Warsaw
- the cityThe history of Warsaw in the last 50 or so years has not been a happy one and, unfortunately, this makes itself all too apparent in the physical fabric of the city. Apart from the lovingly recreated old town, which the German army had wittily dynamited into rubble before it withdrew, the city centre is a desolate and depressing place.
What's even more depressing is that, if they had been given the opportunity the Poles were provided with (a nice clear site), the planners in most cities would probably have come up with something just as revolting. Row upon row of concrete mid-rise blocks separated by barren patches of grass and wide car-clogged roads form an inhuman and relentlessly ugly environment.
There really is very little positive to say about postwar Warsaw, with the exception of the quirkily kitsch Palace of Culture, in the wedding cake stalinist style of architecture which is starting to look like one of the high points of 1950's design. That's it to the right. Wonderful, isn't it?
But ugliness isn't the only thing that Warsaw has going for it; it's also remarkable lacking in all the basic amenities of a modern city, such as bars, restaurants and even shops. The fact that it doesn't seem to have been designed for the use of human beings makes every activity extremely difficult.
Warsaw
PubsDoing anything in Warsaw is hard work, except for a pub crawl, which is downright impossible. Leaving aside a clutch of posh restaurants around the Old Town Square, there are almost no refreshment opportunities in the city. It's hard to understand why this is the case now that other Polish cities are well-provided with places to eat and drink.
What is listed below isn't a small selection of the possibilities available to the visitor; it's virtually all there is. A stroll in search of the nearest pub may turn out to be much better exercise than you had intended. Hopefully I've still provided enough information for a busy, highflying goldfish to organise a pubcrawl.
