Monday, June 23rd 2014
What a beautiful day to explore the Tatra Mountains. We woke up and sat outside for awhile just enjoying the beautiful view outside our cottage. John and I still have not mastered the art of selfie taking so just bear with us ;).
We found this interesting. These are their hay bales and you can see in the above picture a man with a wheel barrow. He was getting some hay for his livestock. So no round or square bales here.
After breakfast we packed our bags and headed back into Zakopane to make our way up the mountains. There is one place that had a gondola but when we stopped to ask how to get there we were told we would have to wait in line for over a few hours. So we passed on that and instead took a tram up.
This was funny to me. A pretend beach on the top of the mountain. Also if you look at a the pictures below I am wearing jeans and a jacket because it was chilly. Well there were many people sitting in these chairs in tiny little tank tops soaking up the sun.
My attempt at a panoramic photo with my phone.
At the top of the mountain there was an alpine slide so Tony, Magda, John, Tami, and myself decided to give it a go. There were a few part where you felt like you were on the edge of the mountain. It was pretty cool.
We hung out at the top of the mountain for a while, enjoyed a beer and had lunch. There were a lot of little restaraunts and shops up at the top so we choose beer and pizza-not very Polish I know :) But it was yummy. When we were done we had two options to get down the mountain. Take the tram back down or hike down. My mom and Tami took the tram and the rest of us hiked! It was really pretty but unlike trails here it was straight down vs switchbacks.
The guys were being silly trying to walk down the hill attempting to stay straight up and down instead of leaning like most do when walking down a steep hill. For some reason this gave all of us the giggles.
The "Up" tracks and the "Down" Tracks.
There was a little bridge where we crossed above the tram tracks.
Another view of the Sleeping Knight off to the left of this pic.
And another from a distance.
There goes Tami and Mom down the tram
My handsome hubby :)
The hike down although steep was beautiful and it gave us a change to enjoy the scenery. But let me tell you, although we didn't hike up the mountain my legs were super sore from hiking down. I suppose it uses a whole set of muscles.
Our friends along the trail.
We got back down to the bottom and there was a little market square and also a bunch of kids activities that I am sure Elsie would have loved had she been there. We walked around a little bit and looked at the shops. We bought Elsie a little pair of regional moccasins and because they size things different I was so nervous about them fitting when we got home. As we were walking there was a little peddler who was trying to sell us these little dancing disney characters (They dance along a fishing line that is attached to a radio and its vibrations made them dance) My dad thought it would be fun to buy those for the grandchildren so he was having Magda ask a couple of questions. Well shortly into the conversation (which was in Polish) we could definitely tell that the mood turned very angry-haha. The guy who was selling these things was pissed at us because people were walking by and we were blocking the view-ummm we were trying to buy the things! So Magda essentially told him to F-Off and we walked away. What a jerk. You definitely don't have to understand the language to know the tone of a conversation that's for sure. So we started heading back towards the vehicles. It was finally time to head to Rzemien, the village where Magda's father and Danuta live.
One thing I learned in Poland is that words are pronounced nothing like the look. Rzemien in my mind is actually like Gemien with a "G" or a "J" sound vs and R sound. So anyways, the village is about 1.5 hours in the opposite directions from Zakopane so it was probably like 3 hours away. Of course I spent a lot of the time sleeping. I rode with my mom and dad and Tami and Derick rode with Tony and Magda. There was one point where I thought we were all going to die-ha! So the road are pretty narrow once you get off the interstate (probably not what they are called) and we found ourselves following a semi on this narrow road with no shoulder. My brother was trying to get around him and pass but of course was a bit difficult because he was driving his car from England where the driver sits on the right side-which is fine when the center line in on the right side so he was relying on Magda to stick her head out the window and check for oncoming traffic. There was one time I thought Magda's head was going to get cut off. It was pretty intense. Oh and add to the fact that the semi driver was hugging and crossing the center line when there wasn't oncoming traffic so he could avoid the side of the road made it even more interesting. But we all made it there safely. :)
We got to Rzemien and Magda showed us where we would be staying. One of Krzysztof's (Magda's father) cousins was letting us stay in their upstairs apartment. So we unloaded of bags and then walked down to Magda's parents home which was probably two blocks in distance. It was interesting because pretty much all the homes had fences around their properties with walk gates and gates for vehicles to drive through. But none of the fences were privacy fences. Many of them were really decorative fences-very pretty. Another thing that I noticed about the homes here is that most had clotheslines/drying racks because electric dryers were seldom used (if they even owned one). This actually inspired me to get back into drying my clothes outside. I bet I have dried fewer than 10 loads in our dryer in the last month. Another thing I noticed is all the beautiful flowers they had either in a garden, window sill, or container. Oh and the vegetable gardens. It seemed most home is the village had one in their yard and Danuta's was huge :)
We enjoyed dinner outside and it was absolutely delicious! We had some yummy green beans, boiled potatoes with dill, ribs, and chicken. It was so good!!! And then not long after dinner the vodka shots began along with more food!
This photo shows the food that got brought out not more than an hour after dinner was served: Desserts, kielbasa, and ham. yum!!!!
The two dads enjoying some moonshine :)
It was a very enjoyable night. Although we didn't speak the same language we were able to communicate enough to enjoy each other's company.
