Poland’s capital invites visitors to ‘fall in love with Warsaw’
By A. Pawlowski
CNN
WARSAW, Poland (CNN) — In Poland, it’s polite to bring flowers when you visit someone’s home, so there’s a flower shop on virtually every street corner in Warsaw.
But the city is now realizing flower power on a bigger scale.
There are buds and blooms adding color all over the capital, from the quaint Old Town to the bustling city center to the massive concrete apartment blocks left over from the communist era.
It’s Warsaw in bloom, in many ways: A city thriving, growing and blossoming six decades after much of it was destroyed during World War II and almost 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought many radical economic and social changes.
Modern Warsaw is a mix of shiny new skyscrapers, tree-lined boulevards, ornate prewar buildings and somber concrete communist relics.
Hamburger joints and pizzerias compete for customers with restaurants offering traditional Polish fare like pierogi. Expensive new cars share the road with crowded buses and trams. Traffic jams frustrate drivers throughout the day.
But it’s the older Warsaw — faithfully restored and full of churches, palaces and parks — that seems to attract the most visitors.
