Hotel & Conference Center Geovita Zakopane

The Tatra Mountains are the natural border between Poland and Slovakia, and there has always been this question of which part is more beautiful. The secret is as follows: they are too different to compare. The Polish part is full of people, noise, activities, shops and festivals. The Slovakian part is quiet, peaceful and almost virgin-like, despite its well-developed infrastructure. It's simply because it's much ...

... supposed to be beautiful. Maybe next time. I couldn't face driving into the centre without map or navigator. The out skirts of Krakow were like any city anywhere - concrete, suburban, drive thru McDonalds type ring-road.

Once we got as far out as the airport, the scenery improved and continued to improve as we drove further south. Even the foothills of the Tatry Mountains are gorgeous. Before we got to Zakopane, I knew I wanted to come back one day. Maybe not to Zakopane ...

... unless you want to be closed in one of the chambers - in this case you'll have to wait until the next group sets you free.

I end my visit in the Oravsky Podzamok getting trapped behind the entrance gate to the castle and I spend 15 minutes in a pouring rain until a tour guide opens the gate to let in the next group of tourists. I buy some postcard and a pint of beer with raspberry juice, and I go back home.

skiing....better than sex....the most fun id had in a very, very long time...

the beer was cheap,. the meat platters were like something out of alice and wonderland...and i was proper pro by the end of our 3 week stay in zakopania...look at the videos

... within the short two week period that the Global Volunteers were there, a huge impact was made to improve the students language and change many peoples outlooks on life. It was such a great learning experience for myself and I will miss the kids greatly. And so I begin the last leg of my trip with only eleven days to make it from Zakopane, Poland to Lisbon, Portugal with many wonderful stops along the way. The first city outside of Krakow will be Prague/already is!

... fine views over the surrounding area, including over the reservoir to another castle, the Polish counterpart to Niedzica, Czorsztyn. Even though it was quite close, we'd have had to have driven for another half an hour to get there as the reservoir itself was quite long. Being mid afternoon on a Tuesday, it didn't take half as long to drive from Nowy Targ to Krakow as it did on the Saturday morning, and we reached my favourite city in Poland around 4pm. After a little confusion on ...

... over, but skiing season has not yet begun. After stepping off the bus, I found my way to the minibus that would take me to my hostel, about 10 min outside of the main town area. The hostel was a cute, wooden house near the entrance to the national park. It felt very cabin-like and cozy. I woke up the next morning to discover that it was snowing, only this wasn't the light, fluffy, pretty snow. This was the wet, almost-like-freezing-rain-but-not ...

... As the clouds rolled in I was tempted to head back, not really sure what would happen if it started to storm and weary of being one of very few hikers on the mountain.. but I was determined to reach the top.. even if it wouldn't give me the great view I was looking forward to.. this was a personal challenge! Anyhow, you get the idea.. I highly recommend visiting the Tatra Mountains in Poland/Slovakia - it's beautiful and super inexpensive.

... The last thing I'll say is the Slovakian flag is kind of cool because it has three blue hills representing the country's three hill systems: the Fatra, the Tatra, and ... well, another one. on that note: peace out, Slovakia! - Modern Oddyseus P.S. - I'm smelly too sometimes. Thanks to Milan Mizera; Milan; Karel Smeykal; Slavo; Shtefan; Zdenek Jakubec; Silvo; Marvin; and Pal, Elisabeth, & Annika for the rides! Much thanks to Jana's Mom; and Marvin for places to stay!

I did the most amazing thing this weekend. Last week I sprained my ankle and I have been hobbling around the town, but it came time to do a class trip to the mountains. The Tartras are a group of mountain ranges in the south of Poland which are an extension of the Alps, so they are pretty much the largest mountains I have ever seen. We drove down from Krakow to Zakopane which lies at the feet of one of these groups of Mounatins. Its a small tourism based town with some amazing ...