Zakopane

2 hours south of Krakow lies the skiing area of Poland. Apparently it would be very cheap to spend a winter holiday there. I arrived in mid summer. Hiking was the objective. There are very green, hilly fields and dense forests. Bears still roam the area. The Carpathian mountains are part of the Alps and reach all the way to Romania.

There were a respectable amount of tourists, but mostly of the older breed. I met up with the owner (Slavek) of the hostel (Ars hostel) in Krakow and some guests I met the previous night. We took a bus close to the Slovak boarder and hiked up along a river to see some lakes at the top. Snowy mountains made me feel nostalgic about the Swiss mountains. We got drunk at the top and hiked back down. In the evening I was very exhausted.

But the next day I did a hike by myself. I took a cable car to a ridge, where many schoolchildren were enjoying some sort of entertainment park. After I got out of the mess and found a beautiful landscape with views of the valley and the mountains. The houses are usually new and kept in the traditional chalet style of the alps. In the evening I went back to Krakow to catch my night bus to the Ukraine.