Warsaw
- the cityThe history of Warsaw in the last 50 or so years has not been a happy one and, unfortunately, this makes itself all too apparent in the physical fabric of the city. Apart from the lovingly recreated old town, which the German army had wittily dynamited into rubble before it withdrew, the city centre is a desolate and depressing place.
What's even more depressing is that, if they had been given the opportunity the Poles were provided with (a nice clear site), the planners in most cities would probably have come up with something just as revolting. Row upon row of concrete mid-rise blocks separated by barren patches of grass and wide car-clogged roads form an inhuman and relentlessly ugly environment.
You have to admire the persistence of those that rebuilt Warsaw's historic centre - Stare Miasto (Old Town) and Nove Miasto (New Town) - using pre-war photographs. It provides a welcome relief from from the relentless brutalism that surrounds it.
There really is very little positive to say about postwar Warsaw, with the exception of the quirkily kitsch Palace of Culture, in the wedding cake stalinist style of architecture which is starting to look like one of the high points of 1950's design. That's it to the right. Wonderful, isn't it?
Warsaw
PubsFinally Warsaw has acquired something like the number of pubs appropriate for a city of its side. Most double up as either restaurants or "clubs" - places that host either live music or DJs. Others - kavarnia - concentrate on coffee with a sideline in spirits.
Beer choice hasn't inreased in proprion to the number of pubs. Brands owned by the multinationals active in Holland: Heineken (?ywiec, Królewskie, Warka), SABMiller (Lech, Tyskie, Pilsner Urquell) and Carlsberg (Okocim).
Predicatably, there are many fake Irish pubs which sell the usual corporate lagers plus Guinness or Murphy's and Kilkenny.
About the only relief from industrial swill is provided by the city's three brewpubs - Browarmia and two run by the Bierhalle chain.
