Tuesday 8 January 2008

Christmas in Poland & New Years in Slovakia

Happy New Year!

Well, we are back from our 2 weeks trip and boy did we have fun!
There was a minor delay with getting to Krakow (umm...about 12 hours) but once we were there, it was certainly worth the drama.
Snow everywhere and a family that was as welcoming as a hot bowl of soup on a rainy winters day. Whilst in Krakow we had the chance to do some site seeing, walk around the wonderful historic town and see all it's beauty. I particularly like to big castle, stunning church (most OTT I have ever seen) and the main square. It was particularly beautiful because of all the snow which really made me really feel like it was christmas time from the movies.

Tomasz and I enjoyed a traditional christmas with real polish food (many thanks to Krysia who makes everything from scratch). Christmas eve was seafood - salmon, carp, hering, perogi and borsch with ushka. Then, the christmas presents and a game of songstar on Jenny and Kamila's new playstation! Christmas day was spent roaming the city with Slawek, Krysia and Jenny, then another feast for dinner - wonderful veal with a veal with a multitude of other goodies including my favourite soup (white sausage soup) and vegetable salad. YUM! I even had a stab at making perogi and ushka (I nicknamed myself the perongi queen but the name didn't quite catch on).

After Christmas we headed to Zakopane for a few days which was wonderful. The town in so romantic with horse drawn slays dotted around the town to take you wherever you please. I learnt how to ski here which was interesting as the instructor's english skills were limited as were my polish skills. So, I taught her some english as she taught me the "snow blow" (which I now know is actually called the snow plough). I had an awesome time - particularly watching Tomasz snow board (I didn't realise he was so good). God was watching out for me when we were on the slopes as Tomasz was trying to terrorise me while he was snowboarding by throwing snowballs - however in doing so, fell off his snowboard and now, three weeks later the doctors suspect has a fractured wrist. Thanks god - you really got revenge for me!

A few days in Zakopane and we were on the road again - quite literally...each walking with our 15kg bags across the border to Slovakia.
We spent the next couple of days with my best friend Hayley, her boyfriend Vladusko (Vladimir) and a few of thier friends. More skiing, snowboarding and laughs including a nice new years eve in the middle of nowhere (no really, we were in the middle of no where). Great time, it was good to catch up again with Hayley and Vlad (even though they were in London a couple of weeks ago).

Back to Krakow (Slovakia back to Poland was another journey not for the faint hearted) where we visited Auschwitz, the old nazi concentration camp. It was a sobering expereince however it wasn't as sad as you would imagine. The camp is MASSIVE with heaps of horse stables that were meant to house the 60,000 prisoners at any one time. At -10 degrees I can only imagine what it was like....I was freezing and I was wearing something like 6 layers at the time!

For the last day in Krakow we chilled with our hosts in Krakow and did some shopping in a huge shoping centre (Galleria Krakowska).

All in all, we had a wonderful time in the picturesque Poland and exciting Slovakia. Can't wait to visit Krakow and Zakopane again soon in the near future.

Tomasz has posted some photos below.
Enjoy!
Love,
Mare
PS: I never thought I'd say this but the weather in London (+5 degrees) now feels tropical compared to the weather in Poland (-10 degrees). phew!
PPS: Only 6 weeks until we are back in Sydney



Main Square in Krakow before Christmas. The church in the background is the OTT one. THere were stalls in the square all sorts o f Christmas goodie - like mulled wine.

The beautiful snow covered area - we were taking the doggie for a walk. Try to find him in the photo cause he's white like the snow...

The Pierogi Queen in action helping to get Christmas Eve dinner ready

La Famalia (minus Jenny who is taking the photo) at dinner.

The horse drawn slays in Zakopane

Mare and Mr Statue Wladaslaw have the same hat!

How cooooool am I. No really, Legend.... snowboard extraudaneir....

Mare's first day on ski's!

The food in Zakopane was to the point - you order fish, you get a fish. You order pork knuckle, you get pork knucke and nothing else.

Skiing in Slovakia

Part of the Slovak gang on New Years Eve.

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