A resident of Kraków this week completed his quest to walk all 3,000 streets in his city. The project, which took almost four years to complete and involved walking a total of 2,800km, finished, appropriately, on a road named “Last Street” (ulica Ostatnia) located in northeast Kraków.
Kamil Bąbel, who was joined by family, friends and local residents for the final leg of his journey, says that the experience has given him a new perspective on the city where he lives. He hopes his achievement will also encourage other people to get out the house more.
#Krakow @kamilbabel przeszedł na własnych nogach 3000 krakowskich ulic, czyli wszystkie!
Swój pochód, w trakcie którego przez 3 lata i 10 miesięcy zrobił 2800 km, zakończył oczywiście na ulicy Ostatniej. 😊
📷 @BSKrakow @krakow_pl pic.twitter.com/ao15MIIlU9
— Kraków (@krakow_pl) July 11, 2023
Bąbel, whose day job involves working for the Poland Business Run Foundation, a charity, has long sought out adventures in his spare time – including running the Kraków marathon backwards.
Inspired by the story of Matt Green – an American who spent years walking every street in New York City – Bąbel decided to attempt the same feat in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city by population.
“I realised that I didn’t even know what is at the end of the street where I live,” he told news website Onet.
Initially devoting himself to the project two or three times a week for an hour or two, Bąbel needed to spend progressively more time on trips to ever-more-distant parts of the city. He tracked his progress using GPS and Google Maps.
As well as enjoying the physical activity and chance for self-reflection, Bąbel says that the project has allowed him to get to know the city he lives in and the people who inhabit it.
“On a daily basis, we follow well-trodden paths and visit places that we already know,” he says. “We are not aware that just around the corner we can discover something interesting that only a handful of people know about.”
“It was also an interesting social experiment for me,” added Bąbel. “Some time ago I read that, on average, people spend only a small percent of their time outside their home. I was curious if it was true, and I can confidently say it is. Cracovians are homebodies, living behind undrawn curtains.”
He says that he “hopes through this project I will be able to encourage other people to develop curiosity, perceptiveness and knowledge about the place where they live”.
Main image credit: Google Maps & kamilbabel/Twitter
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
