Warsaw Citadel Revisited

It seemed like ages since I'd last visited Warsaw Citadel, down by the water channel that runs through the centre of it:

It was the first time I'd seen the basket-type swan sculptures down there:

The tree below seems to have been fashioned into some kind of New Age shrine:

Occasionally, I've seen groups of teenagers putting candles inside this tree, possibly doing some kind of pagan rituals.

I've been told recently that the tunnel below runs for quite some distance:

Quite like the cat graffiti below, which I saw just before exiting the Citadel:

The Jewish Cemetery Water Pump

I had to pop in the Jewish cemetery to use the toilet while out walking one Sunday afternoon in Warsaw.

When looking at the water pump closely, what really caught my eye was the water cup on top of it:

I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like the visitors at the cemetery may be able to still get a drink of water here:

Passing a Marian Statue

 Passing a wonderful Marian statue on the way down to Warsaw Old Town recently:

Really like the way that the Polish national flag is positioned alongside the statue.

Reopening Chesterton's Father Brown Stories

 

After about a year or so without delving into it, I reopened G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown Stories last week.

Still being in the first section, The Innocence of Father Brown, I read The Wrong Shape which is about 15 pages long. Like The Secret Garden, the villain of The Wrong Shape is a secularist who is sceptical about the supernatural realm of life. However, after Dr. Harris kills Quinton, a satirical Romantic figure fascinated by all things Indian and Oriental, because he loves Quinton's wife, he discovers that there's something beyond and high above naturalism, as he suffers the pangs of guilt and remorse. This reminded me of Dostoyevsky's celebrated exploration of the psychology of guilt and remorse in Crime and Punishment which I read more than 30 years ago.

The context of The Wrong Shape which revolves around Quinton's obsessive interest in Indian and Oriental mysticism reminds me of Chesterton's Orthodoxy, which I read about 25 years ago, as it points towards Buddhism and other forms of Eastern mysticism lacking the physical reality/substance of orthodox Christianity (i.e. the Incarnation, Trinity, Transubstantiation etc., the belief in God becoming man to remain with us in the tabernacle).

Two Amber Beers

Just recently, I've had two different beers from the Amber brewery which is based in the village of Bielkówko, not far from Gdańsk, in northern Poland.

My favourite one was the hoppy lager below which was 5% in alcohol:

What was wonderful about this lager was that the hoppy taste was very subtle and in no way overpowering.

The Amber Johannes lager below was 6.5% in alcohol:

Despite a distinct sweet taste, this beer was quite smooth to drink, although it did take me over an hour to neck it down.

Leftist Graffiti Crossed Out

The first two pictures below show the main symbol of an abortionist group in Poland being covered over by Christian crosses on the streets of Warsaw:

A Polish friend explained that the 'three red downward arrows' insignia below may represent the extreme left Antifa organisation which many people consider to be a terrorist group:

Whatever it represents, the political symbol seems to have been given a no entry sign by some Legia Warsaw fans.

An Ominous Message

Given all the strange things that are happening at the moment, I found the message below in central Warsaw rather ominous: