Chopin in the Park

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This is my third day in Warsaw. It's a large city, at times confusing, busy, but rather interesting. And certainly worth a few days visit. It takes that long just to figure out the buses and trams. And because Warsaw is a large city, you need to learn to use public transit, or walk for hours and hours. Even still, I seem to walk for long distances because in all my travels I have never seen bus stops so far apart; no kidding, each stop must be in excess of 400 m apart, at least a six and possibly more minutes walk between stops. More than once, I have been between stops only to see my bus speed by, but I couldn't get to a bus stop quickly enough.

I arrived at noon on a Friday, in what must be the most (can I say?) ugly train station I've ever had the pleasure of using. The trains arrive in a dark hall with low ceilings, and the hallways are a labyrinth of shops, kiosks, cash services and all sorts of other things. I had no way of determining which exit I needed, so I just left through the first exit I could. From street level I could use my map. I walked to the hostel to find it was closed until 4 o'clock. I sat and had lunch and determined my next move. I walked to another hostel, called "Oki Doki Hostel" And this place lives up to its name. It's clean, I have a single bed, big rooms and each room is decorated in a unique way - our room is covered in old newspapers as wall paper, most papers are Solidarity Papers. It's tastefully done, and no paper is peeling, so I am sure they fix any peeling paper quickly, it's not hard to find new newspaper as wall paper. I have new roomates each night; I suppose no one else thinks Warsaw deserves more than one night. While most roomates are good, a few are tiring, such as those who make too much noise in the wee small hours of the morning after returning from a night of drinking; or those roomates who take up more than their share of space. Hostel life is shared accommodation, and sometimes guests forget this. I get tired of walking over other people's clothes: trousers that are dropped to the floor and stepped out of and left in the middle of the room; shoes blocking the door; backpacks up against my locker. But then again, I sometimes snore, so I suppose it all evens out.

My first full day in Warsaw I went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This is a new museum which recounts the Warsaw uprising in late 1944. For two months the residents of Warsaw had the Nazis on the run, but were eventually over powered after two months of fighting. In revenge, Hitler had the city leveled. Not a single building was left standing. The Soviet Red Army watched all this from across the river, and waited until it was over before going into Warsaw themselves and throwing out the Nazis. An interesting museum, but a tragic story. All the buildings in the old town and much of the rest of the city is reconstruction. You would never know that 60 years ago, there was virtually no city left standing. Warsaw saw war could have been the title of this blog.

Sunday, I went to the Lazienki Park to see Chopin in the Park. At noon every Sunday there is a piano concert. It is an absolutely beautiful setting, a piano under a large statue of Chopin, in front of a circular pond. Spread out in row upon row are benches seating hundreds of people, in between row upon row of rose bushes. This is a large square, with the piano on one side of the square. The announcer explained in Polish the pieces she played. I think the first piece was Rachmaninov and the second Mussorgsky, about 10 minutes in total, and the rest of the 40 minute concert was Chopin. The audience was quite still and attentive, all dressed in the Sunday best out for a wonderful concert of Chopin in the Park. There were families, young children, young couples and many seniors. The weather was mostly sunny. Just a fabulous day.

After the concert, I, and the rest of the audience, walked through the park. Further downhill is the Palace on the Water. While there are no more Polish Kings, the peacocks rule. There were quite a lot of peacocks and peahens. They certainly attracted a lot of attention, the crowds followed the birds everywhere. Never during my time there did the males show their plumage. I walked around the Palace, and around the grounds. Also in addition to the peacocks, there were red squirrels, ducks, pigeons, possibly a couple of ravens and I even saw a few mice. Not bad for a city park. I was in the park a total of four hours, including the concert and walking, and, of course, the tea and cake at half time.

Later in the day, to take advantage of the weather I walked the entire route of the Royal Way to take photos. There has been a lot of clouds roll in and out of Warsaw, so I need to take advantage of the clear skies when I get them. It has rained here every day, but only slightly. When you see my photos you'll think that I always had great weather. I simply wait for the clear skies - the colours pop right out, and the contrast between subject and sky is at its greatest.

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