As you may have noticed, I have skipped day 8. This is because day 8 was a dud. I was supposed to take a gondola ride up the mountain south of Zakopane but got to wait for over 3 hours in line instead. The gondola broke down when I was ten feet from the ticket booth. The only thing that went right was a lovely conversation I had with three young Brits and their Polish cousin.

I did get to have a good meal yesterday as well.

So, today I traveled east of Zakopane with two destinations in mind. My first destination was Castle Dunajec. This, somewhat, restored castle sits next to a man made lake and used to sit next to a main river crossing. Built in the 1300’s, the castle was expanded several times to suit the needs of its inhabitants. The last owner left in 1943 and the castle was plundered by the Red Army in their advance towards Germany in 1945. All of the intact artifacts were brought from other locations to provide context to the castle.

I did end up having lunch just outside the castle.

My next stop was actually in a different country. Just south of the castle is the country of Slovakia. Since it is also part of the EU there is an open border it’s very easy to cross over.

The end destination was a monastery known as the Red Monastery. It is just a short 13 minute drive from the castle so it made sense to go see it as well. The monastery is important because it is one of the best preserved medieval monasteries left in Slovakia.

Thankfully, while at lunch, I downloaded the language pack for Slovak before I headed off. This was very useful as there was no cell service at the parking and the nice lady who I had to pay did not speak English. She was kind enough to be patient with me and use Google Translate.

Just outside of the monastery is a river that had rafters going down in rafts that I have never seen before.

The monastery itself has not been used as a monastery since the mid 1800’s.

After a fun day of exploring, I headed back to Zakopane for my final dinner in the area.

Tomorrow I head out to a new location. Zakopane has been great! It is very touristy, which can be a good thing sometimes. There is a very large number of lodging and restaurant options. There are all sorts of things to do in the area aside from the small selection that I chose.

There are a few things I would note. First, book the gondola ride the day before. It gives you a timed ticket and priority boarding if you are there on time. Second, expect to get stuck in traffic for the last 6-7 miles. Zakopane is a very popular destination! Third, choose a lodging within walking distance of the main pedestrian street. You do not want to have to find parking just to have dinner.

I hope I get to come back here at another time!