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Published: August 20th 2008
Krakow couldn’t hold us for long, we hopped a bus for Zakopane and our adventure began. After a three hour bus ride we pulled out our maps, in good American tourist fashion, and made our way to Hotel Belvedere and then found some dinner. I thought we were going to be in a small mountain town and be the only people from out of town and I was ready to stand out like a sore thumb but we were just a drop in the bucket. We made our way through the crowds and enjoyed what Zakopane evening entertainment had to offer us but our beds called to us for the next morning was going to come mighty early for our mountain adventure!
We awoke early, even though something didn’t settle well with me all night, and stole breakfast from the conference room and headed for the bus station to catch a ride. We piled into a mini bus and my legs couldn’t even fit behind the seat in front of me and we kept stopping and picking up more and more people and everyone was giving the fat American the stink eye for taking up two seats. We finally
made it to Morskie Oko which means Eye of the Ocean. The lake is tucked high in the Tatar Mountains and is over 150 feet deep in some parts and it used to be believed that it was connected to the ocean through an underground tunnel. It is a nine kilometer hike uphill to Morskie Oko or an hour horse wagon ride. We opted for the wagon ride and we were off. I was thinking that we were going to be in the woods, by ourselves enjoying nature and each other but we soon discovered that we followed a paved road and were there with thousands, I mean thousands, of people. After the wagon ride we still had to hike 2 kilometers up to the lake and it was well worth it. The lake was at the base of huge jagged mountains that looked like they just shoot straight out of the water and finally stopped 3,000 feet above. I have never seen mountains like this and every turn was breathtaking. I have tons of pictures but none do it justice. As we relaxed by the lake I realized that my wallet was gone. I don’t know where or how
but with no cell service we just enjoyed the scenery and hiked around for a bit before heading back down. I’ll be honest with all the people and the paved road I felt like it stole from the natural beauty of the place but it was still so powerful that when I looked up it felt like I was first person to see it and I was the only one there. Two hours later we reached the bottom of the mountain, we walked down since we rode up, ate a late lunch and headed back for Krakow.
It was a short trip but by far the most beautiful place I have seen in a long time. Next is Denmark so I am going to brush up on my Danish….
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