As part of a series of walks we began coordinating, in collaboration with local residents and experts of aspects of urban space, we planned a walk led by Katarina Pupavac (Kika) this month.
Kika volunteered to do a resident-led walk in Ochota. She is brimming with both knowledge and enthusiasm for the built environment, atmosphere and history of the neighborhood.
The walk was both active and relaxed as well as very social. We calendared it on Facebook events and while a few of the people who showed up were people we knew, we also had people joining who learned about it via FB events. We had individuals on the walk from Brazil, Peru, USA, Serbia and Poland.
I’ve been through this centrally located district multiple times but through Kika’s walk, I saw the neighborhood with a new lens & also learned about spaces I was previously unaware of including a great green space area and a fantastic cafe with a marvelous play space for children.
It was also interesting for us to see who showed up for the walk. We originally had scheduled it for an earlier weekend but the weather prompted a reschedule. I’m happy about that because on this day we had an extraordinarily atmospheric backdrop to the walk- truly Autumn in full swing with a cascade of leaves falling as we walked, dramatic gusts and some strange dusk-like lighting.
Kika – thank you for this absolutely wonderful resident-led walk through Ochota!! Your knowledge about the local built environment, your passion for the area and your ability to communicate it all in such an engaging way during this mobile experience was just incredible. Thank you and looking forward to more walking with you!
GWCN Local Chapter Warsaw: We will be establishing a Warsaw chapter for GWCN: Global Walkability Correspondents Network. We have already collaborated quite a bit on city walks & workshops! Looking forward to creating more community walking experiences!