Trip to the Tatras - Zakopane

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Went to Zakopane with Mother. 2+ hours to get there. In the winter, Zakopane is supposedly the skiing capital of Poland. I had 2 chances to go to Zakopane with my class. The first chance I passed on because I was totally wiped out from a whole week fo Polish lessons, and just the weekend before I had been on the 20+ bus ride in from Estonia.. Not in the mood to travel far. Then I hear from the folks who had gone that it wasn't exactly enjoyable, more like a forced march up the side of the mountain and then a treacherous retreat from its icy slopes. Some older lady with the wrong shoes ended up sliding on her ass down the hill. No thanks. I don't like frostbite on my delicate parts.

So that's why I saved the trip for summer!

Not much to report... We got a map from the tourist office and then walked to where the main tourist street was and went up and down it.

We saw a lot of stalls selling traditional Polish items (??) and many ladies sitting by the side of the road selling these pastry things... I forgot the name, but it starts with Oc or Oz... And they have stuffing inside and patterns on the outside. We thought about buying one but I couldn't figure out what they were stuffed with (my Polish lessons didn't cover pastries) and mother thought they looked unsanitary. :-/

We ate at this pizza place, it's a chain, they have it here in Krakow, too. I ordered first -- a small vegetarian pizza with no cheese. Then it was mother's turn and she didn't know what she wanted. She wanted pasta but the menu was all in Polish, so on the fly I had to translate for her -- this one has bacon, that one is a creme sauce, etc.

Choices were pretty limited and she got fed up so she said, whatever, let's just share a medium pizza and half no cheese half cheese. So then I tell the lady, medium pizza, half no cheese half cheese. Ok, I don't know the word for half, never had to use it before (always just "bez ser" or "bez serem" for me), so she didn't understand, so I had to make a pizza shape with my hands, and then make a semi circle and say, cheese, and then make another semi circle and say, no cheese. Ah.

What a bunch of tourists.

15 minutes later, she comes to our table with our lunch.

2 pizzas, one small with no cheese, and one medium with half cheese half no cheese.

AHH!

How are we going to finish 2 pizzas?

Well, we did.


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We walked off the pizzas later in the afternoon. We then saw the the cable car thingie that went up the mountain (funicular?) and paid to go up it. The view up there was nice, and then we saw a tobogan run thingie. 😊

4 zl for one ride. At first I was thinking nah, but so many people were riding it and it looked fun. So then Mother and I stood by the entry and I timed one of the riders to see how long it takes him to go from beginning to end. I wanted to see what I would be getting for my 4 zl. Yeah, very cheap and very Chinese.

So the tobogen thingie is like what you see in the Olympics. A tube without a top that goes at a slight grade downhilll and you ride in a little cart. The difference is that in the Olympics the run is made of ice, and here in Zakopane during June, the run is all metal.

At the end of the run, there is a hook thing that links to the cart and then an automated arm drags you back up. (This stuff you don't see in the Olympics).


It took the guy about 4 minutes to return to the top, so ok, I decide to go for it.

Mother took some photos of me in the beginning and then again when I returned from the ride. She said that I took a very long time, I didn't know, time flies when you're tobogon'ing.


I looked at the timestamps on the photos she took of me, the difference between the first and the last photo was 7 minutes!

I definitely got my money's worth on that one. :-p

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Photos

Along the way to Zakopane
A lot of houess had those piles of hay. Not sure what they are for.

2 Pizzas
Mother looking at our task ahead...

Inside the funicular
Flying up the mountain!

View from the top
There is still snow on some of the peaks.

Getting ready to toboggen
I'm no Olympic material but I sure look cute! :)

Heading down the slopes
Probably about a minute after the previous photo was taken...