Mountain Man
Brock and I have had a few days to ourselves here while Holly rehearsed her buns off in Zakopane. She's actually opening the show as I type this. Break a leg Holly! I'm sure she will rave about it plenty herself, but the director here (whose name I can pronounce, but I'll pass on butchering the spelling for now) is apparently a super-genius who has an amazing gift for the art of theatre. Holly couldn't be happier or more inspired by her decision to accept this amazing role. We had always had our mornings together, but then Holly is off to work, and Brock and I roam the town in search of more sausage. We took a quick tram from the downtown touristy district to this touristy mountain for some beer and a pork sandwich with great views of the city. Once Brock tasted the pork, the lunch I had packed him was of no interest. The man has taste. The mountain range in the background is the Tartrzanski National Park where we hiked to Morskie Oko (previous post) and also the subject of later in this post.
Zakopane is unlike any tourist town I have ever visited. Mostly because it is not geared towards English speakers at all. This is where Poland takes vacation. There's still the familiar "many shops in a row selling exactly the same crap at exactly the same price" but no one hassles us at all (or maybe they do and we just can't understand them), and everything is super cheap (or maybe it isn't and the exchange rate is just awesome.) Either way, it's a wonderfully charming little city, full of super-nice people, great food, and easy access to nature.
Another wonderful thing that that the theatre here does is lots and lots of yoga. Every day starts with 1-2 hours of yoga before the rest of rehearsal starts. As the guy watching Brock, I sometimes got a bit jealous, but Brock was kind enough to take some naps and let me do my own thing here in our room. Next tuesday, the theatre company will be hiking up a mountain and doing their exiting rite of passage: 108 sun salutations. In a row. Holly still has to get the full scoop on the significance of 108. My first guesses of, "well it's 11x22x33," and, "perhaps they wanted the first number over 100 that is sandwiched between two primes," were disregarded as far too nerdy. I'm sure we'll get the real answer soon. But I took the opportunity on wednesday to see if I could tackle the challenge myself. WOW. It's hard. Crazy hard. It took a little over an hour and I have never sweat so hard in my life. Not even close. Here's the evidence.
Only my hands and feet ever touched the mat, and I still soaked it. I even decided to do 109 just to be a jerk. I'll be making the hike up with them on Tuesday, but I'll be watching Brock up there. We'll relax and watch the agony over some watery beers and maybe say fun things like, "don't worry, only 70 more to go!" Anyways, the main reason I bring up these sun salutations is to give some context to our next hiking adventure. I'm super glad that I took the challenge and conquered it. It was incredibly fulfilling both mentally and physically. It was also incredibly stupid timing. On friday, Holly had another day off, and we set off to conquer Kasprowy Wierch, a 1010m vertical climb (that's more than two Sear's Towers), with Brock on my back, and pain in every part of my legs. I'll stop boring you with walls of text now, and we'll get to the hiking pics.
The hike started pretty flat, along a beautiful stream through the woods. I should also mention our incredible luck with the weather. We hiked on monday and friday: the only two days Holly had off, and the only two that were sunny. It rains here a lot.
The path through the woods was beautiful and winding, but dense. Here we are about 45 minutes in, and it's the first real break in the trees to give you a view. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was nice.
A few minutes later we came upon the more obvious designated picture area. You can even see the city in the background.
We broke the tree line, hooray!! Getting above the treeline gives you and your super-sore legs the impression that you are almost there. You would be very very wrong.
There's still more stairs. Followed my more stairs. Followed by more. Oh, I think that's the peak! Nope, not even close...
There's nothing like cute-guy smiles to keep you going. So we pressed on and on, taking many breaks, and eventually made it. And wouldn't you know it, after all that work the view was just...
completely non-existent. In classic Zakopane fashion, clouds appeared instantly from nowhere, and we were high enough to be inside them. Bummer. Luckily this is also a ski hill in the winter, so there was a fantastic lodge to rest our weary bodies and refuel with some beer, pizza, and zurec (the best soup in the world, made from fermented rye, potatoes, and sausage. mmmmmmm....)
A spot of luck! While we ate and drank, the clouds decided they'd had enough, and ran off into the distance.
Hooray for clear(ish) skies!
Somebody missed out on most of the view. He can read about it in a few years.
We ran out of time, and my legs ran out of gas, so we took the tram/gondola thingy down. Brock liked it. Three hours up and ten minutes down. Machines can sure conquer a mountain.
And now for a few bonus pics that don't warrant their own posts.
Brock won't sleep well if he thinks we are in the same room, as he'd much rather be up playing. We hung some blankets in an attempt to put his crib in a "separate room." It worked for one day before he figured this trick out. If you're in the line of sight and he doesn't want to go down, prepare to get yelled at.
They sell lots of wooden toys here, and for a man that loves stacking, this train was just too perfect. He hasn't mastered the double-post yet, which is actually nice. This kid needs a challenge,
And lastly, check out today's lunch: a veritable tour-de-pork! Pork shoulder, pork knuckle, pork sausage, and one slice of bacon the size of Brock's arm, with sauerkraut, horseradish, and potatoes. Poland is after my heart indeed.
(the video in the previous post that was private has been fixed. you should be able to watch it now. sorry for the delay)
Only my hands and feet ever touched the mat, and I still soaked it. I even decided to do 109 just to be a jerk. I'll be making the hike up with them on Tuesday, but I'll be watching Brock up there. We'll relax and watch the agony over some watery beers and maybe say fun things like, "don't worry, only 70 more to go!" Anyways, the main reason I bring up these sun salutations is to give some context to our next hiking adventure. I'm super glad that I took the challenge and conquered it. It was incredibly fulfilling both mentally and physically. It was also incredibly stupid timing. On friday, Holly had another day off, and we set off to conquer Kasprowy Wierch, a 1010m vertical climb (that's more than two Sear's Towers), with Brock on my back, and pain in every part of my legs. I'll stop boring you with walls of text now, and we'll get to the hiking pics.
The hike started pretty flat, along a beautiful stream through the woods. I should also mention our incredible luck with the weather. We hiked on monday and friday: the only two days Holly had off, and the only two that were sunny. It rains here a lot.
The path through the woods was beautiful and winding, but dense. Here we are about 45 minutes in, and it's the first real break in the trees to give you a view. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was nice.
A few minutes later we came upon the more obvious designated picture area. You can even see the city in the background.
We broke the tree line, hooray!! Getting above the treeline gives you and your super-sore legs the impression that you are almost there. You would be very very wrong.
There's still more stairs. Followed my more stairs. Followed by more. Oh, I think that's the peak! Nope, not even close...
There's nothing like cute-guy smiles to keep you going. So we pressed on and on, taking many breaks, and eventually made it. And wouldn't you know it, after all that work the view was just...
completely non-existent. In classic Zakopane fashion, clouds appeared instantly from nowhere, and we were high enough to be inside them. Bummer. Luckily this is also a ski hill in the winter, so there was a fantastic lodge to rest our weary bodies and refuel with some beer, pizza, and zurec (the best soup in the world, made from fermented rye, potatoes, and sausage. mmmmmmm....)
So much climbing can really wear out a little guy
A spot of luck! While we ate and drank, the clouds decided they'd had enough, and ran off into the distance.
Hooray for clear(ish) skies!
Somebody missed out on most of the view. He can read about it in a few years.
We ran out of time, and my legs ran out of gas, so we took the tram/gondola thingy down. Brock liked it. Three hours up and ten minutes down. Machines can sure conquer a mountain.
And now for a few bonus pics that don't warrant their own posts.
Brock won't sleep well if he thinks we are in the same room, as he'd much rather be up playing. We hung some blankets in an attempt to put his crib in a "separate room." It worked for one day before he figured this trick out. If you're in the line of sight and he doesn't want to go down, prepare to get yelled at.
They sell lots of wooden toys here, and for a man that loves stacking, this train was just too perfect. He hasn't mastered the double-post yet, which is actually nice. This kid needs a challenge,
And lastly, check out today's lunch: a veritable tour-de-pork! Pork shoulder, pork knuckle, pork sausage, and one slice of bacon the size of Brock's arm, with sauerkraut, horseradish, and potatoes. Poland is after my heart indeed.
(the video in the previous post that was private has been fixed. you should be able to watch it now. sorry for the delay)
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