Day 3: Today we woke up ready to go to the ski slopes! We got up around 7.30am, ate brekky, then went outside. Car battery died. Overnight it had dipped to -30C. We walked next door to see if the neighbours had cables to help us JumpStart the car. Nope. Called the car company and they said they would send someone. Watched westworld in the meantime. Luckily the owner of the house was coming that day, so we emailed him and he rocked up at 11am with cables to help us. Finally around 12 we headed to Zwardon for the slopes - about 20 minutes drive south west. Alas, we get there and turns out you can't hire snow pants & jackets! So we just sat down with a hot chocolate and local smoked cheese with jam snack and watch others have fun on the slope. Then we drove around looking for places that might sell snow clothing, but it was a public holiday, so everything was closed and we couldn't find any thrift shops either. Defeated, we decided to call it a day and drove home. Spent the arvo roasting marshmallows and watching a funny movie. That night we took the battery out of the car and brought it into the house to ensure it wouldn't freeze overnight - ended up doing this for the rest of the trip
Day 4: With the failure of finding snow clothing the day before, we figured we'd try the larger ski town near Wisla instead. So up early again, we started the car with no problems this time and drove to Sczcryk, only an hour away. Its the long weekend so when we got to around 5km of the ski area we were stuck in a long line of traffic. Luckily the information centre wasn't too farther in, so we didn't spend too long as sitting ducks. Sadly, we found out Sczcryk also doesnt have snow clothing hire - we think its actually not a thing here because everyone has their own clothes. So this whole snow clothing hire is probs just an Aussie thing. There was no way we could ski without proper clothing, given the day's temp was about -18C with a 'feels like -27C' so we decided to grab some lunch and think about what to do. After a lovely lunch of pork roast, soup, smoked cheese and mulled wine, plus polish beer, we spotted a thrift shop which looked like it had ski pants. Well whaddya know! They had a whole shelf of ski pants and racks of jackets! We took our pick, got two pairs of ski pants and 1 ski jacket - paid 58 zloty! About $20 aud. Then hopped down a few stores and grabbed some gloves too. We were super excited - finally we could hit the slopes. Of course by that time it was already 2.30pm and the lift closes at 4pm, so we drive home and hit the sack early in anticipation of tomorrows activities.
Day 5: Woke up at 7am and was driving to Sczcryk by 8am. Found a place to hire equipment for 110 zloty total for 2 days, that included skis, poles, snowboard, boots, helmets and goggles - insanely cheap. Even lift passes for 2 days was only 300 zloty total, so $100 aud. Then by 9.30am we were on the chairlift going up the mountain freezing our butts off. The cold was brutal, and by the time we arrived at the top of the mountain, our hands and toes were so cold they hurt. View from the top was amazing and as we made our way down the blue run, I realised how out of my depth I was. Ryan was having a great time sliding around and drifting down. Me on the other hand, was pretty much fighting falling down most of the way, it was so steep! Anyway by the time we got to the bottom I was done for the day and Ryan went back up 3 more times until the lift closed. Needless to say we went home pretty exhausted that afternoon.
Day 6: Second day of the snow and same drill. Got up early, drove to Sczcryk. But the place was empty as it was a Monday so the whole town was really quiet. We went to another part of the mountain which was included in our passes. This area had t-bars instead of chairlifts so Ryan went to the top while I stayed at the flatter parts. Got lunch at this kuchina, which we'd been the day before, but I saw these other people eating cutlet and I wanted to go back for it. It was delicious. Then Ryan did one last run down the first slope from yesterday before we went home and played in the snow with the owners snow tube/donut.
Day 7: Had a nice brekky then headed out for the Auschwitz tour that we had booked for 11.30. It was an hour and a half drive - basically back to Katowice so we probably should have just stayed in Katowice for the night but we weren't that organised.
We made it there without fuss and parked the car and joined our tour group. The tour started in Auschwitz 1, the original camp, and went for an hour or so, then switched to Birkenau which is about 3 km away.
We had a good guide who walked us around explaining the history of the place and how the Nazis had used it. Some pretty heavy stuff, including thousands of kg of human hair which was used in textiles.
After the first hour Jackie and I decided we had done enough and we left the tour. The second part, of Birkenau, would take another hour, but all the buildings of Birkenau were destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to hide what they did there so we wouldn't be seeing much. But more than that it was way too cold to be walking around outside, our feet just couldn't take it.
We headed home, stopping in a random town Zywiec on the way, for a quick walk around and a coffee. Jackie also tried to grab a bagel, which is a Polish invention, but was left disappointed with what she bought. I also purchased a Zywiec beer which was bottled in the town.
We had polish dumplings for dinner and then cleaned up the place ready for our last day.
Day 8: After brekky we cleaned up our stuff and packed our bags, then said goodbye to our Goralski accomodation. We made it to Katowice where we dropped the keys off to the owner, then drove to a random restaurant jackie picked off of google maps. We had a great meal of baked trout and wild boar goulash with drinks for only $30 aud.
After that it was to the airport to return the rental car (got a refund on their shit snow chains) where had to leave our snow chains :( at least we were at the airport because Ryan had been a nervous Nelly about timing the whole time since lunch.
Our Polski trip was over.
Day 4: With the failure of finding snow clothing the day before, we figured we'd try the larger ski town near Wisla instead. So up early again, we started the car with no problems this time and drove to Sczcryk, only an hour away. Its the long weekend so when we got to around 5km of the ski area we were stuck in a long line of traffic. Luckily the information centre wasn't too farther in, so we didn't spend too long as sitting ducks. Sadly, we found out Sczcryk also doesnt have snow clothing hire - we think its actually not a thing here because everyone has their own clothes. So this whole snow clothing hire is probs just an Aussie thing. There was no way we could ski without proper clothing, given the day's temp was about -18C with a 'feels like -27C' so we decided to grab some lunch and think about what to do. After a lovely lunch of pork roast, soup, smoked cheese and mulled wine, plus polish beer, we spotted a thrift shop which looked like it had ski pants. Well whaddya know! They had a whole shelf of ski pants and racks of jackets! We took our pick, got two pairs of ski pants and 1 ski jacket - paid 58 zloty! About $20 aud. Then hopped down a few stores and grabbed some gloves too. We were super excited - finally we could hit the slopes. Of course by that time it was already 2.30pm and the lift closes at 4pm, so we drive home and hit the sack early in anticipation of tomorrows activities.
Day 5: Woke up at 7am and was driving to Sczcryk by 8am. Found a place to hire equipment for 110 zloty total for 2 days, that included skis, poles, snowboard, boots, helmets and goggles - insanely cheap. Even lift passes for 2 days was only 300 zloty total, so $100 aud. Then by 9.30am we were on the chairlift going up the mountain freezing our butts off. The cold was brutal, and by the time we arrived at the top of the mountain, our hands and toes were so cold they hurt. View from the top was amazing and as we made our way down the blue run, I realised how out of my depth I was. Ryan was having a great time sliding around and drifting down. Me on the other hand, was pretty much fighting falling down most of the way, it was so steep! Anyway by the time we got to the bottom I was done for the day and Ryan went back up 3 more times until the lift closed. Needless to say we went home pretty exhausted that afternoon.
Day 6: Second day of the snow and same drill. Got up early, drove to Sczcryk. But the place was empty as it was a Monday so the whole town was really quiet. We went to another part of the mountain which was included in our passes. This area had t-bars instead of chairlifts so Ryan went to the top while I stayed at the flatter parts. Got lunch at this kuchina, which we'd been the day before, but I saw these other people eating cutlet and I wanted to go back for it. It was delicious. Then Ryan did one last run down the first slope from yesterday before we went home and played in the snow with the owners snow tube/donut.
Day 7: Had a nice brekky then headed out for the Auschwitz tour that we had booked for 11.30. It was an hour and a half drive - basically back to Katowice so we probably should have just stayed in Katowice for the night but we weren't that organised.
We made it there without fuss and parked the car and joined our tour group. The tour started in Auschwitz 1, the original camp, and went for an hour or so, then switched to Birkenau which is about 3 km away.
We had a good guide who walked us around explaining the history of the place and how the Nazis had used it. Some pretty heavy stuff, including thousands of kg of human hair which was used in textiles.
After the first hour Jackie and I decided we had done enough and we left the tour. The second part, of Birkenau, would take another hour, but all the buildings of Birkenau were destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to hide what they did there so we wouldn't be seeing much. But more than that it was way too cold to be walking around outside, our feet just couldn't take it.
We headed home, stopping in a random town Zywiec on the way, for a quick walk around and a coffee. Jackie also tried to grab a bagel, which is a Polish invention, but was left disappointed with what she bought. I also purchased a Zywiec beer which was bottled in the town.
We had polish dumplings for dinner and then cleaned up the place ready for our last day.
Day 8: After brekky we cleaned up our stuff and packed our bags, then said goodbye to our Goralski accomodation. We made it to Katowice where we dropped the keys off to the owner, then drove to a random restaurant jackie picked off of google maps. We had a great meal of baked trout and wild boar goulash with drinks for only $30 aud.
After that it was to the airport to return the rental car (got a refund on their shit snow chains) where had to leave our snow chains :( at least we were at the airport because Ryan had been a nervous Nelly about timing the whole time since lunch.
Our Polski trip was over.
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