Badminton, remote controlled car, two dumb boys and tempura.

At last, the sun has decided to visit us again. So, not wasting much time we decided it is time for a bicycle trip. First of all we had to fix my bike, or in the other words, bring it back from early retirement. There was a problem with the seat because a screw holding it in right position broke and no store had the exact replacement. After few hours of becoming McGyver wannabies we managed to put the saddle in a very so-so position ( i had to screw it back after every 30 minutes of riding). The goal of our trip was Pole Mokotowskie, it's a park in the center of Warsaw, once a favourite place for walks for Ryszard Kapuscinski. Bicycles were ready, water bottles full, but we needed a bit of warm up, so arming ourselves with badminton rackets we rushed outside for a quick and deadly 1v1 match, which of course Ola won. And that's how a pro player looks like. In excellent physical and mental condition we set out into the big city. After about 30 minutes, with just one break, we reached Pole Mokotowskie and were stunned by the number of people present on the spot. Probably we weren't the only ones noticing the bright sun on that day. Here's the link to the info about Pole Mokotowskie . First sound that hit our ears was the loud humming of something that had engine inside. Since it was a park, we had no idea, what was causing such a noise. Then, right in front of our feet little remote controlled car swooshed and went on annoying all dogs around. Later on the big pond inside the park, we have seen a remote controlled boat. Since it was still easter time and nowadays kids get presents for all occasion, maybe few of them got these toys instead of ipod or ipad or ianything and strolled in the park to for test drives. 

Some of our team members were really tired, so we made a small picnic (very small as we had only two water bottles as main course) regenerating power. Since it would be rude to point out tired people, we can let pictures talk. 
Pole Mokotowskie has a big pond in the middle, since the winter was present only few days ago, it wasn't filled fully with water yet. Nevertheless two , a bit stupid, boys on their bicycles started to ride through the water, which was about 50 centimeters deep. Of course it ended with many accidents, wet shoes, socks and pants, but they kept returning to the pond, trying to cross it on bicycles which will probably need some professional help soon. One wouldn't assume that two young, giggling girls standing next to the pond were the boys motivation. They must have some bigger ideas in mind - for sure.
Water bottles didn't last long, so we had to move on. Planing the trip home, we decided to take a different route, a bit longer but through Warsaw center and Old town. Right after we were outside Pole Mokotowskie we saw a very funny ad for a movie 2012. After first glance it just looked like abandoned car, but since it was in the middle of the city, it had to be something more. Commercials in our times became something as popular as an air we breath, so people got used to them, started to ignore them and it seems they don't have as much effect on us as they used to do. That's why we were positively surprised by this one, it was hard to miss, everyone who was walking by stopped and looked or took a photo. And besides everything else, it looked cool in the middle of busy city. In case the followers of 2012 prophecies are right for the next two years we can get used to the view of stuff crashed by rocks falling from the sky, so this ad might have some educational values too.
Heading forward we ended up on Mysliwiecka street, a place where polish Radio 3 has it's headquarters. This radio has very long tradition, originating in times when Poland was under communist rule. Radio 3 was always a place were people could listen to music from around the world, soak up the culture that was criticized by soviet countries. Many people grew up with Trojka (that's the popular name of the station), forming their music tastes, treating this station almost like a member of the family. In recent years Radio 3 had some problems. Since it is public radio, the president of it is always politician, and where there is politic, there is trouble. First the left wing, now the right try to change the station to their needs, but huge number of fans do what they can, to not allow it. The building in which Trojka is was built in XIX century as a stable, totally destroyed during the war, has been rebuilt as a radio station in 1947 and remains the oldest radio station building in Warsaw. The address Mysliwiecka 3/5/7 is very well known to listeners all over the country as a symbol of good music and amazing personalities.

Right next to Trojka we encountered few really amazing graffiti made under the bridge, fortunately not destroyed by talentless morons with spray cans. Some of those graffiti were really impressive and probably hard to make. Take a look.



Few hundred meters from Trojka there is a Parliament building. It is located on a street with deeper meaning. The street is called Wiejska, which means Village. Though it's not a noun, but adjective, meaning in slang something that is not cool and a bit silly. Quite a proper word for this place. Nevertheless, the building itself is not that bad. The whole complex of buildings was erected early in the XIX century, but many uprising and World War Second left almost nothing from it. It was rebuilt in 1947, a bit in a socialist way and with no place for Upper House called Senat, because in PRL (communist era) there was no second house in parliament. Senat returned after the 1989 with special building erected in 1991. Surrounding the Parliament house are many embassies, most of them are old buildings, from late XIX or early XX century, not destroyed during the war only because german officers used to live in them. Closest one is embassy of France, modern but nice looking building . They used to have cute roosters standing on the grass in front of the building but they removed it in favor of some ugly plastic flowers. On the other side of the street there is embassy of Canada, which we had to photograph for our friend Lisa, too bad we left transparent with Blame Canada signs in the house.

Between those two embassies there is a very small street, you can barely see it when you cross Wiejska street, but it is there, and if you know where to look you will find it. The street is named after one of the beatles John Lennon. It was made possible because of the effort one fan of the band made to persuade officials to approve that name. Now they are trying to name other street after George Harrison but it doesn't look like they will win. John Lennon street is a place where fans light candles, bring pictures, or just write something on the wall. Yoko Ono visited this place when she was in Poland few years ago. It was getting late and sky darkened with every minute, we had to head home. Clouds looked like they were about to splash Warsaw with rain, so we were in a but of hurry. On our way home we tried not to make many stops, because rain was more and more inevitable, but this one place we just couldn't pass without making a stop and taking photo. The similarity is obvious. Finally we made it before the rain. Exhausted and satisfied with our trip we made an excellent supper. Sangría was waiting for us in the fridge, but we were hungry, so we made Surimi in Tempura, which made us feel fat, even after whole day of pedaling.

Warsaw walkabout

Having the opportunity to spend a whole week together, we decided to put laziness aside and do something interesting. It was a time to plan a trip around the town, so i've dusted off the guide to Warsaw called Spacerownik (spacer is a stroll, so the name stands for a book with routes for walking around the city). The book was written by a journalist from Gazeta Wyborcza, famous varsavianist (a guy obsessed with Warsaw), apart from typical tours it offers in-depth look in the history of Polish capital and some pretty cool stories about people and places from the past. We chose Ochota district as our target, it's quite an old place in Warsaw, home of lawyers, economists and engineers before Second World War, full of moody, little streets with dark trees and houses built in early XX century.

Our trip started near Warsaw Lindley Water Filters, it was Great Saturday, Easter time, so there weren't many people around as it was the time for catholics to visit churches and then eat a lot of food, as people tend to do on such occasions. And there stood before us the church of Christ, right next to very old hospital, it was built before 1901 by polish architect Józef Pius Dziekoński and served as a hospital's church before the war. In the past on the other side of the hospital stood his brother the Orthodox Church, but apparently it was destroyed. In front of the church we found a gloomy skull looking at us from a pedestal, probably grinning too, but it had only upper half of teeth, so let's not judge the poor guy too fast. The skull was made in XVIII century and stood in different part of the city and later moved here, near the Christ Hospital to commemorate 30 thousand people that died in the Hospital before 1799.

Passing quietly next to the church - quietly because it was Easter and there were some people outside the church waiting for priest to sprinkle their painted eggs with holy water - we moved to the gates of Warsaw Lindley Water Filters. But before we lay our eyes on red bricks of filters, on the small grass square between pavement we encountered a massive stone with barely recognizable writings. Our guide explained that this stone was set here as a mark of brotherhood between communist Yugoslavia of mister Tito and communist Poland of mister Bierut. Friendship ended really fast and boulder is now slowly decaying.

To the filters then! Maybe not as impressive as Roman Aqueduct these filters do their job well enough. Built in XIX century, they remain now one of the most beautiful industry complex in Warsaw with high chances to be put in UNESCO World Heritage Programme. Architects were from England, William and William Lindley (one is the son, the other the father, you can guess who is who) and the idea of building such a thing struck the head of then-president of Warsaw, general Socrates Starynkiewicz. Methods used during the construction were the most advanced they could think of, the interior looks like some creepy gothic building. Unfortunately, the filters are only open for tourists during the summer holidays, so we couldn't take a peek inside. You can read more about the filters and see some pictures on this page

After the filters we followed our path and found ourselves in magical world of the past. Small streets surrounded by XIX and early XX century houses charmed us with their distinguished beauty. Some falling apart, others restored, all of them looked amazing, almost out of place in the hustle-bustle of the city. Unfortunately, we were charmed too much, so we don't have many pictures from that place, therefore we decided to put some pictures from the web instead of ours. And that's how it looked like before the war.

Langiewicza Street was the most beautiful place we discovered on that day. Before the war many famous people lived there, to name just a few of them: Julian Eberhardt, excellent railroad engineer, Stanisław Dygat, writer and even one of the polish presidents Stanislaw Wojciechowski. The duplex on a picture to the right was called *Little Belvedere* and was considered the prettiest building in Staszic Colony. Many prominent people lived there, politicians, economists, artists. As you can see, after the war communists probably didn't feel like restoring this temple of decadence so now it is falling apart. When we have been walking next to it, we could see that it was probably occupied by homeless people.We dove deeper into tight streets of Staszic Colony, learning about long dead inhabitants of those houses, enjoying the atmosphere of pre-war Warsaw, while it lasted. In the middle of this forgotten world we encountered a pink house that turned out to be a kindergarden. On the fence there were drawings made by children and fake pink flowers decorated the trees.

At the end of our trip we saw a very charming balcony that must have belonged to some artist or at least someone with artistic soul. This time we remembered to take a picture