Congrats, best of luck, and peace. A new Kosovo is born.

Kosovar kids.



A field like no other
Heaven above it
Heaven below.

Part of a poem on Kosovo, written Vasko Popa. Earth Erect. Translated from Serbian by John Matthias.

A brief history of Kosovar epics and Serbian poetry linked here. And even if the name of the very poem is "The Battle of Kosovo, please don't give me that crap about "how natural wars and battles are there where people have been fighting each other for centuries".

Google Kosovo and take a look at photos of little kids burned to death etc. There is nothing "natural" in there. Just enourmous pain, shame and disgrace.

Our civilisation must think wars are avoidable, and act accordingly.

Othervise we do not have a civilisation in Europe after all.


* * * * *

Congrats, Kosovo!

Live in peace.

And hopefully Serbia and Russia, as well as we all, will let you do excactly that.

Warsaw, part II. Some views and a bit of architecture.

The Warsaw Ghetto could not be rebuilt, because the nazis did not leave a thing after they destroyed in entirety. (By the way, the monstruos Palace of Culture and Science is built onto the ghetto area.) But the old town was. Quite like in Nürnberg (Nuremberg) that was a remarkable task, but the bombs had not destroyed the town completely.

Like sad skeletons the walls of beautiful merchant houses and noble old churches were standing still when the citizens came back from undergound safe houses or countryside. Or, from concentration camps.




Horsey horsey horsey! And the local little ones love these vehicles, too.



Very narrow passes can take you from the King's Castle to the Market Square.



A dragon is guarding the old buildings.



And some newer districts. This is a bit the the east from Jana Pawla. (And on the area the ghetto used to be.)



The Central Station. "Surprisingly small, in a big city like this", Mr HP said. He was brave and left for Treblinka by train, and spent there almost one day. In the dark evening the Extermination Camp had been full of ghosts. "I have to turn back, can't see a thing. But there must be ghosts around", HP reported to me on the phone.

Warsaw, part 1

So, mr HP and I visited Warsaw two weeks ago, with a god bunch of publishing editors but so far I haven't had a chance to update my blog, with photos.

Stalin's unwanted gift to the Polish, the Palace of Culture and Science, made an impression. To most of us, I dre to believe. (But our Polish guide hated it!)

Visiting the erection, or just walking round and round it, is a must. But mind that it is so big that even walking around it is more than a kilometer.

You can see it, whereever you are in Warsaw. A fact some locals do not appreciate, however.


This is the cafe at the main entrance inside the Palais. A good cafe, by the way. They served good and cheap meals, too. But did not advertise them at all. We just begged them to sell some food which was not like cakes or peanuts. And the lifts up, to the terrace are here. Remember to buy the ticket first here, downstairs. Otherwise you will be told to get back without seeing a thing. (Was tested.)


Oh, the ghetto... It was huge. And what's left? Almost nothing. Only part of one street, Chlodna, and the Umschlagsplatz where the trains were "loaded" with the "cargo". The trains heading to Treblinka.


This monument is dedicated to the ghetto victims and heroes.


This is the monument of the heroes of Warsaw Uprising, in 1944.


And one of the most interesting museums I have visited for a long time (except the one one we went into in Nuremberg): the Warsaw Rising Museum. This is a play room for kids, can you imagine. They can build little cardboard tanks, for example.