Warsaw Tour Guide, Ela Rudniak

01/09/2024

🚶‍♀️Today’s solitary walk to explore a less obvious part of Warsaw: Praga Północ - North Praga. An area not for standard tastes, off-the-beaten track, yet charming, full of contrasts!

▶️ Off-the-beaten North Praga will soon appear on my UPCOMING tours playlist.
🔔 Remember to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel! (youtube.com/)

28/08/2024

„Europa, Europa”, a movie from 1990 by Agnieszka Holland shown as part of the Warsaw Singer festival of Jewish culture. Before screening a meeting with Allan Starski, the set designer (also known from „Schindler’s List”) and Wiesława Starska, costume designer.

The film was based on a true story of a Jewish boy, Solomon Perel, who pretended to be a German during WW2. He joined Hitlerjungen, found himself in a few improbable situations, and managed miraculously to survive. What a story!

25/08/2024

In Warsaw, and across Poland, the largest group of immigrants are by far Ukrainians. It is estimated that currently in the capital live 200,000 Ukrainians, which makes 10% of the city population. The second largest group are probably Belarusians. It is not certain how many of them are currently in Warsaw, probably around 50,000.
I met these two female Belarusian buskers in Krakowskie Przedmieście. Sharing the talent voice. I want more of such music in Warsaw! Go, girls!

24/08/2024

From Barbara Bretton: "Moderation, honey, in all things but love and chocolate. That's my motto." What a great quote to share some delicious news:
🍫A long awaited chocolate museum opens in Warsaw this September! It is located on the premises of the Wedel Chocolate factory in Warsaw Praga.
🍫Here is a special preview for you from a private tour of the museum for city guides.⤵️

New Chocolate Museum opens in the Wedel factory in Warsaw Praga this September.

18/08/2024

▶️ See you later today for a LIVESTREAM - find the tour link in the comments. ⤵️

11/08/2024

Did you know that 100 years ago surrealism was born? In 1924, Andre Breton published his first surrealism manifesto, and this event marks the beginning of the artistc movement. While in France the 1st WW was the trigger for artists to „redefine” the world, realism, in Poland it was WW2 with all its atrocities that made artists question or even reject „the old school” of expression. Erna Rosenstein, Władysław Hasior, Jakub Stern, Marek Włodarski are just a few artists whose works are presented at the National Museum in Warsaw. Today is the last day of the „Surrealism Other Myths”. Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the magnificent exhibition.

05/08/2024

A follow-up to my Thursday virtual tour (a link to a shortened video pinned above):
„Anna Świrszczyńska, poet, yoga practitioner, vegetarian, liberated woman – whose outstanding work and powerful personality left an indelible mark on 20th-century Polish poetry, including causing a feminist awakening of sorts in the patriarchal Czesław Miłosz – was born in 1909, in Warsaw, to an artistic though impoverished family. She worked from an early age, supporting herself while she attended university. In the 1930s, she worked for a teachers’ association, served as an editor, and began publishing poetry. The outbreak of World War II interrupted her literary career. Świrszczyńska joined the Resistance and worked as a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising. That experience, as she said later, made her into another person. She witnessed the brutal extermination of her city, forced to contend with war at its most cruel and inhumane. At one point she came within an hour of being executed before she was spared. After the war she moved to Kraków where she lived until her death in 1984.” (Copied from Julia Fiedorczuk)

MAN AND CENTIPEDE

I will survive.

I’ll find the deepest basement,
shut myself inside, won’t let anybody in,
I’ll dig a hole in the ground,
chew out the bricks,
I’ll hide in the wall, I’ll go into the wall
like a centipede.

Everyone will die, and I
will survive.
(Tr. Piotr Florczyk)

04/08/2024

▶️ Thank you for joining my Warsaw Uprising 80th anniversary live tour. Didn’t make it? Here’s a shortened 10-minute video from the walk.

This is a condensed tour of my live streaming from the Warsaw Old Town on 1 August 2024, the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.

31/07/2024

Exactly 20 years ago, the Warsaw Rising Museum dedicated to 1944 Warsaw Uprising in the Wola district opened. It occupies beautiful historic premises of the early 20th century tram power station.

The museum exhibits are spread over several floors and contain lots of objects of historical value as well as interactive displays. Some of the many sections and exhibits include:
▶️ hangar: a hall containing a full-size American B-24 Liberator. The planes were used to bring help to insurgents
▶️observation tower: panoramic views of the Wola district of Warsaw from the top of the building
▶️sewer replicas
▶️replica of Goliath mine or a demolition vehicle widely used by Germans.

During the tomorrow's live walk I'm going to show you places connected with some of the artefacts. Don't miss this once-a-year special event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Rising.

30/07/2024

Among the 1944 Warsaw Rising insurgents were foreigners. One of them was a Nigerian, August Agbola O'Brown. August left Lagos for Britain, and from there in 1922, he embarked on a ship to Gdańsk. From Gdańsk he relocated to Warsaw. He was a professional musician, jazz drummer who worked in clubs in Warsaw. He got married, had two sons, then, divorced and remarried after the war. Apparently, he could speak several languages and learnt Polish quickly.

There is little evidence of his engagement in the Warsaw Uprising but his participation was confirmed. He was probably involved in communication. There aren't any photos of August during the uprising or the war, his photos of him in a military uniform come from a film setting when he was hired as an extra.

In 1958, when August was 63, he emigrated to the UK with his wife and children. He still played in London jazz clubs. He passed away in 1976.

August Agbola O'Brown is commemorated in the city centre of Warsaw (see one of the pics). Karol Radziszewski, an artist, inspired by August's history, in 2015 painted a picture depicting the Nigerian who fought for Warsaw's independence.

During my Thursday walk I'll share more stories of foreigners who took part in the Warsaw Uprising. Find the link in the comments.

29/07/2024

Visited the Warsaw Uprising Mound yesterday - it's an artificially created hill with post-war rubbles to commemorate 1944 Warsaw Uprising insurgents as well as civilians. It is almost beautiful.

28/07/2024

The commemoration events of the 80th anniversary of Warsaw Rising have already started. As a prologue to my Thursday live streaming, each day leading to 1 August I’m going to make a post of an insight connected with the Uprising. Here’s the first one.

Every year the Museum of Warsaw Uprising commissions a musician or a band to record an album linking to the Uprising or Warsaw. This year, Brodka got the offer. The songs are either covers or original tracks performed by Brodka or other artists she invited to the project. One of the pieces is David Bowie’s ‚Warsaw’. But I’m inserting a link to her cover of a 1964 piece ‚Spotkanie z Warszawą’.

In the comments, I’ll insert a link to the recording of a full concert with all the songs as posted by the Museum. The concert was held at night on the square of the Museum premises. Brilliant!

Brodka oddaje hołd Warszawie! Zobacz muzyczną zapowiedź projektu "WAWA", czyli “Spotkanie z Warszawą”. To piękna, poruszająca interpretacja utworu Ireny Sant...

24/07/2024

Bohdan Lahert and Józef Szanajca - a duo of modernist architects of the 1920s and 30s. In September 1939, Szanajca is killed by a German bullet. Lahert asks his friend Zofia Trzcińska-Kamińska, a sculptor to make a bust of Szanajca. Lahert, disappointed with the result, undertakes the work of sculpting his friend's head himself. It is the first and last sculpture made by this architect. Today, we can see it in Praga, on the corner of ul. Jagiellonska St. and Józef Szanajca St.

During my tomorrow’s tour of Saska Kępa we’re going to stop at one of the villas Bohdan Lahert and Józef Szanajca designed.

>>Find the link to the tour in the comments.

Explore Warsaw with the city expert and enthusiast!
www.youtube.com/

22/07/2024

Thanks for joining. It wasn’t an easy one.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/aDY9XBYWXzowiu6p/?mibextid=WC7FNe

20/07/2024

A prologue to my Monday livestream

18/07/2024

Dziękuję za udział w dzisiejszym oprowadzaniu „Żydowska Praga”. Nie udało mi się nas do końca policzyć (ciągle się gubiłam), ale myślę, że w spacerze uczestniczyło ok 35 osób. Czy ktoś może liczył? 🤔

Oto obiecane polecania książek do pogłębienia tematu. Przede wszystkim "Odkrywanie Żydowskiej Pragi" (wielu autorów), wyd. Żydowski Instytut Historyczny - bardzo różnorodna. Są tutaj artykuły ekspertów dot różnych aspektów obecności społeczności żydowskiej na Pradze, przedwojenne artykuły Żor-żora, wspomnienia mieszkańców. W dalszej kolejności "Ruda, córka Cwiego" Adama Dylewskiego, wyd. Czarne. No i jeszcze przedwojenna książka Icchaka Schipera o cmentarzach żydowskich w Warszawie, ale do przeczytania chyba tylko w bibliotece ŻIH (czytanie na miejscu).

Zapraszam na przyszłe spacery. 🔜

14/07/2024

What’s great about my passion about Warsaw, Warsaw Jews, Warsaw Praga is constant learning and discovering new things.

This afternoon I had a lovely walk in Praga. Here are a couple of photos. In photo 1: Różycki market - a view from Targowa 52, behind some 150-years-old buildings of Brzeska Street. Photo 2: a mural with images of women connected with Praga. I knew two of the women depicted: Tosia Altman (a Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighter, hid in one of Targowa buildings after she escaped the Ghetto); Magdalena Gross (a Jewish sculptor, during N**i occupation was saved by the Żabińskis in their villa in Warsaw zoo in Praga). But I hadn’t heard of Ninel Kameraz-Kos and Jadwiga Czajka before!

Ninel (1940-2011) was an artist of Jewish origin, she lived in Jagiellonska St. in Praga. Hanna Krall wrote about her in one of her books. Magdalena Czajka (1923-2008) was born in Warsaw Praga and most of her life was connected with Praga. She was a teacher, a soldier of Home Army during WW2. She wrote „Pamiętnik mieszkanki Pragi” - a diary from a few months between 1944-45 in Praga. Let’s see if the book is available anywhere…

13/07/2024

Inviting you to my upcoming three LIVE tours, two of which are streamings from commemoration events so they are ONCE-A-YEAR events. The third one (but the 2nd in the row) is a tour of one of the most beautiful districts of Warsaw.

Here is the list:
🆕 22 July, March of Remembrance to commemorate Victims of Grossaktion (22 July 1942). Details ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/live/zSuyNDAuvXw?si=VP_uobXOxpkogYsl

🆕25 July, Saska Kępa: green and modernist villas district of Warsaw. Details ➡️
https://www.youtube.com/live/Xs9ydwgcMI0?si=PDDh69NX8NdWvOFV

▶️ 1 August, Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Details➡️ https://www.youtube.com/live/2DRAWSX5YLc?si=sxlDoqShPGvUja5e

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12/07/2024

Zapraszam w czwartek. Link do wydarzenia w komentarzach. 🚶

01/07/2024

In 2023, across Poland there was a number of exhibitions of Jerzy Nowosielski's paintings held commemorating 100 anniversary of his birth. One of the largest exhibitions devoted to his works but also works of other artists close to Nowosielski was held at the Warsaw Royal Castle (a link to my YT Short in the comments). We were told by the curators that the first room in the exhibition area was arranged to resemble the Greek-Catholic church in Biały Bór in Western Pomerania that Nowosielski designed.

Jerzy Nowosielski once said, "Since childhood I dreamt of designing a sacral object. I worked with architects, designed polychromes, but they were just bits and pieces. I wanted to build something from scratch." This church is unique and exceptional, totally designed by the artist. In 1998 the church was named a pearl of modern Polish sacral architecture.

And so on the way from the seaside we had to stop at Biały Bór. The church was closed but the building itself made me speechless!

28/06/2024

Soo glad I had the live tour from Gąski yesterday.

26/06/2024

Ahead of the live stream tomorrow, a little glimpse of the Baltic seaside - a Short from the cycling route Velvo Baltica.

Velvo Baltica is a Polish section of the EuroVelo route along the Baltic Sea coastline. It starts in Świnoujście at the western border and ends in Elbląg, southeast of Gdańsk. The total length of the Polish bit amounts to 540 kms.

The clip shows the route between Mielno and Gąski. More about the route and other attractions at the Baltic Sea during my live walk tomorrow. Please find the link in the comments.

☘️🚴Happy cycling on Velo Baltica

21/06/2024

What does a Warsaw guide do on a summer holiday at the seaside? Live stream!

Do join me next Thursday to enjoy the tranquility of the Baltic Sea (or the stormy weather). I hope there will be an opportunity to observe some wildlife (birds and… people!). And history? Yes, a litlle bit, connected with the lighthouse.

Gąski is a tiny place in the North West of Poland. But Gąski boasts pristine, sandy beaches and... a lighthouse. The lighthouse built in 1878 is one of the t...

18/06/2024

The Polish seaside in summer is always a bit of lottery weatherwise. The beaches are still amazing with warm yellow sand, and the sound of waves have a therapeutic effect.

Next week I’m going to livestream from Gąski, a tiny place on the western side of Poland’s Baltic coastline. See the lighthouse in one of the photos? We’ll get there during the tour! Watch this space…