Zakopane ( Poland ), picnin in Slovakia and BUDAPEST

Zakopane ( Poland ), picnin in Slovakia and BUDAPEST..have a great week

ZAKOPANE

From Krakow we moved to Zakopane a hillside city which is famous for it’s ski slopes and even more so for it’s ski jumps. The world ski jump cup held here.

We were the for the summer and it was what a picture perfect postcard would be like. I cannot but imagine what it would be in the winters when the small pedestrian’s street would be filled with people walking with their skis and wearing their warm overcoats and chatting over a cup of hot cocoa.

This is a very ‘active’ town as in the number of outdoor sports equipment shops it has. I am a sucker for such stores and I spent a better part of the day going from one store to the other like a kid in a candy store. It was an other thing that Suchna had taken away my money or god alone know what I would have bought.

We also trekked up a hill and the view from there was fantabulous. Just sitting up there and not having to talk or ‘do’ anything is as MASTERCARD puts it….that moment was PRICELESS!!! What a view and once again I was picturing the winter here, which incidentally is PEAK season here.

We stayed at a hotel which I think stopped in time when the communist were still around. Each room had those radios which if sold in the States would go as antiques.

Other then that we just unwound here and did NOTHING. It was a good and much needed break for all of us after the constant traveling.

They have these local cheese stall that has got a huge variety of homemade cheese in all shapes and sizes. These guys here LOVE their cheese and I could see locals taking huge bits of what would have been a years supply of cheese for me. I did taste some and they were very tasty and delicious. This was a cheese lovers paradise.

Also since this is the polish countryside we got a great insight into the local life. They get around in tractors and these have huge trailers attached to them ferrying a host of things for the farm. These tractors are open and normally have 2-3 people sitting along with the driver. Also the local women here wear head scarves and pitch in with the farm work.

SLOVAKIA

I must say I can tick this country off my list as we did stop in Slovakia albeit ina lovely meadow to enjoy a picnic lunch. It was such a great affair as all of us had ‘stolen’ a lot of bread rolls, butter, jam, yoghurt etc etc from the breakfast counter at our Zakopane hotel, and along with some amazing Polish wine we had what was one of the best and inexpensive but memorable meals.

Slovakia is truly a very beautiful country and I am sure that someday it will give the other countries a run for their money in tourism. These were some of the BEST roads I traveled through in my entire life.

BUDAPEST

Here the saying ‘THE FIRST IMPRESSION IS THE LAST IMPRESSION’ does not apply for us. When we reached Budapest we were not at all impressed and wondered what was so special about this place. it was a run down city and need more then a spit and a polish.

But we were quite wrong…very wrong. The reason for this wrong impression was that we had taken a couple of wrong turns and ended on some random streets. Luckily this mistake was soon sorted out when we found the actual city centre.
We could never have been more wrong. I concur totally with anyone who says Budapest is one of the best and prettiest cities in Eastern Europe. We did a Danube river cruise in the night and what a sight it was to see the palace and bridge lit up. We went crazy clicking pictures, me trying to be artistic and take ‘blurry’ pics et al. also on the boat we could complimentary wine and beer and that was enough to get us going.

After that we went to this AWESOME bar / nightclub. From the outside it was like a garage and you wouldn’t even know what was inside. Once we entered this place it was this kickass nightclub with room after room. It was a industrial shed turned into a club. The interiors were of these old computers and computer paraphernalia and a very grungy kind of look. There were sofas made of cut bath tubs, old PC’s and what not!

Inside there was a projector where they screened movies sometimes and the screen was near a huge open air atrium. What a great place to catch a movie!

The next day we went for this cycle tour, led by one of the most prettiest tour guides have come across. ** I really recommend city cycle trips for anyone who wants to get the feel of the city and places like Budapest have exclusive cycling roads and what a joy it is to use these roads. The cyclist and pedestrian are treated like gods here and everywhere in western Europe.

Hungarians have this history that they have always supported the losing team and this has quite affected their mentality. Also most of their uprising have always failed and that has also affected them.

Notwithstanding this place has some great history and they have built some mind blowing monuments. They also have this statue of a lady called Liberty, who they jokingly call the ‘bottle opener’ because of the shape it is designed in.

They also have this amazing palace and like all other European cities they have a lot of history attached to them. For eg: they have this bridge where the architect proudly claimed that if anyone could find one single mistake then he would jump from the bridge into the Danube. Soon one small boy pointed out a flaw, that the lions at the beginning of each sides of the bridge did not have a tongue. Folklore has it that he jumped of the bridge, but there are some people who say that the architect did make one other tunnel.

The town is actually in 2 parts – Buda and Pest, on either sides of the Danube. Buda is the older part where the palace etc is and Pest is where downtown is.

Another thing about Budapest is that they do not clink their glasses when they cheer. This tradition goes back to the time when the Austrians ruled Hungary and there was an uprising. During this uprising the Austrians killed a lot of Hungarians and as a memory to that the Hungarians swore that for 150 years they would never clink their glasses. It is another thing that 150 years have just passed but the tradition stays.

We also caught the Manchester United v/s Barcelona Fc UEFA Champions League final at this amazing bar in one of the by lanes frequented by locals. The atmosphere was so charged up and a great time was had by all. We had quite a few ( putting it mildly ) beers and by the end of it the entire bar was cheering together and all had become the best of friends. Sumit had bought this red wig which he wore to support Man U but unfortunately it did not help his team win.

Budapest is comparatively much poorer then the some of the other parts of Eastern Europe as is evident from the number of homeless and vagrants on the streets. But if you were to compare it’s beauty, give me Budapest anyday.

Also it was here we had to bid adieu to a lot of friends we had made and especially we would miss Carlos and Owen. These 2 guys really made our trip a grand success and it would not have been even half as fun without them.

A lot of HUGS and KISSES ( carlos’s staple line ) were passed around and over a ginormous pizza ( for 3 euros only ) everyone said adieu. I do hope soon our paths cross again.

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