Zakopane

A week ago Monday, we had a school trip to Zakopane which is a town in the Tatry mountains. It's about a 2 hour bus trip, so we got there around 11am. It was a super cold day and it was snowing big, fluffly flakes. There had also been snow pretty much non-stop all weekend so it was perfect weather to be up in the mountains. 

Furs

Doro, Me

View from the Ski Lift

Cheese! Yes, that's all cheese

Snowdogs

The main street of Zakopane is very much in the mountains. It's a long snowcovered path that is fairly uneven filled with shops, restaurants and vendors on either side. You can get fresh mountain cheese, furs, boots, and other mountain gear. The cheese is very popular and very tasty. At one point there was a whole line of cheese vendors. They were all yelling at passerby so I went up and sampled the pieces of cheese they shoved at me with a knife. I wasn't ready to buy any before my hike up the mountain so the woman made me take down her stall number so I knew where to stop on my way back. 

We visited this church which had several animated winter scenes inside, much like the Marshall Field's window displays. In one scene there was the Pope and he moved back and forth making blessing gestures. It made me laugh. 

Church

Inside

Animated Pope

At first we had some free time so rather than shop, a small group of us decided to take the ski lift up to the mountain top and walk around. At the top there was this narrow snow-covered path with stands along the side where you could by food and mountain goods. You could also go skiing, sledding, snowboarding, etc. You had to be careful though because every few minutes a horse drawn sleigh would come galloping down the path. All the horses wear bells so that you can hear them coming and can spring out of the way in time.

Sleighs

Sleighs

Snowball Fight!

We tried to walk down the mountain but it was too icy and the path was closed. Afterwards we headed down and met the rest of the group for the Kulig, which is a traditional sleigh-ride on a horse-drawn wooden sleigh. A row of sleighs were lined up, some with two horses, some with one. We piled into the sleighs and the mountain men tucked us in with big furry blankets. Them the horses took off into the woods. It was like being in a fairytale. Everything was covered in a white blanket, you could see the mountains and the forest and the snow was falling lightly the entire time. About twenty minutes in we gave the horses a ten minute break. We all had to get out of the sleighs. One of the more energetic teachers immediately separated us into two groups across this little stream and started a snowball fight. There were over 40 of us, so it was pretty awesome. 

Fire

After the sleigh ride we headed to a huge cabin heated by a fire where a traditional dinner was to be served. The language, culture and cuisine is very different in the mountains. The waiters were wearing traditional mountain attire, and there was a life ensemble. They played music, sang and danced. Then we danced and were given lyrics so we could sing along. 

The first course was fresh bread with smalec (a lard spread with pork), pickles and two soups, żurek and cabbage soup. The main course consisted of a ham that they brought out flaming and sliced in the middle of the room, accompanied by roasted potatoes and bigos. Tea and cake followed. By then we had all thawed out. We loaded onto the bus and headed home. 

Dinner