Nowa Huta

Poland's second largest steelmill, Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks, sits beside this large planned city on the edge of Krakow.  My first attempt to get close to the mill- in 1992- brought me no closer than a kilometer.  I set out again at 7:00 AM, on Tram 4 ["which direction?" we ask a ticket clerk.  "Tram 4!" she says, with an impatient, Slavic inflection.]

The gateway into the Steelworks is framed by two crenulated, Soviet-era buildings that have posted signs forbidding photographs.  But I am again unable to get any closer than a kilometer. Beyond the gates is a bus depot for transporting workers in this sprawling campus.

In the distance, one smokestack is active.  Maps show there is a backroad way of getting somewhat closer.

We turn back, but not before noticing two paintings of a praying Hasidic Jew, selling for a few zlotys in the magazine Kiosk at the terminus of "Tram 4!"