I come from a middle size city located close to the capital of Poland - Pruszków near Warsaw. A lot of my friends think it is quite far and hard to get there which for me now sounds ridiculous, but it was not always like that. When I got to high school in Warsaw I was similarly scared of the big city and commuting there as some of my friends are still now. I’m a goody-two-shoes kind of person so I started to study maps, stops locations, public transport timetables, to could easily (or at least to just to) get to the right place. When I gained some proficiency in it, I expanded my studies by some interesting places, libraries, art & leisure spaces, places convenient to learn, spend time with friends and finally eat cheap & tasty.
Did I mention it was about 15 years ago? Things were quite more complicated then - there were no smartphones, Facebook had only 5 million users (and no Pole in this), Google Maps was barely launched (and for sure wasn’t known here) and almost all data were collected in an organoleptic way. But what kind of satisfaction it was?!
Very quickly my colleagues from the new school noticed that I am one of the best-oriented persons in terms of city guiding (very often also more than native of Warsaw) so they didn’t stop to ask me: “Where we can go for a drink?”, “Is there any exhibition now you recommend to see?”, “Do you know how to get to the other side of the river without stacking in a traffic jam?”, “Study together - great idea, but where? Dude* help!”
This feeling of being needed was amazing and at the same time drove me to get better and to constantly broaden my perspective and checked resources. This is how I became a city guide in my small community. I really liked this role and it stayed with me for the next 15 years - until now. With time, either appropriate tools came.
Of course, my areas of interest were expanding from useful public spaces and good bars & restaurants (which I like to review - who doesn’t? - because I believe everyone deserves quality food in a good place) to museums and top city spaces.
But as I was getting more knowledge of art and architecture (bless human studies!) it started to be my hobby - finding unusual places where art is put and street art manifestations.
And getting older I was also gaining consciousness about how our environment - especially architecture and urbanism - is shaping our culture, or in some cases how it was. And now this is one of my favorites topics to be shared with others: places that have an exceptional value for the local community and testify of its uniqueness (like for example unicorn mosaic in the center of Warsaw made in early 1960). As well as places, objects and other forms of representations (details! <3) which are in danger to disappear soon or be forgotten but also those which were restored and now a not-so-weak signal of what really matters.
Doing so I hope we (as a community) won’t forget so fast from where we are, where we belong, what makes us different from others and how beautiful are those others. Additionally, it is super cool to could always answer when somebody is asking me on the street: “Sorry, do you know where is…?”
Upon this, I just don’t want anybody to feel lost - physically and mentally.
*Yes - this is really how they called me then and are still doing it ?