Poland is slightly larger than Italy, but has 20 million fewer inhabitants.
It is also flat, no mountains except in the south bordering Slovakia and Ukraine.
There are several national parks in Poland, one of which is interesting in the north on the Baltic Sea to the left of Gdansk, where the sand dunes down to the sea.
Then in the northeast area of lakes and canals MASURE which are extremely beautiful country with hundreds of lakes surrounded by forests and much frequented by tourists from Poland. Nearby is another popular park live there because the only surviving European bison.
Instead, the Tatra mountains south of Krakow are 80% in Slovakia, including the highest peak, Mount Lonmin, about 2600 meters in height that are going to do with day trip to
Zakopane.
But let's order:
Zakopane is Cortina d'Ampezzo Poland, a town of about 30,000 inhabitants very nice, in a green valley with high mountains and longitudinal on one side and the lower cable car, climbing up the other.
It comes after about 20 minutes on the crest of the chain's low where there is a riot of bars, restaurants and especially sellers of sheep skins, knit, traditional slippers, local cheeses, plus a number of attractions like the go-kart, plants climb up tall trees and walking on suspension and various other attractions to extort money from passing tourists who make the walk on this mountain ridge that leads after half an hour ago that the chairlift back down in the valley.
The place has the advantage of being very scenic and at the top, is on the way down in the chair lift that runs between the wooden chalets built along the mountain slopes.
The only flaw is that when you're down we must take a horse-drawn carriage to pay, wait for the rare bus or public transit to return on foot, as I did, along the road in about 40 minutes.
Zakopane has a central pedestrian street full of restaurants, bars and shops where you can eat very well listening to folk groups that perform traditional Polish music very nice. Good singing in choir and the group usually consists of an accordion player, two bass and a violinist.
We eat a lot of pork on the grill, knuckle or arms or very good and tasty sausages accompanied by roasted potatoes and vegetables in a lot of hooded, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Of course, all washed down by excellent pints of local beer in a pint.
For a similar lunch costs about € 12.08, including beer.
In
Zakopane there is even a huge water park with pools of thermal water and three high rings to make the descent to landing a torpedo in the same pool. I enjoyed competing like crazy with the kids surprised Poles, little accustomed to meet an old man at his feet.
Travel between Krakow and
Zakopane in excellent bus takes about 4 hours and costs about 10 €. I stayed in a hotel chalet a bit 'out of the center and a 15-minute easy walk, past a beautiful wooden church, a small cemetery and many beautiful villas with strange shapes and beautiful gardens.
They gave me an excellent well cared for room with private bathroom, TV and refrigerator that cost me 22 euro per night, breakfast included lots of jams made by the amiable hostess who gave me all the tips for local excursions.
You can also go to a branch of the Danube and make a crossing of the same on board the raft up to a waterfall, or the largest ACQUAPARK Eastern Europe, a kind of aquatic Gardaland.
I chose instead to the mountain hiking in Slovakia Lonmin and I have borrowed the boots from the friendly hostess.
I found myself in a cheerful group of young Poles, with old spiritual guide who spoke only Polish, but at some point they went by another party to walk in a park while the rest of the group, a dozen people, has been landed the starting point of a cable car leading to a pond ead another station.
From here you could choose to climb the mountain by cable car on top of the beauty of Lonmin paying 36 euros!! since the euro arrived in Slovakia and everything is more expensive, I decided to give me a tour of the lake very nice with several signs showing the fauna and flora of the park and then went down to the starting point along a path through the woods, sometimes interrupted by a work in progress for the installation of huge underground pipes that go up the mountain. The walk was pleasant and scenic, and arrived at the base I chatted amicably with the owner of a sports shop loooong expensive but sophisticated with all brands.
After a while, 'it's unhappy because after the group paid out € 36 a head cold and suffered not see anything because the top was surrounded by clouds and I had noticed that I had to give up, as well as the high price.
We then took an electric train and arrived in a small town on the Slovak, Stary Smokovec, very green with a luxurious big hotels, lots of chalets with a particular architecture and another gondola to the surrounding mountains.
During the wait because it was raining, I was refreshed with roasted corn cob, a hot sausage and a good beer, after buying a bottle of Slovakian vodka and cakes in the shop next door.
So a nice trip ended with the arrival in
Zakopane sung in center in the pedestrian street with a group of young Poles with a guitar sang beautiful songs of two of their stars of the 80s, Punk Lady and Perfect that I forgot to buy the CD I hope to catch them on Youtube
.
Here the effect of community college, thankfully gone. This has been without toys for all her youth and now goes wild with these gimmicks.
Fortunately, then came a young man, speaking excellent English and we talked for each other's countries.
Arriving in Wroclaw has accompanied me to a nearby hostel Vanguard I had booked on the internet, great room with a nice shared bathroom down the hall but for 20 €.
After walking miles of Krakow that I had caused blisters on the feet, I have wised up and decided to rent a bike directly from the hostel for only 10 euro per day.
So I began to Silesian the beautiful city, founded and inhabited for centuries by the Germans after the war they left en masse, leaving the city to Poland came from other churches in Krakow zone.iede more, too many in my opinion anyway, and all beautiful and majestic.
Wroclaw is a young city, because the university, so full of pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.
His Rynek, which is the central market square is slightly smaller than that of Krakow