2015-01-11: A Change in the Weather

Cultural Observations: Health

Poles seem more concerned with their health in a general sort of way. There are a lot more ads on tele here regarding medicines than I remember in Aus for example. One of the things I was first taught at Polish school was that Jak się masz (How are you) was not actually a good way of saying "how's it going?" as it is too personal. A passing idea is that because Australians have a different set of preoccupations (e.g. house prices) asking after someone's health is not considered personal. Ewa says this is me inventing a narrative to explain the world around me (actually I think she said it was a crap idea).

We did a similar thing with like 10kg weights, these guys must be ridiculously strong

Anyway on the Polish music channel the other day they had a workout show. Featuring squats and deadlifts. Two exercises which a lot of gym bunnies say are too dangerous and blah blah blah whereas most of the athletes you see at the gym do tons of them. The shows front-person was talking about lots of the technical aspects for the exercises and the production values were pretty minimal. It was a pretty damn serious weightlifting show in the middle of top 40 video clips.

I found it interesting anyway. Ewa is so lucky she gets to look at her culture through my eyes!

Rating: 6.5/10 (+2 if people are out there joining in but I can't see many people having a full size bar and weights in their lounge room)

Poles think vodka is medicine, different ones cure different things, this one cures "too much dancing in the mountains"

We went skiing again today. Yesterday it rained way too much and all the instructors were complaining about the minimal the time they spent skiing yesterday. So The Princesses Sickness might have been just plain sensible. Let's call it that. The fact it appeared to be cured by a little Nalewka doesn't mean it was a hangover at all.

Pretty on windows.

A slight issue with walking to the ski slopes after a good day of rain is that all the snow melted and turned into ice on the sidewalks. I proved myself a Man Of The Mountains by not falling over even once. Because Ewa fell over skiing the other day and blames it on me being boring she had a different instructor today and I went with my trusty Jurek (actual name on business card is one of his 8 other names and is Jerzy Surmiak +48 606 780 0478) He does skiing, ice climbing and mountain climbing instructing and he tolerated my nonsense in a stoic fashion.

The mountains opposite the ski field make any sense of achievement feel small on such a flat slope

I think my favourite comment from him is "you are bad but you recover well". I only fell once today but I did manage to do it in a spectacular fashion, he was impressed with that one (we pay up front 80zł (~$30) an hour so he wasn't that worried, just impressed) . He says I am now at about the level Ewa was on Friday. I am not a fool and I know that Ewa has probably once again been competitive and probably advanced beyond me though.

Not to leave automocar outside overnight

I felt that as soon as he let me go fast and just trust to instinct I skiied way better (even if people in the vicinity may have looked worried, I didn't hit any of them and I have craploads of insurance anyways). At least for turning left. Turning right still freaks me the hell out. I am guessing the Japanese will have built a ski run for natural left turners. Ewa says probably not and we have to go again tomorrow.

Classy food for Classy Lady

A quick stop for vodka and beer with pierogi (fried and they are like really good gyoza) and we strolled downhill on the ice and back home with more beer and vodka for the evening.

Named after gangsters hideouts.

Glamorising crimes against taste.

But it was only 1600. So we went to the local aqua park. It has water slides and jacuzzis and spouts of water with immense power that I love standing under for a quick massage. I am starting to think that when Poland stopped being communist they looked at Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for things to do with all the money and they built water parks. "Waterlube, Home of the Excellent Water Slide".

We are two years too late

One of the water slides goes dark and has stars cut into the side which was cool but it ended into a geothermal pool which had stopped working, was outside and so spectacularly cold. The slides were certainly less extreme than the ones in Krakow or Białystok but still fun. I haven't paid much attention to price for the others as someone else paid but this time I did and the prices are actually a little scary here. A movie ticket is about 20zł and this was about 40zł per person. Granted for visitors from Aus not really serious cash but for locals this seems about the same as paying AU$40 for 2 hours of swimming fun. Based on this I suggest getting here and sampling their water parks quick as if the public love for them dies they are gone real fast.

For a family oriented tourist town it sure has a lot of strip clubs.

Post swimming fun times we needed food again. Stupid bodies. As I am feeling my upper thighs a bit (which means I was actually skiing rather than just relying on stuff I already know) I decided we would do the Steak House thing. Surely they could deliver me vast quantities of protein (and vodka).

Food and Beverage Review: Wila Ślimak (Villa of the Snail?)

I might have the name wrong, it is this place. Note the Steak, Grill, Steak signs.

This place makes me want to go to another one because there is no way that they can all be this bad and survive. We were actually kind of happy it sucked so badly because it meant that I can finally give a non obvious bad review to something. Beer and Vodka were good.

The emergency exit was for Ewa's only

The kebab was tough, over cooked and the slices of fat I loved at the place the other night were almost rancid and not rendered. I LEFT FAT ON MY PLATE.

Looked pretty though

The mixed meat platter (at a grill place) came out some 45 minutes after the kebab. I think this was because the chef had no fingernails so the packets of cold cuts were hard to open.

To be fair you could argue I didn't order steak and I did say it was a steak place but it was a steak and grill place and their prominent window shows the grill of kebabs and pork knuckles. The steaks all came with lots of chips and potatoes and such and I need lots of protein right now, especially after that McDonalds debacle.

Not the mixed meat platter I expected

Arguably a place with shit food can make you happy with fun service. We didn't get that. The waitresses were all hanging over the bar with their arses pointed at us and ordering another drink was a personal endeavour (restaurants make lots of their money from the booze markup, this is why successful restaurants never leave your glass empty). Ewa says this is reminiscent of the communist times when someone working for you would demand respect from you that they were working for you. Respect was basically abasement at their temple of noble endeavour (when they bothered to do it). I figured it might be that the steak places are for Poles back from the UK presumably bringing UK boy/girl friends. And the majority of UK places are about as shit as this in my opinion. So maybe it is a working business model.

Rating: 2/10 (I would go there before McDonalds, probably)

The place was so bad I am actually tempted to waste one of our two remaining nights in Zakopane going to another to see if it sucks as badly as this.

I recommend using Jerzy if you want to learn to ski but I am not forcing you.
If you go to this restaurant it better be just because you want to see how bad a liar I am. Then I will come and punch you because I am right.

This is a nightclub. Can't be that cool as we were invited in and we are old and such.

Blog Warning: Sleep.

My company sidekick is on holidays as of today. This means I have to go back to my life of working over an 18 hour window each day. Even more terrible is that a lot of that work has to be done 10 hours out of sync with where I am. A lot of my work involves watching things and so I will probably write these posts during those periods. I will probably be angry and rant a lot in somewhat bizarre styles.

I will also have huge issues differentiating toothpaste and anti cold weather moisturising cream.