While browsing the Web, I came across some old images of Warsaw.
ul. Czackiego
Before WW II, Warsaw was called ‘Paris of the East’.
ul. Leszno
Some pre WWII Warsaw trams still work in departmental service.
Nowy Swiat
Nowy Swiat looked better with trams running down the middle.
ul Marszalkowska
It seems that trams ‘bunching up’ during the rush hour also happened before WW II!
Saturday, 15 May 2010 at 05:11 |
Lovely pictures… but ‘Paris of the East’ – ugh.
Actually, there is even a disambiguation page on Wikipedia for cities around the world calling themselves ‘Paris of the East’, but does not include Warsaw. Funnily enough Torun is the Krakow of the north.
I edit a lot of tourist text and similar, and sometimes I begin to wonder if Poland exists at all because nothing and no one seems genuine. Warsaw cannot be Warsaw, it has to be a copy of something else, and like a good copy of a painting might be nice, you know it is not genuine.
Actors are often treated the same, do you remember wassisname, you know, the Polish James Dean…
signed
John Brown of the East, London of the East
Sunday, 16 May 2010 at 20:25 |
‘Whatisname’ – you mean Zbigniew Cybulski who died trying to jump on board a moving train.
Saturday, 15 May 2010 at 18:47 |
Delightful ! I’m a sucker for old photographs – especially ones involving any sort of rail transport… one does feel, “oh to have been there then”. Too-great pining for past in-general “golden ages” is to be resisted. The brutal fact is that this has always been a cold, cruel world, for more people in it, than otherwise…
Friday, 21 May 2010 at 08:52 |
Re: ‘the So-and-So of Such-and-Such’, I was rather intrigued to see at Paczkow station, on the Klodzko — Kedzierzyn Kozle line, a supplementary board under the station nameboard, saying “Polski Carcassonne” – presumably the place in question is a gem of the old-walled-town kind. Led to speculation as to whether Carcassonne station is similarly emblazoned “Le Paczkow francais”…