Greetings!
and welcome to another installment in my seemingly never-ending series of diaries about what I've been up to this summer. This time around I'll just be sharing a collection of some of my favorite photos from Warsaw.
Because I'll be running around Budapest, or perhaps strolling, or sitting, or lounging around Budapest, when this posts, haters of "post and run" diaries can consider this a thumb in their eye. I simply won't be taking a 275 mile long broadband cable with me and the WiFi back home in Prague is weak sauce. So instead of paying a small fortune to stay hooked into the internet through my mobile provider or spend valuable tourist time searching for public WiFi or getting my Hungarian library card I'll simply fling this at you through the decorative orange bars of my cage just before I make my escape...
I'm glad I got the chance to see some of Warsaw. It wasn't one of the spots on the map that I'd ever paid much attention. Now I'd like the chance to go back and really take the time to explore it properly. Here are a few of the things that caught my eye...
When I was there in July the city was gearing up for the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Monuments and memorials were getting ready for visitors.
As I often seem to do when taking pictures, I found myself looking through a lot of frames-- I'm drawn to views that draw me in. I love pictures of open doorways, archways and alleys that offer enticing glimpses of what lies beyond.
Some of my photos contained little gems that I wasn't aware of when I was taking them. Take, for instance, one of my favorites:
A photo of an older woman handing out leaflets advertising the pierogi restaurant behind her. I'd wanted a photo of the restaurant because my new Polish sister-in-law had told me about these little places popping up in Warsaw much like the little pizza places found practically everywhere in Europe. It's a pierogaria, not a pizzeria. I framed the picture to include the neighboring doorway partly because it's a cool door and partly because with the woman standing there I didn't want to point my camera right at her nose as if she was a bit of interesting statuary. I don't know how visible it is at this size, but there's a date on that lovely old door-- 1955. Yes, a subtle reminder that the Nazis had destroyed the original building during the Uprising and the indomitable Poles were still busily building their refusal to let the fascists take their beautiful city from them in 1955.
I hadn't noticed that date at all, but looking through my photos I noticed the proud placement of dates on other rebuilt buildings of downtown Warsaw.
Way up high, yet big and bold enough to be read from a distance is "1954" on the end of that building spied over the rebuilt fortifications of Old Town.
I may have not noticed the dates, but I did notice some of the stones and bits of wall that seemed to me to be reminders of the rubble.
Thanks for exploring Warsaw with me.