Scary Bydgoszcz – Hallowe’en Sights in North-West Poland

Due to that dreadful thing called work taking up all of my time in the last week (the outrage!) I have had no time to finish cataloguing the spooky sights of Bydgoszcz before, or even during, the celebration of hallowe’en. Most disappointing.

Anyway, here, belatedly, are a few scary places to see or avoid, should you ever find yourself in my city:

First, we have the spooky stadium or something or other. I don’t really know what it used to be, but it has what looks like some tiered seating and a surrounding outer wall of metre-thick communist-era concrete. It sits beside the bus station and acts almost like a border line between the part of the city in the centre, which has been extensively renovated (and continues to be today) and the part leading out towards Fordonek where, Słoneczny Młynn Hotel aside, is still a bit of a ruinous place. I certainly wouldn’t want to go in at night!

Next up we have the flats in the middle of the deserted park on the way to Szwederowo. Last Sunday, I went to a colleague’s flat in Szwederowo to watch some football and hang out, generally. On the way back with a couple of the lads, we walked through the park, as it was far quicker than walking all the way around on the pavement. At this time, the city was well and truly under the cover of darkness (thank you very much daylight saving time). In the middle of the park, some way away from the nearest…. anything at all, is a block of flats. Just one, red brick building, with no road, as such linking it to the main road. In front, stands a huge oak tree, blocking off the lights of the city. I imagine it’s a great place from which to look at the stars but also in which to feel bloody scared every time you here a noise. Who would live here?!

Finally, we have the statue of the weird moustachioed man in my street. I live on a fairly central residential street, not far from the main north-south thoroughfare, Ulica Gdanska. It’s a pleasant road, with some nice flats, decent enough neighbours and a friendly street cat. So one has to wonder what the hell this is doing here:

I mean, what even is it?! It’s a man, obviously. But why would anyone want this outside their block of flats? And who – not me, I can tell you – wants to walk past this monstrosity on their way home of an evening? Bizarre!

Thus concludes the tour of scary Bydgoszcz. If I’ve missed off any creepy places, do post about them in the comments and I’ll go take a peek with my camera.

Hallowe’en Week in Bydgoszcz or Live Action Scooby Doo

Until the 1990s, Bydgoszcz was one of the industrial centres of Poland. Unfortunately, as it didn’t keep up with booms in the new industrial power houses of Wrocław and Poznan (amongst others) it began to fall into decline. In the last 10 years though, the city has seen something of a resurgence and, as I have alluded to in these pages before, a lot of redevelopment has been and continues to be carried out, beautifying the city and this is paying dividends, in terms of new life being breathed into the place. But as with all cities that undergo redevelopment, not every dilapidated building can be reconditioned into a thing of beauty. This leaves a number of eyesores around the city, or to look at it in another way during this, the week leading up to hallowe’en, a number of sites where you could easily imagine some sort of true to live Scooby Doo adventure occurring. This week, I’ll be posting some images and info about these scary locales.

First up is Ulica Chodkiewicza’s haunted school. It may not, in fact be haunted, but it looks bloody terrifying! Above the entrance, are two supporting pillars. On one there is the face of a little girl and on the other side, a little boy. Naturally, time and the abandonment of the building has led to their eyes no longer being in the sockets. This is most unsettling. Other than that, it’s simply an abandoned school but, standing as it does on the junction of two main roads, it’s definitely the kind of place where ghoulish happenings might occur.

Stay tuned this week for more scary crap!