I decide it’s time to explore the neighbourhood instead of whizzing off to places I already know. So I head off west of home. The street is not very inspiring, but it has a pierogi shop, a school, a hospital, a theatre, all within a couple of blocks. As is the case with many Warsaw streets it is tree lined, and there a number of markers of the tragic “Here in 1944 …” kind, or of the more benign “X lived here” kind. Graffiti too, of course.
I walk on in a desultory way, until I see a sign saying Pole Mokotowskie: I know that’s a park and my pace and enthusiasm pick up. I head off gleefully into the shade. A jogger passes me and a young man lies asleep across the track. The area used to be an airfield and it’s quite extensive. I come to a meandering waterway, edged by irises, dandelion, buttercups and ferns. Chunky statues are scattered around the lake, and a monument to the park’s airfield history stands proudly amongst overflowing rubbish bins.
I can’t leave the park without a comment on toilet facilities, a major concern in a city with a monumental lack of public toilets, which seems to place the toi tois (portaloos) in the least discreet places – like on the footpath facing the intersection of two busy main roads. This park boasts a permanent container-like building: 2zł in the slot gets you a clean spacious loo, with 20 minutes to do what needs doing, at which point presumably the doors open to flush you out. Such are the things that rejoice my ageing body.
The things that bring you joy! 🙂 🙂 That last photo does it for me. And I like the sculptures too. Happy wandering! Cold and windy here so my potential is restricted. 😦
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Hot and steamy. Mine restricted too. I’ll have an alphabetapillar photo shoot soon, if you don’t mind grimy.
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I read this post with my 3 year old grandson on my knee. He was excited with the photos of the sculpture in the park and wants to go.
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Is he the silhouette in your last post? I’m glad he liked the sculptures. Their chunky simplicity? I’m delighted to have a new demographic reading my blog!
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He is an interesting child. (yes, the one in silhouette). He has a condition called Verbal Dsypraxia and is largely non verbal. He really likes sculptures of people doing things. He liked the person playing the horn and made a sound the horn might make.
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Ooo I like those statues. Especially the very round man. Wow 20 mins!
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I’ll be revisiting the park – meant to yesterday and got lazy. There are more on the other side of the lake.
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Looking forward to seeing more!
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Despite the early hour, I feel the heat, or maybe the lack of rain, in some of these photos. Those curled leaves, the drying puddle, the shadows cast across full sunlight, say it all. That park must be a real oasis for jaded city dwellers during the Warsaw summer.
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It’s pretty popular, judging by the amount of rubbish – which was being removed as I peregrinated. I’ve got to stop being controlled by the heat. I need to embrace it!
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Love the sculptures in the park, and the irises were gorgeous. I know what you mean about public toilets – it can be a challenge sometimes in New York City as well. Thanks for taking us on your walk with you!
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A challenge in NYC too?? Is there no hope for geriatric comfort? My NSW south coast is well supplied! Thank you for joining me on my walk. You’re good company.
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Here, most of the toilet facilities are in coffee shops and restaurants, and they usually require a purchase to access them. Of course, the museums also have them, but if you are just out and about walking in the city, it can sometimes be quite a challenge!
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When I enquirer in Slovenia, my host told me to use coffee shops. Trouble is this creates a turning wheel of endless need!!
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Yes, we too were told to use cafes, coffee shops, gelato places when we were in Italy. But of course that meant buying something from the proprietors, which is fair enough, but ended up being a very good little money-earner for them and more expensive for us than we had bargained for. At the public facilities, regardless of their condition, there was always someone on hand to collect the money should there not be a barrier activated by a coin in the slot.
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Revisited the loo that provoked all this commentary this morning, and poked my 2zł in the wrong slot!
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I love the sculptures and the iriis are such an intense blue, gorgeous! Public loos are a frequent challenge in other countries, with India of course at the top of the problem list.
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On one notorious occasion I used the men’s loo on Alexandria Station, in the absence of women’s conveniences. It was that, or suffer on a 13-hour bus journey into the desert. I wouldn’t dare in Sydney! Although I have been known, twice, to my shame, to misread toilet iconography.
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And this park is fabulous ☺
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I might have known my toilet aside would trump the pleasures of the park!!!!! I’m going back for fountains and the path of Ryszard Kapuściński, which follows his morning walk, and for whatever else I missed – because I needed a loo!
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How green everything is and what a vivid splash of blue the iris make. Do you have regular rain fall? It is drying up rapidly over here. I always enter those automatic toilets with caution, hoping the door doesn’t burst open or automatic flush happens. Some info centres over here now supply you with a loo map…
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At the moment, we’ve been deluged on pretty well daily – a thunderstorm at preschool pick-up time that has the gutters running. The washing machine is full of wet, slightly muddy clothes as I write, and there are two pairs of little shoes drying on the windowsill. I create my own loo map of the south coast when I was working so I could avoid arriving at a school more eager for the loo than the principal.
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We have major storm warnings for the Southeast for tomorrow. Flash floods up to, maybe, 150-200mm rain, wind to 100 km/hr… I am all battened down…May was only 17mm of rain, average is normally 100+. Garden very dry so need some rain.
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I hope the garden was satisfied without other damage. My daughter said it didn’t really eventuate in Stanthorpe although she’d cancelled the neutering of Johnny May and Bruce in expectation. I could hear it belting down when I rang my son at Eagle Heights yesterday, and Potato Point was expecting 20′ waves.
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We had torrential rain, the garden loved it, but no flooding or other damage here. Though Brisbane and north had a battering with flash floods, trees down. Today is a perfect Queensland day, unbelievably sunny, but the storm is now heading south with a real sting in its tail.
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