Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring is in the air, Everywhere I look around

As I have mentioned recently the Spring is yawning, stretching its otherwise frozen limbs. The scary thing about Spring in Warsaw is that it can be very inconsistent. Classic example was that we had one beautiful weekend, where these photos were taken, and the next had snow. To show that this isn't an incident of global warming, let me tell you that the buildings with community central heating don't switch the furnaces off until May.

So we wanted to go into town to check out a photo exhibition at the Dom Spotkan z Historia (the History Meeting House) or DSH for short. The exhibition was about Julien Hequembourg Bryan, an American photographer and documentary maker that visited Warsaw as the Panzers approached, and found himself here when the city was being invaded by German troops. He therefore took photos and filmed documentary footage before, during and then returned later after the war to take more photos and follow up on the people he met originally.

It was a really interesting and touching display, especially when you know it was the first and almost the only photos that came out about the conflict at the time and he was the only foreign photographer in the city then. He also made a film while here called The Siege of Warsaw, which was the only footage that made the Western world know about what was happening. He smuggled out the negatives in a gas mask and there were suggestions that he wrapped his movie film around his torso to smuggle it out when the German army allowed foreigners to leave the city in a ceasefire.

So what you see here, is our stroll towards the gallery from Ratusz Arsenal, down the dreaded Dluga, and through the old town, where I got far too distracted by bubbles. Check the map for the stroll.
So down Dluga you get to see the ...... building which has a really nice set of front gates.
The walls are topped with little cherubs
And around the gate you get the four winds NESW
They stand quite proud and all buff and tough.
At the end of Dluga is To Lubie cafe which translates basically as "I like it", it is Marty's favourite cafe and the place we end up after every trip to the Foreigners' office which is on Dluga, hence it being dreaded. I swear in that office I have spent at least 24 hours in total. Anyway, if you are in the area pop into the cafe, it is housed in the Dominican Church's tower where they sell the Dominican monks' products.
From Dluga we drifted into the Stare Miasto square. I think I haven't really put up many photos of this location at all. So here are a few.
The Eastern sides in the sun.
One of the facades around the square on the Northern end.
The house as a whole facade.
Then I got distracted by bubbles, a lot like the man in this multi-picture.
So now you will be flooded by bubbles, there is one bursting here.
Sometimes they are in teams.
Other times they would taunt the mermaid.
Drifting around the place making the buildings all scared of the detergent.
Young and old were enjoying the bubbles.
It made some romantic and hold hands, or do graffiti.
Even those with red legs felt happy.
If you weren't happy enough, there were people there to change that.
After the exhibition, I decided to treat Marty to a coffee and cake.
We chose Batida, a pleasant looking cafe on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, not far from the Presidential Palace.
Marty instead opted for a red meal of Malina torte and a Black Currant Juice.
I went for the citron tart and the traditional double espresso. It was more costly than a normal cake date for us but it was still a pleasant way to end a sun shiney day.

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