Warsaw

It has been already a month that I study philosophy at the University of Warsaw as an exchange student from Kyiv, Ukraine. At the end of this academic year, I will complete my BA degree, therefore a semester in Poland concludes my four-year-long philosophical quest and heralds a new milestone in my life.

I cannot attribute any of the city clichés to Warsaw. Its distinctive feature is not to be found in the narrow, winding streets or romantic cafés, sunlit terraces or busy glossy districts. Of course, Warsaw boasts all of the above, but there is something more in it than just a (stereo)typical fascination of the European capitals.

My metaphor for Warsaw might seem surprising – the city reminds me of an operating room, meticulously designed down to the minute detail, shining with polished surfaces and smelling soothingly of antiseptics. Every time I walk the streets of Warsaw, I feel being embraced by the city and swaddled in a cloud of immunity against the rush. Warsaw is spacious enough not to lose your identity and full of green corners to plunge into meditation. I live on the outskirts of the city, and it gives me a privilege not to judge a book by the cover. The more I am falling in love with the Old Town and Łazienki Park, the more I appreciate quotidian, suburban Warsaw landscapes and their neat accuracy.

Warsaw was basically destroyed during the Second World War, and its reconstruction proves how genuine historical memory works. For the citizens have put their heart into rebuilding the city from ash that it now returns a favour. Warsaw appreciates every moment of your life and tries to make your every step comfortable. It is the very structure of the city that takes care of me, foreseeing my needs and wishes and making me smile without any particular reason.

Except for the 'lightness of being' I feel in Warsaw, there is another reason to love this city. It has perfect conditions to satisfy my thirst for knowledge. My philosophy classes are held in the building 50 steps away from the place Chopin’s heart is buried. Out of the window of the lecture-hall, I can clearly see all the protests near the Main University Gate (Black Monday, anti-propaganda and anti-fascism meetings) and join them after the classes, applying philosophy to the everyday life. Yet even more inspiration I get from the Warsaw University Library –

5 Reasons Why the Warsaw University Library is Better than the Hogwarts Library

1. It will never leave you alone before the most responsible time of the student life. During the examination week, its doors are wide open for every truth seeker even at night. If you need to take a nap and come up with a great idea in your sleep, beanbags and cocoon hammocks are always ready to hand!

The Hogwarts Library closes promptly at 8 p. m. Even if you are Harry Potter, the Hogwarts Triwizard Champion, desperately looking for a vital information about how to breathe underwater, you will be chivvied out of the library as soon as it strikes eight.

2. There are special cabins for group work in the Warsaw University Library, and even Madam Pince is powerless here to restrict you from shouting, casting spells and duelling.

The Library is indeed a perfect place to live in that provides all necessary facilities including a canteen, wi-fi and the armchair of Pope John Paul II. A good chance to save on a flat rent!

3. If Harry, Ron and Hermione had visited the Warsaw University Library with its intuitively clear navigation and classification systems, they would have found information about Nicolas Flamel in a half of minute. Be aware of the modern libraries – they will eliminate your most important plot device with a single click!

4. The University of Warsaw Library Garden is the most charming garden I’ve ever seen so far. I found no solemnity of strict, angular geometry here, no shades of the royal Versaille endeavour – here you may take a liberty of being lazy and wistful, and let your thoughts flood after the leaves in the ponds. Autumn adds an elegant neglect to this liberating temper of studenthood, the odour of futuristic decay, and the holes in the red lace dress of the climbing vine.

Landscape architect Irena Bajerska together with her team designed a marvellous piece of architecture of the future: not the heartless steal blocks, but rather friendly Ithilien together with some Machinarium accessories – green pipes, grey bridges and glass-roofed courtyard – so fancy, so artificially natural.

5. The last reason indulges my philosophical vanity. I couldn't have been any prouder than the moment I saw the column sculptures of the four Polish philosophers that crown the main hall of the library. Philosophy is literally inscribed on the walls of this building: one of the façade panels contains an extract from Plato’s Phaedrus. There Plato criticizes an excessive reliance on writing that may lead to forgetfulness and deliver not a truth, but a semblance of truth. This short passage truly expresses the spirit of the Warsaw University Library – self-ironic, post-modern, communicative and constantly reconsidering its own foundations.