Hiking in the Polish Tatra Mountains

As I wrote in an earlier post, this summer I visited Zakopane with my cousin. Zakopane is a small touristy town nestled at the foot of the Polish Tatra Mountains, which are part of the Carpathian Range. It was a fun trip, and relaxing for the most part- except for the day when we got stuck on the mountain in a storm. That was a bummer. I should mention that I have a very low threshold for discomfort, and previous travel companions of mine (you know who you are) will confirm that I can get a bit *something* when things aren't going the way I expected. So when we ended up hiking for seven hours up some very steep slopes in the wind and rain, you can imagine the temper tantrum I wanted to throw. But everything turned out alright in the end. We found our way back down and made it into town for dinner after sunset (zurek- a delicious soup made from sour barley, sausage and boiled eggs).

Here's a view of the mountains from one of the city parks- the peak you can seen is named Giewont, and it's supposed to resemble a sleeping warrior. Can you see his head in the middle of the frame?

Going up the ski lifts to the peak where we started our hike. By the way, the line for the lift was huge so if you're going to Zakopane for hiking I'd recommend getting there early (before 9am) on a weekday if you can. When we got to the top if was too foggy to see much, but the view was still impressive.

When the rain started coming down- I wanted to take a photo at the Slovakian border. The whole time we were hiking my cell phone kept going in and out of range between Polish and Slovak phone services. Also, the look on my face sums up how I felt about most of the hiking adventure (not thrilled). But I think it was worth it for the experience, and spectacular views (once the fog lifted, of course).

This is the backside of Giewont from a neighboring peak. Now the warrior's head is on the left side!

In retrospect it probably would have been a good idea to check the hourly weather forecast before going up the mountain. It's really difficult to plan anything up there because at that altitude the conditions can change drastically within minutes. That being said, we both survived and it was a good bonding experience. My family in Poland are always trying to show me something different, and since there isn't much left that I haven't done in Warsaw it's nice to travel to new places, too. Next time, however, I'm going to suggest a less strenuous excursion.

There's Just Something About Mary

Walk through any town in Poland for ten minutes and you will find at least one of these iconic shrines to the Virgin Mary. A shrine or grotto built to venerate the Catholic Church's most worshiped saint can be found on many street corners, next to churches or even in national parks throughout the country.   

A grotto next to a small river in the Chocholuw Valley nearby the Tatra Mountains resort town of Zakopane.

This one is located in what looks like an abandoned lot on one of the main streets leading to the bus station in Zakopane. Southern Poland is considered to be more deeply religious than the north, and the town even has a chapel financed and built by local citizens as an offering of thanksgiving when the late Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in 1981.

This alcove is on a street corner in the old Praga district of Warsaw, adjacent to a newly restored vodka factory-turned art facility that currently houses the Praga History Museum. I think that these shrines are quite beautiful, and wonder who takes the time to so carefully maintain them?

Summer Update

A lot has happened in the past month or so. A lot of months have been like that over the last couple of years, in fact, but July 2012 was a particularly intense exception. I finished my last day as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the end of June, attended the farewell party for U.S. Fulbrighters and Bulgarian Fulbrighters who are going to study in the States next year, and I left for Poland to visit my family in Warsaw for three weeks.

Staying with my relatives is always a relaxing experience (lots of reading, picnics and swimming in the river by their summer cottage), and once again I took a trip with my cousin to a new destination in Poland. Last year it was the Baltic coastal city of Gdansk, but this time we headed south for the Tatra mountain resort town of Zakopane. While there I managed to check my email only rarely, but I did receive some startling and exciting news about my project, ""Learning Through Our Differences" (working title). Several months ago I applied for a grant from the Open Society Institute, who agreed to fund my project!!! So I'm working hard on that (more updates to come).

I hope that everyone is having a sunny and restful summer! 

A little slice of Poland in Sofia

Today I went with my friend Patrick, who happens to have a very entertaining new blog on public transportation in Sofia, to the Polish grocery store. It's located in Krasno Selo, which isn't that far from where I live unless you're going on foot or with public transportation. We rode the metro for three stops then took the number 5 tram to the Krasno Selo market and walked to the shop (about 40 minutes). Even with all of the melting snow making it especially messy to walk around the city, it was definitely worth the trip. I got some dried sausages (kabanos), pickles (ogurki), herring (sledz) and beetroot soup (borszt)- it was the instant kind, not pictured. 

As I imagined, the shop didn't have everything I wanted (Zubrowka vodka?!) but it did have a lot of good stuff and it's nice to know that I can find these products here. In some small way they remind me of my Polish family and lots of memorable visits to Warsaw. Hopefully I'll be making a return trip soon- after all, they don't sell my aunt's homemade pierogi or potato pancakes here!

Hot beer, gingerbread and unlikely encounters

More on my recent trip to Poland! The day before Halloween I traveled from Warsaw to Torun, one of the bigger and certainly more beautiful cities there, to visit a Bulgarian friend, V. She is currently living in a small village near Bydgoszcz (yeah, I can pronounce that) with the European Volunteer Service program. I've met EVS volunteers here in Bulgaria, too, and it sounds like a pretty cool program. It's basically a shorter-term European version of the Peace Corps, but all the volunteers are under 26. She works for an adult group home for people with disabilities, and loves her job. All the volunteers live together, and come from lots of different countries, so it's an excellent opportunity to make new friends, too. We decided to meet in Torun because it's halfway between Warsaw and Bydgoszcz.

While it definitely has all the tourist kitsch necessary to make it a major holiday destination, Torun seemed a lot more relaxed and less crowded than Krakow. It has gorgeous architecture, a beautiful location on the Vistula River and a rich history. Like Gdansk, it was once part of the Hanseatic League. It was also the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, whose house is now a museum. Another famous attraction is Torun's gingerbread (or piernik in Polish). I loved wandering around the winding back-alleys and medieval ruins of the old town while scarfing down these delicious cookies. And, appropriate for the weather at this time of year, we also drank a lot of hot beer, which gets mixed with different spices and even comes in flavors like strawberry or raspberry. Needless to say we had a pretty great time.

I had some difficulty getting back to Warsaw because when I arrived at the train station in Torun I found out that the 15:30 train listed on the departures board not only didn't run that day, but no longer existed. So much for relying on printed schedules! In future I plan to always ask someone to make sure I know where I'm going (and when). So I took a later train that included an hour-long stopover in an even smaller town called Kutno. Since it was dark already and I only saw the train station, I don't know much about the place. I do know that the main building is currently undergoing repairs, because there was nothing open and passengers had to wait on the platforms for the trains rather than inside. That would have been fine if there was any information about the platform numbers for trains to Warsaw written in plain sight. So there I was, freezing my butt off at platform number one, hoping to find someone who could help me find my train before it left without me, when I was approached by two Catholic priests. That's pretty normal in Poland but the weird thing is that they were Americans. And, ironically, they asked me if I could help them find their train! After realizing that I was just as lost as they were, one of the priests found someone who spoke English and could point me in the right direction. My train came almost immediately after that, so I had to hurry, and I have no idea where they were from or what they were doing in Poland. But I'm glad they were there and I hope that they found their train platform, too. When I got home and told my aunt this story, she was delighted, saying that it just goes to show how lucky I am (we talk about this a lot, because I get lost a lot) to have been offered help by priests. Of course. This is Poland, after all.