Ode to Warsaw

My Warsaw isn’t a place, or a sight. It’s more than a city - it’s a sensation.

An event. Experience.

The sun beams covering the rooftop of my office in Centrum Praskie Koneser and the “ugly” Praga blocks along Białostocka and Ząbkowska streets.

The smell of fresh bakery filling Patelnia as you rush to catch your bus/tram/metro and the relaxing yet vibrant green of numerous city parks… Let me mention some of them, for the grandeur effect:

Łazienki Królewskie, Park Wilanowski, Pole Mokotowskie, Politechnika, Koński Jar, Park Moczydło, Sady Żoliborzskie, Park Saski, Kępa Potocka, Park Skaryszewskiego, Park Olszyna, Park Żeromskiego, Lasek lindego, Las Bielański, Park Młocinski, Las Kabacki to name a few...

There are 88 parks in Warsaw. All of them are music to my ears.

“Tu usłyszysz śpiew ptaków” – I read on one of the city banners, cycling through Saska Kępa in the direction of Wawer.

I agree. Warszawa stolicą zieleni.

You see, Warsaw has many layers. Each year it presents me with a new one, unseen, unobvious and more subtle face. Yet, if I had to paint Warsaw, she definitely would be a siren.

A warrior. A defender, who saw the war. Yet, a playful, unpredictable and changeable woman. Syrenka, not Syrena.

By pure coincidence… my mythological beast zodiac is siren, too.

At the surface level, my Warsaw, of course, is a city. The capital, “metropolia” – ever-expanding, restless, busy place.

“Concrete jungle where dreams are made of” in Alicia Keys words.

The first time I visited Warsaw, in 2015, she only showed me her “mask”: the tourist capital of Poland, the city skyline with a distinctive silhouette crowed with of course, the Palace of Culture and Science, where I now finish my education. But that’s just a surface level: place of residence, place of work, place of graduation…

At a deeper, emotional level, Warsaw is my history. My second home. My “life university”.

Moving to Warsaw is was so far the most significant, happiest and thrilling event in my life.

The city that made me. The city where I grew up to discover me.

Through setbacks, heartbreaks, hardships and disappointments.

Through challenges, changes, uncertainty and growth.

Not a single day in Warsaw is the same – as if I am living out of the comfort zone for the last 5 years. Discovering new layers of being “Warsovian” as if learning new languages.

The invisible layers of time captured in its streets.

Sometimes I notice them looking through tall “stalinka” style windows at Marszalkowska and Wilenska streets, or walking along Praga side of Vistula river and looking at sun beams playing on the water surface... waves caused by water trams swimming by almost silently, muted by SKM arriving at Powiślę.

Finally, my Warsaw is… of course, all the people I’ve met here. Since day one I felt like being in the “boiling pot” of Eastern Europe, where you can meet people from Costa Rica, Ukraine, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Honduras, Zambia and Argentina, Italy and Germany, UK and… Belarus.

Even though in my Warsaw, I often forget where do I come from.

I come from here. Tu mieszkam. Na Bielanach.

Беляны… Беларусь… какая разница?

Sounds alike, looks alike. But feels different.

From Aleja KEN to Bielany, Żoliborz, Praga and Włochy, Bemowo and Okięcie, Ursus, Anin, Mokotów, Ursynów and Środmiescie… there is a map of Warsaw imprinted in me, with all the bicycle paths, parks, and coffeeshops, bookstores and hidden beaches at Vistula bank, concert venues and rooftops, libraries, aulas and offices I’ve worked… all the random places and homes I got to discover through people who live here…

This is my Warsaw.

Multifaceted. Multilayered. Multidimensional.

It is here, among beautiful and ugly buildings, busy and chill people, loud and quiet streets, I discovered my purpose.