Warsaw 1985 #1of3

The streets in Warsaw are wider, and much cleaner than in the other cities we have visited in Poland, and not quite as bumpy either. Much of Warsaw was destroyed in the war, and has been almost completely rebuilt as a new city, little of the old city remains. They rebuilt a portion of the old town, but almost everything we see as we drive through the city is new, and not overly attractive. Since Warsaw is the capital of Poland, it seems they spend most of the money here. The streetcars, streets, buildings, parks, all are in better condition than in other cities we have visited in Poland.

We stopped at a few stores, but found nothing we wanted to buy, or else there were lines we didn’t want to stand in. At a Warsaw book store we noticed people were not allowed in the store until they had a shopping basket, and there was a line for baskets. We wanted to buy “Gone with the Wind” in Polish for Daughter Linda, and wanted a Polish/ English dictionary. We found neither in this store. Other than campsites, food, and gasoline, during our 1985 visit, we only bought a cane for my collection.

We stopped in a Post Office to mail some post cards, and as is typical in Europe, this is where long distance phone calls are made. When I said we wanted to make a call to our daughter in the US, the clerk was shocked that we even thought it was possible. It takes several days at least, to maybe get permission from the Polish Government to make a call.

We went to a Warsaw travel office and checked to see if we could take a ferry from Gdansk, Poland, to Helsinki, Finland, then sail on a cruise ship to Leningrad, Soviet Union. They knew from nothing. We can drive to Gdansk and most likely get on a boat to Helsinki, but they have no hunch if any ship goes anywhere from there, and have no clue how to find out. Communication with other countries is just about impossible.

As we walked down the street we noticed three or four teenagers had thrown some paper on the street. An older lady had stopped them, and was telling them in no uncertain terms to pick it up and never do that again. When they left, I tapped the lady on the shoulder and let her know we thought she did the right thing. She beamed. (It's funny, but after all that, we don’t remember if the kids picked up the paper or not!)