Dziwaczne Odkrycia: Visiting The Wooden Houses Of Osiedle Przyjaźń In Bemowo, Warszawa🪵🪓🏠🛖🏚 (2024)

“Our house; in the middle of our street” – Madness.

When you start living in a city, everything around you is taken for granted. It’s the way it usually goes. Most people don’t like to be a tourist in a city they live in. You don’t waken up and backpack your own city then write about it. But actually you can, and you should, so I did. I always feel like a tourist. The only place we are not a tourist is the hospital, house or room where we were born. Therefore, in August 2024, I backpacked through Warszawa for about 4-5 days with Trevor Warman, the Nomadic Backpacker. The result was some truly off the scale backpacking to places most tourists didn’t know about and skipped completely. It was nothing short of epic believe you me.

Instead of doing the regular, common, popular sights for tourists, we decided to do some truly off the wall stuff. Trevor was well up for it and quickly on the ball! Within days of our tours, he had already written loads about Poland, here are some of his excellent articles, including the first decent travel blog post ever about Osiedle Przyjaźń!

• Backpacking Osiedle Przyjaźń, Warszawa
• Backpacking Nowa Huta, Krakow
• Backpacking Cool Globes And Electric Works, Warszawa
• Polish ATM hacks
• Backpacking Stare Miasto (Old Town), Warszawa
• Backpacking Nowe Miasto (New Town), Warszawa
• Backpacking Off The Wall Sh*t in Warszawa
• How to get from Warsaw Poland to London England for less than £60!!

I suddenly realised that after living in Warszawa for 7 years, I had yet to visit Osiedle Przyjaźń. How had I neglected it? First things first…

What is Osiedle Przyjaźń?

Osiedle Przyjaźń is a neighbourhood or district located in the area of ​​the former village of Jelonki. Osiedle Przyjaźń was a custom built neighbourhood built in 1952. Currently, it sits in the Warszawa district of Bemowo. This city has changed a lot since 1952 of course, but in its calm splendour, little Osiedle Przyjaźń hasn’t changed. This is beautiful backpacking. Trevor and I were in for a treat. It was set up by the Soviet Union government in coalition with the Polish government as part of a 1952 project for “Polish-Soviet Friendship”. You can tongue-in-cheek that oxymoron as many people did, and do.

Basically, Jozef Stalin wanted to show the power of the Soviet Union and he commissioned and ordered lots of these massive towers or palaces. It started in Moscow, Russia with his 7 Sisters Project. The non-Russian cities chosen were Riga (Latvia), Minsk (Belarus), Kiev (Ukraine), Bucharest (Romania), Prague (Czechia) and Warszawa (Poland). If you have backpacked Warszawa, you probably saw The Palace of Culture And Science. It used to be the tallest building in Warszawa, but was overtaken during the pandemic in 2021 by the Varso Tower.

To build this tower required lots of workers, so it was decided they should be moved to this new district of Osiedle Przyjazn. Two types of wooden houses were built in the estate: hotel pavilions for workers and single-family houses for technical staff. They were brought to Warsaw in ready-made elements and assembled on site! The estate also included, among others: a cinema, a canteen, a club, a bathhouse, a medical clinic, a boiler room and two sports fields. Trees and plants were also planted here. And in order to discharge sewage from it, the Jelonki Canal Pumping Station was opened in 1952. Some project, it was a huge one! Well it would be to build this…

At the peak of the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science, 4,500 thousand people lived in the Osiedle Przyjaźń estate. Festivals, meetings of Soviet and Polish youth, occasional academies and sports competitions were also held here. After the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science was completed in May 1955, the estate was handed over by the city authorities to the Ministry of Higher Education for student housing for Warsaw universities. By September 1955, approximately 3,000 people lived there which now housed students, as well as research workers. We were here in 2024, which was the 72nd anniversary year. The streets were calm and quiet by now.

By 1978 it was estimated that around 1,200 assistants and employees of Warsaw universities and their families plus 1,200 students lived in the estate. One of them was the future president of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konaré, a wild quirk! With all that knowledge packed into our minds and backpacks, we were off to explore the 2024 version of OSSY PERZY (Osiedle Przyjaźń).

How to Get to Osiedle Przyjaźń

I’ll not make this long. Get out of the Warszawa Metro at Bemowo and walk the short 5 minuter to Osiedle Przyjaźń! If you live in Warszawa, here is how to get a Warszawianka card, or for non-residents get a 90 day Warsaw card. There is a toilet in the metro station for emergency and I should know, as I needed to use it! There is also a head statue here of Polish General Józef Zachariasz Bem. There are a few shops and cafes nearby.

From there you head to the internal streets and it really just takes 5 minutes through a park and some streets. There was already a quirk here with water provided for dogs.

Here is the map and route we took. Yes, I’ve used Google Maps here but I was glad that Trevor uses Maps.me as I get fed up relying on Google with its incorrect information sometimes.

Top Sights In Osiedle Przyjaźń

Now that we had arrived, all there is to do is walk around and enjoy the sights! I highlighted a quick-fire top 7 sights.

1.Osiedle Przyjaźń Wooden Houses

I’m putting the houses all in as one big sight. These old 1950s style wooden houses are a novelty in a big city brimming with gaping skyscrapers, swanky apartments blocks and converted shopping malls. The word “throwback” is exactly how to describe these wooden houses. Walk around, enjoy, take some photos, say “Hi” (Dzien dobry”) to the locals but please respect that some of these wooden building are still lived in.

2.Osiedle Przyjaźń Football Stadium

It’s more of a pitch and a large grassy area than an actual “stadium” as there are no seats here, but as we walked in, a young boy in a Juventus shirt was kicking football and when it went over the bar, I went to retrieve it for him. So I actually kicked a football while backpacking Osiedle Przyjaźń. This is where the workers would have enjoyed many sports on their rest days from the labouring work.

3.Osiedle Przyjaźń Local Shop And Ice Cream (Spożywczak)

I spotted what I thought was a local cafe on my way into Osiedle Przyjaźn, but alas it was just a wee shop with takeaway ice cream. The shop is called Spożywczak. Trevor and I are hardcore local backpackers cut from the same stone. This meant we felt like giving money to the local community. To do this, you backpack the place and at least buy something.

We first had a look in the local shop, Spożywczak, which is the only proper shop in the neighbourhood and holds the niche.

Once inside, on a hot day, we opted for ice cream (lody in Polish)! The lady working here introduced herself as Aleksandra and was very friendly, welcoming and delighted to see two backpackers here.

I went for green apple and Trevor had a forest blackberry. They were 6,80 zlotych each (£1.27). Aleksandra told us a little bit about the history. We asked if there is a local bar or cafe. Alas there wasn’t in 2024. But there was in 1952. I would loved to have a beer and lunch in the only bar Osiedle Przyjaźń, but it was now shut down. Though Aleksandra informed us that there was a plan to re-open one!

4.Osiedle Przyjaźn Local Bakery (Piekarnia Sienko)

The only vending place wasn’t the local shop Spożywczak, as in the same area of the car park, we saw the local bakery. We didn’t actually pop in or buy anything here though. Believe it or not, at this point, I told Trevor I had to make a mad dash to the nearest tooilet, which was at Bemowo Metro!

5.Kolorado Children’s Play Zone

We found a children’s play centre called Kolorado but it was closed. It looks like fun though going by their website. A nice touch to have that place here.

6.Osiedle Przyjaźń Student Centre (Karuzela)

We found a building known as Klub Karuzela. This venue once housed a bar, disco, dancefloor and a place for students (and others of course). It was closed, but still a nice piece of history.

7.The Bar of Yesteryear at Osiedle Przyjaźń (Country Bar Kuchnia Polska)

Although there is currently no “bar” in the housing estate, the shop does sell alcohol and in summertime, locals mingle in the gardens and parks and relax over a cold beer, or vodka. We found the former bar which I have nicknamed “The Bar Of Yesteryear”. The bar had a sign with the original name which was Country Bar Kuchnia Polska, which means that they also had Polish food here in days gone by.

As we left the streets of Osiedle Przyjaźń’s calmness, we were back in the big city. Cars, trams and business folk all living their daily lives. It’s not the most touristic place in Warszawa, and Trevor and I were the only tourists that day, but it’s certainly a marvellous throwback to days gone by. This is history, remember. This is where the people who built the Palace of Culture and Science lived. Please visit!

Further Reading on Osiedle Przyjaźń:

https://architektura.muratorplus.pl/krytyka/osiedle-przyjazn-to-tu-mieszkali-budowniczowie-palacu-kultury-przez-lata-obroslo-w-legendy-a-teraz-stanie-sie-zabytkiem-zdjecia-historia-aa-wQDz-wU6x-4BXU.html

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiedle_Przyja%C5%BA%C5%84_(Warszawa)

https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/bemowo/warszawa-miasto-przejmuje-osiedle-przyjazn-st7895459

https://spacer-po-warszawie.blogspot.com/2013/12/osiedle-przyjazn.html

https://www.facebook.com/InicjatywaOsiedlePrzyjazn/

https://www.facebook.com/OsiedlePrzyjazn/

Kolorado Children’s Club

My videos on Osiedle Przyjaźń: