Saturday 8 December 2007

Unseasonable warmth continues

Warsaw's average December daytime temperature is -1C. Today it was +8C. After a week's early starts, I woke up this morning at 10:30, and after breakfast treated myself to a long solitary walk (Dawidy Bankowe, Zgorzała, Zamienie, Nowa Iwiczna and home via the rampa na kruszywo). Dressed for spring or autumn, I should, however, have taken wellingtons with me, due to the 'beastly mud and oomska' (to quote Withnail's Uncle Monty).

Outside Zgorzała on (yet another) building site, I found this wonderful example of a 'barakowóz', or literally a barrack on wheels. Towed from site to site, these provide builders, who are often from far-flung parts of Poland, with living quarters while they're working. In the distance on the far, flat horizon is the radio tower at Raszyn.

Just around the corner is where Warsaw ends and Zgorzała begins. The sign on the left bids farewell to the Lesznowola municipality. The photo (below) neatly encapsulates the mixture of old and new that is Poland today. The roadside cross, the discarded cabbage leaves, the racing readymix concrete truck, the logistics centre in the background and the new - but already dented - local authority sign elegantly made but bearing the medieval crest of Lesznowola.

No comments: