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Published: October 8th 2011
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The business cards had disappeared from the windshields, no more on the footpaths. No guys in tracksuits would sprint in front of me to throw escort and erotic massage cards on the ground. Warsaw had changed, that stuff was now online but 7 years later my feelings towards the place didn’t. Still at least there are more things to see now.
In 2004 I was so bored here I decided to pick up the business cards and make my own walking tour. That was because there was nothing else to do and I had already paid for my accommodation. 7 years on and I found myself in the same situation - 4 days booked since I left Minsk earlier and a bargain train for for Dusseldorf that I didn’t want to give up.
Back in the day what I did was get the map out and mark out the location of each agency or escort. Go to the entrance, tick it off the list and move to the next place. Boy did I cover some miles that day. It was a full day tour, 8 hours all varying in class of apartment. Some managed to put a red light
on their buzzer for easy access for their clients. (And no it didn’t take 8 hours because I was busy and needed a rest from walking.)
My aim for this trip was to find what else Warsaw has to offer and not be forced to go back to my Warsaw fallback of a walking tour of escort and erotic massage shop fronts. The guidebook inyourpocketguide did provide a blurb to say that the government has cracked down on this and provided the website that covers the business card info. So through curiosity I had a look and boy is it graphic in detail of the services. Too graphic to explain here.
But as things improve economically in this region more women will not feel the need to resort to this and things in Warsaw had seem to improve. Maybe it was the better weather for the few days I was here but there seemed to be more action. More smiles, a happier place.
On Al. Jerozolimski street there are plenty of big name clothes shops and further on more sights to see. The Old town is the main part of the tourist area and was built from
scratch. They tried to keep it to its original look when it was lost in WWII.
Just off the main square there is a side street that I walked up in 2004. I took some photos there and then an old man shuffled past me. At the time I took some experimental photos with him. I walked to the same spot and bugger me another old man was there again. I wonder if it’s the same guy who just walks up and down all day or maybe his son who’s following the tradition. I didn’t experiment this time.
At the hostel there was a 38 year old who would go “You know like…” all the time. As well as that there were fresh off the boat people going through the same emotions I did 7 years earlier. I felt a bit over hostels in Europe - It was wearing thin. I’m over the conversations and I kind of feel if I ever return to Europe I may not come back as a backpacker.
So with a bit over a week to kill I decided to contact a few friends I have made along the way and made
it to Dusseldorf where they have the largest bar in the world, which is a bit dubious since it is not one continuous bar but just a series of bars in multiple blocks. It is on the Rhine at Aldstadt (the old town). The architecture at Neue Zollhof is pretty nice too with some modern designs for its business blokes. Weather however was pretty ordinary.
My first hour there I noticed that German workers are really lazy people. I stood there and watched this council worker doing his thing reading the newspaper and having a pastry of some sort whilst his machine did the rest. No manual labour apart from assembling this machine, which needed to be fused whilst the machine drilled through the cement. I then thought about Africa and for 10 months I’d see different workers slaving it out it disastrously hot condition probably getting paid what this guy gets in a day over a year.
I heard that Dusseldorf has a rivalry with Cologne so I decided to skip there and chose sides. Instead I got pissed in what might be one of the last times in Europe as thedribbleman.
***
Some of the
photos will explain a bit more of things to see.
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