Point of view

August 13th, 2023

I knew about this place for a while — it opened about two months ago and it has been on my to-visit list ever since. It was just never convenient and I never had time to go there. Until today, that is. And the moment I decided last evening that I would go there, the excitement rose in me to the point that I woke up at 5 in the morning on Sunday with the giddiness of a hyperactive kid. It is a lookout tower in Uhowo, Poland — only about a 25-minute drive from where I live — and what a lookout tower it is! 44 meters (about 130 feet) tall, more than 200 steps to the top and the views from the highest point are spectacular.

I got there at the ungodly hour of 6.30 in the morning, and on Sunday as I mentioned. The excitement of seeing something new was so strong that I couldn't even lay in on Sunday as I usually do. Quick breakfast and I was off. The weather was amazing with high cloud coverage and it was still cool in the morning. Once I got there, I was the only one there — obviously. But that is the way I like it — I try to avoid crowds and like to experience new sights and views alone. And I got an hour and a half for myself there before other visitors started to arrive.

I know those forests and fields very well. I even picked up (with the help of telescopes there on top) a few points of interest on the horizon. Places I am very familiar with— church spires, smokestacks, tall buildings in Bialystok. But today everything was different, the point of view had changed and I could look ahead for tens of kilometers above the flatlands and lowlands that constitute the piece of Earth I call home. Familiarity was still there, but it was accentuated in a different way. There was something special (and a little unsettling) about being above the canopy of tall trees. The trees I know from the ground and often look up to their tops with wonder and jealousy. The same way I look at birds. And today I got to experience for a while how my land looks from above.