Traveling around Poland - our photo stories with very personal commentary

I actually like the last 3 paintings on the bottom. But I would call them murals rather than graffiti.

I wish they punished the hooligans harsher in Poland. It's really annoying seeing something nice or new and then someone sprays something obscene on it.

This is so Banksy!

Fair point, Marynka. Here in Gliwice, some flats with nice interiors are marred by the spraying of KSG on the exterior walls. It's criminal and depreciates the value of the property unfairly. KSG is the local football club btw.

When you read closely, you will see that I wrote murals. :):):):)

Any ideas why Wrocław is probably the most sprayed city in Poland?

I tend to believe it is some kind of tradition, started by Waldemar Fydrych in communist times and followed today by young Vratislavians who think they are as cool as Fydrych and his Orange Alternative movement.

He painted gnomes/dwarfs on wallls to mark the sites where anti-communist slogans were painted over by the authorities.

i tend to believe that it's more to do with a weak minded local government that has no clue how to stop it.

yes, I've noticed that after I've posted

The public sphere is "polluted" by graffity, but even more by adverts, all over Poland. To me it looks horrible to see all these ugly, cheap adverts everywhere. But it looks like the authorities can't issue and enforce proper regulations, or they don't want, I don't know.

And you can expand your observation about the foreigners of Wrocław to all "recovered territories". Poor Eastern Poland looks far neater than much richer Silesia for example, which is tragic, since the western territories are culturally far more precious.

Well a few of mine from when I first moved to Poland :)

God I look so young in these pics!

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  Cutting the grass on the farm :)
  
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  First Polish Christmas with the "in-laws"
  
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  At the top of the hill, somewhere on Czech border
  
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  What to do on a sunny Saturday in Krk, have an illegal bbq!
  

Hey, you are wearing tracksuit pants. Were you dresiarz then? :):):)


You don`t look too happy. ):):):) Because you had to eat carp?


In Zakrzówek. How about an illegal dive from the rock?


It is our Polish freedom. Poles fought for it hard in the past to do what they want in their own country. Introducing regulations would be a breach of freedom of speech. Better education in easthetic spheres will come with time and money.

Na, just a young laddie who didnt want his jeans covered in dirt. I killed a pig not long after so had to wear something cool in the heat also :)

Can you guess where it is from the background of the pic?


I never ate it. The man sitting beside me is the guy who trains the Krk Police in unarmed combat :) Loved getting into places for free cos of him.


I was tempted, but rather not :D

Yes, probably. On one single day in Wrocław, we ran into three sites full of dog hair left on the ground after brushing those woolly dogs. Crazy. I see it in Krakow, too, but about once a year and in outback areas, far from people.

The first incident took place in the park. The couple visible in the picture have just finished brushing their dog, gave each other a kiss and walked away, leaving those nasty deposits on the grass. I was completely shocked.

Next we went to a cemetery and nearby we saw this and then we decided to have a walk along the Odra River and saw this guy:

Wratislavians, shame on you! :):):

It is good Wrocław has been chosen the cultural capital of Europe for 2016. Do everything to deserve it.

Here's a few pics of some um artwork? Seen along the train ride from Warszawa to Lublin.

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  bridge_graffiti.jpg
  

more graffiti: wroclaw.

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  0102.JPG
  

Birds pick it up and use the hair for nest construction materials.

some call it urban art :)

All? Are you sure? BTW, which territories exactly do you mean?

How sad!!! (my communist-leaning cousin would say "There is your precious freedom"). How do I argue that? :(

Same problem in Slovakia.

It's to do with the lunacy of private landowners being able to do what they want with their land.

are'nt the drawings placed there by vandals?

Graffiti, yes, but not adverts ;) (though some might say that most of the reklama is vandalism, too)

Ohh my god shame on those poor people living in flats brushing their dogs in the public park. I think the dog shite all over the place to be a bigger issue. You're weird. Were the couple in the photo aware they had some freak photographing them?


Its people brushing their dogs in the park, whats to be ashamed of?


Must be marking their territory hey?


ha yeah give me grafitti over adverts anyday.

No government, no matter how stron, will prevent it if people don`t respect their own city. I made a test today to check if I wasn`t biased with that Wrocław grafitti - I drove a mile in a highly urbanised district in the center of Krakow and I saw two or 3 pieces of grafitti on walls. Houses were grey and drab like in Wrocław, but free of grafitti.


Did you make haggis of/from/with it? :):):)


Why?


Don`t you have such rocky lakes in Scotland?


I dislike birds unless they are storks.


Tell him that communism exploited white black people.


And that is great. Your land, your fredom, your right to do what you want with it.


Yes, exactly.


I didn`t see dog **** in Wrocław.


Yes, I know. But it makes me happy.


Look closer what I took the photo of.


Next time I will tell them to come and leave the hair in front of your house if you like it so much. :):):)

That's not the point is it?

as i said youre weird man.

Photographing abandoned tufts of dog hair in public parks isn't weird. It's an avante guard attempt to widen the boundries of acceptable subjects for vacation photos.

Said by someone who starts such intelligent threads as: What do you think about Wrocław Boy? or Who is the most muscular of us all in PF?

:):):):)

OK, let`s assume we are both equally weird. :):):)

Back to the topic - photos stories with very personal commentary. The last post focused on the city of Wrocław entirely.

In my positive posts about the city I didn`t mention several petty things I liked.

E.g., those time counters on some traffic lights. Quite useful, I must say. Unfortunately, very few of them yet but I understand that is just the beginning. I hadn`t seen them anywhere in Poland:

Big sculptures in trees, also quite unusual

I also admired such architectonic contrasts and this symbolic grave to the builders of the church who died on duty.

When in Market Square, we ran into a vintage cars picnic. That one was probably the oldest or these?

but dearest to my heart was Fiat 127, the model which was my first own car at uni times and Opel Kapitan, which is a human-like character in one of my favourite childhood books - Great, Greater, the Greatest - about two children who experience extraordinary adventures with the help of the car.

I had mixed feelings about different pieces of art scattered around which certainly introduce some variety into urban landscape but also seem a bit out of space, out of time. Or too modern for me?

Someone in the PF said this fountain in the Market Square is a disaster. Why? Too modern for the old Market Square?

A few last peculiarities which surprised me in Wrocław:

Small market square stalls were full of sunflowers. Why?

The tram driver has to go out to change the rails

This is probably all that I wanted to share with you in Wrocław-focused posts. I think I will be still coming back to it in other posts about Polish cities in general.

I only know Southern Poland, but there it's certainly true. And Wrocław looks neat and tidy compared to the countryside!


The city has almost no memorials, and the ones that exist are usually not related to this place. I suppose these pieces of art are made to hide this emptiness.


Because they are beautiful? ;)

i was wondering if they appeared elsewhere. now i know. it seems not.


i don't like the fact that the city spends so much time and money on fountains. it's like an obsession.

i like the fountain in rynek. there was a choice of two: one traditional, one modern. there was a period, soon after installation, when the city discussed moving it elsewhere because it didn't fit in.


not on all lines of course.

Then it is not true in case of northern Poland, more exactly Elbląg. It is the neatest and cleanest major city which I visited in Poland. I thought I could live there for a while. One day I will make a post about it.


:):):)

What did you expect? People didn't invest and maintain things because they feared Germans coming back and retaking everything during WW3. That is why it all looks like it does.


That is true. Aleksander Fredro, a great comedy writer, had nothing in common with Wrocław, but a lot in common with Lwow, from where most Wrocław`s new residents came.

What do you expect, again? That newly come Poles would keep German monuments?


Yes, but they are trying to change it. Look at this memorial to a German priest who resisted Nazi regime and paid with his life. But it is still a copy, not original art.


I am weird, I don`t appreciate flowers` beauty. :):):):) Why so many?


Nope, to the best of my knowledge and experience from a few major Polish cities. Not even in Warsaw. (maybe they are in Szczecin or Gdańsk??)

Wrocław rules, after all!


Of course, not. But I compared it to Krakow where I don`t see it anymore because it is done automatically everywhere.


I don`t agree. We didn`t see too many fountains in Wrocław. Compared to Warsaw or Krakow Wrocław is poor. Yes, there is that big one with music but it is just a little too big. :):):)

We always enjoy finding a fountain on our trips because my kids are obsessed with water.

A little amusing pearl from Stalinist times - a mixture of Polish patriotism with communist ideology:

fotopolska.eu/12156,obiekt.html

Just to straighten one popular misconception:



It is half true. In fact the biggest part of Poles who came to Wroclaw after WWII were from Greater Poland Voivodeship. Those who came from ex-Eastern Poland were smaller in number but it was organized resettlement - with some noticable groups like scientists from Lviw or important institutions like Ossolineum. That is why popular view is that most of Wroclaw citizens are descendants of the settlers from east, when in fact they are mostly decendants of the mix of east and north.

By the way:


Some Wroclawians call it monument of Mirmil (from "Kajko i Kokosz") not Boleslaw ;-)

Thanks but that is contrary to the map in the Etnographic Museum if you mean Wielkopolska.


Funny and sad. :):):)