Freestyle mountain hiking in Zakopane

Ok, i just got back from a great two weeks hiking in Zakopane, that's what everybody does there this time of the year, but i didn't know any of this when I went there.

I think i went there because someone said it was nice, maybe two people said nice things, nice isn't so bad, and as you know its nice to be nice.

This all became apparent as i rolled into the town that this was an exceptional place, its the Zakopane is the Winter city of Poland, lots of famous writers, musicians, Lenin and, Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, madame Curie and pope John Paul II to name a few loved the place.

38 million Polish people love this place and like to go there on their holidays, its a big deal in Poland, I realized its one of the best kept secrets in Europe, maybe even a poor mans Switzerland?

The first hostel I was at, everyone in my room as mad hiking, me? All i wanted to do was chill out and read my Charles Dickens book and drink coffee, nothing strenuous for me, thank you, i got quite a few looks and stares i can tell you.

So i walk around, drank coffee, talked to a few people, the next day when everyone left, i ventured out to one of the trails and immediately loved it, so much so, high on endorphins the next day, i bought waterproof hiking shoes, the day after that was bucketing rain.

I did a crazy 10.5 hour hard walking trek, i met some people along the way, some guys told me some of the routes i was going on, so being social helped, i did have a notion of going to Nepal to trek, but now I'm happy with the walks here, Nepal is no longer on the horizon, for now.

The new shoes pretty much saved me hiking, i was glad of the dopamine in my brain, dopamine apparently is why we do things, its the pleasure drug in out head, i didn't want to buy hiking shoes before Zakopane, in Zakopane I did. Go figure?

So with new shoes, I then proceeded to hike every day, each day learning a bit more, until i figured out a lot, like how i started driving in Melbourne, i just did it, and somehow i got through it, i wouldn't recommend it though. Youth has its advantages when you don't think of the dangers and I've still got it!

I remember a Korean girl i once met in Chile, she said to me...

"Kieran, I know your travel style, your freestyle"   

Freestyle


And its true, i like freestyle stuff, from graffiti, rap music to blogging, the difference.

One of the things i like with graffiti is the artist has about ten minutes max to do what they are doing before the little old lady with the cat manages to alert the police, and I've never seen any fat graffiti artists, so there must be a fitness requirement to being successful?

You just do it, like the Nike ad, something i read today in a Buddhist book...

Every moment has its energy, we either ride it or it rides us

and then there is the thrill of a chase by the Police

You learn a lot by doing, I've leaned that through work in Software testing, learning Spanish, when you think of all the problems, you are not going to make any decision.

Freestyle Eminem and Proof



That's it, just go at it and do it

Morskie Oko lake