Breakfast at the Premium Hostel in Krakow was excellent, with cottage cheese and some packaged cream cheese things with various flavours (eg mushroom, capsicum, chives, etc). There was even a container of coco balls for Keeley. The other great thing about this hostel is the staff – they are very knowledgeable. The girl on reception knew the bus details off the top of her head on how to get to Zakopane (our next stop for skiing), including price, frequency and even the exact bay in the bus station it went from. This proved invaluable with our inability to read Polish timetables in the bus station.
The bus ride was about two and a half hours, and wound through some pretty picturesque scenery. There is snow everywhere, and it's beautiful. Zakopane is a smallish ski village, and our hostel is conveniently located about five or ten minutes walk from the bus station. We checked in, had lunch, went exploring, then really jumped into it and built a snowman (Mr Cool). This took a little time as the powdery snow didn't stick together well at first. We kept at it and the finished product looked pretty impressive we think. The snow is just amazing – you can kick it or throw it and it just 'puffs' rather than spraying like you would expect from the icy stuff at home. Best of all, it doesn't really make you wet; you can fall over in it or have some on your clothes but it doesn't really matter unless you get seriously covered. Alas, we did discover this the hard way when we went skiing this afternoon. There is a small run (maybe one or two hundred metres) right in the middle of town, about a minute walk from the bus station. We hired a snowboard for Keeley and skis for me (there were no snowboard boots in my size) and spent an hour re-learning what we'd forgotten. It took Keeley a large number of attempts to master the t-bar lift up the hill, and I had enough trouble keeping my feet pointing in the same direction. Fortunately it only took us one downhill run each to get it right, and we had a lot of fun after that. Keeley had a very spectacular stack which has left her with a bruised bum and wet jeans, but other than that it was really fun and, again, not as cold as I had been expecting. The worst thing is holding onto the cold metal lifts. We're looking forward to a much bigger expedition tomorrow.
We also bought some pork for dinner, making the most of the exchange rate to eat well yet again. I even found some zucchini for the first time since I left home (Keeley didn't have any). She found what she thought was custard powder in the supermarket, and muddled her way through it but it turned out to be vanilla pudding mix instead. This didn't bother us and it tasted pretty good with peaches.
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