Tycjan Chmiel
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tycjanc.bsky.social
Tycjan Chmiel
@tycjanc.bsky.social
530 followers 400 following 3.2K posts
Cat slave and Swift landlord based in Szczecin, Poland, one of Europe’s largest population of White-tailed Sea Eagles 🦅 Keen on (urban) wildlife, active travel and Pogoń Szczecin.
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Went for a stroll around Lake Głębokie, which is popular as a city bathing spot (the Polar Bear Club was out in force!) The lake is surrounded by mixed forest and includes several Natural Monuments, including this huge Oak (more info in ALT text). #ThickTrunkTuesday
A monumental oak from the “British Oaks” group in Szczecin’s Głębokie Forest Park, a large mixed woodland around Lake Głębokie. These protected natural-monument trees were named in honour of the British Repatriation Mission, which operated nearby between 1945 and 1947. After WWII, the newly-Polish city of Szczecin became a major transit point for huge population movements. The BPM worked with Polish authorities to move displaced people to and from the British occupation zone in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of mainly German but also Polish citizens passed through the city during this process. The “British Oaks” in Głębokie Forest Park were named to commemorate that mission, linking the park’s natural heritage with this complex post-war history.
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 AM
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Experienced a very overcast day at the beach in Świnoujście, where I had the chance to admire the wide range of Gulls - Black-headed & Herring, mostly, but also some interesting Mallard Gulls, Swan Gulls, Hooded Gulls & Pigeon Gulls 😹 Not surprising when you consider the Baltic’s low salt levels.
November 24, 2025 at 10:33 AM
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A day-trip to the seaside resort of Świnoujście resulted in this attractive find in the new seafront development that houses a couple of fancy-ish hotels and a water park, among the souvenir shops and cafes. #ManholeCoverMonday
A round, dark metal manhole cover set in light grey paving stones. The cover features a textured pattern of small raised T-shapes and a central emblem with the coat of arms of Świnoujście, showing a stylised griffin. This is above an image of a Viking ship. The words “Baltic Park,” “Świnoujście,” and “Zdrojowa Inwest” are embossed on the surface. The manhole cover is set in a pedestrian area with shops and restaurants on the ground floor and modern multi-storey hotels and apartments with balconies and terraces above.
November 24, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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Espero que podamos saludar al juvenil y a sus padres en Polonia la próxima primavera. Aquí hay algunos grupos de grullas que utilizan el río Odra para llegar a sus zonas de cría.
November 23, 2025 at 9:11 AM
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On a recent visit to Poland, my brother remarked that Poles don’t do ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ like Brits. This is true. Poles tend to be a bit more direct if they want people to do things. Hence ‘Put Your Phone Down and Live!’ on this crossing 😹
A zebra crossing with an instruction to pedestrians written on the pavement, designed to be read as the pedestrian is stepping into the road. It reads, in capital letters, PUT (YOUR) PHONE DOWN AND LIVE! and has a small image of a phone with a line through it, perhaps for the small toddlers who can’t yet read who may be trying to cross while scrolling through TikToks.
November 23, 2025 at 7:59 AM
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Polish post boxes must be some of the dullest on the planet, but luckily the Post Offices can be very attractive 😺 Here’s a typical 19th-century red-brick example, in the coastal resort of Świnoujście, with a rather attractive winter flower display of cabbages and chrysanthemums #PostboxSaturday
This beautiful old post office is built in the Neo-Renaissance style. You can see several classic features: Red brick walls with light stone details; Arched windows with decorative frames; A grand entrance with carved columns; A strong roofline with a big cornice and ornaments; Perfect symmetry – both sides look almost the same. Many 19th-century Polish Post Offices look like this, although we should remember that Świnoujście was part of Germany until the end of World War II so the architects would have been German. A cone-shaped outdoor winter flower arrangement made of ornamental kale (or cabbage - not sure) with silvery frilled leaves and clusters of pink, purple and yellow chrysanthemums. It stands on a paved street in front of a historic red-brick post office and a small red post box.
November 22, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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Please enjoy a moment of calm and wonder as you stop for just a second to admire this fantastic Oak in the Beech Forest Landscape Park, #Szczecin #ThickTrunkTuesday
An Oak tree standing on a carpet of fallen leaves with a very thick base to its trunk that suddenly divides into multiple arms like the Hindu goddess Durga. A many-branched Oak tree stretching its bare limbs outwards and upwards into a cloudy sky. It must have a beautiful crown in summer.
November 18, 2025 at 8:28 AM
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Sunday lunch at a local restaurant. Never been before & probably won’t again - not that there was anything wrong with the food, it was very good. But like many small businesses, what’s its USP? You can’t just open a place & expect the customers to roll in. I bet it’s gone by the time we come back 😿
An attractive table decoration of a vase with dried flowers, a salt, and pepper, shaker and a lit candle. In the background is a brick design wall with paintings of horses.
November 16, 2025 at 2:39 PM
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They’re very fond of their ‘seasonal’ teas here, especially the ‘warming’ Autumn and Winter ones. They like to put the add-ins separately so you can choose what to put in. Here’s one from a month ago (same thing but even fancier!):
November 16, 2025 at 12:21 PM
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After an Autumn walk, time for a nice spiced tea in the Emerald Bistro 😺
Black tea in a glass, with slices of orange and lemon, cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks and mint placed in a small saucer over the cup ready to be put in to stew and make a warming mulled brew.
November 16, 2025 at 12:11 PM
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A couple more shots of Emerald Lake (Jezioro Szmaragdowe), #Szczecin.
Reflections of autumnal trees and bushes around a lake with a bridge crossing at the far end. Reflections of a mottled sky and autumn trees in a lake. The water is clear and calm.
November 16, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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Fallen leaves in Emerald Lake (Jezioro Szmaragdowe), #Szczecin.
A carpet of fallen yellow, brown and gold leaves floating on the water of a lake. There are so many you can’t see the water at all.
November 16, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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Good night from the #GinjaBoiz who have the right idea on a dark and rainy evening 😺
Two ginger tomcats sleeping face to face with paws entwined. Best buddies.
November 15, 2025 at 9:50 PM
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Today a walk on the other side of town - the tram line takes you to the Right Bank (Prawobrzeze), where it’s a short walk to Beech Forest Landscape Park. Most of the leaves have fallen now but that means you get a better view over Lake Dąbie in the distance & Emerald Lake in the foreground #Szczecin
An autumnal scene looking over Emerald Lake in the Beech Forest Landscape Park with Lake Dąbie in the background. Emerald Lake in Beech Forest Landscape Park with a bridge going over the lake in the background.
November 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
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Was lucky to attend the Poland-Italy U21 Euro qualifier match held at #PogońSzczecin - great atmosphere orchestrated by our very own fans and an amazing 2-1 win! Afterwards had to go for a very traditional barszcz with pasties to warm up 😺
The Polish and Italian under-21 football teams line up at the Pogoń Szczecin stadium before their Euros qualifier match. The fans in the stands have been given white or red cards and are holding them up to make the Polish flag while they sing the national anthem. A pub scene in Szczecin. In the foreground are a couple of pasties and a big cup of barszcz beetroot soup. There is an upright piano to the left with a pumpkin and some heather decorating it and in the background a bar with a chalkboard menu. Three women are knocking back vodkas.
November 14, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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Since this week in Poland has been all about patriotism with Independence Day on Tuesday I thought I’d add a little local patriotism into the mix by the showing the Bydgoszcz city flag which they have displayed around the main square. Nice to see local civic pride 😺👍 #FlagsOnFriday #FridayFlags
A view of a cobbled town square with a couple of 19th-century tenement buildings with a shop and a pub on the ground floor. in the middle stands a lamppost bearing three red white and blue flags with a lamp shining down to the cobbles below that lights up the flags’ colours in a circle on the cobbles in the foreground.
November 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
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It’s good night from the #GinjaBoiz 😻
Two ginger tomcats lying and dozing together on a sofa facing each other and almost entwined. A real bromance.
November 13, 2025 at 10:11 PM
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And then there were two expecting D-I-N-N-E-R 😹
Big Ginge the old tomcat playing Mr Outraged as it’s gone dark and he hasn’t been served his dinner yet. Pumpkin the smaller tomcat hears the word ‘Dinner!’ and comes more in hope than outrage, but this is a bad sign. One was OK, two is going to be tiresome 😸
November 12, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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Big Ginge and his whiskers wish everyone a very pleasant #WhiskersWednesday 😺
A large ginger-and-white tomcat stares intently at the camera, hoping to get some snacks, or perhaps dinner.
November 12, 2025 at 8:03 AM
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Visited the in-laws’ summer house over the weekend to do some tidying up & turn off the water & power for the winter. Dad built this in the 80s all by himself with products ‘sourced’ from friends who worked in the right factories (it was hard to buy them!). The design was based on the famous ‘Brda’.
A small A-frame “Brda”-type summer house with a steep triangular roof, simple timber siding, a central entrance, and a narrow balcony; a compact, functional cabin typical of Polish holiday resorts and allotments (the ROD - family allotments: plots of land rented out by associations on which you can build your own little summer house).
November 11, 2025 at 7:16 AM
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Kitties! There is space for all! 😺
November 10, 2025 at 8:33 PM
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Already very dark here in Bydgoszcz, but that means the lights are more on show! Here we have the riverside Granaries (Spichrze) on the Brda, and the City Hall in the Main Square with an image of Józef Piłsudski projected onto it for Independence Day tomorrow (11 Nov), More info in Alt text 😺
The Spichrze (granaries) on the Brda river that flows through Bydgoszcz are iconic symbols of the city’s trading past. Dating from the 18th–19th centuries, they reflect Bydgoszcz’s role as a grain-storage and transport hub on the Vistula–Oder route. Today they’re a landmark on the riverside, representing Bydgoszcz’s heritage and its revival through careful restoration. City Hall on the Main Square in Bydgoszcz. It’s lit up with a projection of Józef Piłsudski and the white and red Polish national flag. Piłsudski is central to Polish identity because he led the fight to restore Poland’s independence in 1918 (which was declared on November 11, now Independence Day) stopped the Bolshevik advance in 1920, and shaped the new state’s army and politics. For many Poles, he symbolises resilience, statehood, and the will to remain sovereign.
November 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
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Greetings from Bydgoszcz, where he latest iteration of Łuczniczka (the Archer, one of the city’s best-known symbols) stands proudly in the Main Square, effectively setting off the manhole cover 😺 #ManholeCoverMonday
A larger-than-life straw sculpture of a female archer stands on a town square with an outdoor cafe and some pastel-coloured tenement blocks behind it and a manhole cover with a cobblestone surround in front.
November 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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The Rose Garden #Różanka in #Szczecin is slowly getting ready for bed: the bushes are being pruned and will be protected from the worst of the winter. Here’s one of the last blooms of the year - a corker, even at this late stage 😺
The Rose Garden in Szczecin is being pruned ready for winter. There are still one or two bushes flowering in the foreground. In the background are a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees providing a range of autumn colours. One of 2025’s last roses at the Rose Garden in Szczecin, a beautiful red bloom.
November 6, 2025 at 7:33 PM
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What a splendid Silver Birch on my street. Lovely day for it to show off its autumn foliage #Szczecin
A silver birch tree on a city centre street (please ignore the idiot in the van who’s parked all over the pavement). The leaves are a striking yellow against a bright blue sky.
November 6, 2025 at 7:14 PM