The travel to Zakopane
By car to Karlskrona and further with Noah's Arch to Gdynia, Poland.
Noah's Arch because except us very nice guys there were a handful of pickpocketing
polish youngsters and 75 really drunk bikers from bikerclubs in southern
sweden. Even it blew 19m/s the animals kept roaring all night long.
Finally in Gdynia, a cab to the railwaystation. Of course, the taxidriver
had no change, rip off number one!!! Getting traintickets to Zakopane was
quite easy and cheap, only 70 zl (~$20) for a 1:st class ticket. And this
trip is about 800 km. After 11 hours on the train we finally were in a
green Zakopane.
In Zakopane
A cab to our hotel, Dom Turysty PTTK. It seemed to be some kind of
countrywide hostels. The hotel was OK for $11/night and person. We had
two rooms with two and three beds in. We shared entrance and bathroom.
After checking in and dumping the luggage we were hungry. Except McDonalds
we found one open restaurant.
-This is steak! Said Morgan confident. Wee took it and found that it
was a bad imiation of gulashsoup. 300 g of flesh in spiced water..yummy..not!!
The skiing in Zakopane
There are two separated places to ski in Zakopane. On the north there
are some hills, where it was no snow at all when we were there. In the
south there is a cablecar to the top Kasprowy Wierch, alt 1985 meters.
If you are heading for Kasprovy Wierch you better start the day calling
the tourist information and find out if the cablecar is running at all.
The Tatrys seemes to suffer from continiously storms. If your phonecall
is positive, start walking to the central road and pick one of these minibuses
for 1,5 zl to the beginning of the cablecar. Then you start quing. And
lookout, the polish are horrible to sneak and pass you. Everyone knows
someone with a better position and will pass you without any shame at all.
And it seems like the other polish in the que are so brainwashed from the
last 40 years communism that they don't care. They are used that people
step on them!!?? It's quite funny, half of the people in the que have no
skiingequipment or clothing at all. They have ther Armanisuit and just
get up to take a drink and show their money. Allright, some people trek
too.
The cablecar has the tremedeous capacity of 100 people/hour, so your
better keep an eye open before the hole que have sneaked under your arm.
After 90 minuits of boxing and annoying discussions you finally enter the
feeoffice. In Zakopane you don't by a 6-days skipass. No no, you buy one
ticket per ride. For the cablecar you have to pay 13 zl, about $3, if they
got change, wich is very rare in Poland….When you now finally have reached
the top of Kasprowy Wierch you have to ways to go, to the onechairlift
or the twochairlift. They are located on each side of the top. Of course
you have to buy a ticket to get up, and a ticket from the onechair doesn't
work at the twochair, no no, corporation is unknown here. The tickes costs
3 zl (90 cents). I have seen snowcats, parked. I belive they use an icemachine
from a hockeyarena to prepare the pists, because you can count the snowfilds
on the ice.
If you get bored of slipping down the ice you can get to desert cafe'
where they're not permitted to serve alcohol, no beer, no glühwine,
but you can for sure get a Borcht. On the top there is a very unpersonal
restaurant where they serve it.
When you want to go home again, it's possible to ski down all the way
to the cablecarstaion on nice transportationrads. They usually prepare
it with extra snow if it's melting.
The nightlife of Zakopane
We were in Zakopane week 10, wich must have been a really lowseason.
On the restaurants and pubs we were almost alone. And the people that were
out was mostly non englishspeaking polish. The ladies looked quite good,
but had always company.
But the prices was good. For half a litre of polish beer, wich tastes
very good, you have to pay 4-5 zl ($1,1) on a pub. All imported alcohol
is more expensive. Another nice thing with the nightlife in Zakopane is
the casino, don't miss it. Sitt for some hours and spend money while drinking
free sparkling wine.
Coffey
Be careful when ordering coffey. We had breakfirst in the hotelrestaurant
the first days. They served coffey, sometimes with milk, sometimes without,
but the coffey istelf was alright. Then one day Stefan and I went down
an afternoon for a coffey. We ordered just coffey and the already pissed
(common polish moode) waitress asked "normales kaffe" or "kaffe express".
We wanted ordinary coffey and said normales. After a while she came back
with two cups. The cups were to the half filled with coffeysolution, and
the other half was just grinded beans. When we said we can't drink this
mud the bitch got really pissed. After some arguments and showing the teeth
she came back with two cups of ordinary coffey, "normales" for me. The
restaurant was one of these places they never had change, they couldn't
even split a 5 zl coin. But today, we had loads of metal, in low values,
he he. Eat this you fucking bitch.
The trip home
Because of the storms on Kasprowy Wierch the cablecar was closed the
last days. When we knew Zakopane inside out we desided to get one day earlier
to Krakow. The taxidrivers in Zakopane needed 3 cars to transport 5 persons
to the railwaystation!! Organisation??? No, they have been inhalating thinner,
everyone, for 40 years……rip off nr 2
Krakow was defenetly worth a visit. The older part of the town is very
architectualy beautiful and contains a lot of history. Especially the cathedrals
and the caslte. A visit in Krakow must I absolutely recommend.
Back in Gdynia, the cabdriver made a new rip off, of course. Nr 3 that
was. The taxameter ended on 22,75 zl. But of course, in poland, the value
on the taxameter is correct only if you are alone and have no luggage.
If you have luggage you have to pay more. Morgan gave him 25 zl, but he
wanted moore. I didn't see that Morgan gave him 25, so I gave him 10 moore,
-Danke!! He said and ran to his car. 35 zl, I wished I had a mashinegun
to blast that fat, ugly cabdriver, aahhrgghh
Various impressions of Zakopane and poland
Zakopane is a skiresort You should go to if you:
1. Absolutely want to keep the costs down.
2. Not demand good skiing.
3. Are sure there is snow in all pists. If the cablecare is closed
because of storm, you need other skiareas.
4. Want to get away from countrymen (if you not are polish).
5. Love to be met by pissed people who can't spell to seviceminded
or flexibility.