29th June: The way home—Dagmara’s home

We woke up today, just to find that it was still drizzling. Since it rained the whole day and night yesterday, the surrounding sort of fogged up. So, no cable car up to the mountains in the mountain and no horseback riding. boohoo…Well I don’t really mind not having a horse ride because they are so smelly. But according to Dagmara, the view, if we were to go up was really breath-taking. Oh well, like what the Polish said skoda (too bad).

So we packed our bags in the morning, and decided to go for McDonald’s for breakfast. We lost our way once we were out of the housing area and had to asked for directions. We drove all the way to the Polish-Slovakia border. We wanted to get some sweets to just realised we could not use our Polish Zloty anymore. The locals never fail to entertain us. We stopped this local and asked him where McDonald was. He asked us if that place sells pizza or something? Hahaha in the end, we have to thank Daniel for his GPS!

So after breakfast, it’s a really long drive back to Kalisz. Boyfriend and I practically KO-ed behind the car LOL, such piggies. So, half way through the drive, we stopped by this cafe in a town, well I forgotten what the town was called to have this huge pizza! They said you get what you paid for, which is indeed what we got! Not delicious blek! But just something to line our stomachs.

After lunch, the drives continues. Dagmara kept feeling bad for not showing us the best part of Zakopane, so she suggested to go to this famous monastery on the way home. People from all around the world will come here during some days for pilgrimage. The monastery was huge and when we were there, there was also a few groups of visitors from Italy. And the picture of the previous pope was everywhere too!

Tourists

One of the room

After an hour or so, we continued the drive home, only to met with an adventure. We were on this coastal road back to Kalisz and the road was a little bumpy. So we were all chatting in the car and the boys wanted to get photos of the sun setting. And there was this hole/a little elevated ground, I couldn’t remember and Dagmara couldn’t stop in time to avoid it, so the car went on it and actually flew up a little! Our hearts all skipped a beat and luckily we were all safe!

After that little adventure, we stopped to allow the boys to take photos of the beautiful sunset. Nature never fails to mesmerize us in its own way. Look at this!

Sun set

The nature never fails to surprise us

So, we reached home and Dagmara’s mother was so kind to prepare us dinner (supper to them). Tomorrow is yet another country. Czech Republik!

28th June: Up to the mountains and the rain came down

Today, we are heading to the last town in Poland. This mountainous place is actually a ski town in Poland for the locals and according to Dagmara, she always comes here with her family to ski and buy real animals’ fur winter clothing. The quality of the clothings are really of good quality. So, we drove up and up to the mountain, seeing interesting houses along the way, until,it started to rain. So, when it started to rain, the temperature will drop, to about 16 degrees. And we were not prepare for this cold weather at all!

Up to the mountains

Fur anyone?

Anyway, finding an accommodation here is interesting. You can look for a room through internet. But as you drive up to the mountain, you will see people holding signs, or waiting at the curb in a car,stating that there are empty rooms. So we drove and drove nearing the city, and to avoid getting a more expensive room in the city, we stopped in front of a red car and bargained with an old man. He offered us an ensuite double room for 90 PLN per night, which is pretty good looking at the condition of the room! The old man was a little creepy at first. When he stepped out of his car, he looked like he was drunk. And when he leans towards the car to talk to us, he had food all over his moustache and beard LOL!!! Then when we reached his house, he needed our IDs for record. So boyfriend, Daniel and I gave him our ID. And old man, in a confused look, asked Dagmara :” You mean they were not Polish?” We had a good laugh!

Our room for the night

Oh yes, I have yet to mention the name of this place. It is Zakopane. After settling into the room, it is time for lunch. A typical lunch in Zakopane is eating roasted meat in a wooden house. And to avoid tourist trap, avoid colourful lightings shop. Here are what we had:

The menu

Various grilled meat

Grilled meat upclose

Pork-knuckles

My soup - sourcroute soup

Bacon!!!

The waiter in the shop

Yummy, isn’t it and mountain men are big! After that, we tried to walk around the town despite the drizzle. Tried. But the weather was too cold for our summer clothes. So we stopped in a cafe to have some coffee and dessert. Well, I guess this is a good rest for us after so many days of rushing and travelling around.

Dessert

For dinner, we went to this restaurant a little bit out of the city. This is an interesting restaurant in a hut and the boss went on to Poland’s TV series called “Big Brother”.

The scary owner- gentle giant

According to Dagmara, she visited this restaurant with her dad when she was little. And to enter the restaurant, you must knock on the door. And you need to knock real hard before the owner can open up the door. With an axe. And asking you what you want in Polish! So, boyfriend went up to the door, knock hard and we waited anxiously for the door to open.When it finally opens, we were then waiting for him to shout. For some reason, maybe the mountain man never see an Asian before, he was not shouting. He even invited us into the shop. But as we were settling down, he suddenly knock a metal hike against a metal chimney, loud, scarring all of us. And throughout the meal, the shop owners will drop trays to scare the customers. It was really funny than scarry to me! Hahahaha. After the meal, boyfriend went to tried the chimney thing when the owner slam the hike right in his face. So boyfriend tried the chimney thing too, which excited a crowd of mid-age women, and they ask for an encore! It was a really thrilling night!

The interior of the shop

The rain is not stopping and the city has quiet down. We really had nothing more to do except going back to our room and rest. After a few hours of drive in the morning, we were quite tired and we still have a long drive back to Kalisz! Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow and we will be able to take the cable car up to the mountains, in the mountain

Looked like Japan? It's just Zakopane