Silesia City Center

This is one of the entrances to Silesia City Center - a huge shopping facility. (It's not the main entrance, I think. I don't even know where the main one is, 'cause I always leave the car on the underground parking lot :-P). Here you'll find Tesco and Saturn plus 220 other stores with clothes, jewellery, shoes, you name it - it's probably there. There are also cafes and bars. Oh, and Cinema City. Bierhalle is to be opened soon.

Pirates aboard!

“Cinema city” theatres are very similar to each other throughout Poland. Today Jack Sparrow rulez! (...in the cinama) And today, on Sunday, TWO photos.

A bowl of sweet cherries

Enjoy!

Emblem

I saw the emblem of Katowice on one ot the walls and I thought it's worth posting here. Later I'll try to write a few words about this emblem. Have a good day everybody!

[edited later]

The origin of the Katowice emblem is in the remote past, in the very very early days of industry in this area (iron ore processing).
Water (the first element in the emblem) symbolizes life. In a vast pond there is accumulated energy… To place it under their command, people only had to dam the water flowing into the Roździanka river…
Wood (the second element in the emblem) symbolizes the woods which have been here from time immemorial. The presence of trees is reflected in the Polish names of former settlements, nowadays the districts of the city: Borki, Dąbrówka, Dąb… Both water and wood were necessary to process the iron ore – the first riches of this land…
The hammer in the forge (the third element of the emblem) combines those two primary elements: the water and the wood. The hammer of the forge built close to the pond was powered by the energy of dammed water (hence the wheel in the emblem), iron billets were formed with the hummer. Many hundred year’s tradition and the memory of that forge resulted in choosing the hammer to be in the emblem of the place.

(translated from this page)

A kiss

Yesterday I had quite a busy day, so the only thing I managed to post here was “good night”. But today – something cute! The caption on the bilboard goes: The only thing you can steal us is a kiss. I saw this advertisement for Juwentus, a big security services company in Poland. Quite creative, I think.

sunset

good night everybody ;)

The Rawa "river"

… and it stinks!
Katowice has always been a industrial city, famous (or infamous) for its coal mines and steel works. In the past era the issues of natural environment were much disregarded and poor “river” became a sewer. Fortunately, as the times has changed, the city remained industrial but in a more civilized way, and environmental issues are priority nowadays. Things neglected for years cannot be repaired overnight, but this fragment of the Rawa you can see in the photo is one of the last “uncivilized” views of the river. It is now undergoing “a major overhaul” and its waters are being treated, so, hopefully, it may become a small’n’attractive river to stroll along.

I’m a writing on a wall…

The uglier side of the city. The old passage under the railway bridge in the very centre of the city. But some sunny-funny creature chose his?/her? residence on the wall and is sending the world his?/her? greeting via this web page.

Heat wave

Europe is swept by the heat wave, and here we’re suffering too. But there is a nice side to it! Hot sun beating down is the reason for hot ladies strolling down the street as if through some holiday resort - which Katowice, unfortunately, is not! :(

The "Diament" Hotel

It you don’t like the Metropol, the Diament Hotel is another place to stay for a few days...

The Monopol Hotel

...today, at high noon...

Katowice is definitely not so exciting as London, Paris or New York. Sometimes, as probably everybody, I dream of living somewhere else, in some big, worldly, cosmopolitan city…. In such a place it’s probably much easier to find a view to take an interesting photo, isn’t it? ;-)
So, please, appreciate my efforts to find something special every day. Katowice IS a nice city to live in…

For those travelers who are accustomed to luxury – the Metropol Hotel at Dworcowa Street, in the very centre of Katowice…

Katowice Airport

On impulse, seeing the blogs for other cities of the world, I decided to start a photo blog for the city of Katowice, the city where I was born and where I live. I’m new to blogging and absolute amateur in photography, but… you live and learn, so hopefully the photos will become good and interesting, and, hopefully, I learn how to use all the options of blogger.com.
Visit and enjoy!

The first photo is from the Katowice Airport, located – surprisingly – in Pyrzowice, a few kilometers from the city.