Ze German II

More photos, less gammering on from me. So after goofing around, we headed to one of my favourite places in Warsaw, the University library.

The Library itself, frontage.

Second hand book sale

Founding fathers

up close and personal

Conscientious little working bees and a grumpy man portrait

The tunnel of love, unfortunately for Verena, she was with me.

Although she looks happy to survive

if she doesn't get blown away first

The national stadium from afar

What is in this window?

Oh it is a family of nerdlings.

Working up a storm

The whole.

Plants and their reflections

Copernicus centre of science in the front stadium down back

And to the right we have the Palace on an otherwise gloomy day

The library when you get off the roof

A filtration pond for the run off water

Pond looking back to the library

Lilly Allen, I mean Water Lily

So that was the trip to the uni library on the fabulously named ulica Dobra (Good Street).

Around town with ze german.

Throughout my, longer than many expected, life I have had the chance to meet many people. I am not Mr. Social in the sense that I don't live and die for parties, nightclubs, bars etc. But, when I do get the chance to talk to people, I generally do. In the old days that was also facilitated by letters. In 1994, I sent a postcard to the best friend of my German "girlfriend" to say "hi". That started a rather intense period of letters, presents and photos between her and myself. We shared many great stories from travel and daily university life. I have been lucky enough to see her a number of times in Germany and then where she lives now in Switzerland. She has been a wonderful inspiration to me, and always full of positive words and motivating stories. Luckily she tends not to read my blog so I can say anything I like here! Anyway, it has been 13 years since I last saw her family including her younger sisters. Which brings me now, to another place in time, when one of her younger sisters is in Poland on Erasmus! How lucky, I get the chance to try and show "my" Warsaw to her in the space of about 36 hours as she journeys through Poland on a quick wrap up after her semester here. So without much more talking there will just be some photos of our journey around Wawa, alas, after 3 or 4 weeks of great weather, it was stormy for the days she was here! Dag nammit!

Warsaw in the twighlight and the night

Something that I never seem to get enough of here in Poland is the twilight. No, I don't mean the really bad movies and books about teenage angst in the form of vampire love and pimples. I mean that time of the day when the sky becomes a deep hue of blue or purple or red or whatever the sun dictates. I think it is far more beautiful than in Australia, but I can't put my finger on exactly why.

I took these photos as I had been on the East side of the river catching DJ Phil Jones treating us to some Asian cultural tunes. You can even catch him on Warsaw's non-profit internet based RadioJazz on occasions doing his "Not not Jazz" show. I think it could also be called "Not Yazz", but I don't want to dictate his playlist. We heard a few tunes from him as there was an Asian culture festival at the club "Zwiaz mnie". No I didn't just smash the keyboard pretending it is words, it actually means "tie me up". So on the tram on our way home at around 1030 I think we noticed that the twilight was pretty darned impressive and headed back for a gander. Now you get to see what we found starting from the middle of Most Śląsko-Dąbrowski, then slowly back through

I mean take this picture, it just has so much depth to it.

You get the cute little moon rising.

Even a boring rail bridge and a powerplant look pretty.

Not to mention the old town and Royal Castle

I still can't get over how fantastic the Wisla looks.

Or people returning from the fountain park

The Wybrzeże Gdyńskie is still busy along the Wisla at 1030 at night

The Kościoł Akademicki św. Anny at the joining of old town and Krakowskie Przedmieście

Royal Castle in the glow.

The blur of late night movement on Krakowskie Przedmieście, who needs a fancy promenade

More Przedmieście action

The anniversary of Solidarnosc

Grave of the unknown soldier in Plac Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego

Plac Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego

The fountain in the middle of Park Saski

Some people think that cities get dangerous and uglier at night, well not Warsaw. It looks great especially on a warm Saturday night like this where as many cities would turn into battle grounds or unfriendly locations, the vibe in Warsaw feels like a family party hour!