Trapped in a Winter Wonderland
The alpine weather in Zakopane is not working in our favor. The day after our hiking expedition it started to rain and has now been raining non-stop for 48 hours. The mountain trails we were just hiking on are now buried in snow! I still have a lingering dread of wet slippery roads – especially hilly roads – after the Laos accident, which means we are essentially stuck here until the weather clears up.
There was a new development at our campsite when we woke up this morning. Sleet! The temperature is hovering right around freezing and a thin layer of ice is forming on everything. Now we really don’t want to ride out of here on icy mountain roads!
We’ve been killing time at warm cafes, sipping cappuccino while researching modern tent design and pondering when we will be able to leave. We’ve been reading up on tents because we’ve realized ours has a serious condensation problem. We dry it out before we go to sleep and when we wake up the floor of the tent is soaking wet. Not a good combination with our down sleeping bags! Luckily, the women’s bathroom at our campsite has some warm radiators so we’ve been able to dry out our mats and sleeping bags during the day.
I have also been testing my skills at drawing Jamie’s portrait using the materials of ballpoint pen and notebook paper. So far I have titled my creations “Cro-Magnon Man”, “Skeletor”, and “Droopy Forehead”. There are lots of portrait artists on the street here and I have a growing desire to set up shop among them and draw people’s portraits while muttering to myself “Oops!” and “Oh…sorry!” I imagine this would be hugely entertaining.
“Skeletor”
Wandering around the city center, we are infinitely jealous of all the tourists who we imagine have warm snug rooms to go back to in the evening. We keep telling ourselves it wouldn’t be so bad if we were dry. I guess we’ll find out soon enough; it looks like winter might be arriving early this year!
September 6th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Hey Jamie and Sarah, I think your tent is forming water at the bottom because the ground is cooling the bottom of your tent down. The same way dew collects on grass in the morning. Reading about ground induced fog(radiation fog) on the internet will probably explain it well.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:55 am
When are you guys coming home? I need some help with my homework. Love, Emily
September 10th, 2007 at 7:55 am
hey you guys! Just a quick not to say hi from New Zealand. The weather here has been fluctuating between winter and spring, so I feel for your guys with the colder temperatures there!
Anyway, I love your blog and journal entries! It’s been great reading where you guys are and learning about different cultures through your blog.
oh yeah, Taisuke and I are setting up a blog as well – we’ll send you the address soon.
Hope you are well and that the weather warms up for your soon!
love,
Brenda
September 12th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Hello.
I’v just came to your blog and am suprised that you are in Poland – my birth country :). Weather isn’t nice this year, but it should be better now. If you want to check it in Poland you can go to site: http://meteo.icm.edu.pl/ (it’s weather prediction is quite good).
Im also traveling by bike only if there is some holiday left ;). My dream is to travel all world by bike like you, so I’m counting that we will bump into each other some place, some time :).
May the bike be with you.