A tour of the 30th floor

Wander around the 30th floor of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw on a nice evening, and you’ll find plenty of people enjoying the views and not a few relaxing in deck chairs in the cool evening air so high up.


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Walking to the team

In Warsaw, there’s a striking mural of Polish athletes, and the first I saw of it was when this man was walking towards a stairs leading down to the open area in front of it.

The mural is sponsored by Adidas and created by Jakub Podlodowski. He has written about it on his Facebook page here.


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A little Polish Flag

As we were waiting for a train to take us to the old town of Warsaw, another train pulled up with a little Polish flag stuck in the bumper. It was August 1st, so no wonder. A pretty important day in that city because of the uprising 80 years ago.


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Jehovah’s Witnesses on the street

Just before I left Warsaw, I spotted these four women leaning against the wall of the stairs to the train station, and they appeared to be Jehovah’s Witnesses. You’re no doubt familiar with them as they’ve taken to the streets as well as calling to homes to spread the Word. In Poland, it appears that there are 116,307 “ministers who teach the bible” according to their website.

Anyway, now I want to watch Life of Brian


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80th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising

Young men climbed on a public toilet in the centre of Warsaw this afternoon to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

At 5pm, sirens rang out and suddenly red flares were lit as a large cargo plane flew overhead. Smoke from the flares filled the air, and it got noticeably cooler as the sun was temporarily blocked.

Polish flags fly as they are surrounded by smoke from flares
Photo by my teenager who was there with me.

The flares and smoke cleared within minutes, and a commanding voice in Polish continued to talk to the massive crowd.

A military service attended by uniformed soldiers and two elderly people, one in a wheelchair.

Earlier in the day, we observed a simple military service. Two elderly people were there, and it’s obviously about the Uprising, but if anyone recognises them, I’d love to know more.

This episode of Dan Snow’s History Hits podcast does a great job covering what happened when Poles rose up against heir Nazi occupiers 80 years ago today. I found a Reddit thread about it too.


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