Zakopane - three days of hiking

Zakopane is the oversized Polish stronghold of summer hiking tourism. This often heard warning we can now confirm. And yet, the attraction of the region is more than justified.

After we had settled on a campsite opposite the ski jumping hills, we spent three days hiking famous highlights of the Polish Carpathians: the High Tatras: the mountain Giewont, the Morskie Oko lake and the mountain Swinica.

The Giewont with its mighty summit cross challenged our legs already on the first day... sustainably. Even if you are hiking for ten hours in the mountain landscape, you don't need any hiking maps. The tourist streams automatically guide you and if it gets extremely crowded, you are shortly before the destination. In the evening we spent in the rain in the camper kitchen with three talkative and generous Poles.

The long march to Morskie Oko was similarly crowded, but luckily we started in the afternoon and therefore most of the hikers were already on their way back. Shortly before sunset we reached Winniefred, exhausted, who led us back to rain-soaked Zakopane from the parking lot via the "hiker highway". At the end of the day, some trench pulling was on the schedule.

Our last day of hiking started sunny and warm, but rather unpleasant for the hiking enthusiasm. We wanted to take the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch and then climb the Swinica from there along the mountain ridge. After more than two hours of waiting, the ticket seller suddenly refused to accept our student ID cards without reason, so we had to grudgingly pay the full price for the upcoming hours. Placing our last money rudely in the service slot, I even had to apologize to him afterwards for this behavior... Why he didn't accept our cards will remain a mystery to us forever... As the crowning glory, we were greeted - finally arrived at the top - by 5 degrees and a thick fog wall that denied us any view. Nevertheless, we trudged on and were rewarded with a wonderfully mystical view by winds fighting against the clouds. We completed the long descent back to the campsite in the dark. Other hikers were also very grateful for our health-sustaining flashlight on rocky paths in the pitch-black forest.

On the last day in Zakopane, we visited the city center and spent the last zlotys on well-deserved ice cream and pizza before we set off for Slovakia.