Beyond the City

When you're friends are native Europeans, they have this "inside info." They can recommend more than the best museums in a random city--they know the best places for getting off the tourist path and not other, lesser known locations. Karpatcz, Poland is still a tourist town...but without Jan, I don't think we would have ever found it. This little town lies on the boarder of Poland and the Czech Republic (as you walk along the trails, the markers dividing the two countries are literally two meters away. We were continually "hopping the boarder.")

We left early Friday morning. Jan has a car, so that made it quite a bit easier to travel. We could go where we wanted and not have to deal with the train (at this point, I am not fan of the Polish train). Jan travels like a traditional Czech...with a complete set of "Czech luggage."

We wandered around Karpacz in search of the lift that would take us part-way up the mountain.

And we found this lovely waterfall. So, we stopped and climbed on the rocks.

Unfortunately, half-way through our search, it started to rain. We ducked under a beer tent and attempted to entertain ourselves. I had a roll of atheletic tape in my bag, so we wrote names of people on the tape, stuck them to one-another's foreheads, and tried to guess "who we were." I was Crazy Ethics Lady.
Steffi was the British boy from Ołowek that likes to throw things off his balcony.
We finally invested three złoty in rain gear--money well spent. Ponchos make a great fashion statement.

When we got up to the lift, it was too late to actually go up the mountain, so we went to the mining museum instead. The tour was in German, so Nina, Steffi, and Jan translated for the non-German-speaking minority (ie. Shail and I). The musuem was rather disapointing, but the hard hats were fun.
Jan then took us to the city where he lived the first time he studied in Poland. Jelenia Góra is now one of my favorite cities in Poland. It's mostly the original buildings and it's architecture is ver much a picture of Czech influence.

In front of Jan's old Univerisity building.

The early morning view from our hostel window. This was by far the strangest hostel I have ever stayed in...but it was cheap. And that's all that matters (one thing I've learned in Europe: you can sleep anywhere for one night).
The lift to the top of the mountain.How do you say "Put the ice down and get back on this side of the fence" in Bavarian?

The trail to the top:
This reminds me out the Sound of Music:
Markings for the Czech boarder:
It was a long and very tiring haul to the top. At that altitude, some people would rather not be photographed (this photo goes into the catoagory of "all-time favorite pictures of chemistry students").

There's not really too much to do at the top of the mountain. The veiw is nice, so once you trek all the way up there, it's necessary to gauk for about ten minutes. Then, you start looking for other means of entertainment. There's an over-priced cafe and a post office, which are not that ammusing. So, we took a differant trail and started back down the mountain.

Jan could be America's Next Top Model:

I could not:The mountain looking back (we were clear up there!):
Us with the mountain we had conquered and our high-fashion rain gear:Next trail!Snow in June:
The photo taken by a mountain biker from Colorado we met on the trail. He trains Olympic athletes and we telling us about how he's going to Bejing next month with two of his riders.
On Saturday, we estimated that we cover about 12-15 kilometers on foot, so we were all really tired. But it was a great trip and a wonderful way to spend our last days with Shail and Jan (who leave Tuesday and Friday).

It also deserves being noted that Grandma and Grandpa Jarzynka celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary on the 13th of June.

That's more impressive than any mountain climbing expedition.