September 29th-30th, 2018
Saturday
Up at 4:30 am. I blogged for an hour and 15 minutes. Then, I packed the majority of my things. At 6:20 am it was time for an hour run. There were many drunk people out. The first couple I came across:
A young, tipsy lady with weak limbs from the alcohol loosely holding a four pack of beer. Her companion was also zonked but he was able to help her when she dropped the case. It had been slightly opened, thus the cans went rolling on the sidewalk towards the upturned dirt of Ulica (Street) Sławkowska.
I noticed today that the road work on U. Sławkowska is getting underway. There are now red signs on either end of the dug up street.
On Ul. Mały Rynek I gained some running company was joined by a young man who had the brilliant idea to try to run with me. He had set down his bag and bottle and got ready to run, but after three seconds he gave up because I just ran past him and his friend. I’m sure I got a lot of confused/questionable or contemptible looks because I only had a short sleeve and shorts. Towards the beginning of the run I ran past two nuns. It was an interesting juxtaposition for onlookers: a nun fully covered wearing an extra jacket over her heavy robes, and then a foreigner with summer attire. I got back, showered, finished packing and was ready to leave at 7:25, but I had to help my roommate take out the trash. Thus, we got to ticket hall around 7:47 am in stead of 7:45 am.
Found our bus and off we went at 8:20. Two hour ride to Zakopane. My ears were popping on the way there.
I love how much space is in between the houses. America does not appreciate personal living space for its inhabitants. In Poland the area is heavily forested. People do not mow all the grass. It is beautiful both long and short. The taller grass has weeds in it, but when cut short it is a super green.
We got there and had breakfast on API. I got Borscht and a cheesecake. More details later. Then we left for the hotel. It was beautiful. Two of the girls had an Al Capone room which was kind of funny.
The Zakopane bears were very entertaining during brunch. The one guy just did not believe in childhood sacrality and kept taking off his head. The children's faces were priceless as they tried to comprehend what was going on.
After stashing our stuff, we left for the Tatra Mountains. Here is a map of our route to the National park entrance:
I constantly fell behind because of the photography addiction I have suddenly acquired. It took us about 2 hours to get to Siklawica waterfall at the top, and 1 1/2 hours to get down. Best hiking I have ever done!
I ended up taking a lot of people’s pictures. My battery on my camera was close to dead by the time we got back to the hotel. How many pictures do you think I took? About 382.
The mountain pictures are the view from our balcony. We had some down time from 4:00 until 6:30 so I edited photos. And took more Balcony pictures. With a view like that, balcony should be capitalized.
For dinner we went to Karczma "Biały Potok" (White Stream). It was a quaint place made of wooden logs (basically a long cabin). There were wildlife mounts on the walls and a big fire in the fireplace. I ordered Mix Salat z Marynowanymi Polędwiczkami z Kurczaka, a salad with orange fillet sauce. It was good, but I was still hungry because I had them cut out the chicken. Suzanne and Taylor had gotten soups and then a big platter of pierogi with potato, ewe’s cheese, and dried tomatoes. They gave me their last one. The dough was like the dough I described in a previous post but a little firmer. The filling was heavy on potato (very good and rich), probably some margarine, and the ewe’s cheese was very mild. The cheese was slightly salty, a bit creamy, and probably white in color. I did not see it and I barely tasted it.
After that, I was still hungry so Anna and I went on a journey for a grocery store. We found the "Fickle Lady”, or Biedronka, (a grocery store with a ladybug symbol) and I got two rolls of bread and a pack of ten large crackers. The shape of the crackers was like the Wolfgang throw-aways: chocolate layer with a building insignia on top of a cracker. The cracker was hard to break. My roommate Anna calls it "Fickle Lady" because the store is a hit and miss as far as finding what you want. Prices are good though.
Sunday (15˚C)
Woke up around 5:55 to go to church. Sanktuarium Najświętszej Rodziny (Romanesque Revival Church of the Holy Family) was enchanting. It was smaller than St. Mary’s, but it was equally or even more awing. The crucifixion is what got me. The crossbeam was so elegant, but modest and Christ was on high. At the top of the aisle there were beautiful fresco paintings of shepherds and meadow-esque scenes. I loved this church. I said that the Latin one made me comfortable; this one felt like a home. The priest sang so well and acknowledged the people with an earnest look. He was not passive like many priests. The people at the 6:30 service were so sincere in their worship and prayers.The best part was that they had a screen with the lyrics to the hymns they were singing, including a prayer to the archangel Michael. I was overjoyed to finally sing the words and pray with the people and not just hum a tune. Anna and I were sorry to leave and visited this church again later in the day for more pictures.
Got back to the hotel at 7:50 and had breakfast. They had three tables worth of food against the leftmost corner of the room upon entering. On the first there were apples, plums, lard with bacon, meats, cheeses, deviled eggs, some salads that looked like potato salads (probably weren’t), and dairy spreads. The second table held breads; rye (dark and white), some with large seeds or oats on the outer crust. It was all slice fresh right in front of you on that table. You may have to walk around the man in front of the table, but that was okay. It was quite spacious. The third table had pickled mushrooms (I love these!), more bread, sliced eggs, sliced tomatoes with basil or oregano, a salad platter (green lettuce, purple lettuce, red pepper, cucumber) without cheese and one with, there were platters of cucumbers and probably Kiełbasa. At the end of this table there were apricot, cherry, and a really authentic strawberry jam. There were also coco puffs, and a few other American cereals.
This was amazing. I had the pickled mushrooms. Like a candy. They were very sweet with a slight taste of the brine and they were soft to bite, but not mushy. I had some of the no-cheese salad, tomato slices with chives, and sweet bread (texture of corn bread with flecks of yellow color, but no corn (and no corn taste). I also had two different pieces of rye (some with a dark crust and an off-white center (very soft center, hard tough crust) with apricot and cherry jam. The other piece was a little hard, seasoned with oregano (dried) and I had cherry and strawberry on this slice. When I finished at 8:05, I went to get some more mushrooms, and two pieces of the sweet bread, an apple, and a plum for after my run.
I left to run at 8:15.
Unfortunately, my phone died and I had to run back to the hotel to get my portable charger. Now we go find some churches!!
Except...the whole time I was out (1 hour and ten minutes), I only found the church that I had attended Mass at and a other modern looking church. I did find Wielka Krokiew Ski Jumping Hill. My route is below.
About 20 minutes until an hour of running my phone used up the 37% left in the portable charger and I had to really think about the streets I was on and the direction I was headed in regards to the hotel. An hour hit and I was on Jagiellońska. I reached a circular intersection and recognized it as the place we had gotten off the bus yesterday. I turned left and ran hard to Ul. Grunwaldzka. It took me ten minutes to get to the hotel and by that time it was 9:30. I had 15 minutes to shower and pack my things. I did it and then met my group in the hotel lobby. We left at 9:05 for the cable cars that lead up to Kasprowy mountain. Hiking the mountain takes three hours at a moderate pace to reach the top. We reached it in ten minutes. There are two cable car stations. The first takes you halfway and the second is angled to the left for the rest of the journey. I had no fear of the distance that was being created between the car and the ground below. The view was too mesmerizing.
Switch! Now we loaded another cable car to the top.
At the top some people got hot dogs to warm themselves up. Some said they were even better than New York. I thought they smelled better the NY version. Some people said the ketchup ruined it because it was runny, watered-down, sweetened, and not as strong of a taste. I was offered a blob and thought this description was accurate (watered honey mustard). We left the lodge and walked out into cold air on the top of the mountain. There were hikers passing us with their gripping boots and walking stakes. The ice was at least an inch thick in some places and in others there was only stone and dirt. I’ll let the pictures write the words for a bit.
We even hiked to the boarder (Poland and Slovakia). Our RD joked, “Does everyone have their passport?” Both sides (Polish and Slovak) were astounding. We turned to head back to the lodge when a large bird (looked like a crow, but flew like a falcon) flew on the far left and made a sound that was like a pig and a frog all at once. I laughed so hard and claimed this sensual experience my ears and mind had concocted. There was also a lookout and we spent fifteen minutes on that higher ground. Here’s a video or two.
The cable car ride back down was a bit more crowded, but I got to stand near the back so I could try to get some photos of our departure. On the way up I had also been in the back.
We walked down from the loading area and boarded a small bus. The bus did not seem like it should have held as many people as it did. On the way to the car cable, we had gotten on a bus and filled all the seats. Then we stopped again to let a large family on, and they filled the walking aisle. That poor little bus that could”. When the driver let off the brake we fell down the hill about 5 feet and then up we went with he brakes smelling bad (working hard) and the back of the bus hitting the ground at some points under the weight.
For lunch, we went to a milk bar. I had Naleśniki z Dżem. The crepe was soft and slightly sweet with the egg, and the outer side had a little bit of crispness from being on the frying pan longer. It was delightfully filled with apricot jam and topped with powdered sugar. Hope was sitting next to me and couldn’t finish her Potato pancakes. I got 3/4 of the last one. It tasted like hash browns, though there was a slight savory sausage essence (but no sausage at all present). I think this was due to the butter Hope had put on it. The edges were crisp and it was juicy (again, I think the butter seeped in a tad).
After this, some of us headed towards the main market. You had to walk down hill on the main road for about 20-30 minutes. Anna and I stopped in some souvenir shops and got postcards. She also got wooden cats for her sisters. She also stopped for Oscypek, a piece smoked sheep cheese, which is a specialty dish with cranberry jam. She told me that the most authentic kinds were made in the mountains, but you could find it anywhere in Poland. I was encouraged to try some since I never knew when I would next find myself in the mountains of Poland. We reach the market by going under the main roads (almost like a subway station). We passed some Romani performers who sang so lively. There were three mean and a little boy (he was scream singing, but it harmonized). They were on a bridge and it clogged up the movement.
Anna remarked that she wanted another Oscypek morsel. I said I would split one with her. The taste was like liquid smoke, little bit of salt (hardly noticeable), an. The texture was like firm tofu, but not watery and it squeaked in your teeth when you bit down. the jam was a mellow cranberry. A very well-working combination. It was a little rough on the edges to eat (just slightly more baked). I have no cheese in mind from America that I can compare its taste to.
We walked back to the hotel. Here is the quote of the day, although I am not explicitly doing one each day, “I’m very content right now. I have filled up on baked cheese and I have wooden cats in my bag.” -Anna
Left for the bus station and had to take a slight detour (or a min hiking trip across some fields because of the constructions happening on the park walkway.
Ended our excursion on the bus at Zakopane Plac PKP st.7 for a 3:35pm ride back to Kraków. The bus was a little more chatty than on the way down. It was later and there were more youthful faces. About twenty minutes in, we were gracefully racing with a blue, yellow, and red train. Also, quite a few plastic surgery billboards, specifically aiming at a woman’s chest. Is that popular in Poland?
On the way back the houses and backyards had much character. They may have a wooden playground, a garden, or a well. Got back around 6:50
Some things that make Zakopane different from Kraków:
Fewer pigeons by far. They’re not on all the streets. In fact, Sunday in the large market was the first time I saw pigeons up close with people.
The air is super clear and fresh. It’s better than the suburban/rural air at home. No pollution.
There are so many trees. And they are easily 100 feet.
The water from the faucet is fresh. It's mountain water from the stream.
The temperature. It was 11 to 14˚ C Saturday while hiking. Sunday, it started at -2.2˚C (28˚F) and went up to 15 C (57.2˚F). On top of a mountain it feels much colder, though.
"People do not speak as much English" is what I had been told, but the shop owners and the waitresses did. I did not hear too many people speaking English on the streets though. About five people up on the mountains spoke English beside our group.
There are only two churches. Once I realized this during my run, it really hit me that this is a tourist town.
Same:
You still walk everywhere, if not more than in Krakow.
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