Kossman Funnymoon

The big mountain ridge is the border between the countries. We'd done a little scouting at the trailhead the day before, and were planning to do a 4-hour round trip hike. 

Unfortunately NOTHING in town was open! literally nothing! There was nowhere to get water for our hike. We didn't want to climb too far up the mountain with only the small water bottles we had already. So we picked a much shorter loop.

This hike was crazy. We were not mentally prepared for how strenuous it would be. Apparently the Polish don't believe in switchbacks because it was basically 30 minutes of climbing a steep rock staircase straight up the mountain. 

Then we got to a point where the entire trail was coated in ice. We had to tramp through the mud and hold on to tree branches to make our way up. It was also quite windy and at one point we thought one of the tall pines was going to break and fall on us. There were many fallen trees on the trail. 

It was very nice and peaceful. We really miss hiking. We are thinking we may train to do a 3-4 day hike sometime in the fall. Jillian wants to climb Denali one day, which is a 21-day trek. Not exactly something we can train for in super-flat Louisiana. 

We had planned to spend the afternoon shopping but again nothing was open - except the spa. Josh took a beer bath, which is literally sitting in a hot tub filled with beer...while drinking beer. 

Today is another travel day. Our flight from Kraków to Warsaw is on a a prop plane which Jillian is freaked out about.  If you're reading this post it means we survived!

Also, they didn't have our reservation for our flight to Lisbon when we got to the airport. LOT airlines was pretty chill about it, but we have to go deal with the Portuguese airlines (TAP) when we land. We definitely have not had the greatest luck with our air travel this trip, but it's been worth it! 

Now on to Part II of our adventure: Portugal! 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

We can't believe it's Christmas 2015!

As we mentioned last night, we had a 5pm reservation at a nearby restaurant for a traditional Polish Christmas dinner. Apparently on Christmas you have to eat 12 dishes without meat and then you will have luck...or something. 

We walked in and they sat us at this drafty table facing a heater. There was a spread of weird, unfamiliar foods.

5 different kinds of coleslaw...Jillian's favorite.

This was by far the most expensive meal we'd paid for in Poland and we were thinking "what the heck did we pay for?!" 

This is salmon and herbs in a cold, meat jello. Not super appetizing.

The table next to us started standing up to do some traditional Polish group communion thing and invited us to participate. When they found out we were American and visiting Poland (which they were incredulous about) they invited us to join their table. A 6,8" Polish guy (Piodr) who is a dead ringer for Ben Rothlisberger, his Belarusian wife Viktoria, and two Polish ladies who spoke no English. 

Piodr ordered 3 bottles of vodka over the next several hours. He is a head chef in London, so he kept insulting the food, but the later courses like mushroom soup and pierogi a were quite good! 

Neither of us can remember the last time we drank so much vodka! After dinner we went to a nightclub, but we were pretty drunk and tired. Viktoria was not, though...she wanted us all to drive to Kraków to go to a nightclub there. We Americans definitely cannot keep up with the European ways of partying all night.

Our hotel is definitely not as fancy as this one.

It is really beautiful here. You'd think you were in Switzerland with the beautiful mountains and forests. According to Viktoria, the town has been built up a lot in the last 5 years. It has everything - H&M, Adidas, Northface stores, carnival rides, wax museum, nightclubs. Josh says it reminds him of Breckenridge or the larger ski towns in Colorado. 

Are you tired of babbling brook photos yet?!

Unfortunately the night time photos of the twinkling lights and Christmas trees just aren't turning out, but the city center is very festive and warm. 

Many places are closed for Christmas. We are so lucky that we got in to our dinner last night! So many tourists kept popping in to the restaurant and were turned away. Poland really, really shuts down everything for Christmas. 

We did manage to get some tasty baked good which we're going to eat while watching movies in our attic room at the lodge. 

Tomorrow we are going hiking in the morning and then shopping in the afternoon. There are so many things to do here, you could easily spend a week in Zakopane, even without skiing. 

Hoping everyone has a great holiday! 

xoxo

So today we said goodbye to the lovely Krakow. We had such a great time exploring the city. Last night we went to see a Chamber Orchestra perform in the oldest church in Krakow, which was built in the 1200's. Then we had a lovely dinner at a very nice restaurant in the Jewish District. One of the best things about Krakow is how affordable it is - for a three-course, delicious dinner, with a bottle of wine and special treats from the kitchen we paid about $65. 

After dinner we had a couple of drinks in a basement bar. It was about 9PM, but the bar was empty. Europeans don't go out until around midnight apparently. We are just not cool enough for their hip, night owl ways. 

This morning we took the bus to Zakopane. It's a 2-hour bus up into the mountains. Again, super affordable. It was about $4 each for the bus. 

Today has been a lovely, casual day. We woke up late after going to bed early (Jillian fell asleep at 7:30pm!), and walked to get coffee. 

Then we made our way up to the castle and royal cathedral which sits on a big hill overlooking the city. 

It is absolutely gorgeous out today. About 55 degrees and sunny, but very windy. 

The cathedral tour was super interesting. This is the third audio tour we've taken but the first without an in-person guide. We couldn't take pictures inside but Jillian snuck a couple. 

The cathedral has all different types of art and architecture, ranging from the 13th century through the early 1900's. It's a bit of a mish-mash. Basically every king or Cardinal decided to add to the cathedral in the style of his time so there are Renaissance, Gothic, Victorian, Russian, and all sorts of other additions. The big gold dome on the exterior is from the Renaissance Chapel. 

In the basement of the cathedral is the old, old Cathedral (which was apparently built on top of an old, old, OLD church). 

This part of town was not - as we had thought - the Jewish ghetto. That's across the river. Did you know Roman Polanski survived the Kraków ghetto? 

Tonight we are going to see the Chamber orchestra and then our last dinner in Kraków before we head to Zakopane tomorrow. It's too warm for skiing but we are looking forward to 3 days of hiking and breathing fresh mountain air. 

Outside the city center Kraków is very old Societ Union - lots of big, monolithic apartment buildings for miles. There aren't many cars on the road, and no trucks or SUVs. It seems most people take public transit. 

Auschwitz was unbelievable. The scale blew our minds. Jillian has read a lot about the Holocaust but it was still horrifying to actually be there. It's basically an entire city built from the ground up with the purpose of killing people. 

We only took a few photos. It just seemed disrespectful to be snapping away while our guide was talking about Zylon B. 

The word Auschwitz is so synonymous with genocide, but it's actually Birkenau that has the classic, concentration camp look. Auschwitz looks like a college campus compared to Birkenau. 

Birkenau has rows and rows of drafty barracks and had 4 crematoriums (Auschwitz had only one). You could see the scratch marks on the insides of the wall - one of the most horrifying parts of the tour. It was absolutely enormous.

Even though it's unseasonably warm and was sunny, with the wind whipping through the buildings we were struggling to stay warm. I can't imagine living there wearing only a light shirt and pant set. Our tour guide said that most survivors said they actually "got used to" the cold. 

The most unnerving part about Auschtwitz is that it's in the middle of a town. There are restaurants, shops, gas stations and a KFC right outside the camps. There are literally houses whose backyards overlook Birkenau. 

See those colorful buildings in the background? They're just regular houses where people live.

On the way back Josh was saying "who would choose to live near here?!" However I guess it wasn't the Poles' choice for the Germans to bulldoze their land and build a death camp there. The whole tour actually "played up" the Polish losses in WWII and the Holocaust. It was interesting to hear that perspective. 3 million non-Jewish Poles died in concentration camps, which neither of us knew. Including Poland's 3 million Jews that's 20% of their population that was exterminated. 

We were so drained after the tour we decided to call it an early night. It gets dark so early that's pretty easy. 

Missing Smokey and our comfortable bed.