Winter's Early Entrance

It's not even November yet, and Warsaw got a healthy dose of winter.  It started out as wet flurries swirling about, but by the end of the day, the fat flakes transformed the whole city into a winter wonderland.  I love snow and I hope this a glimpse of what is to come.  I do have feeling that it will all melt in a few days and turn everything into a slushy, muddy, wet mess.

It's coming down pretty hard.

Early in the storm: snow on the bushes.

It's supposed to snow again on Tuesday.  With the start of the snowing season, it means that Poles can resume their on-going war on tire treads.  But, I am looking forward to sledding and snowball fights.

I haven't seen this in a long time: a tree falling onto a car.  The car escaped relatively unscathed.

A Walk in Łazienki

Yesterday, I took a stroll to the Royal Baths. It's a full circle for me, since I first came to them in 2006 in the dead of winter (also in the evening.) I find them more enjoyable in the winter, covered in snow, since the people that usually come are smartly dressed and there are far fewer of them than in summer. The downside is that the botanical gardens are closed.

Some lovely couple asked me how to get to Belweder, which I was obliged to give. As a man, I naturally derive pleasure from two sources: A. Getting to a destination without asking directions (doubly if the route is inadequately marked.) B. Providing directions to others (especially when you're a bit of a stranger there yourself.) I was patting my back about it all the way around the pond.

There is no lack of fowl in the Baths this time of year. Aside from the common pigeon, the ever-present peacocks, and the ducks, many other birds are making noise in the canopy of the trees. I must admit, since I'm in Europe I do miss the call of the chickadee. Maybe some other bird in the Tit family (yes, there is a family of birds call tits) can fill that small, fluffy void. The birds that are citizens of the park show little fear to humans and meander right up to them in search of a meal. They make the swans and geese in the Boston Public Gardens look shy and bashful. A pair of ducks and some pigeons saddled right up to me, looking for a handout (I disappointed them, I'm afraid.)

One of the couples strolling along the paths.

From the Palace on the Lake.

Feeding the some of the many peacocks. The woman and child were as brightly colored as the birds.

A Small Bit of Winter Wonderland

The recent late-winter snow blanketed the city in about three inches of wonderful whiteness. I took a small walk around and snapped a few shots (nothing too amazing; don't hold your breath.) But the sun was shining; the wind was blowing; the day was beautiful.

The Palac.

Warszawa Centralna (the most beautiful building in Warsaw.)

A snowy park.

Some middle school.

Pre-Spring Whiteout!

The snow is coming down thick here and has reduced visibility substantially. It's not terribly cold outside and I don't expect this wonderful stuff (I'm a big fan of snow) to stick around very long.

The thing is, I wasn't here for most of the winter, which I heard was terrible by how cold and by how much snow they got. When I came here, it was near 60º and balmy; what was left of the snow disappeared within forty-eight hours of my arrival.

Anyway, here are some shots.

Right before I entered hyperspace.

A cozy warm feeling.

Frozen

The winter of 2006 was an intensely cold one for Europe. In Poland, it was a harsh, biting winter. There wasn't tons of snow on the ground, but the air must have been steady around 10º or so.

Part of the beach at Gdynia.

In Gdynia, something had happened that had not been seen for a very long time: the harbor froze over. It was rather unreal to see a vast stretch of ice and snow reaching out into the sea. At the edges, the waves undulated, covered not in foam, but in blocks of ice. The ocean water slowly turned into water with ice floes, until it too turned into the consistency of slush and then into solid ice. The beach, upon which I would lay in the summer, was a frozen block of sand with wisps of snow being blown about in sidewinding trails. We walked a little ways from the beach, out onto the ice. It wasn't smooth and glossy, the way pond ice is, but lumped up, mixed with snow that formed huge drifts, almost as if the waves had froze just as they had crested.

K's mother (who is a dear) said she had only seen the harbor frozen once before in her lifetime, and that was years back.

The frozen harbor.

It's an experience to walk out onto the sea. Well, it's always a life experience to see any some great body of water. My brother said that seeing the Dead Sea was just something that was a life experience. Seeing, let alone walking on, the Baltic was kind of like that for me (actually, I didn't walk on the Baltic, and didn't actually see the open Baltic Sea until the summer, last year, on my trip to Gdynia and Hel.)

The churning, frozen water.

Snow!!!

Happy New Years!!!!!!

Well, snow is falling on this fair city.  It's been a while in coming too.  There's not much, but there's enough to blanket the ground in a thin covering of white.  The trees are adorned with a festive powder (although this powder arrived more than a week too late to have a white Christmas.)  Even the piles of slush are a welcome sight.  I just love the "scrunch, scrunch, scrunch" feet make on freshly-fallen snow.

Snow has a restive quality to it.  It makes the city a little quieter, the nights and days a little calmer and more peaceful.  In Warsaw, it makes the slab concrete buildings look colder, harsher, but inside it makes the heater and comforters and cups of hot tea that much more warming.

There's been an awful haze for the past few days.  It cuts visibility down quite considerably, even on the sunniest of days.  Oh, this has also been the sunniest winter I've seen in Poland.

Snow falling in Ursynow.