Travel Stories - Poland

We arrived yesterday in the most popular "hikers" town of Poland, Zakopane. This morning we get up early. For a long time Zakopane was nothing more than a small mountain village. It is known that in 1646 there were no more than 43 inhabitants. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that Zakopane began to take on significance as a city and began to attract tourists and artists from the town of Krakau, about 100 km north of Zakopane. Zakopane belonged to Austria between January 3, 1795 and November 11, 1918. It was taken by Austria through the Third Polish Division and by the end of WW1 it came back to the newly formed state of Poland. The city lies at an altitude of 800 meters at the foot of Mount Giewont. Nowadays the city attracts many tourists, there are numerous hotels and guest houses. Because of the typical building style of the Podhale with wooden houses and a lot of carvings, the town still has a village character. The locals, who in Poland are called the Góraly (= mountain dwellers), strongly adhere to traditions. In the street you can often hear a kapela playing the traditional music of the region.

We leave the bulk of what belong in our big bags behind in the hostel and then walk to the bus station where a minibus is waiting for us. The bus is packed with hikers and we are even more shocked when we arrive at our destination; a gigantic long queue for the cable car and a circus of shops, stalls and people around it. With premeditation we have chosen a less popular hike and we will see the highest parts of the "High Tatras" but we will not hike up. The path leads quite steeply up to a ledge where we have a good view of what’s behind us. We see the Polish villages that we passed and before us the peaks of the mountains in the mist. On the plateau before the high mountains really start we take place on a wooden bench behind a little wooden house and enjoy the sun. Many people end their hike here and take place on one of the large terraces. Others continue their walk towards the lakes, the route that we also have in mind. We see, when we pass a number of hawing nuns, the first lakes with "trout", low bushes with occasionally beautiful colored flowers and watery green moss-fields. At one of the last ponds for the high steep rocks, where the path runs along and then returns, we take the path, which is actually forbidden and we make tea behind some bushes and rocks. Nobody will find us here or they have to spot us from above somewhere in the mountains itself. 

Pete falls asleep in the sun on a blanket as I walk along the lake and find a magical place behind a hill and a little lake. It feels like a sacred Indian place with three gigantic boulders. I awaken pete and show the place and immediately know that if we can sleep somewhere in the Tatra’s this is it. We get our bags and I get some water from the crystal clear lake. We attach our anti-bear rope to the rock before hanging up our food bags. It gets more and more quiet on the route and when the sun goes down it is dead quiet and it is immediately chilly here at 1600 meters altitude. It is wonderful to have the mighty rocks from the mountain behind us and we see a small light flashing against the rock wall; probably a few more "hikers" who are stranded. At 20:00 it is pitch dark and the temperature drops very quickly; we both feel cold and quickly dive into our tents with all our clothes on.  

It has been terribly cold last night; a breeze came in under the canvas, the tent was soaked by the lack of trees (from the damp) and the dew was hanging in the tent. For that reason I didn’t sleep at all, my face was very cold and I tried to sleep a bit by putting my feet in my empty backpack - all in vain! When I left my tent around five o'clock it became a bit light and I saw a layer of ice on top of my tent. In the morning we make immediately hot tea and I try to get warm by running around the tent and rocks, but it does not help much as my socks and shoes are soaking wet. Fortunately, it does not take very long before the sun comes through and I lie in my sleeping bag in the sun on the rocks and I drift away. After we have eaten a portion of "porridge", we decide to break up and walk back through the landscape which is now entirely for us alone. It’s still very early. Back in the hostel we repack our belongings and after a hot shower and a perfect meal we quickly dive into our beds for a few extra hours of sleep.