Knurów by night - my home town in #Poland

Saturday, 28th of January 2023 [35]

For quite a while now I’ve been reading posts in #pinmapple community by a few of my friends as well as strangers. I wanted to add some of my own, but I’ve been a bit confused about the rules. An app? Waypoints? How?

Usually when I’m confused about the rules, I stay away until I learn. I don’t really want to break rules by not understanding them fully. Yesterday @jane1289 reminded me of posting in #Pinmapple community again. As I scrolled through the posts today, I see no waypoints and locations added, so I decided to risk it and publish my first post here. Please do not hesitate to guide me if I’ve done something not quite right though 💙

As some of you might now, I have been visiting my parents in #Poland since Wednesday this week. Whenever I’m here, I take regular walks with either of my parents around this small town - Knurów, which is located on the south of Poland. My family comes from a different, west part of Poland, but my parents moved here, closer to coal mine where my dad got a job as a miner.

Couple days ago I took an evening walk with mum. Of course the walk was broken by me stopping to take pictures, as if I hadn’t had 1000’s of them already.

The first capture I took that evening was of Ratusz. It’s kinda like a city council, but not really 😂 I asked mum what happens in Ratusz and she said that people get married there.

Makes sense… it’s located next to the church. Some people might choose to go an get married in Ratusz and then have also a religious ceremony in the church next door. When I was getting married here in 2007, I picked an easy 2 in 1 option. Ceremony in the church and signing official documents also in church afterwards. I guess I could go to Ratusz to get divorced too? But I chose to do so over the post ✉️ in England. Easy peasy 😉

I still love that church though, even though I haven’t attended any religious ceremonies in many years. I have quite a few nice and/or funny memories from this church. It’s also a nice, old building and it looks pretty all lit up at night. Only street lights were getting in the way of my pictures.

Between the Ratusz and the Church there is another building. We used to call it ‘salki’, which doesn’t really translate to English. It’s a place where nuns used to live and as a child I was attending religion lessons here to prepare for my first communion at the age of 6. I know, that’s super early. My family is quite religious, or rather was, as the newer generations are not that bothered anymore.

But hey, enough about religion! It’s fun time! I have tons of nice memories with this place below. The round place on the left was where all outdoor parties used to take place. I’d be here almost every NYE when I was a teenager. Getting drunk, walking round around that circular structure and watching fireworks display.

The building to the right used to be the centre of culture. It’s where I took my first ever dance classes as a child. There is also a pub 'Gwarek' at the ground level of this building. They make the best pizza in town! Good, good memories 🥰

On the other side of the same road is a brand new building of Fire-station. ‘Państwowa straż pożarna’ it says on the building. This building did not exist when I lived here. One of the newest ‘kids on the block’.

Further down the same road new and old mixed in together - looking each other in the eye. And my mum walking between them to say:
‘Calm down, you two. There is room for both of you!’

The new on the left probably was already here before I left Poland 18 years ago. It’s a tiny neighbourhood of maybe 4-6 blocks of flats. Not super new, but not as old as the neighbour on the opposite side of the road.

This old beauty was here way before I was born. At the bottom there was (and still is) a photographers studio. Wedding pictures, ID pictures, christening’s pictures - whatever you like. I always used to stop by the windows to see pretty pictures of strangers and sometimes people I knew.

Fun fact I remember about this building is that one day I visited someone who lived there, as it was a friend of a friend. It was a lady and her husband. She told us that a witch once told her she will be rich one day. She will be elderly by then and married to her second husband. What a weird fact to remember, hey? I must have been 15 when this happened.

Let’s move on to the park. It’s right by this old building. It used to be my shortcut from my neighbourhood to the other one, where I would spend my evenings after school and until my curfew.

These days it looks much more civilised with paved paths and street lights all around. Many dogs walk here with their owners, as well as people rushing, most likely using it as a shortcut, just like I did back in a day.

Look here @lhes! I found Mickey Mouse even painted on the wall! Looks like there are more fans of Mickey Mouse around 😁

We carried on walking through the park and around back roads, back to the main road. All to get a few extra steps, cause I'm fat 🤷🏻‍♀️ Ok, also to take more pictures.

Here a pretty house with even prettier wall around it. I like the contrast between these two.

This Pizza place? Well, it used to be a pub back in my days. I have no special memories from here. Apart from the numbers 777. My favourite number.

We were going to turn around by this pub, but miraculously my mum proposed to walk a little further. These blocks of flats were here ever since I remember. What’s new about them is balconies. In the past few years those who own their flats were offered a balcony at a cost of around $4000. As you can see on the picture, not everyone decided to get one.

Of course, we could walk much longer, there is much more to see, but you know me - I talk way too much and these posts quickly grow to the size of a monster. I might write some more later on. I took some pictures in a daylight too.

Until next time 💙

Camera:	iPhone11
Photographer:	@fantagira
Editing apps:	NONE