Zakopane and Polish culture

I'm in Zakopane, a ski resort town (think: Whistler) at the Tatra Mountains. So far we have rafted down a river with guides who have been doing this for hundreds of years (well, not the ACTUAL guides we had (!) but the job has been passed down thru the generations), visited a lake and mountain accessible by horse drawn carriages, and taken a gondola ride up the top of a mountain. The crowds here are massive, it's summertime, and it's much busier here even then in Krakow. Lots of Polish tourists, which is different than a couple of years ago, apparently, when the tourists were mostly foreign.

Since joining the EU, Poland has become more accessible, but also more expensive. People here have more money to see their own country, and shopping is increasingly expensive.

My sister-in-law Molly has been learning Polish words, and we have been laughing our asses off ever since. The word for 'pee' is similar to the word (to her, anyway!) for my brother Chris's name in Polish. Today, i wanted to ask for a receipt for my taxi fare, and the word is similar to the word for 'flower' and 'kitten' so i had some fun! we are all learning easy words, and trying to order meals in Polish. Something we are getting used to is paying to use public toilets: it costs about one zloty, so I have nicknamed it 'one zee for a pee' LOL. One zloty is about 50 cents Australian. A big glass of beer is about 8 zloty, and the beer is delicious! We have shortened 'zloty' to 'zee' which makes things easier to discuss.

I have to laugh at the hotel rules here: smoking is allowed in rooms, even pets, but ironing? it's a no-no: fire hazard!! Here in Zakopane the people are friendlier than in Krakow, i make it my mission to smile and say 'Dzien dobry' (good morning/hello) to everyone i see, this kind of freaks them out coz i don't think they're used to it.

I am learning all about my family history. My grandmother used to be a ski bunny here in Zakopane, she was quite the social butterfly. is it any wonder i was named after her? the really funny thing is that my name is quite common here, so i am constantly hearing it being called out by mums to their kids, and i turn around thinking they're calling me! they, of course, pronounce it the right way, 'Vanda', which i love.

If i had known beforehand about this internet stuff, i would have brought my laptop. in the Krakow hotel, they had one internet computer for public use, tucked into a small hot cupboard underneath the stairs. In this hotel, there's no computers....and in this internet cafe, the whole operating system is of course in Polish, which makes it really really hard to know what i'm doing...thus no pictures uploaded yet, sorry!!