The high country

Moving to Zakopane

We woke at 0430 because the sky was bright as, but managed to fall back asleep till 0630.  We ate our simple breakfast and returned the apartment key before taking the tram to Warsaw Centralna.  Unfortunately, we took the tram that made a turn as we got to that part of town.  We had to hop off and backtrack to the previous stop and rejoin the next tram.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the morning rush and the squeeze with everyone on board and our luggage.

We got to the station about 0745 in time to buy some food.  Our train to Zakopane left promptly at 0815.  The scenery changed from city to outskirts quickly and then to green flat countryside with lots of grassland and green trees.  There were patches of pure conifers where it was higher in altitude.

Our train was a non-stop to Krakow (2h30) and then onwards to Zakopane with a few stops (an additional 3h).  There were about three changes in direction due to shunting.

Scenery from the train.

We arrived at Zakopane after 1400 to be greeted by some women offering rooms.  We decided to go with one who was offering a room for PLZ30 per person but assigned us to a druggy-looking middle-aged woman to lead us to the accommodation.  There was no one home when we got there.  We were then led to a second place at PLZ50 pp which appeared to come without sheets.

We decided to part with the lady.  As we were near the railway station, she sought help from an old man to translate.  But the old man offered a room instead, and didn’t pay the lady a commission for bringing him the business.

We hopped into his car and drove round and round to avoid the pedestrian mall en route to his home, which was supposedly quite central.  The house is simple with a shared bathroom.  With a stream running by it, it was quite a relaxing setting.

Kasprowy Wierch

We discussed our plans with our host, who immediately took us to town so we could get on with our sightseeing.  We found a bus to Kuznice where we could catch a cable car to Kasprowy Wierch, a long ridge which marks the border with Slovakia and is also a ski area in winter.  This is Poland’s high country.

We were lucky to catch the last cable car up at 1600 after a 30 min wait.  I’m sure the queue and waiting would be horrible if we had come tomorrow morning instead.  We glided over lots of conifers to reach the 1985m peak.

We didn’t stay that long up on the peak since we weren’t hiking.  One can cross over to Slovakia from here.  We enjoyed the scenery even though it was largely barren rock.

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Evening

Back in Zakopane we investigated dinner options.  There wasn’t much English in the menus were saw.  Ready made food consisted of sausages, meats, black puddings and pork knuckles most of which had been grilled and kept warm.

We settled for Vietnamese again but the menu was more Chinese this time.  We had hot and sour soup; kong pao chicken; and beef with garlic and broccoli.  This was accompanied by rice and an Asian-style sauerkraut.

We took dessert nearby.  It was a layered concoction of cake, cheesecake and fruit jelly.  Great for kids of all ages, including ourselves!

We noticed the houses around here have features to help them cope with harsh snowy winters.   There are snow-stoppers on the roofs.  Gutters are also separated from the roofs to minimise snow damage.

Our simple guesthouse.