Warsaw 1991 #2of5

We drove on the very wide, almost empty streets of the city, turning here and there, and finally crossed the Wisla River on the Most (bridge) KS. J Poniatowskiego. From the crowds of people and cars, it was not difficult to decide that Warsaw’s Stadion Dziesieciolecia (Stadium) was the location of the Sunday flea market. The RV took a lot of space compared with a small automobile, so we were overcharged and must have paid a whole dollar to park. We gave the parking attendant another few Zloties, and pointed to our eye, to let him know we wanted him to keep an eye on the camper.

Around the outside of the stadium, the ground sloped up, and there were several flights of stairs. We found ourselves at the very rim of the stadium, and could see that no one, and no part of the market was on the inside of the stadium. It could seat at least 70,000 people, and given that size, you can be sure there were ten thousand vendors and booths that went round and round and round the outside of the stadium, three times. There must have been 100,000 people here at any one time, and they kept coming and going all day long. A “booth” ranged from three feet wide, to some where major capitalists used a small truck to transport and display all their goods. Reportedly this is the largest flea-market in Eastern Europe. We have seen advertisements for people to join tour groups from Western Europe, and from the USA, that will visit this market, and others in Eastern Europe.

We fought our way around Warsaw's stadium two times, and found not one “flea” for sale. There were mostly new items, clothing, radios, videos, audio tapes, suitcases, and on and on, but nothing that we cared for. Not even one cane or stick for my collection. The only thing we bought was a bar-b-qued Polish sausage sandwich for Emmy.

We decided that going to the Warsaw flea market was like going to a stadium for a major league football game — not as a spectator in the bleachers, but as a player down on the field. Such pushing and shoving you have never seen. The Ram’s or Raider’s should hire some of those Polish housewives.

We retrieved our vehicle from its parking space, then again drove around awhile, parked and walked awhile. We saw a street market in a location (near the Culture Center) we had visited in 1985. Then, it was a fruit market, with very little fruit, generally of poor quality, but this time it was a market selling only computers, software, and accessories. They were mainly Commodores and Amiga’s, no longer very popular in the USA, but computers nonetheless.