20-08-2008 - Poles Apart

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20-08-08 Poles Apart

We spent the rest of yesterday (19th) in Trencin, we really couldn’t get to grips with the place at all. It has this magnificent fortress - Unesco listed, and yet they seem pretty unenthusiastic about foreign tourism. In the fortress they make a point of nothing that the only language spoke by staff is Slovak, the national language. Hard to tell whether this is typical of other sites, but it is kind of a strange feeling being in a place that really doesn’t want too much to do with anyone who speaks another language - German or English. This is in very sharp contract to CZ where all children are taught English and German from an early age in school. It feels as if SK is very inward looking, I think give the changes it has gone through over the last hundred years it is understandable, but they appear to be dealing with it in a very different way to the Czechs. Not good or bad just different. One positive for the Slovaks is that it makes a trip to somewhere like this fortress far more authentic and relevant to them if there aren’t hoards of tourists trapsing through….

So whilst we are still trying to figure our the CZ / SK split we moved on the Poland - through the High Tatras and into Zaktopane. I don’t think anyone that is coming here can say they are seeing a day in a life in Poland, this place really is something different. This is where the Poles come to holiday, skiing in winter, hiking in summer, there aren’t many foreigners here, it has a great laid back feel to the place. The culture here is Skelp - these are mountain people - they traditionally dress similar to Bavarians or the Swiss and eat similar heavy meat and dumpling dishes. We though we would give this a try first night in town, another meat feast, and some crazy folk music in acomniment, what was different was that this vibrant, bussling pub was alcohol free - I think this is pretty unusual for Poland… the food was great and there will be plenty more time to taste the beer.

The street here are spotless, the buildings are amazing and there are a lot of designer shops around, in parts this could be a town anywhere in the alps, in fact I think this place would give any town in the alps a run for its money. We really like it here, plan is to catch a cable car to the top of a mountatin tomorrow, will see how we get on.

We are staying in a pension - challet - the room is lovely everything is wood, incredibly the place only costs £10 a night, about the same as one main meal in the pub tonight. The owner cleared some space in his woodshed for the bike, so we can relax and enjoy the place

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