Beskid Niski - discovering Poland

It’s not that I like or love going there, especially on holidays. I had spent a great deal of years in my short life in that country (as yet), and though I should have seen lots of places around Poland, I usually tended to visit cities.
There is, of course, much more to these hackneyed polish cities – Warszawa, Kraków and Wrocław. Not to mention about the famous city I come from – Łódź (or Lodz for those who operates on Latin alphabet only). Has anyone ever heard about it? I’m sure I will mention about it later on.

So, skint and tired with city life... and work of course, I chose to go to mountains. Not into high mountains, I am not a masochist. And on the other hand, Poland has just a very short mountain range which we can classify as high mountains. That is usually packed with with tourists – a sort of people wishing there were roads to the all the mountain’s peaks, trains running there every 15 minutes, and five stars hotels, so they can have a very nicely fattening meal or two – Royal Burger, hot dog, pizza – a royal one will do – or have a drink or ten, so it’s easier to roll down on the way back down a slope. And obviously there must be bedrooms large and spacious, with clean sheets, so they probably can get laid.

There are also medium size mountains, some sort of higher knolls like those in Wales and Scotland.

OK... Not knolls but just nice mountains – nice for an afternoon stroll.

I have been in some places in these mountains locked on the southern Poland’s border (well, more like south-western). It is indeed very nice in there, lots of forests and burnt forests (like the one above Szklarska Poręba), many castles and fortresses.

But I got older and grew very inactive – you know, work, work and buses available on request, bus stops placed every few steps. I’m lucky I’m not fat so far. So I had chosen even lower mountains. A sort of The Pennines. Low enough to call them a range of hammocks – easy enough to climber on any hill top, where it is hard enough to get lost and surprisingly very quiet, so one can hear only the wind wheezing in the ears.

I left for Kraków from the Leeds/Bradford airport, stayed there for few hours to visit friends and chatter a bit, to see no change has been done since I had been there last time (and it wasn’t just a year before), and I left for Gorlice, where I hoped to find a bus to the village I was heading for. Well... It’s always better to have your own transport. Otherwise you may find out there are two buses a day going to a place you are going to. And all of them had left before you got to a bus station.

Anyway, I got to Gładyszów same day I left Kraków. As I had booked a room in a house with family living in, I made a phone call to ask them for a little help while I was struggling in Gorlice.

So finally I found myself in a bed, sleeping tightly. In the morning – a breakfast. A choice of food, mostly diary products to wake you up and give a bit of power for the rest of a day. I thought I would have to get back early for a dinner to fill my stomach with some more stuff again but it wasn’t the case. I made a walk to the Polish-Slovakian border, seeing no-one there I crossed it to feel as a proper European – no annoying borders limiting people to their cages of nationalities and chauvinism. Although we may become European chauvinists now.

I got back to my place just in time to have a dinner. Before setting off for my first excursion, I had been asked by the family what time I think they need to prepare a dinner for me, so everything was set up. And I got my dinner – plenty of food and only one, little stomach. Everything hand-made, nothing pre-made or ready for cooking bought in a shop, it was a delicious choice of the local, Łemkowski (Lemkos) cuisine. Oh yeah... I had a nap after all. And I guess I was really tired as I woke up the next day, got ready for a breakfast quickly and took off for another trip.

Thought it was unusual but both days I haven’t met many people. And, anyway, most of them were living there. So there was me, in a forest where one can go for mushroom picking, collecting a wide range of mushrooms to dry them off or simply to pickle them. Only I was interested in anything but food growing beneath my feet. Some picturesque views, unwinding stillness and crowd-less tracks – well more like completely empty. Although I wouldn’t say they weren’t beaten tracks – it must have been that September, everyone back at work and schools. And if my ramble lasted a bit longer and I got starving, there were mountain lodges to have a stopoff and fill in my rumbling guts.

During one of such excursions, I have found another guesthouse. Looking more like a professional one, though prices were not much higher and everything was still affordable. Stylised an old, Łemkowski house, it looked gorgeous but was hidden from a view in a valley behind a not too high earth elevation. Probably the owners had chosen that place for its mobile network availability. It used to be a village sometime ago, before Polish former lovely authorities had expelled and dispossessed people from the region, just because they weren’t Polish enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had no reason to be Polish after what had happened. Of all the houses nothing has been left... I think. Lucky Americans. Thankfully to communist authorities in Poland, Slovakia and other countries (back in 1950-1980’s), they got some most interesting personae – Andy Warhol’s family came from the same region but on Slovakian side. I guess, those lived here were successfully suppressed and their talents flew away.

Never mind. That second guesthouse was also a family-run business and since it is in rural areas and people rely on their own livestock, most of these places are agricultural households. Not just a bed and breakfast or a guesthouse, though you are not forced to pick up fruits of their work or to milk the cows or goats. One can simply ask for such entertainment if they fancied it. There is also the Hucuły (Hucul/Carpathian pony) stud farm and Gładyszów is one of just a few breeding centres... But I didn’t fancy a horseback. I was too lazy I think. Food over there was gorgeous as well. I even have spent a half of a day in the kitchen, watching the process of cooking those deliciousness. Not that I wanted to find a hole in it, I just got on with these people and practiced my Polish – almost forgot that language after 4 years living in the UK (I wish!).

And then, I decided to spent a day or two in a spa resort in Wysowa-Zdrój – just few mountain valleys away. I thought about hiking there with my rucksack – if it was the only bag I had. In the end, I got a lift to a town where I could easily catch a bus. And, yeah... The mountains were definitely higher and steeper and even more beautiful. I’m sure I could enjoy the time over there, if only I enjoyed leisuring in spas, having massages done (well, I lie, I love it!), having my body waxed or getting lost in steam. But mineral waters were good. There are some natural springs. Not that I needed some special treatment – I’ve tried them for their taste.

Anyway, it was time to go back home. Well, to visit my parents first for more than just a 7 hours overnight stay, like I did on the way on holidays. I just popped in their house, no-one expecting me there so only mother was staying there. My sister was having a lousy time drinking somewhere on a party, my father went with work somewhere away for that weekend.

Well then, I will write about travelling through Poland, too. I’m sure. It’s always an unforgettable experience. The British will immediately love their railways.