By the way - do you know today we have Blue Monday and I am suspiciously joyful...
So as I'm stuck in the middle of my last exam period, it might be a good idea to write something concise, approachable and upload a lot of pictures to entartain my readers (and make the post appear longer while in fact it's short).
Last Sunday I decided to make the most of sunshine (for next eight days Poland's capital suffered from deficiency of sunlight) and my new two-in-one piece of plastic (travelcard and debit card in one, issued by Citi Handlowy) with suburban ticket encoded on it and...
14:02, I approach the train station in Nowa Iwiczna. According to my estimations I should have waited for the semi-fast Radom-bound train for a few minutes. In reality, the train was running earlier and I had to run up to the platform. Instead of snapping the engine hauling three new carriages I snapped the train pulling up and the window pane leant against the shelter (above). Needless to say shelters and benches at the station are vandalised soon after the new ones are put in after a previous act of thoughtless vandalism.
Above and left: now I need some hints how to take sharp photos from a train moving at a quite high speed. I have to say travelling in double-deckers is fast and comfortable. Above: a queue of cars waiting before gates on railway crossing in Stara Iwiczna (quite busy road). Left: it's not the coal line, but a stationary coal train on a siding in Piaseczno.
To the left, another queue of cars, this time it's the railway crossing on ul. Jana Pawła II in Piaseczno. Traffic on that street is rather sparse, yet the number of cars queuing up is staggeringly high. Worth mentioning that gates on railway crossings in Poland go down long before a train comes.
Right: just five minutes after boarding the train in NI, I alighted in Piaseczno. There, before the train pulled out from the station, I managed to capture it from its splendid, grimy rear. Display at the top of last carriage shows the train's destinantion. It was the third day of thaw, then in overdrive.
Right: the station in Piaseczno, lit by mid-afternoon January sun. The building has long been due to revitalisation, now it's due in... in the future, I suppose. Mayors and councillors come and go and the station remains run-down...
Left: the same building of the station, snapped from the footpath running over the tracks. Don't expect facilities such as waiting room, toilet or ticket office. Smacks of provincial Poland - watch out for the bicycle chained to a banister or heartfelt plea of love to some Angelika...
Right: derelict sidings west to the station. I remember from early childhood those tracks have been out of use back in mid-1990s. I am baffled by the fact no one has yet ripped them. Rails and bolts could be sold for scrap and slippers could be used as input to one of incenerators, so popular in the countryside... But note that many sidings running parallel to the main line, east of it, are still in use.
Left: the platform of Piaseczno station, as dilipidated as the building of the station, yet capable of serving its purpose. On Sunday afternoon served also as a hang-out for local track-suit afficionados.
Left: looking north from the footpath, tracks run towards Warsaw and converge in the distance. Visibility on 9 January wasn't particularly good, hence a gentle mist on the horizon.
At the station I peeked at the timetable to learn a Warsaw-bound train would arrive in three minutes. After ten minutes of hanging around there to no avail I set off to the centre of Piaseczno, then caught 709 bus to Warsaw and got off the vehicle just before the border of the capital. Right: Piaseczno, ul. Raszyńska. The dismal aftermath of water freezing in crevices between the proper tarmack and new patches. When temperatures fluctuate around 0C water freezes and unfreezes and patches are blown up. Last Friday the street was patched up, but the problem remains unresolved. Come another thaw and here we go again!
Both gmina Piaseczno and gmina Lesznowola are prosperous, but Piaseczno is incredibly badly-run, especially in comparison to reasonably well-run Lesznowola. As you cross the border between them the street is properly tarmacked (no holes at all), pavement is not crooked, but apart from this the picture is not rose-coloured. Litter scatterred around the rubbish bin, butts lying in dirty snow, box belonging to Telekompromitacja Polska S.A. mangled after a car accident, crooked fence put by owners of a private nursery school...
Right: heading back home. I wonder if the place is really as dull as it sometimes seems to be. My neighbourhood is surely not the worst sort of suburbia, nevertheless, it still lacks a spirit...
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