October 14, 2013
Warsaw: Saw war
Cycling into Warsaw I saw one of the saddest things I can ever remember. It was a bear. The first thing that I saw when I saw this bear was 'Holy!!! That is a bear! In the middle of a busy street! What the hell!!!' But then I realised that the bear was in a zoo and, although the bear enclosure was open to the street, there was a big drop between him and the street that the bear (hopefully) could not jump over. Anyway, the reason why it was the saddest thing I ever saw was because the bear was pacing back and forth, just two steps, turn, two steps, turn, two steps, turn. And it had such a lost and forlorn expression on its face. It was really tragic. I wondered how this could possibly be allowed to happen in an EU country in the 21st Century. Then I wondered if I would be in trouble if I built a bridge to enable the bear to escape, either with the authorities or with the bear. After much internal debate I finally decided not to do it.
I was staying with a Polish friend named Ola in Warsaw. I first met Ola in Spain. Imagine the fun we had with her name there! After an evening at her apartment, the next day I made a trip to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. I didn't really know anything about the Warsaw Uprising beforehand and I struggled to follow the museum, which was not in chronological order and was therefore very confusing. In a way I think that this was deliberate in order to create a sense of what it would have been like to be in Warsaw during the Second World War. Visually the museum was impressive but I recommend reading up on the basics of what happened first before going. To put it briefly for you, the Warsaw Uprising was an uprising by the citizens of Warsaw against the Nazis which failed after expected support from the Soviets failed to arrive, the latter waiting on the outside of the city for the Nazis to crush the resistance and destroy everything before coming in to take over.
On a more positive note, Warsaw has recovered and has a very nice old town considering the Germans blew everything up. It achieved this by simply rebuilding everything according to how it was before the war. Clever.
I actually rather liked Warsaw. There was a good mix of the old and the new. There were a lot of parks, plenty of bike lanes, and some cool looking modern skyscrapers too. Here are some photgraphs what I took with my camera:
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13/10/13 - 92km
14/10/13 - (26km unloaded)
Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 7,394 km (4,592 miles)
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