I am currently in surgery rotation and going to have a final exam at the end of April. For surgery, my friends and I were distributed into few subgroups and unfortunately Malaysians are not in the same subgroup. Within 2 months, every group will be given a week off. Actually... 3 days off. And they are IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK! Hahaha.
I really cannot brain why they give every group holidays on Tuesday-Thursday. Mine was 28/2/2017 - 2/3/2017.
That was the reason why I was alone for this trip. -_-'
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| Yeay, a full portrait of myself with Morskie Oko frozen lake as the background, together with the mesmerizing mountains. |
Morskie Oko was already in my travel bucket list for a while. But, actually the route that I would love to try is to start from Poprad, Slovakia then sleep over at one of the cottage in the middle of mountain, then continue to hike to Rysy peak, end the trail with Morskie Oko, Poland. The route may take up to few days to make it more enjoyable.
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| But, this type of hiking plan will only work well during summer, in which I always use this opportunity to go home. :) |
High Tatras National Park.
This national park mainly covers the mountain area of Slovakia but since the mountain is basically the border between Slovakia and Poland, you can expect there are few areas on Poland included as well in the national park. And in Europe, you literally need no passport to show at the top of the mountain just to cross the border. But, of course if you are a foreigner and you don't have EU citizenship, I would really recommend you to take the passport with you.
Another border I know that happen to be in a national park is between Czech and Germany, it is
Bohemian-Switzerland / Saxon-Switzerland National Park.
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| Miss this view! |
From my reading, you can get most information in this website,
emilysguidetokrakow.com, like I've mentioned in previous post about Morskie Oko. :)
Here are few basic instructions on how to get to Morskie Oko (refer the pictures' captions)
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| 1. In Zakopane, get to this station. It is NOT the one you arrive in Zakopane from other cities. This specific station is for transports within Zakopane itself. Not that far, these two stations are next to each other, together with the train station. |
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| 2. Take a mini-bus / mini-van at the bus station. It will be at the very first platform and you can see the destination in front of it. The driver will charge you 10 zloty for one way. Pay only when you arrive at the parking area closer to Morskie Oko. Same goes to the return journey. Get onto the van and pay only when you arrive in Zakopane again. |
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| See, platform number 1 to Morskie Oko. |
Before we can continue to Morskie Oko, we need to pay the one-time entrance fee to the national park. That was my first time paying this kind of fee. It is about 5 zloty per person. If you are a student, a senior (about 60years old), a person with disability or a soldier in active service (hehe I don't understand why), you are entitled for 50% discount, so... it will be 2.50 zloty.
So, prepare your identity card if you want this benefit.
1 Polish zloty = RM 1.10
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| I felt pity to those horses. -_-' They look so tired with lots of bulging veins. |
Then, we can choose to either walk-hike up the trails or simply use the horse carriage. I am not that sure the price but I have set my mind to choose the first option. :)
The trails were not that hard, I mean not that steep, alhamdulillah. Just, what made it harder that time was the roads were icy, slippery enough to make me walk just like a penguin! Haha.
Okayyyy, nothing much to say. Let's enjoy the view around Morskie Oko area. :D
I will share details as the captions yea.
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| We can see this board every 1km. |
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| I was glad they road was cleared from snow. Otherwise, my feet would be wet from the very beginning. |
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| Can you detect the waterfall? |
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| This kind of view was I think after 1-2km of walking. |
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| Standing against the sunshine to capture memories with this background... you cannot see my dark face. Haha. |
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| Many people, you would not feel that lonely. |
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| Again, you can expect this view almost through out the route. |
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| Oh yea, other than using pavement roads that are more for cars, we can also use this trail between trees. Just, mind our steps, it is far more slippery! :p |
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| Look at the ground. Dirty ice. Haha. That's the best spot to fall. Painful and wet. |
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| I have no idea why I love to pose like this. Trademark maybe hehe. |
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| A quiz for you guys, guess what is inside this picture? |
Morskie Oko
After walking about 3 hours (maybe), finally I reached the lake. As expected, the lake was frozen. Here, I shared few facts about Morskie Oko that can be found on the board there.
- It is the largest lake in Tatras Mountains, about 1395 meters above sea level.
- Morskie Oko means 'Eye of the Sea', called by the tourists. It was said to be connected to a sea (like beneath the mountains), but... seems impossible.
- Other than Morskie Oko, there is another popular lake just below Rysy Peak named Czarny Staw. Staw = pond.
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| The frozen lake. |
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| I should have wear a brighter tudung. :D |
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| This is a lodge, where tourists can have meal while enjoying the view. And advantage for people coming during winter, we can warm ourselves in this lodge and toilets are provided with a fee of 2 zloty. Meals' prices are okay range 10-20zloty on average. I have prepared myself with food so no need to spend money here. |
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| Get your souvenirs here if you want to :) Postcards cost around 1.50 zloty/piece. |
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| See, so many people. This lodge was very busy that day. Oh yea, it provides free WiFi! Can you imagine you can get connected from a mountain for free? :D I tried video call with my dad, but the video was not that clear. But, I had no problem to send videos on Whatsapp / scroll FB or Twitter timeline hehe. |
Going down to the starting point was faster as my feet were already wet and I need to perform my prayers. I planned to pray around the lake, but the wind was very strong I could not even open my eyes most of the time, what else to take wudu'. Cold and freezing enough.
Since Polish people are more religious (at least compared to Czech), it was not that awkward to pray in public. :) But, after reading few articles and international news, maybe I should be more careful as non-Muslim actually do not understand the movements in our prayers. Yes, we need to be 'izzah (proud) to perform salah but does not mean you need to expose yourself to danger. I've been told that some of them always feel threatened that we will do something horrible after that. Hmmmm.
Okay guys, for the next posts, I will try to take you around Zakopane. This small town is interesting as well! :D
HK, Czech
170312
