Siwarna 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 ...

The reason of my trip to the region of Orava, a northern part of Slovakia, is very simple: it has been raining in the Tatras and I hope the weather is different on the other side of the mountains. The best cities to stay in if you wish to see the most beautiful castles are Liptovsky Mikulas and Dolny Kubin in Slovakia, or Zakopane in Poland.

I believe one of the most intriguing castle to see in this part ...

... for a small bite to eat, and then continued another few kilometers around it and up to a second lake at the foot of Mt. Rysy. The lake was still half frozen and the trails up the mountain were covered in snow and ice, with clouds covering the top half, so obviously with those conditions we did not go any further. We started to head back and it began to rain, so I put on a poncho that I had - which was entirely too big and just ...

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

Birthday week spent in Poland... First holiday where we were actually going away somewhere for a WHOLE WEEK and had paid for someone else to take care of the organisation. As our birthdays are at the end of February and we've never celebrated them in the Northern Hemisphere before, decided to spoil John to a skiing holiday as a birthday present. I would have loved to have gone to Switzerland or France but they were way out of my price range and always keen to ...

... at his apartment for the night. I have visited many amazing cities in Europe during my 10 months here, however Krakow still rates as one of my favourites, and I always love going back there. There had been some changes though, as I was previously there in December during the depths of winter. The Christmas market was obviously gone, the outdoor pubs and cafes were back, and the small market square, or 'maly rynek' had been changed from a ...

... hostel. Here we encountered the friendliest hostel we have ever been to (shrieking drunk Americans aside), with the staff offering us tea, coffee and wafer biscuits upon arrival. After checking in and a quick nap we headed off to the first official hostel trip of the stay by atending Poland's biggest water park. After risking life and limb on the 728 metres of waterslide, many of which were negotatied in a vertical fashion and in total darkness, a quick soak in the ...

... down my book in the morning, I walked out the door to take in my suroundings. It was a village resting in a plain with huge mountains towering on everyside. I looked at the biggest and more extravagent of them and just made a bee line for it. Unfortunatly the weather was **** but the walk itself was invigorating and refreshing. After about three hours I reached the midway point of the walk. It was a circular type walk that bought me up into the mountains, down through some pine ...

... which I'll be visiting tomorrow. The room I'm staying in (I'm paying for a double, but it's still only 28$ and right by the main square) actually has its own en suite bathroom! It's very clean and there's a television, with 3 chanels, so I'll be able to see what prime-time tv is like in Slovakia. Levoca is a pretty little town dating back to the Middle Ages (another one?!) with old city walls and plenty of old buildings. Interestingly enough, you have to pay to get into the large ...

... and Bill got a hotdog and then we checked our e-mail again - Nothing. We walked around town and over to the bus station. Bad timing - a 30-minute wait so I went across the street to get a beer, Bill didn't want one. The bus was loading before I finished, so I had the beer to go in a plastic cup. I was a happy camper on the bus, relaxed, snoozing. I only woke up when the bus driver stopped and honked to avoid a crash with an angry woman. Please not another bus wreck ...