pondělí 1. září 2014

Tomorrow's Capital of Cool

First three days of my journey I spent in the Polish capital of Warsaw. A city was ressurected from ashes after the second world war when 85 percent of its buildings were destroyed.  Today however, like the whole Poland, Warsaw is regaining its ancient glory.

It was the first day of my stay when the news headlined that the local  prime minister is going to take the  post of the president of the European Union. This 'unprecedented success of Poland', as the local media  were reffering to it, shows that the forty milion country is finally getting the  international recognition it has strrugled for a long time. After all, it  is the Polish diplomates who are the most vocal  in condemning the  Russian behavior in the  Ukrainian crisis. Unlike we Czechs, they are not afraid to be clear and loud. And surely, it is not  for the first time in history when the contrast is this evident.

The increasingly popular Museum of the Warsaw Uprising is the most interesting site I visited since this WWII event itself says a lot about the local  mentality. The museum documents the extremely brave, romanticist and unrealist struggle of  the people of  Warsaw to liberate their country from the Nazi grasp in the summer of 1944. The  Polish did so when the Red Army was approaching in a desperate struggle to gain independennce not only from the Nazis, but also from the Soviet threat. It is widely known that the Red Army later on stood on the right bank of the Visla River, letting the Nazis destroy the capital and kill  the best and bravest of the nation.

Particularly striking part of the museum collection are the extracts of how different media were writing about the uprising. The rhetorics from the Soviet PRAVDA was amazingly similar to what you can nowadays read on Russia  Today about the Ukrainian events.  But yet,  Poland than just like Ukraine now were just ants on a bigger chessboard.

Surely, the unfortunate history and the crazy courage of the Polish people is  not the only thing interesting in Warsaw. Since the most of old  Warsaw did not  survive  the  war, there is no space for traditional old fashion beauty of Prague or Paris. On the other hand, the big boulevards, skyscrapers, party streets and pubs hidden at unprobable places give Warsaw a modern, unconventional facet.

Many people have told me that in their opinion, Warsaw will  replace Berlin as the new capital of cool. So those who are annoyed of the fact that the unconventional  hipster  Berlin is getting too mainstream, try Warsaw.  Just like Poland itself it is only going up


The renovated Old  Town in Warsaw


Steve and  Anna are laughing in a hidden bar under a rail bridge eloquently called Berlin Warsaw

Extract from the Soviet PRAVDA writing about the Warsaw uprising


Though the Poles  wanted to demolish the communist palace of culture after 1989, nowadays it becoming one of the symbols of Warsaw. The view from the top is great


Warsaw Skyscrapers


A rainbow in the center of Warsaw. Since many religious fundamentalists, whom we can find relatively a lot in this very catholical country,  perceive it as a gay symbol, it is  burned down several times every year

A statue of a child soldier from the Warsaw Uprising

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