GUEST'S GALLERY: The Snowballed Wall

Image courtesy of Pete Tunnicliffe

Winter brings snow; snow brings snowballs!! Here is a really artistic shot taken in the Old Town of Toruń by our guest photographer Pete Tunnicliffe.

Snowballs can be fun, but they can also be really annoying. Two nights ago, as I was travelling by bus from Toruń to one of the neighbouring villages...a group of young Polish yobs suddenly threw snowballs at the side of the bus. A bit of harmless fun perhaps? Not when one of them had a rock inside which shattered the side mirror! The driver suddenly made an emergency stop and was physically pissed off! Needless to say the yobs ran away like a bunch of cowards! Probably afraid the driver will tell their mummies!! After all...everyone knows everyone in a Polish village!!! ;-)

English on the Buses!

Here is a new novel idea to learn English...on the local city buses! The idea is simple...two video screens show English words or simple English phrases with the Polish translation next to them. Passengers have nothing else to do but just read and learn.

Shame that some of the slides have mistakes though. For example, it's trivial but why does 'to go to work' have a full stop after it? After all it's not a sentence. Apparently, there are also some spelling errors on some of the other slides. Though these remain to be seen by TDP!

Budget Shopping and Cheap Transport

Do some cheap shopping at Netto (a Polish cash and carry style supermarket) and then head off on a bus from the adjacent bus station.

The Bus Seat

Got on one of the new city buses today and was surprised to see that it has colourful, new seats complete with pictures of some of Toruń's historic buildings. A nice touch!

The Village Bus

Like in many countries...VEOLIA Transport runs much of the country's public transportation system. Every day Veolia buses interwene through Poland's country roads bringing people from A to B. This bus is heading from Lułkowo a small village 10km north of Toruń. Captured at 9am yesterday taking commuters to work.

Beauty at every corner

What I love about Toruń, is that no matter where you are there is always something which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And it doesn't always have to be the splendour of our medieval buildings! This photograph taken yesterday, shows the pleasures of spring as a mighty willow tree stands proudly in the early evening sun. What is surprising, is that this picture was taken right in town, next to the city's bus station. Literally, here in Toruń there really is beauty on every corner!

This picture is dedicated to my beloved wife, who insisted on me taking it!

You see...we don't like queuing!!

Follow on from yesterday's cultural post, here is photographic proof of the "chaos" that one is greeted with, when they try to board a bus here in Poland!!

"The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

This is the view inside a typical Polish bus as it makes it's way through the suburbs of Toruń on its way to Łysomice, a small village 9kms north of the city. The local buses here have been run by 3 different companies in the last few years. An example of the results of privitisation since Poland joined the EU.

Travelling by bus in Poland is quite an adventure. The Poles do not believe in queues and so sometimes it can be quite stressful just getting onboard. The front two seats on the right are the most sought after and usually you have one or two old ladies pushing in to get the prized seats. I don't understand really as the front seats arrive at the destination at the same time as the rear seats!!! Incidentally, old ladies in Poland do have a reputation for queue jumping. They are known as "mohair berets" due to the chosen attire that they wear on their heads. There's even a souvenir shop in Toruń now that sells minature mohair berets!!! Hillarious!