We thought we needed a break from our regular sightseeing and decided to get away from it all in a small Polish skiing town called Zakopane. Which is two hours south of Krakow by bus. We arrived at the bus station and wisely caught a taxi to the hotel. Had we made our way by our selves we would have certainly gotten lost.

After checking into the hotel we checked out the closest ski run to the hotel, it was less than a five minute walk away. We made sure we knew where to go to hire ski equipment and booked a ski lesson for the next day.

The next day we made the short walk up to Polana Szymoszkowa and got decked out in ski boots and all, and went for our lesson. It is not as easy as it looks. We spent more time on the ground rather than upright on the skis. The young kids (who were shorter than our skis) were putting us to shame as they went whizzing past us in a blur. We went back to the hotel feeling rather defeated but determined to get better at our second lesson the next day.

Since skiing is such hard work and leaves you feeling very hungry even if most of the time you are actually on your bum, we went into town via a chair lift then a funicular to have some lunch and check out all the sights. The town was really nice with market stalls lining the streets. We had a great time browsing and checking out what was on offer. This became our pattern, spend time skiing then make our way into town for something to eat.

The next day after a much more successful lesson, it was time to brave the slope all by our selves. It was very scary but we did well with only Corrine falling over the once. By the end of the week we had finally gained a little bit more skill and a lot more confidence. We were finally enjoying our selves as we were skiing rather than being frightened for our lives the whole way down.

If Zakopane sounds familiar it might be because you follow such sports as ski jumping, during our stay here the World Cup Ski Jumping was on, so we went and checked it out. We learned that the Poles are crazy for their countrymen who are competing. The streets were full of vendors selling scarves, crazy hats. beanies and horns. We made our way up to the run (we think that is what it is called) and joined the hoards of people cheering. A few locals after finding out that we were Australia started treating us like we were celebrities, they were taking photos of us, gave us shots of vodka and even painted the Polish flag on our faces. It was great fun.

We realised why people in very cold countries drink vodka, it sure does warm you up. It does make for interesting times walking down the icy footpaths though. We had never seen so many people who all seemed to be drunk off all the shots of vodka that they had been having fall over. It was very amusing.

Our stay in Zakopane has been wonderful, even though not many people speak English everyone we have come across have been so accommodating and have gone out of their way to help us. We will always remember Zakopane with great fondness.

written by  craigandcorrine on January 23, 2010 from Zakopane, Poland
from the travel blog: World Tour
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Glad you guys are having fun! Zakopane is a great little town... your photos are bringing back heaps of memories. Keep them coming....

Safe travels

written by  Brad on January 23, 2010

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