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> Green, walkable For someone from Gdańsk this is laughable. The city is very car-centric. There are large areas of it that are just concrete with no green in
by thrw087248 2y ago
> Green, walkable
For someone from Gdańsk this is laughable. The city is very car-centric. There are large areas of it that are just concrete with no green in sight. This contributes to absurdly high temperatures in the summer and difficulty of finding any shade. “Patelnia” (frying pan) has that name for a reason and it’s by no means the only such place. The city also keeps building glass skyscrapers which reflect sunlight onto the ground in already heat-stroke-inducing heat. It’s laden with huge intersections with 2-phase crossings, which you need to run through in order to go through in one go. If you fail, you’ll be stranded on a concrete island breathing in fumes from car traffic. Public transport is good if you can use the metro. But there are only 2 lines, so aside from maybe going to work you’ll most likely be using a bus. The bus is most likely to be going regularly late and overcrowded (god I hate 186).
- cube2222 2y agoThe greenery is a spectrum of course, depending on how close to the very center of the city you are. I never had big problems with busses, but trams are good too, and I generally prefer them. I disagree with it not being walkable somewhere though. You can easily get anywhere on foot, and safely. Never had an issue with that anywhere in the city. It could definitely be more cyclable, as there are still many places without a dedicated biking lane (and you have to use the road or sidewalk), but walkable it definitely is.
- Tade0 2y ago> “Patelnia” (frying pan) has that name for a reason and it’s by no means the only such place. That reason was actually retconned. Back when the term was coined there weren't that many cars in Warsaw and summers were not this hot. Most likely it was simply the first association anyone had looking at it when emerging from the subway.
- etc-hosts 2y agoThe downtown bike lines surrounded by concrete borders seemed pretty cool to me. I wandered around the big (big to me) park in the center, Lazienkowski park. I did find the huge open spaces next to Stalin Skyscraper and Saxon Palace to be very unused looking. I love Warsaw, too bad I find the language impenetrable.
- tomcam 2y ago> I find the language impenetrable. It's weird but I managed to learn conversational Polish in about 6 weeks, thanks to a girlfriend who couldn't speak English.
- gambiting 2y ago>> thanks to a girlfriend who couldn't speak English I mean, that's a pretty strong motivator, unfortunately it's not a viable strategy for everyone ;-)
- slowmotiony 2y agoMy fiancée started learning it with a tutor about half a year ago for 4 hour per week and she's already making very good progress and is able to have short conversations, don't get discouraged! It's just a language like any other.
- kolinko 2y agoThere's also trams, and the bike infrastructure - 9 out of 12 month I use virtually only scooters / bikes to travel around. And that is from Saska Kępa travelling to Mokotów/Żoliborz/Wola/Ochota.
- tigeroil 2y agoI don't live in Poland but Saska Kepa is fantastic.