Warsaw has a
lot of ugly buildings,
but most of them can
cite history as an excuse.
the American Embassy
has no excuse.
what in god's name
were they thinking?
every time I walk past
that monstrosity
I expect to hear
the loudspeaker
blaring out:
ATTENTION KMART SHOPPERS!
TODAY WE HAVE A
BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL
ON VISAS!
ONE PER CUSTOMER
WHILE THEY LAST.
THE LINE FORMS AT THE END.
and they actually had
to tear down
an old mansion in order
to build this glass and
steel shit house.
it looks like the box in which
the Swiss Embassy arrived,
and trust me on this one,
they were not very careful
unpacking it.
and that's just the beginning.
the interior is worse.
it looks exactly like
every other Communist-era
office interior in Warsaw,
and it is laid out
in such a hopelessly confusing
manner that you need
a three week course in
compass reading to find the toilet.
in fact, it is so confusing
it looks like it was deliberately
designed that way for security reasons,
under the theory that if an
unauthorized person managed
to get inside, they would probably
never find their way out again.
I actually asked about this and
received the characteristically
intelligent government response: hunh?
I took that to mean "no."
I guess it was just
plain stupidity and bad taste.
governments the world over
tend to excel
in both of these areas.
but lord almighty,
this thing is in a
class by itself.
