Donald B. McFarlane's Blog, page 12

Warsaw

Why Warsaw? Three reasons: never been, why the hell not, and most importantly it was cheap.

 

 

A must have.

 

I find with BA you’re guaranteed a level of service. Unfortunately, it seems that passengers will have to pay for their meals come next year. Very uncivilized. I’d prefer a hike in ticket prices.

 

Heathrow T3.

 

I watched Sully too recently.

 

On the ground.

 

After a quick ride to the Hotel, a quick shower, I was out the door, map in hand. I was staying at the Regent, which is not ideally located. A little bit too far south for easy access into central Warsaw by foot. Cant’s recall where I spotted this electric peacock. Ended up on Nowy Swiat and ate some delicious perogies.

 

Oh, happened to walk by Ronnie.

 

Jumped on the Metro to get back to the hotel. Fairly simple system. Two lines, piece of cake for anyone used to The Tube.

 

Back in the hotel. Destination drunk.

 

When in Rome, or Warsaw in this case. Vodka.

 

Map recce for day 2.

 

Anyone who knows me and has visited London knows that I like to walk. Always the best way to see a city. I decided to jump into a cab and head north from the hotel to Most Gdanski bridge. A double-decker bridge over the Vistula. This is a shot looking south on the west bank.

 

Cars on the top level, trams below.

 

Tram. This one is modern. There are plenty of Cold War looking trams running around.

 

Soviet vibes.

 

Walking south on the east bank through a park next to the river.

 

Shot looking north from Most Slasko Dabrowski bridge. Very little river traffic. I only saw a single boat.

 

Royal Castle.

 

Again. On the interior court.

 

Old town. One of the few parts of the town not destroyed during WW2.

 

85% of Warsaw was destroyed during the Second World War.

 

Waiting for my KGB contact.

 

Old Town.

 

Old Town.

 

Old Town.

 

Mid-day ceremony at the Presidental Palace.

 

Presidental Palace.

 

Old Town.

 

Walking south along Krakowskie Przedmiescie.

Again.

 

It seems they haven’t done away with the dreaded Bendy-Bus in Warsaw yet. Their non-Bendy-Bus is also really long.

 

Metro enterance I used last night.

 

Architecture.

 

Reminds me a bit of post-war London council estate design.

 

Palace of Science and Culture. Built in 1955, it has 42 floors and over 3200 rooms. Love it.

Lunch. Meat and steamed veggies. Uber Polish. Yummy.

 

View from the observation deck on level 30.

 

Warsaw.

 

Warsaw.

 

Hard to get selfies without a travel buddy.

 

Cute.

 

National Museum.

 

A true classic outside the Polish Army Museum. This tank is a major reason the Allies won WW2.

 

SCUD, I think.

 

MIG 29.

 

The road less travelled.

 

Walking back to the hotel.

 

Palace on an Island.

 

I found a real peacock!

 

Palace.

 

Again.

 

Ditto.

 

No idea.

 

Polish take on the steak tartar. Lovely. Last meal in Warsaw. The next morning I was off to the airport, and back to London.

 

I suppose a large reason I took a two-night run to Warsaw was to joggle the creative juices. I was probably suffering from sensory deprivation having bene locked in London for too long. Of course, London will give you more to do than anywhere else on the planet, but sometimes you need a change of pace. Warsaw was the cheap option. It was a quick flight from the UK, and offered me my first glimpse of snow in several years.

 

Right now, I’m trying to write two novels simultaneously, this is no easy task. Perhaps the mind just needed a little shift to get things back on track.

 

One thing that this little jaunt did reinforce is that Europe is an amazing place to be. You can board a plane and immerse yourself in an entirely foreign culture in no time at all.

 

Anyway. Back to the salt-mines. Wordsmithing, here we come.

London Comic-Con 2016

It’s Sunday, and we’re off to London Comic-Con today. I haven’t been to an event like this since Dragon-Con more than a decade ago.

 

Knocked out a quick run in the fog on the Common first thing.

A little wordsmithing to get the mind ready for the geek-fest.

This film has potential.

Le Tube.

We arrive.

Paid a little extra for Priority entry. It was worth it. Zero line to wait in. Everyone else had to queue for a while.

Lots of VR on display.

Transformers.

White man saving ancient China from monsters. Totally Hollywood.

Spoke with a chap who was selling his books. While he said he has sold some books over the years, he doens’t think the large conferences are worth the £.

Lots of Suicide Squad variations.

Mercy from Overwatch.

She was kind enough to allow the GF to take a picture.

As you’d expect, a massive Japanese influence on the event. Had some lovely Japanese food for lunch.

Vintage video games for sale.

I have no idea why I took this photo.

In need of arms and armour?

Tony Stark. Nice suit.

I had one of these.

It seems like Andrew Lloyd Webber donated some performers.

VR pool.

The Joker doesn’t seem to mind being taken into custody by Gotham City PD.

Who you gonna call?

I might be familiar with this game.

Big Magic the Gathering store.

Lego meets Fantastic Beasts.

A popular costume this year.

I have no idea what this is.

Those suits cannot be comfortable.

As much as I like Luc Besson, I have zero faith in Cara Delevingne.

Back to the Future.

Aliens is one of my favourite films.

It didn’t end well for Bishop.

Xenomorph.

Lots of people playing video games.

Ditto.

So you’re telling me the Umbrella Corporation are the good-guys?

The Force is strong with the younglings.

Zombie teddy-bear. Naturally.

More VR.

Captain Lee Adama.

Comsume. Obey

That was fun.

 

Conclusions: Comic-Con was fun. Lots of great costumes, lots of horrible costumes. A lot of diverse fantasy and Sc-Fi wears on offer from a variety of sellers. Buy, consume, repeat. From my perspective, I found it enjoyable with a dark underlining. Why? If we ignore all the consumerism on offer, I look at all the authors trying to sell their books. Sitting behind their crappy little tables with a small stack of books in front of them waiting for someone to come by and make a purchase, probably not, maybe a chat. Is that my future? The average UK authur earningis is around £13k a year. Sitting there trying to hock my crappy sci-fi books at a mega convention? Then there are those other people. The actors you might remember from that show. You can get an autograph or maybe a picture with them. While that is going on, RR Martin is laughing all the way to the bank with his annual $25 million income and major film and TV stars are living it up in LA. Sure, they’ll show up to the necessary appearances here and there, but today, seeing those artists, authors, and actors who are trying to sell their works, not some Star Wars toys or comic books, it really hit me. Depressing to say the least.