Warsaw [antikvár]

Warsaw - an ordinary city. With everyday preoccupations and joys. Withthe narrow congested street of Nowy Swiat and the broad LazienkowskaThoroughfare, with the quiet and secluded narrow streets of the Old Townwhere memories linger and the vast Defilad Square - planned so as to leaveplenty of room for future growth - across which the wind howls.We once had occasion to take a group of foreign journalists on a sight-seeing tour of Warsaw. They listened to explanations and nodded in assent.After we had seen the Old Town, Muran6w and the new housing develop-ments in the northern part of the city, and were on our way back to the centre,one of the guests with a note of disappointment in his voice summed uphis impressions: "Well," he said, "it's just an ordinary city " At the timewe resented his remark but we realize now that this indifferent commenton the part of our somewhat disappointed guest was actually an unintentionalconfirmation of a wonderful phenomenon: that thirty years after being totallyannihilated Warsaw was an ordinary city again.Yet this "ordinariness" is quite unusual - and so is this city of ours. Twiceit went through the process of growth and formation. The first time round