Our holidays will certainly not fulfill their purpose if we don’t manage to get out of our household, at least for a short while. It’s this change of surroundings, landscape and people which makes us feel fully relaxed and allows us to recharge our batteries, which are already barely functioning.

The mountains surely attract lots of us, not only with their beauty, but also with their severity and impenetrability. If one suffers from delusion of grandeur, the earlier mentioned mountains will help to cure them successfully.

I decided on a short girls’ trip to Bukowina Tatrzańska, which incidentally is a perfect spot, since one can take numerous public means of transport to get to the places one is interested in. It can be done cheap and fast without unnecessary overusing one’s car.

As one could predict, we visited Zakopane and we couldn’t do without a ride on a funicular railway to Gubałówka Hill, where the crowds of amblers, as well as the highlanders themselves, seemed not to remember about a temporarily forgotten pandemic. It’s this part of Poland in which no pandemic restrictions apply. No masks used on the buses, in the shops and other places in which lots of people gather at the same time.

Such a state of affairs didn’t really surprise me here, since the people who know the highlanders well would say that they are stubborn and don’t really believe that the pandemic could ever overcome them. What’s more possible, they would rather carry the pandemic in their own wheelbarrows, and that’s all.

Whereas, hiking to the Eye of the Sea was a totally different kettle of fish. I didn’t really expect my feet to guide me that far at quite a satisfying pace. I think I don’t really have to be ashamed of anything yet, I certainly don’t, but… Exactly, these beautiful views, being so close to the nature that one could even touch it… and these amazing experiences were disturbed by the scenes which should have long belonged to the past. Despite the fact that I’m not a keen animal lover, of course, I can admire and I can marvel at dogs and cats belonging to my friends or neighbors, but that’s all. However, the issue of the overloaded carts pulled by exhausted and lethargic horses is something totally different. Even my rusty heart seems not to be indifferent to their pointless suffering. Nay! If only it had been a matter of ‘pure tiredness’, some of them limped and didn’t want to continue pulling the cart at all. And on the carts were sitting brainless and grinning tourists. Don’t they really want to overuse their legs? Are they that lazy? That uneducated? Or unaware of anything?

Maybe, if they had decided on a family walk to reach the Eye of the Sea, as a great majority of tourists, they would have known that the way, even though not too demanding, after some time can become tiring. Not to mention if we carry an overloaded backpack. And here, people of not a slim figure with protruding bellies, who incidentally wouldn’t get killed by some extra movement, ‘reach’ the Eye of the Sea, take a souvenir photo and all that without straining even one muscle in their legs or buttocks.

At some points I imagined them swapping places, like in these popular TV shows, where one city slicker with another one are harnessed to the cart and the horses lie in the cart. However, even here the animals have an advantage over humans, because in their good-natured eyes one cannot see any density, just on the contrary, one could notice wisdom, the one people pretend not to see.

Visiting the Eye of the Sea is certainly a great experience, since the final destination itself is just breathtaking. I’m also aware of the fact that for many years nothing will change there, because it’s a good business for all those who own the carts, sometimes ran from father to son. Anyway, if most of us choose the good side, not only thinking about the horses, but also about our own health, we will decide on a healthy walk on foot to clamp down on this practice a little bit.

To help calm your nerves you can either exercise or have a good meal. I chose both of these solutions. I visited Schronisko Bukowina in which I had the best restaurant experience in my life. You just can’t do without trying this mouthwatering duck confit! Besides this Bukowina also offers thermal baths, which also helped me to feel all my muscles, event the ones I have never known about.

We should remember that having a rest is really important since we cannot live working all the time (I think it’s not too healthy, is it?), but we should do it smart not letting animals suffer if it’s not necessary.

See you around!

Yours,

Passion Piece