In January I had the opportunity to go downhill skiing near the Slovakian Border. The ski resort community of Bialka Tatrzanska, located in the Tatra Mountains, is about 100 km south of Krakow. (These mountains are part of the Carpathian Mountain chain.) This area is the ski capital of Poland and is dotted w/ many ski runs. In fact, the 2006 World Cup Ski Jump contest was held in a nearby town called Zakopane.
I drove (yes, Brian drove in Poland) the 2 1/2 hours in a convoy of other people from I.P. and arrived at the mountain (approx. 3300') before Noon. The ski rental was $8.00 and the lift ticket around $16.00 for the afternoon. I also took an hour private ski lesson, from an English speaking instructor, for another $15.00.
It had been 10 years since I last skied and I had forgotten more than I remembered so the lesson was a good idea. The lift lines were short, the views beautiful and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees F. I also fell down a lot.
After an afternoon of skiing I called my brother-in-law Peter from the foot of the slopes to brag that I had just skied in Poland. (He had once spent a week skiing in Europe so he could appreciate it.) We next drove to the place where we would be staying overnight. I would like to call it a hotel, motel, B&B, campsite, etc., but it was not like any of those. They call it a "pensioner" and it was a cross between a youth hostel and the YMCA hotels of old. Think of a boarding house that was freshly remodeled w/ numerous rooms upstairs. The owner's family lives on the main and cellar levels and they rent out the rest of the rooms. Some have bathrooms and some share a bath in the hall. We rented 6 rooms for the 15 of us and 4 of us guys shared one room. You had to bring your own towels, cups, soap.....kind of reminded me of camping. It cost us $15.00 a piece for the night.
After settling in there we went to the resort town of Zakopane and proceeded to look for a restaurant that had room for 15. After walking for 30 minutes we located one in the cellar of an old building where we experienced some good "Highlander" food. After dinner we hailed some taxis for the ride back to our rooms. But before getting in the taxis for the ride back, my Polish friends asked the drivers to drop us off at a bar that was close to our pensioner. The place we wound up at was a newly-built Highlander lodge with 4 fireplaces and a dance floor. The first thing my friends did was to buy a bottle of vodka. You see, they drink vodka like we drink wine. We caroused for a bit then at 1:30 a.m. someone had the novel idea to have a snowball fight. So a dozen of us rushed outside and proceeded to make snowballs. If you have never seen 12 adults have a snowball fight in the wee hours of the morning, you have not lived. In turn, each person was ganged up on until all had been attacked. When we ran out of snow .... just kidding. Within 20 minutes it was too cold to stay outside any longer so we retreated to the warmth of the inside and the 4 fireplaces. Not much later we hired a cab to take us home.
The next day we awoke to 10 degrees F. and 4 inches of new snow covering the cars. (It's been a long time since I had to use a snow brush.) After clearing the cars we left for home w/ a stop at the local McDonalds for breakfast and gas. I mean .... we stopped for petrol and something to eat at McDonalds. Except, they don't serve an American style breakfast so it was just kawa (coffee) and a blueberry muffin.
The return trip to Krakow was a long 4 hour journey on a winding 2 lane road. The traffic was so bad that we were stopped long enough to get out of the car to smear snow on the windshield to clean it. You see the temperature continued to drop and the windshield washer nozzles froze.
All in all it was a great weekend and even better now that I can tell people that I skied in Poland.
