Zakopane

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This is the village at the base of the Tatra Mountains and serves as the basecamp for many hikers and tourists visiting the mountains.


Traffic circle just inside the town. This is very close to the premium hostel where we stayed.


Zakopane viewed from the top of a hill. There was a train type thing that would take people up/down, but we opted to hike to the top. It was actually fairly tough as it was a solid 30 degree climb all the way up and took about 45 mins. We took the ski lift down as my bad knee was having problems and I wanted to save it for real hiking. If you find yourself sitting in this same field be careful of goat dooders :) Exactly in the middle there are two verticle ski jumps that are in the sun. Prior to my trip I didn't know that Poland has the best ski jumper in the world, Adam Małysz. He holds the record for the short jump and recently won 3 gold medals in a row topping a german dud in 1974. Interestingly he is build like a flying squirrel.


Main tourist street in town. Plenty of vendors, stores, restaurants. It would take about 20 mins to walk from one end to the other. It was busy day and night although we didn't see it late night as we were always tired from hiking. Busses would transport people from near here to different hiking destinations; I saw 3 different starting points (hiking), but I think there are quite a few more. It would be a little confusing for non Poles to find where the appropriate bus stops are.


Lots of horse carriages to hire. The people opperating the carriages all smoked for some reason.


Gold dud. Many different ones working on the street. This one was one of the better ones I think.


Plenty of food for all; I think this was my favorite restaurant and I don't recall the name of it. It had open sides, plenty of kielbasa, live 3 piece traditional Polish band. We ate and drank extremely well for about $20. Food servers tend to not be as good as Americans, but they don't work on tips. Although our waiter this night got a decent tip; he was good.


Lots of stuff for sale in this lower area of town. Things that were popular here included sheep skin products, leather items, produce, clothing, tourist stuff, and cheese.


Church on the main street. We didnt go inside. There were a tremendous amount of nuns roaming around and going about their business. Up the hill more there are more larger churches including one built for the Pope and others for the nuns and monks.


Typical scene on top of the hill above town.


Here is the world famous sheep cheese, oscypek. Its a regional smoked cheese. Its quite aromatic when first bought and seems to stay good for a month. I currently have some in my refrigerator :) It was about $2 per pound.


The big ski jump on the side of town.


Camels for the circus that was setting up when we were there. I really didn't have any expectations, but I was surprised to see Camels here. I have a brush made out of Camel hair, but I didn't share this info with them.


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