A trip to Dolnośląskie

All the good things have to come to an end… Taking a long-awaited and well-deserved holiday break helped me recharge batteries and forget about most of everyday worries. All the plans, social and sight-seeing-related have been followed out, so with no regrets tomorrow I’m bound to submerge into corpo-world. However, before I brace myself for a head-on collision with the recently upsetting murky corporate reality, let’s share some uncanny pictures and thoughts from the days off…

The Sky Tower in Wroclove, to the right shot from the street level, on its south-west edge. The tallest building in Wrocław was under construction in late summer 2011 when I last visited the city. Construction works were finished in 2012. The edifice built by Mr Leszek Czarnecki, one of the richest Poles, comprises of shopping mall, offices and apartments and there have been ample controversies surrounding the building, its design and whether its fits the rest of Wrocław in terms of architecture.

You may like its design or not, but you can’t fail to discern it. It’s visible from all main roads running to Wrocław from the distance of some 50 kilometres and right away it should strike you that the structure stands out in terms of height – the second tallest building in Wrocław is two times smaller… Its shape – looks like a tube sliced aslant – is a distinguishing mark. Whatever the owner and architects wanted to achieve has been achieved – no matter whether the building’s design falls in with your taste, pretty nobody passes it by indifferently.

To the right – north-eastern entrance to the shopping mall. Lipstick on a big, as I called this peculiar composition – the sculpture “Profile of time” by Salvador Dali was put up outside the building in April 2012 and has sat there since then. To make it clear – I have nothing against placing the piece of craftwork there and find it one of more attention-deserving examples of contemporary art (bringing to mind the timeless picture by Salvador Dali), but who the hell has come up with the ridiculous idea to mar the sculpture with the advertising screen put up just next to it? Does this stand for due respect for art? Or is the craftwork meant to serve the consumerism?

Sky Tower overlooks Wrocław and the further from it you move, the more likely you are to discern the characteristic tube in the distance. To the right, a photo taken from the southern fringes of Wrocław, where Al. Wyścigowa (former national road no. 8) and Al. Karkonoska  (National road no. 5) converge and then run towards A4 motorway. Before motorway bypass of Wrocław was opened this was a place where all the southbound transit traffic would meet…

Between the afore- mentioned streets one can find a cemetery of Soviet Soldiers. Cannons and tanks have been giving a warm welcome to all visitors coming to Wrocław since late 1940s when the necropolis was laid. This is one of many similar places in Poland (including the cemetery in Warsaw by ul. Żwirki i Wigury) commemorating the Soviet soldiers who “sacrificed their lives to liberate Poland”. The inscription to the right literally says: “HERE REST THE SOVIET ARMY SOLDIERS, PARTICIPANTS OF WROCLAW BATTLES WHO HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF NATIONS OF POLAND AND THE SOVIET UNION”. Unless you are a hard-line commie, you should at least bridle at this pack of lies. What liberty? What independence? Many lunatics would probably be in cloud nine, if only they could obliterate such places of commemoration and go unpunished. I in turn hold the view such places should be taken care of and stay unharmed to bear testimony for next generations, also to bear testimony of omnipresent lies on which the totalitarian system was founded. Besides, those soldiers who rest there, were also victims of communism, cogs in a machine who were meant to die in order to let the Soviet empire expand westwards… They, as all humans, deserve a place of peaceful rest…

Coming to down-to-earth issues:

The weather was clement until Wednesday afternoon when temperature unexpectedly plunged and fell to mere +5C on Thursday morning. Given that spring came later than usual this year, some northern slopes in Karkonosze were still covered with snow (to the right, view from Kowary).

And two shots from Jelenia Góra – to the right, a pebble from Jelenia Góra, encased in cobblestone in the market square. Long story why it’s been here, every why has a wherefore. If any of the readers bothers to tell the anecdote, I’d be more than grateful…

To the right, again Jelenia Góra – every city must have its focal point, but few have it marked so distinctly. Interestingly, this is an element of a Church property. I won’t dare to speculate whether this is just a coincidence, or if it proves dominance of one specific institution in the Polish secular state ;-)

The trip was eventually in some 70% sponsored by a carefree driver who rear-ended me in Jelenia Góra. The speed at which the rear of my car was hit was low (again, inattention and centimetres lacking to make it a near-miss) and I was lucky not to sustain any neck injury (cervical spine is very sensitive to such accidents) and the damage done to my car was negligible. Upon checking the exhaust system and boot door lock remained intact, the culprit and I agreed on a few hundred PLN compensation for visibly scratched paintwork on the rear bumper. The damage doesn’t diminished the car’s utility value and it earned me some dough…

A propos motoring. After the period of run-up to Euro 2012 when several kilometres of roads were being modernised and built and ordeal drivers had to go through, now we can enjoy much higher standard of expressways and motorways – the wait was worthwhile! This was the first time I drove the newly built almost 100-kilometre long section of S8 (I last was there in September 2012, a month before opening) between Mszczonów and Piotrków Trybunaski and for the first time drove without even having to downshift to 4th gear 102 kilometres from Kostomłoty (junction on A4 motorway west of Wrocław) to Syców, where S8 expressway ends and turns into National Road no. 8, full of big trucks, small towns and numerous speed cameras… The missing section between Piotrków and Syców is under construction, due to be opened in 2015. Fills with hope. Actually driving the decent roads is faster and safer, but not necessarily cheaper. Unless you hold your horses and move excruciatingly slowly (100 kmph in my car is the speed above which fuel consumption begins to soar, from 6 litres of petrol per 100 km when the car does 100 kmph, to 8 litres when speed rises to 130 kmph and some 10 litres if I reach 150 kmph), the journey will set you back more (even more if you go via toll motorways, not the case this time) – but at the end of the day, comfort has its price…