A Winter Tatra Trip

On Easter Sunday, Lisa and I traveled from Kraków to the town of Zakopane which is directly over the Slovak border, resting right up against the Polish side of the Tatra Mountain chain. Zakopane is a charming mountain town that we had actually visited before—on accident, that is. We once took a bus from northern Slovakia into Poland and hiked through the national park, trying to spot a series of lakes that is apparently very gorgeous. We never found the lakes, though, due to two things. First, the fog was so thick that, had we been in the right place, we would have had no chance of seeing them anyway.

Secondly, we were not in the right place.

At any rate, after the 35 minutes or so that we rushed through Zakopane last time, we knew that it was a place to revisit.

The hostel that we stayed at in Kraków (a fun-loving place called Good Bye Lenin) has a branch in Zakopane; this place is much more rustic, playing up the log cabin/ski lodge feel. When we arrived in the city, we had to take a taxi to the hostel because it is about five kilometers away from the train station. After quickly negotiating a price, we wound up going with an old man in his unmarked car. He was a comical guy, very talkative for his limited amount of English. His defroster was broken so, every minute or so, he would whip his hand down to the center console and pick up a dirty, scruffy sponge. With one hand he would wipe off the interior fog building up in front of his eyes while, with the other, he continued to whip around snowy bends. It was a good ride, though. It really was.

Boyish smile in front of the Good Bye Lenin hostel in Zakopane.

The rest of the day was uneventful aside from some pasta that we made for lunch/dinner, a rousing game of Uno that we played with an Australian couple & an Easter Skype session with the family.

***

In the morning, we set out for a good hike—our bodies had been mournful over all of the idleness to which they had been subjected. We needed some nature. So, we looked on the park map at the hostel and planned out a route, noting where the trails met and turned as not to get lost like last time.

The hike was quintessentially winter—this is not a bad thing, either. As I have grown older, I have become more and more appreciative of natural winter scenery and all that it has to offer. This hike did nothing but reassure all of that for me. The pine trees were magnificently dusted with snow in all the right places. And, when we were able to survey the landscape at certain points along the trail, we could see nothing but pines, creating a strange and wonderful effect on our eyes as if some sort of emerald sea stretched before us, foaming about here and there, the whiteness of the snow like the frothy caps of a grand timberland tide.

View of the valley near the beginning of our hike.

Excited to be back out in the wilderness, despite the fact that feeling was slowly draining from our noses and fingers.

Uninhabited cabin in an ideal location.

Endless, sublime sea of snowy pines.

We climbed higher and higher—our final destination was a mountain lodge that had been pointed out to us where we could grab some lunch before making the return journey. As we ascended, fog started to roll in. Pretty soon, we could hardly see a few feet in front of our faces—an unfortunate turn of events since, I believe, the views probably would have been astounding. The experience was really wild, though. Before that moment (a moment that lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes in total), I don’t think that I had ever experienced anything like claustrophobia. And I certainly wasn’t scared, but it was a feeling unlike any I have had before. The fog closed in on us; it was as if we were being swallowed whole. We were never in any real danger, but I can say with full honesty that the situation was all but comfortable. I could feel my breath increasing and my pupils trying to desperately shrink to nothing, struggling to take in all of the undefined whiteness that was around us.

Always a good sign to see when you’re hiking through a snow-covered mountain. I’ll be honest, though. I did start screaming (the echos were astounding) to try to make this happen. Probably not a good idea.

Nearly drowned in the haze.

For fans of the original Star Wars movies, there was a man that was always about 50 paces ahead of us with a snowboard strapped to his back. The whole time we were hiking, he was sort of this indistinct apparition, only half visible amidst the wind and snow. I half expected him to turn around at some point and tell me in an distant, echoic voice (much like that of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ghost on the ice planet of Hoth) to head for the Dagobah System.

He never did, though.

Apparition of a snowboarder acting as our unofficial guide through the dizzying fog.

In the end, we arrived at the lodge and, after circling the building and finding the front entrance, realized that we had been there before! This was exciting because, aside from being able to get some beer and a killer lunch (pierogi and cheese-filled pancakes with cream) we had officially connected the other end of our failed hike from last time. It was a nice feeling.

When the fog started to clear, we found an igloo!

All in all, the hike took about five hours and was a great way to spend a morning/afternoon.

***

After an evening with the Uno-playing Aussies, we left the next day to cross the border and stay a couple nights in the town that I have mentioned countless times on this blog: Ždiar—at the Ginger Monkey hostel. Upon arrival, we received one of the most sensational greetings ever. The hostel’s full-time dog Wally has recently been joined by a new companion, a motherly black dog that is sort of nameless at the moment but half-answers to the name Čatka. Well, as we ambled up the hill to the hostel, Čatka and Wally spotted us from afar and bounded over the porch railing to receive us in a most enthusiastic manner. It was great.

This time around, we sort of just relaxed at the hostel—reveling in our days without responsibility before we had to teach again. Over the course of two days, we cooked dinner for ourselves, did some reading/writing, slept in, watched a couple movies with the other guests, and took some short walks. But, amidst all of that, we took part in two notable activities.

First, we took a bus one town over and climbed up a hill in the snow for about fifteen minutes until we reached the entrance of the Belianske Cave. Slovakia has a very rich cave culture and, surprisingly, after four months, this was the first cave that we visited. And it was a fantastic visit, too. We took a tour (in Slovak, but with short, accompanying pamphlets in English) that lasted about 70 minutes and led us through the main sections of the cave.

At the end of the tour, we walked down a flight of stairs (twisting through a stunning array of stalactites and stalagmites) into the room that is known as the Musical Hall because of its natural acoustics and the fact that orchestral concerts were regularly held there in the past. Our tour guide hit a button and, before we knew it, the entire cave was ringing with the sounds of Enya. Now, as talented as Enya is, I was initially disappointed—it just seemed too cheesy for its own good. But I was sorely mistaken. Enya was the perfect choice for the inside of that cave. The reverberating voices and ambient background noises played gleefully off of the cave’s walls, working in perfect harmony with the drips of the water falling into the pool below.

It was really neat. From now on, I will always feel like I am in a cave when I hear that song.

[Pictures were difficult to get because of how dark it was inside the cave. For this, I apologize.]

***

The second main thing we did was to volunteer to take both of the dogs for an exciting, picture-filled river walk. The pictures sort of speak for themselves here…

Wally (left) acting as the wily veteran and his new companion.

 

These dogs were meant to not be on leashes.

The dogs came back wet and muddy…not sure how happy the hostel was about that.

For some reason, Wally was enthralled with trying to dramatically catch snowballs. It made for good photography, though.

Well, if this isn’t a perfect picture, I don’t know what is.

They really are an excitable pooch duo.

Today’s Recommended Song: Enya – “Only Time”

I drank almost a liter of juice while writing this and, consequently, peed about six times.

Figured it might be something worth sharing.