Touring the Wooden Houses of Osiedle Przyjaźń in Poland with Jonny Blair
The wooden houses of Osiedle Przyjazn are totally wild and a trip to see them will take you back to the communist times as well as giving you a break from the very touristy Stare Miatso and Nowe Miasto.
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Warsaw was my last stop on my 4-month jaunt in Europe which saw me backpacking Iceland, Andorra, Gibraltar and Malta for the first time and many cities, such as Valencia, Avila, Toledo, Segovia, Ronda, all in Spain, Novi Sad and Subotica in Serbia and Lodz in Poland.
My travels may look random but there is always a reason as to why I go certain places. Jonny Blair, top Northern Irish blogger, author and football fanatic who is featured on this blog (where he talks about his top 3 favourite countries), lives in Warsaw.
So I took the opportunity to come and meet with him. The previous evening he showed me around Powiśle, the area between the old town and Solec.
The next day we made a full day of it and backpacked the neighbourhood of Osiedle Przyjazn.
So here we are, Travel Bloggers: Nomadic Backpacker and Northern Irishman In Poland / Don't Stop Living, Trevor Warman and Jonny Blair:
Backpacking Osiedle Przyjazn:
My travels may look random but there is always a reason as to why I go certain places. Jonny Blair, top Northern Irish blogger, author and football fanatic who is featured on this blog (where he talks about his top 3 favourite countries), lives in Warsaw.
So I took the opportunity to come and meet with him. The previous evening he showed me around Powiśle, the area between the old town and Solec.
The next day we made a full day of it and backpacked the neighbourhood of Osiedle Przyjazn.
So here we are, Travel Bloggers: Nomadic Backpacker and Northern Irishman In Poland / Don't Stop Living, Trevor Warman and Jonny Blair:
Backpacking Osiedle Przyjazn:
Where is Osiedle Przyjazn?
Osiedle Przyjaźń is a well and truly off-the-beaten-track neighbourhood in the district of Bemowo, which is in the western part of the city of Warsaw.
Me and Jonny Blair spent a cool hour, backpacking through this communist-era neighbourhood.
Of course, you can find (almost) everything on Wikipedia these days but we got first-hand, top-class information from Aleksandra who runs the small shop in town where we stopped to get an ice cream.
So the neighbourhood of Osiedle Przyjaźń was built in the early 1950s, for similar reasons as the city of Nowa Huta, which was built to house the workers at the then-named Lenin Steelworks. Osiedle Przyjaźń was built to accommodate construction workers of the Pałac Kultury i Nauki or the Palace of Culture and Science in the centre of Warsaw:
Me and Jonny Blair spent a cool hour, backpacking through this communist-era neighbourhood.
Of course, you can find (almost) everything on Wikipedia these days but we got first-hand, top-class information from Aleksandra who runs the small shop in town where we stopped to get an ice cream.
So the neighbourhood of Osiedle Przyjaźń was built in the early 1950s, for similar reasons as the city of Nowa Huta, which was built to house the workers at the then-named Lenin Steelworks. Osiedle Przyjaźń was built to accommodate construction workers of the Pałac Kultury i Nauki or the Palace of Culture and Science in the centre of Warsaw:
Osiedle Przyjaźń translates as Estate Friendship and was built in 1952. At the peak of the construction of the Pałac Kultury i Nauki, over 4 thousand people lived in the Osiedle Przyjaźń. The buildings, both the dormitories for the workers and the separate houses were brought to Osiedle Przyjaźń, like a prefab and assembled onsite.
Some of the houses are clearly abandoned and some are very much lived-in.
After the building of the Palace of Culture and Science was finished, the estate was given over to student accommodation.
Some of the houses are clearly abandoned and some are very much lived-in.
After the building of the Palace of Culture and Science was finished, the estate was given over to student accommodation.
The former bar in Osiedle Przyjaźń:
There are plans to reopen it. Then they would need a Backpacker Hostel and do Guided Tours. Now that would put Osiedle Przyjazn back on the map.
Buying ice creams in the village shop in Osiedle Przyjazn and getting intel for the blog post from Aleksandra:
The student club in Osiedle Przyjazn:
Jonny Blair the ground hopper, doing a video for his YouTube channel (documenting everything is all part of the requirements of being a top travel blogger):
How to get to Osiedle Przyjazn from the centre of Warsaw
This one is very easy. The district of Bemowo with a metro station of the same name, is the last station on Line 2 (M2) of the Warsaw Metro.
You can get 20-minute tickets, 75-minute tickets and 24-hour tickets (and more) from the ticket machines and can be use on the metro, trams and buses across Warsaw.
The 20-minute ticket obviously starts running as soon as you pass through the barriers at the metro station, so wait until the 'next train' is in about 50 seconds. That's all you need to get down the escalator. The ride from the river to Bemowo is just 18 minutes.
To enter the metro, you need to insert the ticket whether it's already been validated or not.
You do not need to insert the ticket when exiting the metro station.
When using the tram, you have to validate the ticket if you are using it for the first time but, if you have already validated the 75-minute ticket or the 24-hour ticket, you don't have to do anything, except show the conductor if they come a controlling. Jumping from tram to tram or metro to tram isn't feasible when you have a 20-minute ticket!
You can get 20-minute tickets, 75-minute tickets and 24-hour tickets (and more) from the ticket machines and can be use on the metro, trams and buses across Warsaw.
The 20-minute ticket obviously starts running as soon as you pass through the barriers at the metro station, so wait until the 'next train' is in about 50 seconds. That's all you need to get down the escalator. The ride from the river to Bemowo is just 18 minutes.
To enter the metro, you need to insert the ticket whether it's already been validated or not.
You do not need to insert the ticket when exiting the metro station.
When using the tram, you have to validate the ticket if you are using it for the first time but, if you have already validated the 75-minute ticket or the 24-hour ticket, you don't have to do anything, except show the conductor if they come a controlling. Jumping from tram to tram or metro to tram isn't feasible when you have a 20-minute ticket!
On this occasion, I got 2 20-minute tickets:
You have to insert the little ticket and wait for it to be ejected:
It's just a short walk from Bemovo metro station to Osiedle Przyjazn.
