned and managed by the city authorities?

This time last year:
Drifting home

This time two years ago:
Today's dose of wintery gorgeousness

This time three years ago:
First intimations of spring

Irresistible force meets immovable object

A Babcia climbs out of Metro Centrum, with crutch and shopping bag, hauling herself up on the handrail as she proceeds.

Her path is being blocked by a member of the Roma community seeking alms from passers-by. What will Babcia do?

Below: Resolutely Babcia continues her climb. She's seen off Hitler and Stalin and will not allow an able-bodied 30-something obstruct her. Whoomph! In goes the knee, Whack! And the shopping bag.

Below: Down comes the weight of a full bag of shopping once again, full of angular cat-food tins and heavy vinegar bottles, this time onto the back of the obstructive beggar.


"Ow, my back!" Left: Babcia squeezes through to claim a moral victory.

Will the city authorities take action before Euro 2012 against the the enterprising Roma folk who send out their nearest and dearest into the freezing cold to panhandle Warsaw's busiest thoroughfares? Or should the EU's most picked-on minority be allowed to continue its traditional business when the fans come to town, thus showcasing Warsaw's tolerance and diversity?

I shall let you, dear reader, be the judge.

This time last year:
Reasons to be cheerful

This time two years ago:
Skiing in the Beskid Wyspowy

This time three years ago:
What's to be done about Warsaw's unmade roads?
[answer after three years: 'apparently nothing, nothing apparently']

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

Wrocław: an early morning puzzle

Wrocław, 06:18; exactly eight hours after leaving W-wa Wschodnia on the night train, I emerge onto a cold, dark platform. My journey had been comfortable, the train punctual, and in one ticket I had transport and accommodation – a far more time- and cost-effective way of getting to a long-distance destination than travelling the day before and staying overnight in a hotel. The sleeping carriage was warm has toast (coal-fired heating!) but the water in the wash-basin taps had frozen solid so I was unable to wash in the morning.

And a travel tip for night-train travellers: when boarding the sleeper carriage, discretely ask the conductor whether or not there's a Poseł (parliamentary deputy, or MP) travelling that night. The sleeper carriages should keep a przedział poselski free, in case some Important Person needs to travel down to his or her constituency overnight. As it happened, there wasn't one booked to travel on this particular train, so for a small supplementary consideration, I was shown to compartment, which I had to myself.

So – Wrocław 06:18. It's -14C, dark, and busy. The station is being redeveloped (about which more later), so the usual entrance onto Al. Piłsudskiego has been closed off. The back way out leads me to an unfamiliar part of town. There's a row of taxis standing in the darkness. Unlike Warsaw, where each taxi has displayed in the passenger near-side window the price per kilometre, in Wrocław there's no visible clue as to how much the ride will cost when getting into the taxi. It's not far to my destination, so I walk instead.

Usual problem – lack of signage; there's one unlit street map across the road from the station. So I buy a plan of Wrocław from the Ruch kiosk, orientate myself and find my way.

I'm not a total stranger to Wrocław; and I speak and read Polish. Yet in the shoes of a foreigner, arriving at Wrocław station must be extremely daunting. How can one tell in advance, online, in English or German, for example, that the main railway station's main entrance is currently closed? Or know which taxi company you can trust to not to overcharge you? Or find your way to a given street in the situation that this or that thoroughfare has been closed for refurbishment? You can only do a limited amount of research online (Google Maps, for example), but there's no guarantee that the information you find will be up-to-date or accurate.

Many foreigners will be visiting Wrocław, Warsaw, Gdańsk and Kraków for the football in June, and I fear that a significant proportion of them will find themselves frustrated and unable to get to where they are heading without running into situations that can cause distress. Especially when, as will no doubt be the case, the transport infrastructure won't be ready in time. Imagine the tension, when, ticket in hand and seemingly with time to spare, a football fan discovers that there's no train to town from the airport, only an overcrowded bus standing in an immobile jam. Or working out where to buy a ticket at Wrocław Główny station should the refurbishment of the main hall not be ready in 121 days' time.

Above: Platform 1, where my afternoon train is waiting to take me back to Warsaw. Platforms 2 and 3 are still a mess. But despite the cold, work is under way. Much of the old Art Nouveau has disappeared from the platforms.

In case you want to know, it's round the back and about 100m away from the platform entrance. There are no signs saying 'Tickets' or even Bilety – only the Polish Dworzec tymczasowy ('temporary station/terminus'). From this respect, Warsaw – or even Kraków – is far advanced compared to Wrocław when it comes to preparedness of its main station.

The infrastructure chickens are slowly coming home to roost.

This time last year:
Life and Death in the Shadow of the El - A short story, part I

This time two years ago:
Transwersalka in midwinter

This time three years ago:
Work starts on the S79/S2 (still nowhere near ready!)

This time four years ago:
Crazy customised Skoda

Life at twenty below zero

When winters come down hard on Europe, I'm minded of the old Richard Pryor Snake gag, about the white man and black man in the jungle. The white man proceeds cautiously through the bush, then sees a snake, and gets comically hysterical, hollering 'SNAKE! SNAKE!' at the top of his lungs. The black man walking through the jungle with a hip stride, sees a snake, matter-of-factly saying 'snake' as he steps over it.

It's much the same when Britain gets an attack of the minus-twos. The BBC shows stationary cars, their driven wheels spinning furiously, people without hats or gloves trying to push the car free of the inch-high snowdrift, while the Daily Mail wails that the Met Office has issued a Level Three Alert (temperatures are expected to plunge to -2C tomorrow night) and that snowploughs are out in force across the country. Amid the regular stories of teenage stabbings, we read of passengers stranded at airports, drivers trapped for hours on the M40, service on large parts of the London Underground suspended etc.

Here - life goes on pretty much as normal. Many older cars with iffy batteries (especially those parked outside overnight) or those with diesel engines that have not tanked up with the special winter fuel that doesn't turn waxy when it's under -20C, won't start, so there's a noticeably fewer cars in the lava-flow traffic that's ul. Puławska at rush hour*. Some buses won't start, or else their doors jam, but generally public transport has been running well.

Above: from the website of the meteorological station at the physics faculty, Warsaw University of Technology (click to enlarge). As you can see, the temperature has not risen above -7C all week, and has not risen above -12C since last Wednesday. And bear in mind that this weather station in located in downtown Warsaw, where the urban heat island effect increase the temperatures by a degree or two compared to the surrounding areas. And look at that wind chill (perceivable temperature). Which takes the current perceivable temperature outside my window as I write down to -26C.

I recall that in January 2006, I was driving to a conference in Sandomierz; the car thermometer gave the outside temperature as -26C at midday. Outside some small Mazovian village, I saw an old woman bringing home firewood from the forest and I thought to myself "When it's -26C there's no such word as manaña!"

Being able to survive in the cold means proper clothes and proper food. I'm eating like a horse right now. Fried breakfasts of pierogi, or (like today) bubble and squeak. Three hot meals a day. And clothing - two pairs of gloves, the outer pair, mittens from Canada (thank you cousin Teresa!) On my feet stout boots with lambskin lining that can (just about) pass muster with an office suit. A furry lumberjack hat, a US Army M65 parka with huge furry hood - and when I'm due to be outside for any length of time, long-johns with wind-stopping patches on the knees. The house is well-insulated with six inches of expanded polystyrene stuck to the air-brick shell, and triple-glazed windows.

All that and winter tyres too.

* At the proto-Park+Ride at W-wa Jeziorki station (which readers will recall is a muddy verge by the side of ul. Gogolińska) the number of parked cars today was a quarter down on usual.

And there we have it. My się zimy nie boimy! ('We're not scared of winter!').

This time last year:
First intimations of spring

This time two years ago:
From Warsaw to beautiful Dobra

This time four years ago:
Unremitting February gloom

More than just an Iluzjon

The Polish National Film Archive runs a very decent cinema, Iluzjon, which is currently being renovated. During this process, Iluzjon shows its very decent repertoire of movies at the National Library, on Al. Niepodległości. I must say, I like its temporary home; not only does the architecture of the place appeal to me, and its setting - on Pole Mokotowskie - but also the venue itself.

Above: the main entrance to the National Library, separated from Al. Niepodległości by neatly illuminated grounds. Below: looking like a Soviet nuclear physics institute north of the Arctic Circle, the entrance to Iluzjon/Filmoteka Narodowa.

A large lecture room, it reminds me of Warwick University' L3 lecture room, where the university's Film Society projected movies. Currently on - a short triptych of Coen Brothers' films - A Serious Man, The Man Who Wasn't There and Burn After Reading. It's one thing watching a film on DVD, quite another to see it as it should be viewed - on a large silver screen. Prices are cheap (11 złotys weekends, 13 złotys during the week - less than three quid) and a well-selected repertoire of classic films old and new. Highly recommended.

[Postscript: Sadly the Last Picture Show at the Iluzjon/National Library was in June 2012; Iluzjon was meant to open after the summer holidays. Well here we are - 2 November 2012, the National Library's no longer host to the cinema, and Iluzjon's not re-opened yet. Next week, we're told but this has been the story since last autumn.]

This time last year:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time two years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time four years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Under Rondo Dmowskiego

Whether I come to work by Metro to Centrum or by train to W-wa Śródmieście, or if an eastbound tram or westbound bus drops me off at Centrum, I have to go across Rondo Dmowskiego via the subway passage that leads pedestrians across Warsaw's central intersection. Located at the intersection of Al. Jerozolimskie (east-west) and ul. Marszałkowska (north-south), the roundabout is named after Roman Dmowski, pre-war National Democrat leader. The man was clearly highly influential in Poland regaining independence in 1918, but remains controversial in Poland today for many reasons, not least his anti-Semitism.

Above: emerging from Metro Centrum, or coming by foot from W-wa Śródmieście, one passes through the Patelnia ('frying pan') as it is known by Varsovians, a concrete square below street level. Vivid street art covers its walls. Commuters are dressed for the cold - few animal rights protesters make a fuss about the wearing of fur when it's -20C.

Above and below: the steps leading up to street level - to tram and bus stops. After December's occupation of the Central railway station by ads for H&M, the Swedish clothing retailer strikes again, this time by plastering black and white images of David Beckham all over Centrum. He seems to have been struck down by a disfiguring skin disease of his upper arms and shoulders, or else he hasn't washed them for months. Note the strong, low sunlight and the shadows it casts.

The underground passage forms a circle under the roundabout. Inside there are small shops selling footwear, used mobiles, knick-knacks, newspapers - and toasted cheese sandwiches that are responsible for the unpleasant stench of burnt casein that infests the passages.

Above: on my way home, about to dive into the underground passage en route for W-wa Śródmieście and a Jeziorki-bound train. A bit early today, as the electricity failed in the office; my brave new laptop's battery lasted until four pm before it gave out.

This time last year:
My Most favourite bridge

This time two years ago:
Street lighting under the snow

This time three years ago:
Ul. Poloneza - archival video before the S2 was built

This time four years ago:
Aerial juxtaposition over Jeziorki

Back to the blackboard?

Following on from my most recent education post of two days ago, I'd like to look a primary and secondary education.

My assessment of Polish vs. English schools can be summed up in the following stereotypical generalisations.

Polish schools - you are taught to memorise, not understand. Exams are about answering factual questions, not writing essays or discussing the subjects with teachers. Rote learning is the order of the day, every day; very few teachers inspire or bring insight into their subjects. Learning is neither fun nor does it open up new perspectives.

English schools (the school system is different in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) - the kids are encouraged to, like, do their own thing, man, so if, like, a kid thinks three times three is eleven, well, they're being creative, man, and I'm, like, not going be the heavy fascist and tell them they're wrong, man.

If a child is curious, intelligent, quick on the uptake, it will do better in the English system (and I dare say the American system is similar). But if a child is less bright, just having bare facts drummed into its head gives it a better chance in life than being taught Plasticine, xylophone and Venn diagrams.

At the end of the day, Polish schools scored better on the OECD's latest PISA ranking in reading and maths than did UK schools, although UK schools did better on science.

So rote-learning has its place - getting the basics right - never mind why seven times eight is 56 - it just is, OK? And this is how you spell szczodrobliwość. No alternatives permitted.

The only trouble is - this model is then carried on into Polish universities, where Pan Ważny Profesor reads aloud from the textbook he wrote back in 1970, chapter by chapter, to bored students who have to memorise his increasingly-questionable teachings. The result - Polish universities are way down the global rankings, where US and UK institutions dominate when it comes to pure and applied research.

It seems that uravnilovka - the Soviet levelling-down of society - has hurt Polish innovation. Which is not to say that Poles can't be innovative - they can - but generally in foreign universities and for foreign corporations.

But can the Polish tertiary education system be reformed without a reform of the primary and secondary systems?

This time two years ago:
Greed, fear, fight-and-flight - and the weather

This time three years ago:
Where the new motorways will meet

This time four years ago:
Crocuses blooming in London