Zakopane, Poland 23.06

We left Krakow at about 5pm, and began our drive to Zakopane. Zakopane is a town in the mountains at the south of Poland. We were meeting Konrad, Artur's brother, and his family there. The two brothers were in touch by mobile, and discovered that Konrad wasn't too far behind us on the road. Artur decided to slow down so that Konrad could catch up, and as soon as that happened, they started to race! They were driving pretty fast along the highway, zipping around other cars. Artur was driving a Toyota Yaris, and Konrad was driving a Toyota Avensis. Surprisingly, the Yaris managed to keep a good pace and they were head to head. Eventually they decided to go a bit slower, but the race to arrive first at the hotel, was still in progress. In the end, the Yaris won, Loren would like to think it was due to her superb navigational skills that led us along the backroads, to the hotel, in record time.

The hotel was really nice! Artur's parents had booked the hotel for a family holiday earlier in the year, but Sonia was sick, so they postponed the trip. They decided to give the holiday to us, so that we could spend the week with Konrad and his family. The hotel was one of the best in Zakopane, and it had impressive facilities; such as ten pin bowling, swimming pool, spa, sauna, steam rooms, gym and group classes, basketball court, bars and restaurants. The staff were not so friendly, and the facilities were mostly not accessible for free, and they expected you to pay for parking as well! Apparently this is common at most hotels in Poland, but it seemed silly for us, that you pay so much for a room there, and then have to pay so much for using the facilities and parking too!

That evening, after settling in, we decided to have dinner together in the hotel restaurant. The girls ordered Caipirinhas, to refresh themselves after a long journey, and then we had a nice traditional Polish meal. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk along the main shopping and entertainment street in Zakopane. Loren was thrilled, as this was the first time she'd seen it. There were so many good clothes shops, restaurants, and lots of excited visitors wandering up and down the street. The atmosphere was great, so we couldn't wait to come back there.

Chocholowska
The next morning, we got up early and went for a swim in the hotel pool. The pool wasn't huge, but it was nice and warm. There was also a water slide next to the pool, where Sonia spent most of here time, with the other children. Loren became a fan of the spa, which was the warmest place to be, and the jets were great for a good massage.

After our swim, we went to check out the breakfast buffet, which was massive! There was every kind of Polish breakfast treats imaginable, lots of salads and some little cakes to go with coffee. With our stomachs full, we decided to explore Zakopane. The weather wasn't looking very promising; in fact it was raining heavily! We were hoping that the weather would be better where we were heading, Chocholowska Valley, which was a little further out from Zakopane. We could hardly see through the windshield, due to the rain, so we weren't feeling too confident about our outing, but Gosia decided we should try anyway.

She turned out to be right, because as soon as we arrived at Chocholowska, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Our outing for the day was a hike through the valley, and up to the Schronisko Chatelet. The views on the way were spectacular, there were little huts owned by mountain people on the way, lots of sheep and cows and great views of the mountains on all sides.

There was also a crystal clear river running along near the trail. It was freezing! Loren joined the little kids playing by the river, and put her hands in the water, it took a while to warm them up again!

The walk turned out to be quite a long one, 3 hours! We finally arrived at the Chatelet, and collapsed in the dining room for a quick snack. Most of the hike had been fairly flat, but the last part was steep. Once we had recovered, we headed back down again, but we were all fairly tired, and decided to hire some bikes from the stands that were offereing them along the sides of the trail. Once we were geared up, we cycled back along the trail. We had a great time! Artur and Loren raced each other along the empty areas of the trail, playing cat and mouse like they do in the olympic races. On the busy sections of road, of which there were many, we had to avoid hitting people. There were young families with kids, big groups of tourists, and groups of young people, swarming everywhere on the trails.

After our walk, we all decided to buy some of the local 'Ocsypek' sheep's cheese. There were little stalls everywhere selling pieces of the cheese, in all sizes and shapes. Some of the cheese was smoked, and you could get white looking cheese, or yellow looking cheese. Each of them tasted a bit different, but they were all absolutely delicious! Loren particularly liked them because they were strong in flavour. We bought a couple of little ones for ourselves.

Krupowki

Back at the hotel, we alll had a short siesta, then headed back to Krupowki, the main street of Zakopane, again. We decided to have dinner at a place that we had spotted the night before. It was a traditional mountain restaurant, that served lots of grilled and bbq'd meat.

All of the waiters and waitresses were dressed in traditonal mountaineer clothing, and there was a live bank playing local music. We ordered a big plate of mixed grilled meat to share, and we enjoyed the traditional bread and lard that they served to begin with. The whole restaurant was filled with people, and the music was lively and exciting. We really enjoyed the food and had a great time!

Later, we retired to the hotel, and played some board games with Konrad and Gosia. It was the first time we'd played 'Blokus' , but we really enjoyed it. It required a lot of planning and foresight. The other game was Rubikamb, which we had both played before and loved.

On our way back to the hotel, we found some helium balloons. Everyone decided to try breathing in the helium and talking like chipmunks. It was very childish, but very funny! We also bought one of the really long ice creams that they sell everywhere along Krupowki. It was delicious!

Kasprowy Wierch The next day, we went for our morning swim and to the buffet. Then we went off on a walk through the meadows near our hotel. On the way, we saw several huge ski jumps built onto the side of the mountain.

Eventually we reached a main road again, and then made it to a cable car. We were planning on taking the cable car to 'Kasprowy Wierch' (1985m). Unfortunately though, the queue turned out to be so long that it would take at least 3 hours for us the reach the platform to buy the tickets. We had the option of walking up without the cable car, or waiting, so the decision was to walk. Loren wasn't so keen on hiking, so she decided to get her exercise by wandering up and down Krupowki, the main shopping street.

Artur and the others went on up the mountain on an extremely long hike - 5 hours!. The highlight of the walk was when they reached 'Sarnie Skalki' or Deer Rocks. From here they could see incredible views on all sides. On one side you could see the Tatra mountains and Kasprowy Wierch Mountain, and on the other side you could see Zakopane. Artur though it was well worth the climb, though Sonia might not agree, as the hike was pretty tiring for her little legs. She managed to survive though, and make it all the way back down again.

In the meantime, Loren was in town, having a glorious day. It was the first time in probably the whole trip that she'd had a day to herself, so she enjoyed it immensely. It was even more improved by the fact that she found lots of lovely things to buy! On her own for a change, she had the chance to practice her Polish, and she communicated with all the shopkeepers, and waitresses in Polish! At one point though, when she was having her lunch, a guy at another table started speaking to her and she didn't understand, so they switched to English. It turned out that he was from Adelaide, Australia and was there on holiday with his wife and kids! He tried to teach a couple of phrases to Loren, but was surprised that she actually knew all the ones he suggested! Eventually he found one new phrase for her to learn, and they parted ways.

After the hike, Artur and Loren re-united at the hotel, and Loren showed off her new purchases. That evening, we had dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the hotel. Loren wore her new green dress, which Sonia was very impressed by. After dinner, Loren painted Sonia's nails, and decorated them with little butterflies.

Anniversary Day
The next morning, we all headed back to Krupowki together. We all had our own ideas of where we wanted to go though, so we decided to split up and meet later. Artur and Loren went shopping for some sunglasses, as Artur didn't have any. We soon found a pair that suited him nicely. It turned out that it was our 9 month anniversary that day, so we also decided to split up for some gift shopping. After an hour or so, we met up to exchange our gifts.

Loren bought Artur a t-shirt of Zakopane, which had lots of little cartoon pictures of things that Zakopane is famous for. There was a picture of the mountain people, snow boarding, vodka, sheep, dancing etc. She also bought the sunglasses and another t-shirt for him, when we were shopping together earlier. Artur bought Loren a long-stem, red rose, a red necklace of wooden beads, which are a traditional accessory of the mountain people. He also bought a 'Swistak', which is the traditional animal symbol of Zakopane. It was so cute, he was wearing a little hat and a vest, and everytime you moved him, he would whistle at you!

After our exchanging of gifts, we went walking down the road to where we found a line of artists doing portraits of people. We stopped and watched for a while, and then we decided to get a portrait done of Loren. One of the artists wasn't in the middle of drawing anybody, and we liked his portraits on display, so we chose him. Loren sat very still for 45 mins and Artur stood back and watched, sometimes trying to make her laugh. Crowds of people stood watching, which was quite intimidating. It's also weird because they're looking from you and to the portrait and back again, and making judgements on whether they think its good or not. While you are sitting there staring at them, trying to decide from their reactions, what the portrait actually looks like.
Finally, the portrait was finished, and she got to see what everyone else had been pointing and staring at. It turned out to be pretty good! The lips weren't very similar, but the rest of the face was fairly accurate. It was very exciting to have a real portrait done!

Gubalowka We walked all the way along Krupowki, to the very end, where there is a cable car station (a different one than the one we'd been to that morning). This cable car took us up to Gubalowka, which is another mountain nearby. At the top, there was a great view of the other mountains, and of Zakopane.

Further up the trail, there were lots of stands selling mountain souvenirs, and things made by the mountain people. There were lots of cool shoes, bags and some funny hats.We even saw a place that had flying foxes or zips, like we did in the 'Gibbon Experience'. It was a little adventure park on the mountain, with ropes courses, and all sorts of contraptions.

After seeing the mountain, we decided to have a beer at one of the cafes, overlooking the valley below. We had beer with raspberry cordial, which is surprisingly good! It's a typical drink up here in the mountains, and you can even have it with spices and served hot!

After wandering around for a while, we noticed that there was a luge running down the side of the mountain. If you're not sure, a luge is like a bobsled, that runs on a set trail that curves down a mountain. We decided to try it out. It was so much fun that we decided to do it again! I can understand how kids can spend all day on those things.

Eventually we wandered back to the cable car, as we had plans to see a movie that evening. But when we got there, the line was out the door! We found out that the car was stuck half way up the mountain, and it could be a while before it was working again. We were panicking, as we only had an hour to get to the movie, and the path down the mountain wasn't good for the shoes that we were wearing, and may take too long. People were angry, and lining up to get their money back. People who had made it into the station itself, where the cable car arrives, started climbing over the barrier to get out again.

Soon the queue for getting a refund was fairly long. We weren't sure if we should wait in that line, and hope that the cable car started working again, or if we should start walking down the mountain. We decided to wait for the cable car in the station area itself, but the machines wouldn't let us through, because it had let it's maximum capacity for the next cable car. Lots of people had climbed out and left though, so we decided to climb over the railings. Just as we got there, the cable car arrived! We squeezed on with everyone else and finally made it to the bottom of the mountain, feeling very relieved!

Cinema
We rushed off towards the cinema, grabbing a 'Goral Burger' on the way. The cinema was pretty empty, so we had no trouble getting tickets. The movie we were seeing was the new 'Sex and the City Movie'. At first the movie seemed pretty crap, because everyone was living 'lah-di-dah' happy little lives, and it seemed like the whole point of the film was to just put a cherry on top the series, and tell everyone that the characters lived happily ever after. Later though, things got more interesting, and more realistic (well as realistic as this series gets anyway). Overall we enjoyed it, and Loren was thrilled to have seen a chick flick after so long.

Morskie Oko
The next morning, we decided to take a trip to Morskie Oko, on Lake Mountain. The weather was looking a little drizzly, but we decided to make the most of our last day in Zakopane. We arrived in the carpark, which was packed with cars, and made our way to the entrance. There were some horse carriages there, and we all decided to take it, rather than walk the 10km to the top. It cost an arm and a leg, but no one was in the mood for the long walk. It was probably a good thing anyway, as we still had to walk about another 6km when we got off the carriage. Loren felt sorry for the horses though, as there were so many people in the carriages, and they had to pull all of us and the carriage, up the steep hill. As a result, the ride was pretty slow, and we were bouncing around in the carriage for a while.

After a good hike, we finally made it to the lake itself. Just as we got to the tea house at the top, it started to pour with rain. So we hid under the verandah, looking out over the lake. It was just spectacular!

The mountains rose up on all sides of the lake, and there was even snow not far from us, up on the walls of the mountains. As soon as the sun came out again, we went down to the lake and played on the rocks. We saw lots of fish in the water, and the water itself was so clear.

We took the carriage back down the mountain, and this time, thanks to gravity helping the horses out, it was a quick ride. We stopped nearby to eat lunch in Bukowina Tatrzanska, which is the longest village in Poland. We ate traditional food at a cute little restaurant, and Artur entertained himself by playing with one of the sculptures on the windowsill near our table.

After we got back to the hotel, we all went for a swim in the pool. Loren tried out the steam room, which was so hot! It was much hotter than any sauna, and the air was so thick that it was hard to breathe. There was a couple of hot water fountains all around the room, and they were the source of the steam. The room was big and oval in shape, and one big fountain was in the centre of the room. It seemed to be styled like a roman bath.

Hotel Entertainment
After our swim, Artur and Konrad challenged each other to a basketball match in the hotel's gymnasium. The gym was primarily used for aerobics and yoga classes, so they had to move all the mirrors from the walls and set it up for basketball. Loren came down to watch for a while, and cheered Artur on. The game ended well for Artur, who got his own back after their last competition in Sopot. He won 3 out of 4 games!

After dinner that evening, we went down to the bar near the lobby for some drinks. We ended up ordering our desert there too, which was a delicious apple pie! We played pictionary and drank caipirinhas and beer. It was a flexible game, as we played in English, and Konrad and Gosia are obviously not used to playing word games in English. We had a lot of fun though, and it actually worked pretty well.

We farewelled each other that evening, as we were both leaving at different times the next morning. We knew that we would see them soon in Italy though.