My geography can be a wee bit crap at times. I thought I would be safe from Russian "tourists" of the Donetsk type in Białystok whereas Zakopane, 5 minutes from the Slovak border, might be a little more tense. But the two cities are just as close to the crazies. It would take them like 20 hrs to get to either place if they drove. They don't seem like the types that could drive a car that far without Dad turning the car around.
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| Tatra Mountains. Home to 70 types of Slime Mould. Don't see that on the posters very often. I should do tourism! You should read up on Slime Moulds, they are freaky. |
So Zakopane is safe.
Except it is already full of Russians and Ukrainians. They seem mutually happy with each other so I am guessing nothing is being planned here yet. I'll let you know if I see scuffle break out.
At the market one of the guys spoke to Ewa in Polish and me in Russian. Probably my unflinching glare at the world and spetznaz like grace on the snow. I think the Poles are generally on the side of the Ukraine at the moment so we make an odd couple.
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Oh Krakow, the EU rule was "A Heaven Nighclub" a broken coffee shop sign doesn't cover the requirement you silly monkeys.
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Zakopane is a tourist town; Poland's Winter Capital, primarily for families with children. The ski slopes are not world class extreme cool kid type. It is a good place to get the kids out of the house and into healthy nature. The relative easiness of the slopes should be good for me to learn to ski on before we go over to Slovakia which has cool kid slopes.
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| Zakopane has few nightclubs but includes the obligatory Heaven nightclub obviously |
From Krakow by bus it is about 2.5 hrs and costs 15złoty (AU$5). This is ridiculously cheap. The train takes twice as long. The combination of pricing and time means we took the bus. I did spend as much time making a convincing argument for the train as I could but the Polish rail System just wasn't on my side and even I didn't believe me.
Sign Review: Krakow, Not sure if it is graffiti or not
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| It might have been a skate shop. |
I have expanded my concept of signs to include graffiti. I liked this one. Clever.
Rating 7.5/10 (Not sure if it is corporate and so scoring low just in case)
Our lodgings are on Tatary Street. The cab driver didn't know where this was. He didn't know because Ewa was saying Tartar Street. I suspect the accommodation was chosen because the street sounds like her favourite Polish Food.
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| This is not "#38 Raw beef with onions and gherkin Street" |
The Tatra mountains are proud of their heritage and feature a lot of Mountain Man references, mostly in food and drinks. We had a Mountain Man breakfast to get ready for the day. 4 meats to fight the 4 elements.
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| The film Ravenous was made around here. You should see it. But there is no requirement for man flesh any more. |
Suitably fuelled up we strolled the main tourist street which features a lot of open air stalls mostly devoted to the local cheeses (a squeaky cheese reminiscent of halloumi often eaten warm with a jam sauce), lots of coats, hats and boots and assorted tourist knick crappery.
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| "Only Old Ladies and Russian Prostitutes wear fur coats" is being reconsidered. |
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| Not sure why one stall would be better than any of the others. I'm sure there is a reason. |
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| and Hot Wine, lots of hot wine. |
Traveling Advice: Money
In the cause of concealing my presence from the world wide surveillance system I like paying cash.
In the interests of ease and not wandering around with too much cash I like using cards.
Using an Australian card often offers an option of paying in złoty (I think I have almost used enough ł characters now to make that research worthwhile) or in AUD$.
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| ATM with suggestions of which beer you should use that cash on. |
Either way you are normally screwed on the exchange rates. If you are planning on travelling try to carry enough ID to open a debit account at a local bank so you can transfer money at more realistic rates.
Also consider talking to people and organising currency swaps with them to avoid commissions, then put the cash in your local bank account.
Rating: 6/10 (it's a good idea but a lot of work)
Zakopane has lots of traditional looking restaurants. Many of which have bands playing traditional music after 1800.
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| This one had sugar cookies with every drink ordered. I have no idea why and they weren't very good, I built a little fort with them. |
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We sought out the local tourist information and travel agent places, booked a few things and grabbed some brochures.
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| Xtreme! Sleigh! Ride! Ewa says this is just for the picture and we won't get to do racing. |
We shall spend the evening planning what to do as we are here for a week and have already booked the sleigh ride (featuring hot wine and kielbasa).
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| Roast Piggy! This was incredibly good. A chewy crackly skin and the fat rendered so nicely. In the running for best pork I have ever had (including mine from the smoker) |
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| Why did we waste precious stomach space on stupid mountain man food? |
Plans:
- Visit Church, find solace
- Visit Cemetary, find peace
- Visit Ski school, find class.
Rejected Plans:
- Visit Lake. 5 hrs walking each way is beyond our capabilities currently.
- Visit Lake. It is too far for the horses in the tourist street.
- Visit Lake. I will try if you really want but we haven't tested any of our hiking gear yet and committing to 10 hrs is risky
- Visit Lake. Plus is there any phone reception
- Visit Lake. Is each beer making you want to do this more?
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| Night Night (I am sure there are closer lakes dear) |
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