Just Sittin' On Top Of The World

Today the sun shines!  We are all so excited about the prospect of takng our promised cable car ride to the top of Mt. Kasprowy Wierch.  We even get out of the hotel early and into the van like 9 eager children.  Aftr a short drive to the transit point we park and jump out of the van, only to discover that there is a two-hour wait to buy tickets!  and then another hour wait in line to get on the cable car.  We are so bummed.  But Aneta, as always jumps to the rescue.  She says, "there is another place.  We will go there."  So we pile back into the van and strike off in a different direction toward Slovakia.

On the way we made our scheduled stop at the Orawa Etnographic Park and the fabulously interesting village of Zubrzyca Gorna, comprised of traditional wood houses, a wood "mansion" called Monciak Mansion, built around 1784.  Many of the structures have been moved to the site to create an open air, outdoor museum of sorts reflecting the life and times of the Goral mountain people of this region.  The setting was beautiful and we enjoyed the cool, but sunny morning as we waited for a guide to become available.

Fot: Inside one of the cottages, Linda

 Would you like me to remove your teeth?

Our guide didn't speak English so Aneta was put in the interpreter position again.  She does a fabulous job and we all thought we got a very good tour.  In one building there was a tiny cradle about which we were warned that if we touched it we would become pregnant and have a baby within a year.  That would have been quite a trick given the average age of the women in our group, but Aneta studiously avoided making contact with that particular piece of furniture.  I suppose it helps keep tourist hands off the museum pieces if you have a slightly scary bit of local folklore to share about a piece.  The lifestyle of these amazing people was quite simple and yet fairly complex at the same time.  They had beautiful carriages and wagons for transport and carrying goods; they had well made furniture and some quite lovely pieces with intriqite inlays of various woods.  They had a fabric mill and manufactured linen, using the oil from the process to make other products.  They had a sawmill to prepare the logs and boards for their buildings;  they had a water wheel to provide power to the mills.  After a leisurely stroll about the grounds taking photos Aneta herded us back into the van and off to lunch at a traditional Groral retaurant from the region.  Everyone ordered off the menu again today and we did fairly well.  Our travelers are gaining more confidence as we go about what they like in the way of Polish cuisine and what they would rather do without.  I had a delicious Kielbasa with beets as a side dish.  I also ordered Pierogi and it was way too much for me to eat so I parcelled it out to the Pierogi fans and everyone went away happy.

Fot: Chair lift, Linda

Just across the road from the restaurant was a stunning mountain with an amazingly long chair lift for skiers.  It went up the mountain every half hour.  This was the place Aneta had in mind for our ride to the top of the world.  She hurried over and purchased tickets for each of us and we lined up.  The operators selected who would ride with whom and Annie and I were put in the first chair.  The ride started and up we went.  Up and up and up.  The view from Zawaga Mountain was spectacular.  The weather was perfect for such a ride and everyone enjoyed the journey up.  It was much cooler at the top of the mountain and when the wind came up it was even downright cold.  There was a launching ramp to one side of the summit for mountain bikers to take off on a trail that zig zagged around the mountain and shot them out at the bottom to the left side of the parking area.  We watched a young biker get his gear on, put his helmut on top of his head and launch himself over the side.  It was really quite alarming and I was glad I wasn't his mother!

As Annie and I made our way across the summit top we saw a small group on young people catching some rays on the other side.  We went up to the railing to take photos and one young man discerned that we were speaking English.  He bounced up to us and said, "American?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Where?" he said.
"Oregon," I replied.
"Me, New Jersey," he said, proudly pounding his chest.
"You live in New Jersey?" Annie asked in her North Carolin drawl.
The young man looked confused for a minute and then said, very proudly, "Newark.  You know Newark?"
Annie looked disgusted and made some comment about the people who live in New Jersey as she walked away.
The young man looked at me and said, "Marek.  Mark."
I said, "Linda.  Pleased to meet you Marek."
"No. Mark now.  Mark for Newark.  I go back, one month."
I told Marek/Mark that I was staying in Poland for three months and he seemed somewhat confused about why anyone would want to when they could be in the good 'ol US of A."  He had had enough to drink that any further conversation would have been pointless so I continued on my photo journey around the top of the world and left the happy 'Mark' to the hands of his equally inebriated friends.

Once everyone had captured 360 degree viewscapes we lined up for the return trip down the mountain.  What a spectacular ride that was.  Now on to Zakopane and a few minutes to clean up before we go out to dinner to celebrate Dennis Henderson's birthday.  Dennis turned 66 today and we had been wishing him well all day, raising our glasses to him at lunch and generally - we hoped - making him feel feted on his special day.  little did we or Dennis know what Aneta had in store for us on this evening.  She had made reservations at a tradtional Goral restaurant frequented by locals and little known by tourists.  There would be live music, dancing and wait staff dressed in traditional Goral garb.  We arrived a bit early and our table wasn't ready so everyone took a short walk in the cool evening air.  I hadn't dressed appropriately for walking in cold weather so I stayed in the van until they returned.  When we entered the restaurant we knew this was going to be something special.  Aneta had pre-orderd the meal so we didn't have to do a thing but order the wine and beer and enjoy the atmosphere.  And what an atmosphere it was!  The restaurant was built in the traditional wood style of Goral structures and indeed the waiters were wearing the heavy white wool trousers trimmed with black braid that runs across the top of the seat area and down each pant leg and around the bottom.  The pants