Saturday, July 14, 2007

Carpathian Mountains - Lower Tatry (Poland)

a Having long heard of the beauty of the Tatra Mountains, I decided to include it in my itinerary with dad. =)


We didn't take the horse carriage ride up... cuz it's more expensive.. 40zloty/person up and 20zloty/person down. All the same... I felt bad through-out the ride... Swore never to exploit another horse in my lifetime.. Hehs doesn't mean I won't ride horses.. just not the sort that really look like they're overworked.

Last picture bottom right is an ideal scene. hehe Dad and mum taking a kid out. Nice sweet family. =)


We are on a mission to see Morskie Oko - Eye of the Sea - though I really don't see how the name fits... Perhaps Eye of the Mountains would fit better. =P The pretty streams and rapids along the way really brings to mind those pictures on glossy sheets in the Physical Geog Textbook from Secondary school days. The school should organize field trips here. hee


The arduous journey up.


Having these beauties line our path really makes climbing up less tedious. It's like a whiff of fresh air. hehe Then again... the whole place is fresh.


Mid point!


And then we arrive... Morskie Oko!


At the edge of the lake.


Dad after scaring away all the ducks with his mere presence. grin


We decided to go around the lake and see if we can reach the snowy areas.


See how clear the waters are. There are fish in there!


Mini waterfall!

Found another path where we could take to move onto higher grounds.
Onwards!

Grin cool water greets us at the top - (foot of Rysy - the highest Polish peak; but that would take us 3hr50min to conquer... Not today... haha)

Dad reveling in nature.
We decided to soak our feet. Er Bad idea. hahaha the blood rushes to the feet and leaves them numb for ages after we remove them from the water.

Think it'd be some years before I can go hunt for such a sight again...
Don't wanna go home...

Dad claims the white bits are ice. I don't know... It was pretty hot save for the chilly water.
I leave you with shots of the prettiest place on my trip...



Goodbye Tatra Mountains!

Friday, July 13, 2007

Beauties down south - Zakopane

I haven't been to the Swiss Alps - so I can't tell you if this little sleepy place that bustles with life mostly during Winter is prettier than the Alps... But I'd gladly take Weiming's word for it and assume so... for what I've seen here easily beats everything else on the trip. (sights that is.. hehe not experience. =P) For the first time ever, I felt like I didn't allocate enough time for the trip.


The series of not-so-impressive pictures of the little town at the base of the mountain ranges
Dad's obsessed with berries... do look out for berry-pictures throughout the subsequent entries. =)
A note for those intending to visit Zakopane - a lil town in Southern Poland; the hostel Stara Polena is really great. Cheap and super pretty... and breakfast is provided too. The location is average, but I swear it's the prettiest hostel I had stayed at - and I have definitely stayed at a significant number of hostels.


I always save the best for the last, but this time, this delicious food isn't the best. =P Yeps... the mountains beat my tasty trout and dad's huge pork rib easily.


On the rail to the top of Gubalowka - for a view of the Tatra ranges. There was a promotion going on - for going up by rail and down by chairlift. Grin frankly, chairlift sounded really exciting to me. Dad was game for it and if mum was there, I wouldn't have explained to her what a chairlift was so that we'll go for it. ahhahaha *Evil*


At the top of the rail =) Dad & I immediately went for some toboggan-ing. =P hehe We're 70 between the two of us and we haven't tried it before. Swooshhhhh. hee


A view of the sleepy town at the bottom of the hill. Dad in the foreground trying to read the map I thrust upon him. *smiles* Dad did say "It's very easy to read a map.. can't imagine why you find it difficult sometimes". My response: yeps. do it =)


Dad fascinated by the grassy piles.


Meadows. =) That's what I do miss seeing back in Sg...


And then dad declares he wants a picture among the trees so that he can bluff mum that we went into the jungles and got lost. grin


Breath-taking views - and you haven't seen the last of it.


Basket???


Nah. We finally found the chairlift. hahaha it's a long long way down. I'm sure mum would freak.


Flowers along the road.

I'm saving the best for the next entry. The real tatras. hehe Now gotta scoot for a shower. The weather here is indeed... slightly unbearable. =P

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Ojcow National Park

Pronounced as "Oy-'ci'oov" National Park, this park is some dozens of kilometres away from Krakow. We caught the bus from Krakow and got to this place...


The tree was probably growing before and the owners had this place built to accomodate the tree. heh see how it pops out of the roofing. =)

In fact.. just by walking a little further up along the main road, we'd find the park... but dad says nature should be reached via nature. So we crossed a little bridge instead and got into the forest track...


Hehs... jungle like?


The tracks led eventually to fields of wheat and wild flowers.


We back tracked and found the National Park. There are several marked colour trails - but the one I was interested in was some 12km away... so we didn't end up there - some castle I think...
The ojcow castle wasn't as worth visiting though... hm


The next few posts which are to be the last of my travel blogging consist mostly of nature shots... cuz dad's interested in nature so mountain climbing for water sights etc was what we did for the next few days of the trip.

Krakow in June

En route to Zakopane... Krakow has the highest frequency of buses to Zakopane, I'd believe.
This being the 2nd set of pictures for Krakow, I think there is no need for much description.




Georgian food goes with cherries.


Stalls


Street sights


The last I saw of Krakow

Saturday, July 7, 2007

2/3-cities: Gdansk & Sopot

Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia - Tri cities of Poland. With a spare weekend on hand, 2/3 of the cities were our (twin & I) last common destination before home. =)


There happened to be some celebration put on by the church. And it was a funky one too! Rock bands and all. Twin was extremely happy to be able to understand the 1st line of the lyrics... which goes something like: nie nie nie... "-_-


Brick & Stone.
Gdansk happened to house the biggest church made fully out of brick in Europe.


Singular


fixtures...


Street scenes...


Gdansk is a seaport after all...


Fish (Ryby), Waffle (Gofry), Cheese (Ser), Candy (cukier - hehs I'm not sure this is accurate but the candy is definitely very sweet... too much for twin though)


A good tan on the beaches of Sopot. =)

We return a shade darker. Yet another Polish city - visited.