Travel Photo Friday: Krakaw and Zakopane, Poland

From the archives:

Wawel Castle, Krakow.

Town square, Krakow, early in the morning.

Wooden church, Zakopane.

Enjoying the smoked cheese that's sold on roadside carts in Zakopane.

My cousin's guest house in Zakopane.

Poland was the first stop on our European vacation in August 2007. We spent only one day in Krakow before traveling several hours by train to the mountain town of Zakopane, where my mom's family is from. Zakopane is in the Tatra mountains and there is wonderful skiing and hiking and delicious, hearty food. My cousins have a guest house (so if you're planning a trip, let me know!) steps away from some of the hiking trails. I can't wait to get back there some day so Muffin can run around in the mountains.

Photo Friday is hosted by DeliciousBaby.com.

Weekly SD Blog RoundUp Call for Entries

Meow, the cat's out of the bag now. I'm a State Department blogger, for those readers who know I'm overseas but don't know why. I try to play it cool, focusing on being overseas rather than why we are overseas. But many other SD bloggers have been kind enough to link to me and comment so now it's my turn to repay the favor. I'm hosting the State Department Blog RoundUp this week.

I like the "optional talking point" idea from last week. Here it is: International Bathrooms. Not necessarily in our housing, since housing has been discussed quite a bit lately (although you're certainly free to discuss it some more). I'm thinking more along the lines of the best and worst at the airports and hotels we tend to pass through regularly, funny misunderstandings, etc., and not necessarily limited to your post. Vacation destination bathrooms count too.

For example:

In Poland the bathroom doors are marked with circles and triangles. I used the men's room once and walked into a second men's room before I realized this.

The bathroom stalls in Brussels airport are narrow. At 32 weeks pregnant with my carry-on bag in tow I could not turn around!

The Tribe hotel in Nairobi has an open floor plan, which means the bathtub is in the room and the toilet and shower are behind a glass partition. The Raddisson in Delhi also has glass wall on one side of the bathroom. You have to be really comfortable with your roomie to stay there.

At a particularly nice restaurant in Burundi, I was not startled by the unisex bathroom stall. What startled me was that the men's urinal was installed directly outside that door, with nothing partitioning it from view. I had to walk past a man using it to enter that bathroom. He didn't seem to mind.

Don't get me started on some of the less-than-ideal conditions we faced in Tanzania. My first experience with a hole-in-the-ground bathroom was at a gas station/convenient store outside Moshi. It wasn't until several rest stops later that I realized what the raised blocks on either side of the hole were for.

As noted before, the theme is optional. If you have anything else to share this week, leave me a comment or send me an email. Please let me know by midnight Thursday, U.S. eastern time.

The next few weeks are open for hosting. If you're interested, check out the calendar.

Krakow, Poland

Krakow was the first city of our European adventure, and we only had a few hours there before catching a train to Zakopane.

We left San Francisco on a Monday night and it was late Tuesday night by the time we arrived in Krakow. So I really didn't feel like I was on vacation, or have that magical "I'm in Europe" feeling until Wednesday morning when we woke up early to see the town. To get to the old town from our hotel we walked through part of a university campus that looked like it had been around for over a hundred years. I got the "I'm in Europe!" feeling and it didn't let go. Everything is just so old and so different.

It was so early that the markets and restaurants hadn't opened yet and the old town was a ghost town. It was great to walk around and take some pictures before the area got crowded. We were just in awe of everything. It was the first time in Poland for both of us, and we decided right away that we love it and wish we could spend several days in Krakow instead of just a few hours.




Empty Old Town

We walked down to Wawel Castle. You can walk around the grounds before the buildings open for tours, so we spent some time just walking and looking. There was mass going on at the cathedral so we didn't go in but we listened to the hymns from outside.


Cathedral at Wawel Castle

We didn't feel the need to do one of the organized tours of the castle. We did decide to do one of the touristy kids' attractions, though, the Dragon's Den. It's a deep spiral staircase into the center of the earth where it's said the dragon of Krakow resides. It was fun! When you get out on the other side you're at the bank of the river and there's a metal dragon sculpture that breathes fire.

We walked along the river for a few minutes. It was getting hot and humid so we decided to head back into town for lunch. The town square was packed with people! We couldn't have stopped for a photo if we wanted to, there were so many people around. We found a place for lunch, where Mike had pierogi, then went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station.


Arch at Wawel Castle

At the train station we had an hour or so to wait for our train, but we noticed on the board that an earlier train to Zakopane was running late and just getting ready to leave. So we ran to the platform and hopped on, and we were on our way to another adventure!

Adventure may be an understatement. At the next stop, some drunk young men sat in our compartment and really started to bug us. They didn't have tickets, and the conductor didn't seem to care. They kept asking us for just 5 zloty or offering to trade books with them. We were unable to relax and enjoy the ride. Eventually we got up and left, finding a compartment to ourselves in another car and hoped they wouldn't look for us.


View from the train

They didn't find us, but the train trip only slightly improved. Taking the train from Krakow to Zakopane is a local joke. The trip takes over 4 hours, when the bus only takes 2. The train system hasn't been updated in a loooooong time. And neither have the trains themselves. It was hot and the windows only cracked open a few inches. And we were expecting more scenery, and occassionally a farm or small town would whiz by, but nothing really cool until the last hour of the trip when we could finally see the mountains. I got excited when I noticed all the trees had become pine trees.

Despite leaving over an hour earlier than we had planned, we arrived in Zakopane exactly an hour earlier than we were scheduled to. My cousin was picking us up at the station. We tried to call him, but couldn't find a pay phone that took coins; they were all calling cards only. So we sat and waited.

But Zakopane has to be its own post.

(Clicking on any photo will take you to the full size on flickr.)

All the photos...

are now up. Here on flickr. Now I feel nearly as sick as Mike did yesterday. Between jetlag and germs, we're both struggling to stay awake until it's dark enough to go to bed.


Overlooking Edinburgh
(Clicking on the photo will take you to flickr.)

We're home!

We're home! We're tired, and feeling a little flu-like. But we're happy to be back with the cats. And I'll be working on pictures this weekend. So far, I've put up the Poland album. I'll work on blog posts this weekend, too. Jetlag. Sleepiness. Hot furry cats. Many distractions at this time.



(Clicking on the image will take you to the album on flickr.)

Greetings from a sleazy train station in Poland

We just spent a wonderful 3 days with my cousins in Zakopane where everything is lovely and now we are seeing the flip side to bucolic country life while in Katowice waiting for our train to Salzburg. (We tipped the bus driver 10 zloty to drive us the few extra blocks between the bus and train stations so we wouldn't have to walk it in the dark.) We have time to kill and zloty to spend so here we are on the internet. The keys stick and all the commands are in Polish, so this may not be my most inspired post.

No pictures uploaded at this time. We don't want to open our bags and pull out the camera and cords here. We'll get some up soon. The mountain landscapes in Zakopane are breath-taking.

We hiked for 5 hours in Tatra Nat'l Park yesterday. The Tatras are part of the Carpathian mountains. It was incredible. We've also eaten the local delicacy--smoked cheese. Fresh from the cart one day, then as an appetizer the next, fried with cranberry sauce. I ate some mandatory kielbasa. Mike has had pierogi and ribs drenched with saurkraut.

We've had some international foibles. I accidentally used a men's room (they use circles and triangles on the doors; I was jetlagged and maybe a little drunk and I didn't process the symbols). Mike opened a sugar packet all over himself, thinking it was a wetnap.

We love Zakopane and would buy a house there tomorrow if we could.

more travel stuff

Yesterday I received an email from a distant cousin in Poland: "When you will arrive to Zakopane you will stay in our/family house 'Koisowka.'" This is Koisowka:


Looks pretty neat. It's a bed and breakfast sort of place, with 8 rooms I think. It seems to be well located between the town center and the Tatra National Park, the 2 things we want to see in the 2 days we'll be there. We're very excited. (Obviously. I think I say and/or post that at least 3 times a day.)

Tonight we're planning on luggage shopping. We're trying to decide between suitcases or backpacks. There are some cities where we'll only have a few hours' layover so backpacks will be easy to stuff in a locker while we walk around. And I hate dragging wheeled suitcases around, especially on and off busses and trains. But the suitcases are sturdier and are probably easier to pack and keep organized. We'll see. I want to pack light since so much traveling will be going on over the course of the 3 weeks.