This was my last day in Białystok, so I tried to make use of it.
I had a lazily late breakfast of eggs and avocado in my favourite café place on the not-square, which set me up nicely for my afternoon’s power-tourism around the lovely leafy residential area of Bojary, which is a mix of old tenement houses, historic wooden houses, and post-war houses and blocks of flats.
In its day, the district was home to the elites, consisting mostly of wooden architecture, which has been systematically destroyed since 1970s by people suffering from, as a Host put it, “developeritis”. It is portrayed as a “village in the city centre” which is now restricted to just a few streets, and a plan for the district adopted by the municipality council now requires strict protection of the wooden buildings and limits what can be built there.
It made for an enjoyable afternoon’s stroll and the residents are surprisingly tolerant of people stopping to photograph their houses, but I think I decided quite early on that wooden houses were not as much to my tastes as I’d expected. How else would I have known, had I not had a go? Wooden houses dutifully crossed off the list, I decided to have a go at finding the murals which are dotted around the city.
It transpires that there are far more pieces in the exhibition than I had time for and I was frequently distracted by some of the non-sanctioned street art (read graffiti), so I resorted to enlisting the help of Google Maps to find as many as possible until the light started going, which was about the same time I ran out of steam anyway. This is a shame as I could’ve forgone the wooden houses, if I’m honest, and happily spent an entire day pottering about hunting street. But what I didn’t get to see will, hopefully, still be there should I visit again, which I think I’d like to, perhaps as part of a longer trip. Back when planning last year’s trip to Tallinn there was much lamenting at the current lack of a rail connection between Lithuania and Latvia, so it’s not unlikely that I’ll be back. This also contributed to my not going to Finland this time round.
I decided I could probably manage one more responsible visit to beer-and-vodka and a responsible visit indeed it was for I escaped without getting a tattoo of a green star and, come the early evening, had even looked at my bag and decided I needed might need to pack it before my train tomorrow. My plan for food was a disappointing (but not bad) pizza on the not-square. With the benefit of hindsight I should have had one final falafel, but something compelled me to try something else. But, Noodles be praised, along the wander back to my place of sleep, the barman from beer-and-vodka — out with friends and not at work — spied me from afar and practically forced me into a shots bar (four for 25zł) to have a final couple of drinks with him. I was powerless to resist.
Vilnius tomorrow is not going to happen. I had an off-chance peek at the PKP booking site and the train to Vilnius — “One a day?” said Host. “That’s a lot!” — is full. I am therefore resigned to my trip to Warsaw and reservations on a train and in a hostel wait for me to start my inevitable trundle homewards.
