Me and WUT’s PW-5.

I just spent a most unexpectedly sublime week in Warsaw. What a beautiful, walkable, and livable city! Just the right density — useful public transport, affordable bike rentals, green space at regular intervals, and architectural monuments galore.

My primary task was to conduct interviews with budding engineers. Over the course of the week, eleven Polish women (who are studying various sorts of physics and engineering) each volunteered an hour and a half to share their experiences with me. It was amazingly insightful to discover similarities and difference with the experiences of the 10 Irish and 11 foreign-born women I’ve interviewed at Dublin Institute of Technology. (I also have 11 interviews recorded with Portuguese women, but these must still be translated.)

Fortunately for me, the students in Poland can opt to take their classes in Polish, or English, or a mixture of both. These Polish women spoke English very well and were bold enough to grant me interviews in my own native tongue.

In the evening hours I had time to explore some sites, depicted in the photos below.

The building at Warsaw University of Technology where I conducted interviews, from the corner penthouse office…

…a half hour’s walk…

…from this fabulous AirBnB studio I rented for the week.

The AirBnB host even brought over a new coffee machine when I texted that there was no way to make coffee (the French press had disappeared!?!).

The studio was near the Chopin Museum…

…just two blocks from the New Street leading to the Old Town…

…a street full of eateries and fun.

My daily walk passed beautiful monuments…

…and dazzling reflections…

…with unique sights in every direction.

At Warsaw University of Technology…

…I discovered many interesting programs…

…meet with a half dozen scholars who share my research interests….

…visited the architecture program…

…and even toured an aircraft hanger…

…complete with this well-known aircraft, developed here at WUT…

…which my dad showed me in magazines back at the time it was invented (in the 1990s).

That’s when dad and I were building an experimental aircraft. (that’s still half done, I’m sorry to say).

Our plane had this kind of wood structure…

…and a fiberglass skin, as shown here.

The man on the left pilots aircrafts built here, over Antarctica, in order to count penguins.

Here’s the main building of WUT…

…which was destroyed in WWII…

…but lovingly rebuilt.

It has a beautiful central hall…

…a maze of corridors…

…and a statue of Marie Skłodowska-Curie (i.e., Madame Curie, the namesake of current research fellowship, who was Polish).

After I conducted interviews each day…

…I had time left to see some sites.

Here, the Old Town…

…with its stately Cathedral…

…also re-built after the war.

Notice the date, way up top? 1954. When the Old Town rose again.

Re-built to match its former splendor, the Old Town stands in testament to the spirit and will of the Polish people.

Here’s a modern monument…

…commemorating an underground railroad.

A Palladian church in the “New Town”…

…sits nearby a church of unique design.

The gates of Warsaw University.

A nighttime roller blading event…

…with streets closed off for an evening of fun!

A palace on the outskirts of town…

…a Baroque masterpiece…

…of architecture…

…ornament…

…and garden design.

A 3-D maze…

…fanciful statuary…

…a monument to, perhaps, Leda and the swan?…

…a bountiful capital…

…and a nearby church. How Catholic, this place.

Although I don’t usually collect souvenirs, I had to bring home a memory of this place that captured my heart.