The cable car.
Today we decided to head to the Tatra mountains - Zakopane. We took a train from Krakow, which seemed to make so many course changes, back & forth, back & forth. Once we got to Zakopane, we looked around a bit for some place to stay, eventually we came upon a lady (Danuta) who rented out rooms in her house. She didn't speak a word of English. My Polish, at the time, was quite poor, but Ieva could understand most of what Danuta was saying, so Ieva would translate what I missed & I'd stumble through some questions & words, and eventually we figured out the price & where it was. Danuta drove us there.
We got a bus to Kuznice, from there took a cable car (Not the San Fran type, but the hanging type) up the mountains.
It was so beautiful up there! Near sunset, we decided to walk down, instead of taking the cable car back down. This was a great idea at first, we watched the sun set as we made our way down the Tatras. But once the sun set, and we realized how dark it was quickly getting, we realized that it might not have been the best idea to walk down. I have a great flashlight, quite bright, and powered by being wound, not batteries. I brought it with in case of just such a situation - and it was still neatly packed in my bag, back at Danuta's! Once we got low enough & crossed below the tree line into a forest, darkness gave way to a pitch black that I have never experienced before while outside. It was quite amazing to walk, downhill, on an uneven path, in a foreign country.
I had to take a picture at a fork in the road - I could tell there were two paths, but I had NO CLUE what lay down either path.
Not necessarily the wisest thing I've ever done, but definitely one of the most memorable. At one point we came to a fork in the road. The only way to determine the difference between the two choices was to take a picture using the flash on my camera. The walk down took over three hours, and we made it safely to Kuznice where one of the first things we saw was a taxi. But upon further inspection, we realized he was eating, and he wouldn't take us as a fare. So we walked some more, eventually coming to a BP around midnight, were we bought some sandwiches, and upon exiting, saw a taxi driving in. This one was nice enough to actually bring us home.
A night to remember, that's for sure!
