Saturday 25 June: We’ve had a bit of a break in Zakopane, the weather has been sunny and in the 30’s every day making long walks pretty tiring. It’s a resort town like Karlovy Vary, but much more family, sports and locals orientated, not so many exclusive clothing and jewellery stores.
The town sits in a valley, dominated by the mountains, and has ski runs heading up each side of the valley. There are also permanent runs built into the hillsides for competition and learners. But in summer, there are many hikers walking through the hills and cross-country cyclists riding the trails. In fact, yesterday there were hundreds of cyclists participating in a social event.
There is a sports oval with an undulating track around the outside which people are using for ski practice, using special roller skates instead. The distinctive wooden buildings with the Steep rooflines dominate the town, and its interesting coming across utilitarian objects also made of wood. With the abundant forests surrounding the town it’s the most common resource. What’s interesting is that even though some of the exposed bare wood is quite old, it hasn’t been bleached grey like in Australia. It may have something to do with the different levels of UV radiation.People lay here in the blazing sun all day and just get a little pink. If they did the same in Australia they’d be suffering major sunburn – as Europeans often do at Sydney beaches. Speaking of utilitarian, there was even a fence using old skis.
