have had two long and glorious days. But when it rains as it did for much of
today, you get the feeling that it is just like any other wet city. But there
comes a point, particularly as the rain lessens, that you begin to see another
face of the city. And you realise that even in the wet it has character.
Today was also a bit like stepping back in time.
First up was a visit to the Palace of Culture which was gived to the Poles by
Stalin. However, some gift as it turned out that the Poles had to pay for it.
It is an exact copy of one in Moscow and is instantly regonizable as being
communist architecture. Locally it is called, apparently, Stalin's Wedding
Cake. It is high - the viewing deck was on the 30th level, while the height is
matched by the amoint it speads our at ground level. It is hard to decide if it
is just ugly or beautiful ugly. It does seemdated, from another era. The
flooring is all marble set out in patterns and the are brass or copper fittings
everywhere. It must have made a dramatic impact on Warsaw in the 1950's when it
was erected.
Today there are exhibition halls and a multiplex cinema (or Kino as they are
called here). The foyer is circular in a traditional American way. Well, I have
seen a few like that in the USA. Around the wall they have several large statues
of Oscar and I wondered how the Academy would accept that use of their copyright
property.
There was queue for tickets to go up and I think that it must have ben a remnant
of the Communist period. One ticket seller for the long queue which included
group tour operators who were waiting to make bloc bookings for some future
date. They had to fill out the order documents at the counter while we all
waited. I got the senior rate of about $NZ7.50
The lift was fast but not the fastest tower elevator I have been in.
On the viewing deck we did get a good view despite the rain. There was also an
interesting environmetal photographic display around the wall as well.
Then I made my way to a fairly close exhibit of a 1905 sterescope group viewing
machine. The Fotoplastikon) You sat on a stool facing the two lenses and the
captionbox above. There were 24 viewing places around the circular contraption.
Every minute or less the picture you were viewing changed. The selection I
watched were mostly Germany 1950's. The machine claims to be the only one in
existence still working. The same family has run it since 1905. They have
around 4000 slides to use in it. Of course it got killed by the development on
movies. It was located in a darkend appartment building. The building was down
a passage way into a Dickens type setting. I was able to purchase a set of
stereo postcards.
Other old moments were seeing several horse drawn carrage buses trot down the
street.
By 4pm the sun was out, the temperature bammy and the crowds were out walking.
The long street from the hostel to the castle is closed to traffic Saturday and
Sunday. So it became one long pedestrian mall. As I got closer to the Old Town
the crowds get very large. All sorts of happy people; family groups often with
very young children, pensioners, groups of teenagers and young people in
general. Admist it all was a sense of wellbeing and community happiness. IN
front of the castle were several musical groups including half a dozen teen age
boys doing hip hop for the crowd. Elsewhere there was a Catholic Christian group
or band ( they didn't sing very well) but the got the onlookers into a big
circle dancing around them in a sort of Jewish style I would think.
Coming back to the hostel I found that the road near the hostel had become a
traditioanl fair. Sausages, meats, cheeses and lots of bread and beer made up a
number of stalls. There were no vegetables on sale.
Obviously I spent a pleasant hour wandering around and smaplling some items and
deciding not to try others. This was around 8 to 8:45pm and it had just got
dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment