Europe Trip 2025 - Łódź

We had both an awesome and a terrible experience in Łódź this time.

The good was the Zoo - big, modern (most modern in Europe?), interesting. With elements of an amusement park and playgrounds. Some animals (elephants, orangutans) looked sad/stressed though. 

A fighter plane at the bottom of the ocean.

A transport plane after crash landing in a jungle.

Funny story: I touched and was shocked by a live electric fence here. There was a warning sign, but either I saw it only afterwards, or I did not realise that it applied to that wire. I only remember that I was quite surprised by an electric shock while trying to take this photo.

These looked unreal.

Pygmy hippopotamus. Endangered.

The company sponsoring the kangaroo exhibit. "Na spacer i w góry, noś się jak kangury" - "when going for a walk or into the mountains, carry it/yourself like kangaroos" - cute.

Neither of these guys saw Australia.

Restaurant, quite expensive, but nice.

Underwater tunnel.

Orientarium is the mostly enclosed part of the zoo.

Food court with moss roofs. The unfortunate Polish name "Strefa gastro", means the "gastronomy zone".

This peacock was walking free.

Butterfly garden.

A capybara sharing an enclosure with some birds.

The bad was the city itself, on a late afternoon, early evening, workday. Dark side streets with dilapidated buildings. Lack of any public restrooms.

We came by car this time and trying to get near a specific point to pick up the rest of the group was almost impossible, because of a maze of one way streets, streets closed because of construction, and lack of parking. I kept driving in circles, never being able to stop anywhere close to where I needed to be. 

Then came the people. Youth drinking in public. Drunk man vomiting on the street, right next to us. Playground with graffiti. 

It didn't help that we were tired by that time, our phone batteries were in single digits and the youngest one had a bad nappy emergency. 

 

Depressing.

An old beautiful villa.

Piotrkowska street.

The mural behind the tree asks "WZRASTASZ?", meaning, are you growing up/growing roots? 

Saw a few Palestinian flags.

What is the history of this place?

Łódź is a fascinating city with an interesting and sometimes very dark history: from September 1939 to January 1945 it was part of Germany proper and known as Litzmannstadt. Before the war the city was 31% Jewish, and one them was the later founder of Commodore and Atari - Jack Tramiel.