Poland - Zakopane

Robyn, Madelein and I all love being outdoors, so a trip to "the winter capital of Poland" seemed fitting. We caught a coach to Zakopane and then a smaller bus to the base of the mountain to catch a gondola to the top.

When we reached Zakopane we explored the town and collected food for a picnic lunch at the top of the mountain.

I have a ridiculous love of dill pickles and I was thrilled to find a bucket full of Polski Ogorki at a corner grocer. Sadly, they turned out to be kind of mushy. Mom, you still make the best pickles.

On our first day in Krakow we saw kiosks selling a snack that looked intriguing. It looked like some kind of filled pastry being roasted over a small barbeque. When we were ready to give it a try, I asked the woman at the kiosk what the pastry was filled with. "Just cheese." I commented to the girls that I wondered how thick the pastry was and the woman again said, "Just cheese." We purchased a piece and discovered that it truly is just a piece of smoked cheese! They sell it in many different shapes, including a sheep for Easter. The cheese is only sold in this area of Poland, being made in the Tatra Mountains. The cheese is really good, but very salty so it's not something I could eat very much of at one meal.

Oscypek - smoked sheep's milk cheese.

Smoked sheep's milk cheese.

As we walked through the main street and market area, we kept seeing people carrying Easter baskets. We had seen a few of them in Krakow and asked about them at our hostel. It's a strong Polish tradition where people put together a beautiful basket of Easter food to be taken to the church and blessed by the priest. The markets were full of things to be used in preparing the baskets - the white linen cloth for lining, flowers and greenery, eggs, chocolates, and empty baskets. We never saw prepared baskets so it's obviously something where each person must use their creativity to put together their own basket.

A young boy on the street had a full and uncovered basket so I asked him to stop for a photo. Judging by his expression, I think he thought I was crazy, but he stopped and nodded so I snapped a picture.

We saw a family in traditional costumes who had just left the church after having their baskets blessed.

The cathedral in Zakopane was packed with people carrying Easter baskets.

Saw this t.shirt at the market - I love that it has the traditional costume and a sheep eating smoked sheep's milk cheese.

When we reached the base of the mountain, we were shocked to discover a packed queue of people waiting to purchase tickets. From what we could figure out, it isn't possible to purchase lift passes valid for several days - tickets must be purchase each day and for each lift (so if you're skiing their three runs, you have to pay for tickets for each time you catch a lift back to the top). Seemed like a strange system, but we got into the queue, tormented the whole time by the smell of our lunch sausage emanating from Robyn's backpack. After an hour of waiting, we had our tickets and caught the gondola to the top.

Queue for purchasing lift tickets.

We snagged a corner table in the only restaurant at the top of the hill as there were no picnic tables outside. Bread, smoked cheese in string form, three kinds of sausage, tomatoes, pickles (Polski Ogorki!), and grapes. A fabulous spread!

None of us really had suitable shoes for walking around in the snow, but Robyn and I slipped and tripped our way up a short hill to get a better view of the cluster of mountain peaks and a view down into the lowlands.

L-R: Madelein, Robyn, and me.

We caught the shuttle back to Zakopane and sprawled on the front porch of a closed real estate office to catch a quick nap and enjoy the sunshine. We got some funny looks from people walking along the sidewalk. Madelein walked to a nearby shop for a snack and when she came back she said we looked like a couple of bergies, an Afrikaans slang term for homeless people.

We went back to the market in Krakow for dinner and enjoyed a final meal of bigos (stewed mixture of meat, sauerkraut, and onion), pierogi, meat kebab, and potatoes. For dessert, Robyn and I gave in to the temptation of the waffle stand and regretted not stopping there earlier in our trip - so delicious! Robyn went for caramel topping and I tried chocolate and raspberry. Wow!

Me and Robyn digging into our amazing waffles.
Yeah... we're hot and we know it.