Days 1-5: We had a very smooth easy flight from Charlotte to Munich, where only a little sleep was had by Paul and I and apparently the boys didn’t sleep at all. We got through border control very smoothly in Munich, it only took minutes luckily, so that left us a couple hours to wander around Munich Airport before our flight to Krakow . Upon arriving in Kraków, we went to the rental car place where we had reserved a car and realized that we needed an international drivers permit which we did not get this year; so they would not rent us a car. This put a bit of a hiccup into our plans. We ended up Ubering from Kraków to Zakopane, which was close to two hours drive, not a cheap way to do it. Since our arrival here in the beautiful high Tatra mountains, we’ve had gorgeous weather and need to Uber or walk anywhere we want to go. Closest grocery store is a mile walk away down a very narrow street where we have to jump out of the way of cars. But we did pass sheep, cows, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, etc., with the mountains next to us so not a shabby walk. Our Airbnb is a cute cottage overlooking beautiful mountains and sheep fields. We have a nice deck with a hot tub. The inside is small, but functional with two bedrooms, one bath, a little kitchen with a dining table and living room. It’s built in a traditional Zakopane wooden style so it’s very pretty.The first night we Uber down to the city of Zakopane and walk down their main shopping strip then got dinner at an Italian restaurant that I had researched ahead of time that had gluten-free pizza. Braydon got pasta, Kyle and I got pizza, and Paul got a steak salad. We all thoroughly enjoyed our dinners. Then we walked around the town some more and Uber’d back where we all immediately fell asleep in the car! 

On Friday, the boys, all three of them woke up around 2:45 AM and decided to get up. I on the other hand woke up several times, but made myself go back to sleep each time getting a decent seven hours of sleep. Around 9 AM we decided to walk 2 miles to the top of Gubolowka, which is a ski resort but during the summer they have tons of little Chotzky touristy huts lining the street and gorgeous views; there’s a funicular that brings you up from Zakopane. Kyle enjoyed a couple rides on the Alpine slide and we got coffee and tea and then moved over and got lunch with gorgeous views then a 2 mile walk back for nap time/ rest time.Not having our own car is making it difficult to do some of the plans I had scheduled one of which was a cool looking hike that was going to be in Slovakia in the Slovak National Park, but we have no way of getting there so we have to cancel that and look for other things to do here.Friday night we Uber into downtown Zakopane and walked around the cute little town. Zakopane is a ski resort so there are lots of shops and restaurants and a very pedestrian friendly area. Krupowski Street is a very pretty street where there are lots of restaurants with outdoor seating; of course I’m not sure what they do in the winter but maybe they just bring out heaters and sheep blankets. We ended up getting dinner at a kebab place which we all enjoyed. Then we walked through the mall that was there with tons of outdoor stores and a rooftop bar that Paul and I enjoyed.

Saturday we had a lazy morning Kyle actually slept till about 10 AM and we Uber to the gondola to go to the top of Kasprowy Weirch. It was a 20 minute gondola ride up to the top where we had gorgeous views overlooking both the Polish mountains and the Slovakian mountains. We did some hikes up there and took lots of pictures of the amazing views. Then grabbed a drink and some fries before heading back down the gondola.  We decided to head over to thermal baths, which are pretty famous here. But before you think about a very relaxing, quiet thermal bath, this is not that. This is more like great Wolf Lodge party on water. Tons of people and swim up bars, music playing, craziness. There were also some quieter areas such as the saunas and 18+ pools but all the pools were a very nice warm temperature. So it was quite pleasant just standing in the pools.We grabbed dinner at the restaurant here which was virtually empty, surprisingly and very good food. We Uber back and Paul and I had a fire pit outside our cottage, which was nice.

Sunday morning, Father’s Day. We all slept in a little bit and took it leisurely in the morning and Uber down to the town. We got brunch at a cute coffee shop.  Paul and I got a poached egg over seasonal greens and boys both got açai bowls. We wandered the town until it was time to get an Uber to go to our ATV quad experience. We rented two 2-person buggies. We were lucky that it was just us in our group. We traveled in very bumpy trails with Mountain View’s and through the woods and over a stream. We got very wet in the stream, but we dried quickly and eventually we got to an area where we stopped for a break where we cooked sausages over a campfire, which were delicious. But then a storm came, and we left with lightning bolts all around us the rain turning torrential causing very limited vision since we didn’t have windscreens the rain just pummeled us. At one point the trails were turning into a rushing river so our guide had us flip a u-turn and unfortunately, in that process Braydon, who was driving, flipped the buggy he was in. Luckily, he and Kyle did not get hurt and were able to crawl out quickly, but then it took some effort to tow and push the thing upright. Paul was pushing while the ATV driver pulled with a tow rope. Finally they got it right and we all drove the long way back on city streets in the pouring rain again lightning bolts all around us. I was very scared. I had been the only smart one to put on my dry suit at the campfire before the rain started. But when we got back to the location, we had a long walk in front of us to get back to our Airbnb so the boys and Paul put on their dry suits that we had purchased and we all walked the 3 miles back to our Airbnb‘s looking like hazmat employees. Several people stopped to take pictures of us, laughed at us, etc. We finally made it back to our Airbnb and jumped in the hot tub. The rain finally stopped. We were luckily able to order some yummy Halal Kebab food for delivery and we had a bottle of wine so all was good. Except our clothes and shoes-they were very wet and muddy. It rained most of the night and on Monday so there was very little chance of our clothes drying.  

On Monday Paul and I went to a little laundromat to clean our muddy clothes-unfortunately this place only had 4 washers and dryers and a family ahead of us taking up most of the machines. Once we finally got a machine we walked down the street to a cute Polish restaurant, got a drink and sat reading our books.  Paul ran down to switch the clothes into the dryer then came back to finish his beer.  Afterwards Paul had to work, so the boys and I packed up a bit, then went to dinner down in Zakopane for Thai food.  We left very early the next morning for a train to Krakow.

I would definitely recommend Zakopane as a place to visit, it had many cute shops and restaurants, the thermal baths and the amazing mountains all around you.  I'm sure it turns into a very different scene in winter when everyone comes for skiing.  Having our Airbnb up in the mountains provided great views and peacefulness, but definitely made it more difficult to get food, since the main town was a 25 minute drive.  Had we had our own car, it would've made getting groceries easier and maybe we would've stayed in more, not sure. The plus about not having a car is we didn't have to worry about having a drink with dinner and driving back up the mountain.