by Michelle Nelson
The town of Zakopane in is in the High Tatra Mountains of Poland. These mountains were recommended to us years ago when we had an Au-Pair from Slovakia. She said they were the most beautiful mountains in the world.
Growing up during the cold war and times of the East-Block we never visited any of the countries behind the iron curtain. So now it has been 25 years since the wall in Berlin came down and since countries like Poland became open for visitors. Poland is actually part of the EU but still has its own currency, the Zloty. That is just one of the words that I have a hard time pronouncing. The Slavic languages have a tendency to pile on the consonants and making really long names like Chochowaha which is pronounced hohowa! Anyway, I can now say two things: Dzien Dobry (hello) and Dziękuję (thank you).
It stills seems strange to just be able to drive over the border. We have the Schengen-Agreement in the EU and it means you can freely travel between the EU countries without even showing a passport.
The people of southern Poland in the High Tatras are said to have come originally from the Balkan area and both the houses, the food and the music all have an eastern touch.
Most of the restaurants even have live music in the Balkan style every night.
We visited another town close by called Chochołów (pronounced hohowolf) which is full of fantastic wooden houses build of logs and kept clean by housewives who scrub the entire outside of the house every year. We actually saw a woman taking a bucket and scrub bush to the outside of her house. That is quite a job - to think that I complain about washing the windows!
The High Tatras are the only alpine mountains in Poland and according to the travel guide, the Polish people love to hike and spend time outdoors. Needless to say, our hike was very popular and a bit like running the New York Marathon. For some reason, I had the idea that we would be all alone hiking in the Tatras. These carriages brought the tourists up to one of the lakes… and there were lots of tourists!
At the mountain hut, it started to rain and everyone got into their plastic disposable raincoats. Only Uli and I had expensive mountain rain gear. Truly, their plastic coats got the job done.
It was a very beautiful and exhausting hike of about 800 meters altitude with lots of rocks for climbing:
And stunning waterfalls and lakes
The town of Zakopane in is in the High Tatra Mountains of Poland. These mountains were recommended to us years ago when we had an Au-Pair from Slovakia. She said they were the most beautiful mountains in the world.
 |
| Typical Zakopone hut in the High Tatra mountains |
 |
| Border from Slowakia into Poland |
Living Zakopane Style
 |
| Old House in Zakopane style built with logs and steep roofs |
Most of the restaurants even have live music in the Balkan style every night.
We visited another town close by called Chochołów (pronounced hohowolf) which is full of fantastic wooden houses build of logs and kept clean by housewives who scrub the entire outside of the house every year. We actually saw a woman taking a bucket and scrub bush to the outside of her house. That is quite a job - to think that I complain about washing the windows!
 |
| Log houses in Chochołów - the light colored house has been recently scrubbed |
Hiking in the High Tatras
Our hike took us to the "Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich" or the "Valley of the five polish lakes" |
| Mountain range of the High Tatras |
 |
| Poor horses had to bring load after load of tourists up the hill in the heat |
At the mountain hut, it started to rain and everyone got into their plastic disposable raincoats. Only Uli and I had expensive mountain rain gear. Truly, their plastic coats got the job done.
It was a very beautiful and exhausting hike of about 800 meters altitude with lots of rocks for climbing:
And stunning waterfalls and lakes
plus many amusing signposts
(Uli picks the pictures out for the blogs and somehow they always seem to be of me… I am sensing a pattern here)
It was worth the effort, at the end we reached one of the lovely lakes.
And we even saw a bride who hiked up the trail in a bridal gown with her groom…That was a definite first.
Hot days on the road to Crakow
It has been a very hot summer and I do not think I have sweat this much since I moved away from California. There are many rivers coming out of the High Tatras and as we drove by and saw cars parked at the side of the road we decided to investigate and found this very nice little river (Bialka River by Nowa Biala) and claimed it for the 1860 Munich Soccer team.
A mini pilgrimage
Uli and I are both Catholic and looking at the map we saw there is a very famous pilgrimage church on the way to Cracow in the town of Kalwaria Zebryzdoska. There is calvary path here where they have built all the chapels to look like stations in Jesus’ life. For instance, there is Pilatus Palace and the chapel in Jerusalem.
There were pilgrims kneeling down and praying at many of the stations. The Polish people are very devout Catholics which is surprising as most other East-Block countries are atheist after communist rule for so many years.
 |
| Calvary path with the catholic stations of the cross |
Uli and I did the Pilgrimage light and hiked up the Calvary mountain and gave our silent prayers - it was 35 degrees Celsius and the way up was very steep.
Comments
Post a Comment