Zakopane

Zakopane was a destination many travelers had been telling me about. In particular, they were holding a torch for a particular hostel named Good Bye Lenin, so I decided to check it out.

I hopped on a bus on Monday morning and arrived at Zakopane around noon. I had been expecting a peaceful, sleepy mountain town but instead found myself on the rather busy and crowded main street.

My laptop power cord had given up on me a couple of days ago and I needed to get some work done. I wandered the town with my backpack for about two hours until I finally found a shop that sold the right replacement before heading out to the hostel.

It was a wooden cabin built in the traditional style of the Tatra mountains, about 3km away from the busy center and right at the edge of the national park. I was greeted by a one-horned goat, which turned out to be one of the hostel pets (in addition to two cats). The receptionist was a Mexican girl named Aleah, who was on a work & travel program.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the cabin's porch, befriending one of the cats, and checking out a nearby wooden chapel.

Later on, as we were talking about travel experiences, Aleah and I found out she knew my high-school bestie and traveling friend Ingrid from when she was in Serbia. What a small world!Read more