A capital place

25th November 2011

the traffic jams, the roadworks – it’s a nightmare unfit for humans

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One of the main stereotypes about Poles, one they even propagate themselves, is that they’re always moaning. Sometimes they seem half proud of it, telling foreigners how much they enjoy a good whinge. Show a Pole a politician and you get a string of grievances, and woe betide anyone who tries to suggest things are good.

You never see people haranguing politicians, jabbing their fingers at them saying, “Life has improved enormously since the end of communism and I’m doing very well thankyou! I’ve got consumer goods, a nice car, a mobile phone, the Internet and I go on holidays abroad, you useless cheating git!”

One of the favourite moans is how terrible the capital is. Everybody in a rush, the traffic jams, the roadworks – it’s a nightmare unfit for humans to live in, the stories go. So, I was more than a little surprised when I took a trip through the heart of the city early this Wednesday morning.

I strolled out of my hotel in the Starowka, along Krakowskie Przedmiescie, past Belweder (now thankfully bereft of two planks of wood and a bunch of nutters playing out scenes worthy of the Life of Brian). I wandered through Plac Defilad and then on to Warszawa Centralna. It was all rather peaceful and rather lovely.

There were some lazy cyclists, a jogger, cars stopped for me as I stood by a zebra crossing – something the moaners had assured me never happened in the capital. The traffic was sedate and it was all quite pastoral.
Near the station, now that the flypitchers have been dealt with and the tunnels spruced up, it’s definitely easier on the eye, less frantic and stressful than in the early ‘nineties. Sure, Warsaw may not win any awards for urban planning, but I can think of a lot worse places to live.

Readers Comments

In the early nineties the only traffic you could expect was a Maluch or Zuk puttering every 5 minutes or so up Jerozolimskie. I have abiding memories of the juke box in Bar Havana off Plac Wilsona. Salad days indeed, though mostly carrots.

Damian - Tucuman, Argentina
at 2011-11-30 00:54:15

Having read and enjoyed your piece, with your natty reference to the Starowka (Stare miasto or old town to the uninitiated, I was happily nodding along until I came to an outrageous claim.

You stood at a zebra crossing and the traffic stopped? You have clearly never witnessed the dance, between driver and pedestrian when a car does stop, when one tries to second guess the other.

Of course the pedestrian has the legal right to cross but an even greater right to life. It doesn't help arguing you were in the right as you ascend to the pearly gates.

My money is on the car driver being foreign.

Polish car drivers, largely operate in two modes.Go and faster. Woe betide anything or anyone who comes between the driver and their objective.

Dylan Tomasz - Łódź
at 2011-12-01 10:28:47

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