Warsaw post

In the Stadium market in Warsaw we bought our 'breakfast' of kebab fingers from a small green hut, and the owners told us they were not Polish, but Armenian. I showed them the Sunderland book, and they said they liked surfing!

This is the Armenian surfer!

The market was full of official and unofficial traders, working every day in the cold, snowy conditions, with flapping blue canvases on their scanty stalls. There weren't many people actaully shopping - how do they survive this? The paths were full of ice and snow, and men chipping and sweeping it t clear a space infront of their stalls. The run down stadium where the market was sited, was actually made from the rubble of Warsaw after World War 2.

I bartered with this lady in the Stadium market for a small red cat ornament. I chose it from a bric a brac stall, but there were many others selling clothes, brass, electricals and CDs. I paid 11 polish zloty, which is about £2. Many stall holders were Russian and Armenian, making the best living they could in Poland. It looked like a very tough life, not like the protected warmth of Jacky Whites market in Sunderland. We admired the style of her hat – everyone was well wrapped up in the cold weather – about minus 3. We bought a thermometer to check.


Trying to communicate in English, Polish and German!










Getting asked to leave the market for 'our own safety'. We felt safe enough but the official in the red jacket was just being careful.













The Palace of Culture and Science stands in the centre of Warsaw, a grand building inspired by the Empire State Building in New York. It stands at 231 metres tall, the tallest building in Poland. Originally commissioned by Stalin as a ‘gift from the Soviet people’ the building was seen for a long time as a symbol of Polands betrayal by the allies after World War 2 when it was placed under Soviet Union control.

Now it is a centre for culture and has cinemas, conference facilities and a winter ice skating rink (basketball in summer). We watched the skaters, lots of children and teenagers - why were they off school? Turns out they are on winter break. A little girl called Susan was very interested in our filming so we gave her a Sunderland to Saigon pencil! No time to skate oursleves though - save that for another time!


Warsaw has parks in the city centre, just like Sunderland. This one had an avenue of trees, leading to the Palace of Culture and Science. The benches were covered in snow, and the paths covered with thick ice.

Keeping in touch with work to let staff know a parcel of collected items from Lille, Brussels, Cologne, Wuppertal and Berlin is on its way to Sunderland.

















Filming in the Warsaw streets gave Jon and Kate plenty of opportunities to record the buzz of city life – the trams, buses and cars, all speeding through the skyscrapers and towers. Several big hotels, Novotel, Marriott and Ibis were all tall buildings with neon lights.


Warsaw Central Station is a busy transport hub, on the Berlin to Moscow trainline.


I met Olga, who works as a tourist guide in Warsaw. She studied in Sunderland for 6 months in 1994, under Professor Derek Blair from Sunderland University’s Environmental Science department, and he passed on her contact details to us which was great.

She and another ex student Yola have fond memories of their time in Sunderland, when they took part in the University exchange programme. Olga treated us to coffee and cakes and we chatted about Poland - Thanks so much Olga! A striking fact is that 85% of Warsaw was destroyed in World War 2, and many of the buildings have been reconstructed to their original design, a process which continues to this day. The beautiful Old Town with the Royal Castle was completed in 1984 and took 13 years to reconstruct.

It is an interesting comparison with Sunderand, which also suffered bombing in World War 2, but many of the damaged buildings, such as the Central Station were pulled down and more modern buildings put in their place. What would Sunderland have been like today if we had followed the Warsaw model? I doubt if there was the money to reconstruct it at the time.

I asked Olga what we should collect for the Museum in Warsaw, and she said something with the Mermaid on. This is the symbol of the city, their protector. There is a story that two twins called Wars and Sawa found a mermaid in the river Vistula and caught it in a net. The mermaid pleaded to be set free and said she would protect them if they released her. They did and the city of Warsaw grew on the site, and was named after them. We couldn't find a mermaid but there was one on a taxi door by the station.



We are using so much technology on this trip! As well as the film and stills cameras, there are MP3 players, mobile phones, speakers, and GPS to follow our route. We need to use adapters to keep charging things up. Blogging is tricky, as there are few Wifi connections and we need to find internet cafes, then download images. This takes time, and we don't have much on this trip. Wait until we get to Belarus!

Some of the stations were pretty bleak and depressing. A far cry from Moscow's amazing architechtural underground system - cant wait to see it

Warsaw is such a city of contrasts, from the windswept Polish market and a kebab breakfast to the giddy heights of the cocktail bar on the 40th floor of the Marriott hotel. We just had to take in the city from one of the tallest buildings and enjoy the fantastc snowy view.

Poland is catching up fast with its Western neighbours with shops and nightlife. We saw H&M in the shopping street and C & A which is now bust in the UK. Great city - must come back and see more.

The Museum of the Polish Uprising, or 'rising' was an incredible place to visit. A very modern interactive museum, describing the Nazi occupation in Poland during World War 2 and how the underground resistance movement rose up against it. Our guide Olga spoke excellent English and really got across the depth of suffering and superhuman strength of the Polish people during such a tough time.

Many women took part in the underground movement, fighting and working as messengers. I liked the way their stories were shown in the displays - a lot like the 20th century gallery in Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. The women were sent with the men to POW camps (a first) - when Warsaw was cleared out by the Soviets in 1944. This picture shows some of their faces.

Martina from the press office and Olga, a fantastic guide!