A monastary in the Tatra Mountains above Zakopane, Poland. The distance shot is from a cable car.

Forest in the Tatra mountains.

Shots from Zakopane, Poland. Notice the pile of coal in the second shot. They still use a lot of coal for heating buildings in the winter, so there is a constant smell of coal smoke once it gets cold. We like that smell.

It seems like every other bar in the touristy part of Zakopane is called "Drink Bar". The weird thing is, this isn't even for the benefit of Americans or Brits, because there almost aren't any. Sometimes we went days in Zakopane without hearing a native English-speaker. We didn't really have it so bad, though. Despite that fact that few people spoke English, there was always someone around who did, because most of the children take English in school.

I can't imagine how much harder it would be if absolutely no one spoke English. We saw a couple in this situation in Budapest. A couple of Italians were completely lost while driving, and pulled over to ask us for directions. If anybody doesn't look Italian, it's me (Daniel), but they were frantically asking my help with directions in Italian. They only spoke Italian. I wonder how many people in Budapest could they find who speak Italian?

The view from our room in Zakopane. It was a great clean room with wood floors, new rugs, private bath, and third floor balcony overlooking the Tatra mountain range. That is the most comfortable and the best value we had experienced since Syros, Greece. So, we stayed about two weeks. The only reason we left Poland is because of the turn in weather. Somehow, although we have continued to travel south, we have not escaped the cold front.

More scenes from Zakopane.

Part of the McDonalds in Zakopane. Yes, we are eating at McDonalds again. There is a McDonalds nearby nearly every place we have traveled so far. In some places (like Bratislava), they have a monopoly on fast food. Despite the fact that we never eat at McDonalds at home, they are sometimes really nice when on the road. They are always friendly, everywhere in the world, and if you have done this kind of trip you know that is no small thing. They have fairly consistent food, and while it's not healthy, it won't get you sick. They're open when everyone else is closed. They're fast. After enduring a few dozen experiences with horrible, slow, and surly service, the virtues of a capitalist mega-corporation are much more obvious than they are back home.

Some art we liked in the Zakopane gallery. Janet thought her mom would like the mountain scene.