New Years 2007

Europe » Poland » Lesser Poland » Zakopane
January 27th 2007

Published: January 28th 2007

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Pete Candi

Polish Dancing

Natives dancing in the snow

For New Years we flew to a ski resort in Poland, for 7 days with friends and Catherine met up with us there. This year was really weird with the weather and even in London it was quite warm (13 degrees when its usually around 2 degrees) it meant that all over Europe there wasnt much snow and for the first year ever, there wasnt enough snow to go skiing where we were. It still snowed though so the city was blanketed in white, which was beautiful..

The highlight of that trip had to be where we went out to a snow covered forest and were taken through the forest on one horse open sleighs. It felt like we were on the set of 'The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe'. Amazing! There were 4 of us on each sleigh and we got given a whole bottle of honey Polish vodka and some traditional sheep cheese (yuk) and were covered in a warm blanket and then off we went. We finally figured out where the song Jingle Bells comes from- the one horse open sleigh.... 'laughing all the way'- it was the whole bottle of vodka we were given to

Me & Pete

Me & Pete in the snow at a ski resort town- Zakopane

finish!
We were also taken to a bonfire in the forest where as the night fell, we were entertained by Polish dancers and musicians and toasted Polish sausages over the bonfire in the snow. Such a fantastic experience and one I will remember for a long time.

The great part is that we were able to live like kings there as the exchange rate is really good to the pound because Poland is not yet on the Euro. We went out each night and feasted on 3 course meals and drinks at nice restaurants and walked away paying about in NZ$ worth about $10 each

We also spent a day out at Auschwitz which was the biggest concentration camp from World War II. It was horrific to hear the stories of what happened, the torture that took place there, and then to be shown the huge rooms of human hair, and the gas chambers the people were led to (by being told they were going to have a shower) where they would be gassed and then cremated. Over 1.5 million mainly Jewish people were killed there over the few years it was open. A rather sobering tour but

One Horse Open Sleigh

These are the sleighs we rode on through the forest with 4 of us in each sleigh. Amazing!

really interesting and has sparked my interest in finding out more about the day to day reality of life for these people, by watching movies like Schindlers List and reading books like Anne Franks diary etc

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