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POLONIA

Part 3 : Tatras

By Carolyn Chon

February 14^th, 2017

longest walk of my life

So far anyway. I spent an entire day walking, trekking, hiking or whatever you want to call it through the Tatra Mountain. When I say entire day, I literally mean an entire day - 12 hours to be exact. No, it's actually not that hard, I'm just unfit and live a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, this unfit 35 year old trekked and walked 37.8km that day.

An achievement in my books for sure.

zakopane

I made my way into Zakopane (pronounced pa-nay) from Krakow on a bus which took about an hour and a half. Again, stayed at another Airbnb place, which I absolutely love!! It was only about a 5 to 10mins walk to the town centre. No, I didn't take any photos in town, don't ask me why.

I remember that it was raining the first two days when I was there, and in fact I had planned to go to the mountains on the second day, but ended up staying another night so that I could go at the mountains in good weather. Right thing to do!

On the second day as it was drizzling off and on, I decided to make my way to town, have lunch and take a short walk up another hill, Gubalówka just down the road from the town center. I guess it was a warm-up for me for the next day. Heh.

Gubalówka

I ended up taking the cable car down which was overpriced (obviously) because I didn't want to strain my knees before the proper trek. When I got back to my place, I pretty much pigged-out in the room, as it was drizzling and chilly... I was snug under the covers, Netflixing away. Ahh, how perfect solo traveling is, where no one tells you what to.

tatra national park - poland

Yes, you already know it's obviously Poland, but the Tatra Mountain actually rests on both Poland and Slovakia. So, now you know if you didn't.

I took a bus from where I was staying to get to the park, paid a fee (I think) and started making my way. I packed light snacks and a bottle of water cos I knew it was going to be a long day.

It's actually quite an easy walk/trek up the mountains, as there were different trails to choose from and I think it ranges in terms of difficulty. The trail signs are marked and different trails are all marked in different colors, they also give you a rough estimate of average time it would take.

Obviously for me, I realized that the time given on the signs did not apply in my case. Ha.

Coming from a tropical country where temperature is pretty much constant, I wore double layers and even brought a light jacket - just in case. Not even a quarter way through, I took my top to swap the layers cos' I was sweating like a fool.

Asian Traveller 0 - 1 European Mountains.

I started out on the red trail, then switched to the green, then to the yellow and back to the red from Morskie Oko. The yellow trail was definitely the killer one for me. I remember seeing senior folks and young kids zooming past me, but hey I was alone... so, I took my time and made my stops as much as I needed.

that yellow trail

If you squint your eyes, you'll see that I'm pointing to the peak of the trail where I had to summit one of the several mountains. I remember eating half a Snicker bar on my way up there. I also remembered looking back halfway and telling myself, it's too late to turn around. So, onward I went.

Now, I'm not a person with a fear of heights, in fact I love heights. But the scary bit about summiting the peak for me was the rocky trails and how steep it was. Bear in mind that I'm no where near being a frequent hiker, so it was kind of daunting for me... clinging onto dear life on a metal chain, with some kilos in my backpack, sharing a steep and narrow trail did kind of scare me. We had to wait for climbers who were coming from the other side to climb down while those going up would have to Spiderman to the rocks to give way. I remember also thinking, man I have absolutely no upper body strength and CANNOT slip for I sure wouldn't be able to pull myself back up just relying on my floppy arms.

Luckily, no drama ensued.

I rested up there for maybe 10 minutes, filled my tummy and made my way down the famous Morskie Oko which felt like it took freaking forever. The downhill was what really killed me actually. That's why it took me forever, my feet were killing me!

But in the end, it was obviously worth the pain. I think the highlight for me on the 12 hour trek, was spotting some wildlife. Of course, also the few lakes I was rewarded with throughout! As I made my way back down, the skies became more grey so Morskie Oko didn't look at good as it would've been on a bright, sunny day.

do widzenia

It took me over and hour just exiting the damn park. It really felt like forever, though there was a choice to take the horse carriage down, but I refused to do so...because, you know. Animal cruelty.

Getting off the bus to walk back to my cabin was the funniest thing though, the bus stopped on the other side of the road and I had to cross it. Yea, what's funny about that right? Well, getting off the bus was a challenge, I literally walked like a duck all the way back. Not to mention, my room was on the 3rd floor. Ugh!