Friday, May 16, 2008

YAY Pictures!

Kristin bought some pretty sweet earmuffs for her niece. So naturally, Amanda is wearing them. And looking mighty fine I might add. :)













Last night brought us to Bakowo Zohylina, a rustic restaurant (Gaston's lair?) serving Zakopane's traditional foods. The walls were decorated with traditional costumes, as well as various furs and stuffed animals. This picture was taken before we saw the....










...blood sausage. Why waste a good source of protein, right? I could not bring myself to try it... but those who did either liked it or explained it as having a "strong" flavor.












We started off this morning with a breakfast at the hotel, then we headed to the Pieniny National Park for a raft ride on the Dunajec River. We spent a relaxing two hours winding through the mountains. Along the way, we saw countless mallard ducks, two black storks (very rare! very exciting!), a large turtle-shaped rock, and certain images within the rocks (I did not see most of them... a very good imagination and some squinting were required!) Then, since it was "tradition" (a.k.a. a reason to laugh at tourists...), we had to sing. We chose "Simeon Benjamin" since it is near and dear to all of our hearts. :)



A view of "The Three Crowns" as seen from the raft. Named Barbara, Catherine, and Mary, after the wives of the kings of Hungary, Austria, and Poland in the 16th century.












Our guide (white shirt) took a liking to Kristin... She then took the place as one of our raft men, and got to wear his traditional vest and hat. He took her Red Sox hat in exchange. She did an excellent job, and was followed by Manda and Jeremy. They all looked pretty sweet in that vest and hat.















Randomness... After lunch, we stopped on the way back to Zakopane to see the Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel. This church is made of all wood in the Goralski style, and is the only one of its kind in the region.
This picture is obviously not of the church. We could not drive up to it because the road was blocked for construction... so we had to make our way around the tar through a narrow ditch-like situation (holding onto the pole for support) and then across a grate with extremely wide gaps... tricky for the small-footed person like myself... It was a random adventure, and I found it rather hilarious.

It was another great day in Poland! Rather rainy, but the weather cooperated with us for the most part. It waited to start raining until we were done with our raft ride, and there was another break while we were visiting the church. We had the rest of the afternoon/evening/night free, and we leave early tomorrow morning for our last stop- Krakow! We're all looking forward to the adventures to come!

Love! :)
Jess

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