Weekend in the mountains!

View from our balcony!
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This past weekend, Dianna, Lana, Natalee, and I went to Zakopane, Poland.  It's a town about 80 miles south of Krakow located in the Tatra mountains.  The mountains were beautiful and covered in snow!  The town is really cute and has lots of little shops and vendors along the main street.  We went with about nine other students (we didn't know them before the trip).  We took a big bus there (the ride there and back cost $9!).  Our hotel was a 2 star hotel and was a little creepy.  Our room was pretty amazing though.  It was big with four single beds and had a balcony overlooking the mountains!  The first day there we walked around the town for awhile and ate at a traditional Polish restaurant.  It wasn't the best meal.  Then, we took a lift to the top of a mountain, Guba-owka.  Afterwards, we found some very yummy hot chocolate!  That night we went to a highlander party where they served us Polish food and played traditional Polish music.  Again, not too fond of the food...too much cabbage!  We met some cool people there, but were ready to leave because it was crowded.  Oh yeah, and everyone in Europe smokes!

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The next morning, we walked through the town again and it was snowing!  The snowflakes were landing on our arms and unlike Tennessee, they stuck around long enough to look at.  They were so pretty!  The highlight of the trip was skiing!  I have never gone skiing before and we weren't planning on going on this trip in fear of breaking a bone.  But, we ended up walking to a slope that looked like something I could do without seriously injuring myself.  One of our leaders taught us how to ski and I didn't fall down once!  We skied for an hour and it cost 10 zloty (or about $3).  After skiing, we went and ate pizza and had the delicious hot chocolate again.  The whole trip was a lot of fun and the town was beautiful!