The 28th Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity

On Sunday (January 12) at 15.30 the main concert will start, which will last until 22. There will be, among others Daria Zawiałow, Agnieszka Chylińska and Ralph Kamiński. The concert will close with the performance of the band Tulia. The artists will perform on the same stage under which Warsaw residents welcomed the New Year. Works are currently underway there, because the stage needs to be slightly modified. Just like on New Year’s Eve, there will be no fireworks during the final of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. This is the second time when “Light to Heaven” at 20 will be a musical and light show.

In front of the Grand Theater there will be a stand with a educational program “We save and teach to save”. At 8.30-20 you can train there with knowledge of the principles of providing first aid through VR glasses.

On Saturday, the 5-kilometer run “Count yourself with diabetes” will start. This is the 14th time when volunteers go to the streets of Warsaw. The new route runs along Krakowskie Przedmieście, Świętokrzyska, pl. Powstańców Warszawy, Jasna, Mazowiecka and pl. Pilsudski. Start at 11. 5,000 people will participate and donations collected during registration for the run will be allocated to insulin pumps for pregnant women with diabetes.

The account of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity will be credited to the lucky ones who will win unique auctions. Małgorzata Gersdorf, the first president of the Supreme Court, invites you to a day spent in the courthouse at pl. Krasinski. You will be able to accompany the president in her routine duties. Tomasz Grodzki, Speaker of the Senate, who will be able to have dinner, counts on the donors. After a joint meal, the politician will show around the Senate building.

Picture source: https://www.wosp.org.pl

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New Year’s Eve in Poland – 5 reasons why!

1) Party!

Polish people really can drink and know how to have a good time. From small and affordable traditional shot bars to craft beer and cocktail bars to rooftop nightclubs, Poland has something to offer to any kind of partier. There’s a plethora of the bars and clubs that will be having NYE themed parties to choose from. If you really can’t decide on a venue or just want to hop around bars and clubs, Warsaw and Gdansk have NYE themed pub crawls for an extremely affordable price.

2) Budget Friendly & Easy On Your Wallet

Poland’s currency is the Polish Zloty. Poland is an extremely affordable destination for many travellers. Combine that with NYE, where pre-fixed menus are usually over-the-top expensive; not in Poland. For example, on the high-end, a nice, pre-fixed NYE meal for two with alcohol will only put you back €45 at most. A standard dinner and drinks will only cost you less than €20 and alcohol is dirt cheap (€1 vodka shots, €2-3 pints of beer, €5 fancy cocktails) and available 24 hours a day. For those of you craving some extravagance but have always been apprehensive due to a budget, you can end 2019 sightseeing and partying around one of Poland’s cities in a limo (starting from €22 per person) or helicopter at a budget-friendly price.

3) Escape The Crowds

We all know that the major European cities like London, Paris, and Berlin are going to be a zoo on New Year’s Eve! Taxis will be nearly impossible to hail and Uber surge prices will be over the roof! Save yourself the aggravation and head over to Poland where most of the crowd are fun-loving locals! To be quite honest, all of the Polish cities are so compact that walking is certainly not out of the question [just remember, no open bottles while walking :)].

4) Christmas Markets

The best thing about Christmas times are definitely Christmas Markets. You can walk around all bundled up, looking at the lights with a mulled wine in hand, munching on delicious Polish goodies such as pierogies, kielbasa, and pączki (donuts). Check out the Christmas Markets in the Old Towns of Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk- they are absolutely magical!

5) Winter Wonderland in the Mountains

The southern parts of Poland offer various skiing/snowboarding destinations for the active traveler. Unlike the Swiss and Italian Alps, skiing/snowboarding in Poland is quite affordable. For those of you non-ski/snowboarders, never fear. You can still immerse yourself in the mountains and have a wintery, snowy time in the picturesque town of Zakopane. Zakopane is THE Polish go-to for a winter getaway. Grab a hot chocolate or mulled wine and ring in the near year all cosied up by the fire in the wintery wonderland of the Polish mountains.

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Green City

The most ecologically-minded city in Poland in 2019, according to Forbes, is Katowice. This may come as a surprise given the coal pollution in this mining region, but looks can be deceiving.

Forbes examined the operations undertaken and the money spent on ecological ventures, combating smog, testing air quality and financing a system of urban bicycles.

Katowice, the centre of a huge urban agglomeration, has been investing in green projects for a few years now. In 2018, the city authorities spent nearly PLN 9.8 million on replacing heat sources to reduce smog, and installed 127 air quality meters and 75 urban bicycle stations.

Katowice has been strongly advocating low-emission public transport for a while. In 2016 – 2018, the city added 90 state-of-the-art buses that meet the EURO 6 pollution standards at a cost of PLN 100 million. Keep it going, Katowice!

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Polish scientist in a historical expedition to Mount Everest

Geographer Mariusz Potocki was one of the people who participated in the unique expedition to Mount Everest. Their mission was to create the highest weather station in the world and collect the ice core at an altitude that had never been done before.

A team of scientists who climbed the highest peak in the world, led by experts from the National Geographic Society and Tribhuvan University in Nepal, installed two weather monitoring stations at 8430 meters and 7945 meters. The data collected by the transmitters are intended to help researchers better understand how rising global temperatures affect the melting rate of glaciers. The team also collected an ice core sample at an altitude of 8,020 meters, which will help scientists study the characteristics of mountain precipitation and atmospheric composition in pre-industrial times.

The almost two-month expedition involved over 30 scientists from around the world, including seventeen researchers from Nepal and one Pole, Mariusz Potocki.

Potocki is a geographer and glaciologist, i.e. a researcher of glaciers. Since childhood, his passions were geography and chemistry, but after high school he decided to focus on the first one, choosing studies in this field at the University of Warsaw. During his studies, he took part in many expeditions, during which he did a lot of valuable scientific work, but this did not provide him with a place for doctoral studies. His candidacy was rejected because the faculty wanted to focus on developing research in the field of socio-economic geography, not physical, which is Potocki’s domain. That’s when he decided to quit everything and go to … Antarctica, where he was waiting for him to work at the Polish Polar Station Henryk Arctowski.

At the end of his a year and a half stay, the station was visited by CBS television, which was preparing material about glaciers. Fate wanted her to be accompanied by prof. Paul Mayewski from the University of Maine, who, after getting to know Potocki, offered him doctoral studies at his university, which the Pole gladly agreed to. The rest is history – 10 years later Mayewski and Potocki conquered Mount Everest together during an expedition organized by the National Geographic Society

source: National Geographic

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The foreground of the Wilanów Palace in a new setting

Four connected buildings, three squares, a park on the “beach”, lots of greenery, cars underground, garden and roof terraces, lively public squares, a cinema, theater, restaurants, pubs, and a ban on large-format advertising. These are the plans for the reconstruction of the Foreground of the Wilanów Palace.

One of the main assumptions of the project is to limit the placement of advertisements, the use of precious materials, glass facades and wood. The concept of developing this important part of Wilanów, originally dominated by a gigantic, closed, anti-city, concrete shopping mall, has changed significantly. This is largely due to several years of social work and the involvement of residents and local associations.

The project made a huge impression on the citizens of Wilanów. The pictures look really great. Visualization and the final result are often something different, but the direction in which the project went is pretty interesting. The very fact of maintaining a large space from residential buildings gives a nice effect and does not overwhelm like the original plan.

Does the foreground of the Wilanów Palace have a chance to become a place vibrant with life, green, open, friendly, not burdensome for local residents, a place everyone can be proud of? It all depends to a large extent on the provisions of the new Municipal Spatial Development Plan.

Picture source: Wilanów Przyjazny

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