What did you do today? I climbed a mountain!

           Oh, how happy I am that I went to Zakopane!!! I felt such a peace as we were driving through the mountains. I could live in that area, I really could. The culture is really interesting as well, and to describe it to the best of everyone's understanding, it's "The South" of Poland. Ironically enough, it is in the southern part of Poland as well! They have thick accents and spell things different! When I was reading one of the menus in the restaurant, I was absolutely befuddled and kept looking at our site director, Piotrek, saying, "This is wrong!" And he kept reiterating, "That is wrong, ignore it." Basically, if people in the South wrote as they spoke. Nonetheless, very cozy and home, lots of snow, chill weather, gorgeous.
           You see, we woke up and met in the morning in front of the train stop to get to the bus stop to hop on the bus!
           ... This bus was a lot nicer than the ones from Wrocław to Strzelin and Oława. However! I assume that's because the trip was longer. As in, two and a half hours. (Lol, what do you mean long? That's a breeze!) But yes! The trip up was wonderful, and when we got there, we walked to a restaurant, where I ordered some wonderful naleśniki! With cheese. It was a big portion! I really was stuffed by the time I finished it, and lucky Nate got to try the last bite. But yes, it was delicious.
            From there, we headed on to our hotels, where Monika and I ended up rooming together! We took a very quick break and then went back out, walking to yet another more local bus to get to the same lift I went to in 2005. Kasprowy Wierch! This is a place where you get onto a huge lift, 30 people at once, and take a stop in between to get up the side of the mountain, to a point that is (according to Wikipedia) 1987 meters above the sea. So yes, last time I was there, there was at least a foot of snow on the ground, and it's a very popular skiing and winter sport area in general! This time, while we were waiting, it started to snow a wet snow, more sleet-like, to be honest, and we had to wait in line for what was about an hour, I think. We get in the lift, go above the trees into snowier and snowier terrain, and I get super excited! (Just in case you don't know: I love the snow. I love the cold.) We get up there, walk outside, and I explode in joy due to the snow and the fact that everything is white. Oh, let me explain.
           I mean, the visibility distance was oohhhhh 15 feet. Yes, the wind was going fast, snow was blowing everywhere, and our group says, let's try to get to the Polish/Slovakian border to stand in two countries at once! We start walking, I try to make a snowball, but the snow is dry, the wind is intense, and we keep walking, you can't see anything, and there are no red flags on the side noting the trail. And yes, if you slip and fall, you will be tumbling down a good-sized slope, if I remember correctly. And no, you could not see far. At all. So after a while, my toes get really cold, as I was not wearing two layers of socks, the wind starts really effecting my wet, cloth gloves, and... you can't see anything, and people are coming back, and the trail is small. I started getting nervous as I walked (thank goodness I brought my boots), because well, ya know. My legs aren't the best, and I have a bad feeling I might slip and fall, and it's windy, and my only thoughts are: This is what the pioneers felt like during blizzards in the mountain (no, it was not a blizzard). The Yukon, the Rockies, the Tatras. Those brave, brave, men. I literally felt like I was in the Yukon. Oh, and the Donner Party, as Nate pointed out later. That's a good one too!
            People keep coming back, so Piotrek asks us if we want to turn around, and we all agree to turn around. That is when the wind is blowing in our face, and snow keeps covering my glasses, so Monika takes the lead, as I can't see as well. Then we get back, go inside, and I immediately pull of my gloves in fear for my poor fingers. No worries, they were fine! Just me worrying unnecessarily. Monika says that she did not recognize me due to the snow in my hair. We all get a nice cup of hot cocoa and relax in the Pizza Dominium (they're everywhere). Then we head back down on the lift, go back to the hotel, and relax once more!
            So what do Monika and I do? We sit in our room and watch TVN!!! It's one of the Polish TV channels, and we stumbled upon a hilarious TV show, that we're now determined to find out about after learning the website to watch TVN shows on! (Super exciting!) Ok, not that hilarious, but certainly interesting and makes us go what?! Bhahaha. Like, the fact that a couple are adopting a child, while the husband is having an affair with a woman boxer who is leaving for Vegas in one day for her career. Yeah. That kind of story line. Good stuff. (: Good practice for Polish too. I never grew up with Polish TV, but Sam (from Florida) always had Polish TV, and so did Monika apparently, and now, I really want to order Polish TV. I'm not an active TV watcher, but it's excellent practice!
            Then we headed out again for dinner, to a góralski restaurant! I ordered some herbata (tea) with raspberry juice, which was delicious, annnnnd, placki ziemniaciane (potato pancakes) with gulasz! The gulasz was very different from what I'm used to at home, but it was quite a wonderful meal. Plus, it was even better when we found out we were in Zakopane during the 50% off weekend! Meaning, all restaurants and food from side venders were 50% off! Yeah, that was amazing!
            That was honestly it for the day. It didn't feel like too much, but the evening was awesome as well. Why? More Polish TV! :DDD Haha, but really, Monika and I just relaxed in the hotel room, and we watched Mam Talent!, the Polish version of Got Talent. We lucked out, because this was the day they picked their top 40! (Oh, I'm too big of a Got Talent fan...) But yeah, it was awesome to see all of the talent on the show. Then, we started watching "17 Again," but got fed up with the one-voiced narrative over-voice. Horrible, horrible thing. That kind of dubbing has always bothered me, and it likely always will, simply because I don't like not being able to tell the actors apart by voices, and because they don't even differentiate genders or ages. Oh, and I can hear the English underneath. Aggravating.
            So instead, we flipped through the channels and landed on TVP2, where Monika recognized an adorable movie. Playboy-esque guy has a seven-year-old girl show up at his door and say, "Hi! I'm your daughter! I'm staying with you for five days, until we meet up with my mom!" Oh, you can see where it went from there. But it was so precious! I am bringing it back to the States and making the Muffins watch it (I heard they were doing a scary movie month in honor of Halloween; hello romantic comedy month for Valentine's Day!). Oh yeah, it's a Polish movie! Interesting fact: all TV stations must make movies once a year in order to keep running as a TV station in Poland. Isn't that fascinating? Honestly, the actors and actresses here have so many opportunities, it's phenomenal! The movie was really well made, too. (: Now I'm going to try and find as many Polish movies as possible. They're good movies, in the language I want to learn! Perfection! (Yet, I don't watch English movies... Oi vei.)
            Chatting was fun, sleeping was comfy and warm, and breakfast this morning was delicious. Plus, today was gorgeous. Absolutely no clouds in the sky, bright and high sun! We walked to the second lift in Zakopane, called Gubałówka. It's more like a quick tram that goes up the mountain than the lift we were on yesterday. However, the line was enormous. Therefore, we decided to hike up the mountain!
             ... That is very right. Needless to say, I don't think any of us really recognized the length of the hike, but once we were going, we wanted to go all the way! Piotrek thought we were insane, as he said we're the first group ever to hike the entire way. As we went up, more and more snow showed up, and eventually the ground was frozen, and eventually, the ground was slippery, too! But the views. Were. Breathtaking. Looking out over the mountain scenery. Panoramic view. Lightly snowed forest. Very steep hill. I was super proud of myself, although, I have such a horrible tendency of doing things my legs likely do not appreciate. But, we got up the entire way! I climbed a mountain! There was an amazing Polish group with the director screaming at his group, cussing at how pathetic they were, and trying to motivate them negatively, and one of the boys in the group was screaming back that he bought brand new shoes, and the main guy motivating everyone owed him a new pair of shoes. Oh goodness, it was hilarious to listen to them. The amount of cussing. Ridiculous. But it provided a good laugh for those of us who understood!

            Ah, it was very very muddy. I wore my boots yet again, but the unfortunate part about these boots is they are sort of fuzzy on the outside. It's going to be so much fun cleaning them! Not. But, I don't care. It was worth it. Every step, every view, the entire experience. Monika built a tiny snow man, we threw a few snowballs at Piotrek, Nate and Piotrek had a mini snowball fight, the hot chocolate was deliciously sweet. Honestly, the entire thing was made of win. :)
            Just so you know, the hike took us one hour. Not bad. The tram ride down? Three minutes. Oh, and it's a really cool piece of engineering! You see, up and down, there is only one rail! However, both trams are sent at the same time. Collision? Of course not! The rail splits in the middle. Or well, we thought it was the middle. We called it our halfway point, then we realized the logistics behind it. It was more like the underneath-the-halfway-point. Tram going down goes quicker than the one going up, therefore it needs more rail to reach the point where they meet. Yeah. Oh well!
            The rest of the afternoon was filled with yumminess. Monika and Nate needed to buy stuff, my legs were dead, so I ended up sitting in front of a church, eating a zapiekanka and waiting for them (Nate also bought me a present for someone so I didn't have to walk back). Instead of walking all the way back to the hotel, they left me with the shopping bags (which looked like garbage bags) and went to grab my backpack. Such wonderful friends. (: I really needed the rest, and I knew I would just slow them down. Besides, we would have to walk from the point they left me at, so it worked out!
            People stared at me, though. Some did. Cause I had three enormous trash bags sitting in front of me, and I was sitting in the shade, instead of the sun. Even when Piotrek came up, he said, "I was wondering why Nell was sitting by all those rubbish bags..." The look on his face when he found out it was presents? Priceless.
            So much walking this weekend. We walked everywhere, to be honest. But then sitting on that comfy bus was nice. I ended up calling the Tennessee girl my professor told me about, and she was super excited about "meeting a fellow Tennessean!" So we're meeting this Wednesday. Then I plopped in my ear phones to listen to my lecture from my Polish course. I am eternally grateful now that I bought that. It honestly helped. I felt better, because I could understand the lecture, and I felt like it was reiterating important points, and I plan on typing it all out. So it's excellent practice and study time. It also proved that my lack of understanding Thursday was a lack of sleep. No surprise! Though, quite relieving.
            The bus ride back was surprising. The amount of people needing to get to Kraków was overwhelming, and people from the next few stops ended up standing in the aisle. Automatic lawsuit in the US = social norm in Poland. I have seen it before, certainly, but not with such an enormous amount of people, plus over the two hours to go back to Kraków.
            Coming back to the apartment was nice. Monika, Nate, and I had rosół for dinner, I did my laundry, and I found out some wonderful news. My Polish language course class times: Tuesday and Thursday evenings!!! It worked out perfectly. Three day week, four day weekend, lots of travel time, no stress! I mean, those three days are jam-packed, but I am so happy with this schedule. I'll have to talk to the teacher about being an American and leaving early in the semester, but that's it. It's all good. Life is working out, and I am super happy.
             Now, I should honestly go to bed. Tomorrow is "Wawel Monday." Which, Monika and Nate worried whether we'd still be able to do it, thanks to the amount of walking I did today. I can't blame them for worrying, but I'm too excited to not go! So much to do, so little time! Go go go! Good night!