I woke up at 8:00am excited to get a jump on the day and quickly get on the mountain. The hostel lady was setting up the free breakfast and entering the wood floor living room with the leather couches, small colored lights, and news on the TV was very homey and cozy. I had some nice bread with jam and a lot more black tea with sugar.
Jon got up and came into the living room after taking a shower. Outside, it was so beautiful, with snow covered trees and a view of the mountains.
In regards to ski gear, we had absolutely nothing appropriate. I decided to wear my black hiking pants with long underwear underneath a long with my normal sweater, jacket combo. My new jacket is waterproof at best and in no way intended for ski use. My leather gloves and dress shoes sealed the deal. Jon kept saying how he didn't want to wear his jeans, but he decided to give it a shot anyway, and left the hostel in his ripped up vans and red-sport jacket.
Outside it was cold.
Having come into the hostel the night before, I hadn't truly noticed how beautiful the area was. As we left the hostel we turned around to see the little log cabin covered in snow. There was a river paralleling the road and the driveway up the road was lined with trees and snow.
We had been told by the hostel lady and the few cool Australians we'd met that the nearest ski resort was only 600 meters away. At the end of the driveway, we debated which way to turn and decided to go right. Walking on the icy sidewalk, I got a great view of all of the houses and fields. It reminded me a lot of Tahoe and Mammoth but was a beautiful and special resort all by itself.
I saw the first ski area with its one large black diamond run. Skiing here in Poland is different than the other places Jon and I had been to before (well I've only been skiing once before so I don't have much experience to judge it against). Rather than have one park where all of the runs, lodges, and ski lifts are centrally located, the ski resorts in Zakopane were all separate and independently operated. One would put money on a card and swipe it each time he wanted to use the ski lift. A pay as you go system in which you could get your extra money back at the end of the day.
We walked through the entrance of the resort and stopped in a few places to check prices. Very inexpensive, less than 20 slosky or 5 US DOLLARS to rent equipment for half day. Jon was a snowboard instructor and I hadn't been snowboarding for almost 7 years since Juniorhigh school at Mountain High. Jon decided to ski and I wanted to practice snowboarding. The last shop we stopped in rented complete equipment for 15 slosky for three hours.
It was 10:00am and I was excited to get on the mountain. Jon had been really wanting to change out of his jeans as he was cold now and knew that they would get wet. He wanted to head back to the hostel to put on another pair as we couldn't rent snow gear at all, just boots, bindings and boards.
I really didn't want to walk back as I knew it would be another hour by the time we got on the mountain. I was annoyed but agreed to go back.
We made it back to the hostel very quickly and spent the next 20 minutes asking the hostel lady if they had extra ski gear, and then laughing as Jon tried to squeeze his 6' 1" frame into snow overalls meant for little kids. He somehow managed to get them to fit without castrating himself. His jeans were sticking through and the straps kept snapping apart whenever he sat down. He was happy though as he would be dry.
I was right about it being an hour later as we were back in the office with our rental boards and skis by 11:00am. We would have until 2:00pm which would still give us plenty of time to go back to the hostel, pack up and catch a bus back to Krakow for our night train to Prague.
We went to the lift-ticket window and put 40 slosky on each card. We then headed toward the bunny slope where I caught onto one of the moving pole lifts that towed us up to the small slope. Jon went over what I was supposed to be doing with my bindings, foot placement, and how to stop. My first ride down the hill I was able to stop and turn slightly, although I kept falling. This continued for a while with me attempting 8 or so runs. Most of the time I would crash as I would get nervous of the speed, and not watching my front foot in regards to proper weight placement. There was a small hill that I kept stopping at the bottom of as I didn't have enough speed. Jon was practicing his skiing and would speed by me and then return to give advice. There were many little kids on the hill, all of the them who were very good and who kept speeding down the slope.
We walked up a few times to maximize the the time practicing on the main start. My ridiculous outfit had attracted a ton of stares, and even though my jacket kept getting unzipped, it was actually pretty good at keeping out the moisture. My leather gloves were working well too although they kept filling up with snow and ice.
I had completed a few good runs and was starting to get the hang of it. I like snowboarding and a place like this for cheap prices was exactly what I needed to improve.
We cut form the bunny slope to the midrange slope where I was able to cut back and forth. We when decided to take the full size ski lift to the top of the highest run. Sitting on the ski lift was very peaceful as I floated by tall green pines weighted down by the snow. I boarded off the ski lift using my stomp pad like a skate board.
The view from the top was incredible as I saw the entire valley stretching out below. Neither one of us had the skill to complete this run, but what we lacked in technique we made up in risky behavior and the indestructibility of youth.
The black diamond run was no joke as it began with a steep narrow chute opened into a wider 70 degree angle. Ridiculously fast. I kept crashing and trying my best to brake. I slid on my butt and knees for probably the first quarter of the run, until I was able to get myself back up and full on complete the remaining portion of the run. At the bottom, I looked back at what I had accomplished, and was happy to have had completed my goal of the morning of being able to do the biggest run. I looked like I had gone through some heavy powder as I was covered in snow. Jon took about 20 minutes longer, as he had a couple hard bails on his skis. When he finally came down it was 1:30pm.
I really should have done one more run to solidify my improvement but I was so cold, my gloves so icy, and my jacket and pants soaking wet. I knew it would have been stupid. Jon decided to one more run and I sat on the bench in the just emerging sun.
We returned the equipment by 2:00pm and walked over to the ski lift stand to get our money back. Expecting almost nothing, we were surprised to received almost 25 slosky back. We had paid less than 10 US DOLLARS to ski for the day! Incredible! I was freezing and my clothes were damp. We walked back to the hostel, numb, but happy about how the day had turned out.
I wish I could have spent another week at the hostel as we came back to the warm lodge and immediately felt at home. I hung up my clothes over the heater and took a hot shower. In dirty but dry clothes, I finished the rest of our meat, cheese and bread. The owner of the hostel was also there in the living room. We began to talk to him and asked why he started the "Goodbye Lenin Hostels." He had worked for a hostel in Brazil and had also sailed from Poland to South America and back as part of the youngest sailing crew to do it. Talking to him and staying in these awesome hostels made me really think about wanting to open one.
We unfortunately had to leave the best spontaneous discovery ever to catch our bus back to Krakow. We left at 4:30pm in a taxi had us at the bus station by 4:45. We caught the 5:00pm bus back to Krakow and unlike the one coming to Zakopane we made it back in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I would definitely like to return to Zakopane.
We had arrived in Krakow a little earlier than expected so we went to purchase our train ticket for the night train and then went to the large mall to buy more groceries, dinner and breakfast, and then people watched in the mall on one of the benches while enjoying a 1 slotzky ice cream.
At 9:15pm we headed back to the train station to find our train. Unfortunately, it was much more expensive to travel from Poland to Prague and we also had not purchased a sleeper car, hoping that we would be able to have our own carriage and just spread out on the seats.
Once on the train and sure that our carriage was going to Prague, Jon and I did the jerkish thing, but in the end ensuring us a much more enjoyable and restful 8 hour ride, by spreading out all of our stuff on the seats and closing the curtains. It worked; as everyone walked by our carriage and sat cramped together in the other cars. Jon and I ate our best sandwiches yet before setting up our "beds" by laying down on the three seats with the armrests up.
It was actually quite comfortable. We put all of our bags by our heads and slept in our clothes with our wallets and passports in our front pockets.
The 8 hour ride was actually not that bad. Granted, we did wake up whenever someone walked by and were awoken at 3am by the conductor for a ticket check. I was still able to sleep a fair amount and didn't feel too tired when we pulled into Prague the next day.
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