Blogs from Zakopane, Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe - page 5

Poland so far has been a fascinating country, and a country that we've been able to give real time to. We spent our first night in Zakopane, a favourite destination of Polish tourists for its accessibility to the high Tatras mountains. As we approached we entered a realm of intricately carved log houses, and small wooden churches against a backdrop of the craggy limestone mountains. We then cycled to Krakow, where we had the humbling and chilling experience of visiting Auschwitz, before heading to the least populated and least developed region in the south east of Poland, Podkarparckie, where Poland borders Slovakia and the Ukraine. Poland in the southeast appears a country juxtaposed between centuries old and new. Frenzied road building and property development is taking place in anticipation of the Euro 2012 football cup against ... read more

The train to Zakopane is scenic but somewhat raw the windows wouldnt open and we had just ran to get our bags from the hostel and back to the train station wearing backpacks in 35 degree heat, i literaly felt like i was on fire. the train took a ridculous amount of time because it was quite old and be every so often it reversed back along the track as it veers off to alot of random small towns enroute. So after getting on the train at 2:45 we arrived at 7:00 and all the banks were closed so i couldnt cash any travelers cheques and Barclays (as they do everytime you go away) had put a temporary block on both of our cards but thanks to the Hostel stara polana as they trusted that ... read more

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Today we woke up a little late, we were tired and we didn’t really want to get out of our warm, cozy beds this morning. But when we did, we went into the restaurant and helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast. I swear, we carry hot chocolate everywhere! Actually no, not just hot chocolate, but anything that will help keep us warm. We went back to our place and got properly dressed, because we were going to go snowboarding! Abby and I were so scared, but it seemed really fun, so we decided to go. We took the cable car up to the Tatras, the mountains, and met our instructor. He taught us the basics of boarding, like speeding up, stopping, and turning. We all had to practice and once we got the hang of it, ... read more

Coming from Alberta, I'm usually not overly impressed by mountains because we have the Rockies. C'mon, they're some of the biggest and most beautiful mountains in the world! But since Leszek was right about falling in love with Krakow, we followed his advice and went to Zakopane - a little resort town in the mountains. The town reminds me a lot of Banff (for those of you not familiar with Banff, it's a national park in Alberta and is where some of the Rockies are located) except that it looks more storybookish because of the old streets and houses. Just the kind of place you want to go when you need to get away from bustling cities. We arrived late at night after a rocky bus ride from Krakow and stayed in a hostel called Stara ... read more