Warsaw Poland (1980) ★ (2023) ★ Then and Now

"First impressions of Warsaw are rarely favourable. On the face of it the city is a demonic hallucination of whirring sirens and depressing tower blocks" was the opening line from our very first Warsaw guide way back in 2001. Quite harsh, wouldn't you say? But that's just what Warsaw used to feel like. What about now? As the new editor for Warsaw In Your Pocket, will I beat Warsaw down? Does it deserve it? If you understand Poland's history, you'll know the country, and Warsaw especially, has received a fair few beatings throughout its existence and it would feel sickly weird to slap down a city that looks like it does today not through poor management but mainly the heavy hand it was dealt by its geographical location and events in world politics, especially during the Second World War. For a long time, a largely grey city that was still a long way off from becoming the colourful city of today, the increased hints of colour were starting to show up here and there at the turn of the millennium and a new confidence was growing amongst the city's people, but there still existed large eyesores that stained the city knocking a bit of that confidence; areas just yearning to be spruced up! But that was then. There were two key events that really kick-started Warsaw, and of course Poland's, regeneration: joining the European Union in 2004 and being awarded the honour of co-hosting the 2012 European Football Championship with Ukraine. It's thanks to these events that things have changed for the better at a far quicker pace than could have originally been realistically conceived at the turn of the millennium. Not long after gaining EU membership, it was easy to see increased investment and EU funding come Poland's way as the capital's buildings quite quickly began to lose their blackened or neglected facades and were now gaining pretty new shades from a large palette of colours! It's not that this wasn't happening before, of course it was, but at a much slower pace - often stopping for periods of time when funding ran out! Now, dear reader, let's imagine a Warsaw of 1990, 2001 and of today in 2017. Other than fresh licks of paint, what have been the major changes to take place in the city?

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The Saxon palace has been demolished since 1944. 2:10