Tatra National Park

Visiting Tatra National Park

Today we’re doing an excursion from Zakopane to the Tatra National Park, before moving on to Krakow.  Our host dropped us off at the train station around 0900 where we stored our luggage. 

We were lucky to get on the bus to Morskie Oko straight away.  The road took us through very green wooded countryside.

Morskie Oko is a large lake located in the Tatra National Park.  The bus dropped us at the “base” where horses and carriages leave from.  There was an alternative to be dropped off at the park entrance for people who wanted to walk more.

We waited 20 mins for our carriage to fill up to about fifteen passengers before setting off for a ride around the park. The 1h15 ride took us through the woods with some views of snowy peaks.

At the end of the ride, we walked about 20 mins to the lake.  Instead of the emerald colour we had seen in pictures, it was dark due to cloud cover.  The weather had been on and off with sunshine but fortunately no rain.

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There were many school trippers and local tourists who mostly did the trip the hard way on foot.  We walked the return journey, taking about 1h15 as well.

We had just missed the bus to Zakopane, so waited over a hot dog each.  Back in Zakopane, we arranged our bus tickets for our onward travel to Krakow.  We had time to have a snack at last night’s Vietnamese restaurant.  We enjoyed a hot and sour soup plus spring rolls, accompanied by a salad.  An argument broke out with Kim as he wanted another plate of spring rolls while I thought we had had quite enough.  He felt like he didn’t have control over his life anymore.

On the roadside, we tried a local cheese that’s been moulded in to small kite shape, or larger cylinders. They may be white or smoked till brown. With the brown one, there is a slight chance of mistaking it for bread. It’s quite a hard dry cheese and not particularly special to me.

Continuing to Krakow

We took a brisk walk back to the train station to collect our backpacks then waited for the bus at the station opposite.  Kim bought some doughnut and bread for the 2h30 journey ahead to Krakow.  It seemed like a slow journey, made worse by a traffic jam as we entered Krakow.

We took a taxi to Demel Hotel.  We had chosen this hotel despite its website’s time-warped pictures.  It looked like a good place that was very dated.  But in real life, it was immaculate and hadn’t aged that badly.

We decide to eat in tonight.  Prices seemed higher than our previous places but we are in a hotel.  It seems common for sides like potatoes and vegetables to be priced separately but plated together with one’s meat choice.

Kim ordered schnitzel with boiled potatoes, which was a delicious choice.  On the other hand, I ordered a set meal of local dishes:

• Borscht (beetroot soup) with meat dumplings.
• Bigos, mixed meat (including cured meat like bacon or ham) stew with sauerkraut.
• Dumplings filled with cheese.

The bigos was simply delicious.  I love anything that’s sour and the sourness of the sauerkraut went beautifully with the flavour of the meat. [Edit: Many years later, I still think of bigos when I meet Polish people and thin of poland, despite not having had the dish after leaving Poland.]

We finished off with a baked apple dessert.  It was more like apple slices in an eggy batter.

What a nice meal to end the day.  And what a great introduction to Polish cuisine.  I think it was our first non-foreign dinner, having dined only on Mexican and Vietnamese before now.