Cracow & Warsaw are the cheapest

The European Backpacker Index for 2013 is here! And it shows where to go to avoid losing all your savings. The authors of the Index have good news for travellers: many hostels or budget hotels have actually gotten a bit cheaper since comparing to 2012.

The cheapest group of cities are bunched together in price, and almost all of them are bunched together geographically in southeastern Europe as well. Krakow continues to feel like the best travel bargain on the Continent, as a charming city where prices almost seem too low, but if you head south you’ll find things to be even a bit cheaper, with longer fair-weather seasons to go along with them.

According to the list, Krakow is 3rd cheapest city in Europe and Warsaw is on 9th place. In Krakow you'll spend only 25 dollars a day and in Warsaw you need approximately 15 dollars more. Drinks, entertainment and attractions included. See the Index here: http://www.priceoftravel.com/1979/european-backpacker-index/

       

Happy Birthday Palm!

The Palm from De Gaulle's roundabout is 10 years old! Many people wonder why there is a canary island date palm in one of the Warsaw's most popular spots. The palm is part of a project 'Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue' by Joanna Rajkowska. The author of the project had planned to put a lane of palms along the street called Aleje Jerozolimskie (Jerusalem Avenue) but at the end they decided to put just one palm at the junction of Jerusalem Avenue and Nowy Świat street, on some kind of a traffic island.

The tree is 15 m tall, it's waterproof and made mainly of plastic. There was a long discussion going on during preparations to make the idea of the palm come true. There were many doubts about who's gonna take care of the palm, who will pay for it, how long should it stand on the roundabout, about copyright lawsand of course about its political and cultural context.

Origins of the project date back to the artist’s journey to Israel (in Tel-Awiw there is a street called Jerusalem Avenue too) and her attempt to realise and the others aware of the significance of Jerusalem Avenue to Warsaw, the street’s history and the vacuum caused by the absence of Jewish community. It was supposed to be also a social experiment, testing whether the Polish society is ready to absorb such a culturally alien item. The spot at which the palm has been placed before the year 2002 had been used for a Christmas tree :)

The palm still sparks extreme feelings. It has divided Warsovians into those treating it as a symbol of a city and a society welcoming the others, developing, focused on the change, and those that support order, tradition and a city closed for strangers. The palm brings about many divisions and fuels conflicts deeply hidden in Polish society. It contains a lot of humour and irony as well, which saves it from definitions that could subdue it to any ideology. However, despite many different statements about the palm, it has become a symbol of Warsaw and one of the most characteristic points of the city.

More about the Palm you'll find on the official website: http://www.palma.art.pl/

View in Poniatowski's Bridge direction

Spiderman in Warsaw!

It may sound crazy, but while hanging out in Warsaw you can see a Spiderman. Even if he's not saving the city from the bad guys, he's still pretty amazing. He appears on the streets from time to time joking around and making people laugh. The police seems to treat him as a one of the city characters and punishes him only when it is completely necessary. Have a look at this short video:

Lately, he has been seen on Bankowy Square, sticked to the tram no.20 :D

Photo taken from: www.kontakt24.pl

Welcome to Warsaw movie!

One of the receptionists of Hostel Helvetia will be a famous director soon. Watch this short movie about Warsaw and Euro 2012 and judge by yourself.

Polish Teddy Bear

They say that Germany is the capital of teddy bears. But... wait a sec... Poland has got a famous teddy too! You can find it in Warsaw, standing in the middle of a tiny park called Glinianki Sznajdra. To know why does it stand there you have to know more about Polish cinema.

'Teddy Bear' is a cult Polish film directed in 1980 by Stanisław Bareja (famous Polish director making mostly comedy films). The film tells the story of Rysiek, the shrewd manager of state-sponsored sport club. He has to get to London before his ex-wife does in order to collect a big amount of money. As you can imagine, nothing was easy in a communist country which Poland was during those days. So the main character is meeting lots and lots of trouble on his way to get out of Poland. The history is hilarious and Bareja gives the audience a guided tour of the rank corruption, absurd bureaucracy, pervasive bribery and flourishing black market that pervaded socialism of the People's Republic of Poland.

In the last scene of the movie the monument of a big teddy bear appears. To commemorate the movie and to put some smile on the people's faces, the city decided to put the same teddy bear in Glinianki Sznajdra (the place of filming the last scene of the movie).

You can watch 'Teddy Bear' in our hostel! You just have to ask for the DVD at the reception desk.

How to get to the Glinianki Sznajdra? It's very easy! You have to take the bus no. 105 from the NOWY ŚWIAT bus stop, near our hostel. Then you have to get off at the TKACZY bus stop and you are just right next to the teddy bear. Take a look at the map and go :)

Rysiek - the main character of 'Teddy Bear'

Use it! Free maps for young travellers!

'Use it - Europe' names itself as a tourist information for young people.Thanks to them, in the biggest cities of each country in Europe we can find free maps, which are not only useful, but also well designed and with very detailed descriptions (of pubs, cafes, places of interest, local customs etc.). What's more, our staff took part in preparing the first edition of the map of Warsaw. So you can rely on it! :)

To have one for yourself you can: ask for it in a hostel, search for it in some cafes, museums or touristic info points. You can also download it from the website! Here you can find a map of Warsaw and Łódź. To search for other European cities click here.

NeSpoon - a little bit different street-art.

Poland has its own unique street art and NeSpoon is an artist who certainly deserves attention. Why? Because of the pretty little things she makes. She is decorating Warsaw with so called “jewellery of the public space”. You can find them on walls, pavements, dustbins or even trees and baroque sculptures. NeSpoon prefers to call her work “outdoor art”, not “street art”. That’s because most of it is not strictly on the streets, but also in parks etc. Also the technique is pretty unusual. It’s ceramics. NeSpoon's typical and favourite pattern is Polish traditional lace imprinted in clay. 

The purpose of NeSpoon's work is to make public places look better, more interesting, prettier. She says that she would like to save the world and make it a better place. But she perceives it is impossible to do it all by herself. So she is doing her best by adding her bit of positive energy into Warsaws streets and other spaces. She would like to bring a smile to people’s faces every time they discover one of her small applications.

NeSpoon is also the first artists I know who makes so called “children street art”. Ceramics made by her in shapes of colourful ladybirds and lovely dragons have a specific purpose. They are made to teach kids how to find something charming in walls and in the nooks, and that sometimes small things are also very important things.

The art of NeSpoon proves that you don’t need anything big and well exposed to make the city look happy and interesting. Searching for tiny details can bring you great fun and satisfaction. So, while having a walk around Warsaw (but not only!), keep your eyes wide open and maybe you will find pieces of urban jewellery! 

NeSpoon in Łódź - in cafe Owoce i Warzywa (Fruits and Vegetables)

PS. Visit NeSpoon's blog. And here is a little tip where to find some of NeSpoon's works in Warsaw.

Read more about Polish street art:
Adidas defeated 
Chopin from the block

Adidas defeated

Three demonstrations, the 6th anniversary of the Pope's death and a Graffiti Jam against Adidas - that is how the Varsovians spent last sunny weekend.
"Did you have fun?", you might ask and I would answer: "A lot of it".
There are two types of fun in Poland.
The first one is a kind of Ibiza-party-style, internationally recognized, transplanted into Polish soil from the West and treated as a holy cow. Having fun is obligatory if you want to be a cool part of a global village.
The second one is our traditional way of having a great time. We call it "zadyma", which literally means "a heavy whiteout", but is used to describe a state of chaos, fight (also a hooligan, but not only) and a demonstration of solidarity.
Spontanous gathering seems to be our national sport and it delivers us lots of fun.
Last weekend, in Zamkowy Square three groups of demonstrators met. There were: animals' rights' defenders, people commemorating the WWII masacre and Yael Bartana with her artistic project of bringing Jewish people back to Poland.
Can you imagine it? Vegetarians,combatants and the Jews - all at the same time and place.
A few quarters away (and a day earlier) there was a crowd of people praying and singing John Paul the Second's favourite song but I think our Pope would be delighted if he joined the Graffiti Jam in Służew.
There is a cult wall of streetart there. A couple of days ago Adidas blurred it to put their advert on it. It was the worst marketing move I have ever seen. 27 thousand people joined "Adisucks" group on Facebook afterwards. A great number of them gathered in reality to protest against this brand. "Money is not a king", they declared and on the the wall they sprayed a portrait of the Pope. He was a big fan of "zadyma" too.

Read more about Polish street-art:
NeSpoon - a little bit different street art 
Chopin from the block

Time for walking!

Last autumn our incredible Helvetia Team explored Warsaw to find the best places for you to visit.
Today we are presenting Powiśle (a riverside area) and surroundings of Nowy Świat St - all nearby Helvetia Hostel.

Feel an atmosphere of a student life in a beautiful garden on the top of the University Library.
Visit the maginificent Copernicus Science Centre or the Chopin's Museum.

Have a cup of coffee and meet some of Polish writers and poets at Mariusz Szczygieł's "Wrzenie Świata" cafe.

Travel to the past watching photos in sepia in Fotoplastykon.

Pokaż Helvetia Hostel presents: Promener autour de Varsovie na większej mapie

When the green turns into gold

Warsaw is known as a green town - not only parks, but also many streets are surrounded by trees. It's often a surprise to foreigners to see so many nature within the city. Spring blows up suddenly in May with fresh green which lasts until late summer, but the best is going to happen in late October. I call it the golden weekend, when about one week after first cold nights all the trees turn into gold simultaneously. Then all the leaves fall down until November the first.

This year is different - thanks to sunny weather we had two such weekends, although it's November the 1st we still have a lot of coloured trees in all shades - from wild yellow of maples to the warm brown red of oaks.

More posts with photos of Warsaw:
Making a panorama 
Warsaw - old pictures, new pictures - part 1
Warsaw - old pictures, new pictures - part 2
Streets in bloom

66th Warsaw Uprising's anniversary

For the 66th anniversary the Warsaw's Uprising Museum has created a digital film about the post-war images of our capital shot from an allied plane.
The full movie can be viewed in the museum itself, but there is a trailer available on youTube:

EUROPRIDE 2010

The Europride 2010 festival has ended yesterday in Warsaw! LGBT crowd joined by their supporters marched proudly yesterday on the streets of Warsaw. Here are a few snapshots:

European Capital of Culture 2016

Several polish and spanish cities are competing to become the 2016 European Capital of Culture.

Warsaw apparently is one of the candidates. To boost the contest a notch, the capital has issued a promo video made by Agnieszka Holland. This is another one, that was rejected during the process:

The Jewish Paths of Warsaw

Using wonderful GOOGLE MAPS we have prepared another map than might be useful for sighseeing in Warsaw. We are pround to present "The Jewish Paths of Warsaw".

Click to open in new window


Pokaż The Jewish Paths of Warsaw na większej mapie

The Warsaw Ghetto

It was the largest in Europe occupied by the Nazis. Its population was estimated to be 400,000 people, about 30% of the population of Warsaw at that time.

To imagine the Warsaw Ghetto see (the fragments) of "The Pianist", a film by Roman Polanski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivYHhW-v3x8

Winter Olympic Games - WARSAW 2110

Warsaw has never been a candidate for Winter Olympic Games. And yesterday I would say that it never would be... But after my today's walk I have to think it over again. It's said that the climate is warming up, but...well maybe it's warming up somewhere else. I got used to the heaps of snow everywhere, but snowboarders jumping over peoples' heads in a park...that's definitely something totally new in the city.





Others may like it or not. For me this is the best winter in Warsaw in 21st century.

Have you ever seen a snowy mermaid ?

One upon a time there were two beautiful mermaid sisters in the Baltic Sea. One day, they decided to make a travel. The first swam to the north, and visited Copenhagen (you can see her now sitting in the port). The second one decided to swim to the mountains. She reached Gdansk and then started they long travel up the Vistula River. In the middle of their way, she felt tired and decided to rest on a sandy beach. After she came from the water, she realized that she was sitting just in front of the Warsaw's old town. She liked the place so much, that she decided to stay for a longer time. Soon she became a friend of fishermen living at the banks of Vistula. She had very beautiful voice, and their songs were making peoples' life pleasant.
One day she was kidnapped by greedy merchant, who decided to imprison her and wanted to show her off at a fair for profit. Fortunately she was rescued by a handsome fisherman and his friends. The mermaid, grateful for the aid promised not to leave Warsaw and help to make the city safe for the inhabitants and travellers. She got to armed with a sword and shield - and with this weapon you can see her today on all monuments.
There are three monuments of Warsaw's mermaid: in the Old Town Marked, at the bank of the Vistula and the third (the least known) on the overpass at the Karowa Street.

Te fourth one we have built of snow last week in one of the Warsaw's parks.

Christmas shopping - final countdown

Christmas shopping in Warsaw

There are several European cities you might think of while deciding where to do Christmas shopping and you probably would not put Warsaw among them. Still, we will try to convince you that Poland’s capital can be a good place to find an oryginal gift for a good price too!

For the best bargains come to Warsaw in the second part of November. This is when shopping malls get decorated for Christmas but it is not “a peak of shopping season” yet.
If you are fancy of Christmas illumination, trees and all this fever, visit Warsaw in the beginning of December. Traditional outdoor markets take place in the second or the third weekend of December in Zamkowy Square, or Mariensztat Square and in the centre of culture in the 21 st Łowicka St.
Shopping malls are open 7 days a week, usually between 10.00 and 21.00
Most of shops listed here should be open from Monday till Friday between 11.00 and 18.00 for sure. Check their websites for Saturday hours (Saturday = Sobota in Polish)
Here are some tips where to go for Christmas hunting:


Shopping malls in the centre of Warsaw:
·Złote Tarasy (ul. Złota 59)
shopping mall with amazing roof of glass, right next to the Central Railway Station
www.zlotetarasy.pl

·Arkadia (ul. Jana Pawła II 82)
the biggest shopping mall in Warsaw
www.arkadia.com.pl

One street shopping:
·Warszawska Nike (ul. Mokotowska 24)
The first Nike concept store in Poland, vintage & collector’s Nikes (Nike, as a Goddess of Victory is one of symbols of Warsaw :)
www.warszawskanike.pl

·Fumo (ul. Mokotowska 26)
Clothing with such brands as: Desigual, Cop.Copine, Skunkfunk
www.fumo.pl

·GaliLu (ul. Mokotowska 26, entrance from Koszykowa)
Neo-perfumery, natural cosmetics and Spa
www.galilu.pl

·Mimbla (Mokotowska 51/53)
Beautifully designes, wooden toys, Polish brands
www.mimbla.pl

· Niebieskie Migdały (ul. Mokotowska 61)
Furniture for children’s rooms
www.niebieskiemigdaly.com

· DDR Studio (Koszykowa 33/ Mokotowska, entrance from a backyard)
Furniture and more, vintage design (from the 50s.up to the 80s)
www.ddrstudio.com

· Słodki, słony (ul. Mokotowska 45)
Confectionary, buy makowiec, traditional Christmas poppy-seed cake
www.slodkislony.pl


Polish clothing:

De Lux:
· Joanna Klimas
Atelier and cafe run by one of top Polish designers (ul. Nowolipki 2). If you are not sure you can spend so much money, you can still afford a cup of coffee and have a look at the designer at work.
www.joannaklimas.com

· Maciej Zień
The boutique of this one of the most talented Polish designers can be found in Promenada shopping mall (Ostrobramska 75 C), expensive
http://zien.pl

Exclusive:
· Solar
(at most shopping malls)
www.solar-company.com.pl

Popular:
(at most shopping malls)
· Reserved
reserved.com

· Mohito
mohito.pl

Young designers:
· Polscy Projektanci (ul. Chmielna 30)
· Green Establishment (ul. Nowogrodzka 21)
www.gestablishment.com


Markets:

· Hala Mirowska (Pl. Mirowski 1)
Fruit, vegetables, flowers, some vintage can be found too

· Koło (Obozowa/Ciołka Streets)
flea market, weekends’ mornings only

Food:
· Wedel (ul. Szpitalna 8)
chocolates and sweets, for Christmas Poles usually buy ptasie mleczko and torcik wedlowski
http://www.wedelpijalnie.pl

· Krakowski Kredens (Nowy Świat 22)
Preserves from a grandma’s cupboard: jams, juices, liqeurs, sausages, Christmas baskets - all beautifully packed!
www.krakowskikredens.pl

· Pasieka (ul. Freta 7/9)
Restaurant and miodosytnia, a place where you can degustate and buy excellent Polish mead
www.pasieka.win.pl

· Blikle (ul. Nowy Świat 35)
140-year-old confectionary run by Blikle family
www.blikle.pl


The best Polish vodkas brands:
Żubrówka, Wyborowa, Belvedere


Others:

· Traffic (ul. Bracka 25)
Elegant book-and-musicstore, lots of Polish jazz and Chopin

· Bubu (ul. Solec 50)
Handmade jewellery, interesting designs and materials
www.bubusolec.pl

· Nowińska Gallery (at Bristol Hotel, ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 42/44
Unique amber jewellery, classic and avant-garde designs
www.nowinska.pl

· Bolesławiec (ul. Prosta 2/14)
One of the largest manufacturers of hand-crafted and hand-decorated tableware pottery, using the unique worldwide stamping technique
www.ceramicboleslawiec.com.pl

· Krosno glassworks
(at most shopping malls)
The largest and most well-known producer of household glass in Poland, one of the world market leaders in this trade.
www.krosno.com.pl/en

· Artykuły propagandowe (ul. Górczewska 24)
Polish flag, ballot box and more propaganda stuff...
www.okopowaflagi.pl


Pokaż Christmas Shopping by Hostel Helvetia na większej mapie

WARSAW WILL STOP!

August the 1st
5 PM
WARSAW WILL STOP

for a moment to commemorate 65th anniversary of The Warsaw Uprising.

Facts
The Warsaw Uprising beggined August the 1st 1944 and was quashed after 63
days of heroic fight to liberate Warsaw from Nazi/German occupation. It was the
biggest and most heroic uprising during the Second World War.
Warsaw could have been the first European capital liberated; however, various
military and political miscalculations, as well as global politics — played among
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt - turned the dice against
it.
During the 63 days of the uprising, an estimated 200,000 of Warsaw's
inhabitants lost their lives (so every day were dying as many people as in WTC).
Eighty percent of the buildings on the city's left bank were destroyed. After the
suppression of the Uprising, all of the city's inhabitants, both insurgents and civilians
were expelled from Warsaw and sent to POW, death, labor, or concentration camps.
After their departure, German forces razed the building that were still standing.
During communist rule in Poland (1945–1989), any commemoration of the uprising
was banned.

Monuments and museums

The Warsaw Uprising Museum
The monument of small insurgent (Old Town, Podwale St.) – A
small boy in too big helmet and with the big rifle in his small hands..... not only
adults have fighted against the occupant.
Warsaw Uprising Monument at Krasinskich Square (shown two top phtos below) (close to Old Town,)

Links
www.warsawuprising.com
www.polandinexile.com/rising.htm

Books
Norman Davies, Rising 44







Photos: 1,2 - Warsaw Uprising Monument 3,4 - One of the aniversary events (2006)

Making a panorama

Making photo panoramas is very useful skill of every photographer. City squares, mountain ranges,lakes - they never fit into one shot.
Some automatic cameras have even this function built-in, but since I'm a user of DSLR I'll focus on more professional method.



This is Mariensztat Market. Mariensztat is a very beautiful part of Warsaw, a bit forgotten, a bit neglected but with nice architecture and almost no tourists, although it's 5 minutes walk from Castle Square (this picture taken on Sunday afternoon, when Old Town was full of people). See it on Google Maps
It's perfect place for a rest, for an action of romantic novel or for...making a photo panorama. Moving people are the worse thing that can happen - they will have different position on the pictures and can make panorama stitching software crazy, or at least spoil the final result with a blurred ghost.

When I started to read about panoramas it turned out that I need a tripod and special head. Well - it's sometimes useful, but not obligatory. I've made a lot of nice panoramas without it, and this one was also done directly from hand.

So the basic recipe for a panorama is:
1. Set your camera in to manual mode and measure the light in the lightest part of the area and set the aperture. Use this setting to make all pictures.
2. Turn autofocus off
3. Make several shots covering the area you want to have on your final picture.
Each next shot should begin in approximately 2/3 before the end of the previous to allow seamless merge. To sum up: neighbour pictures must have common part.
4. Google for "panorama stitching software". I use PTGui. You can download trial version from here.
5. In most cases it's enough to load pictures and relay on the program. Software finds common point in the pictures, adjust them and merges into panorama.
6. Finalize result in any photo editing software. Crop, add some contrast, add some saturation and sharpen.

Of  course this is not a full detailed description, but Internet is full of it it's no sense to repeat it once again because the objective of this post is of course...to encourage you to visit beautiful Mariensztat!

Warsaw - old pictures , new pictures - part 2

Have you seen The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw? It's not far from the Old Town, next to the Saxon Garden. Well, it looks like typical monument...but take a look at the old postcard. What you can see now it's only a part not existing Saxon Palace (built in 17th century, destroyed during World War II). There are plans to rebuild it, probably the reconstruction will start after 2012.

Every hour there's a change of guards, it's good moment to shot some interesting pictures from Warsaw.
More:
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Saxon Palace

More photos of Warsaw:
Warsaw - old pictures, new pictures part 1
Streets in bloom
When the green turns into gold
Making a panorama