Traveling Isn’t Always Easy | Getting Lost in Poland

Traveling Isn’t Always Easy | Getting Lost in Poland

heat heat [Applause] [Music] [Music] these are the incredible Tatra Mountains of Poland [Music] [Music] [Music] heat heat [Music] [Music] hi there how’s it going today is Tuesday June 17th 2025 currently 57° Fahrenheit that is 14° C here in lovely Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland very close to the Slovakia border there were some uh bells ringing in the background those were the noon bells it is exactly 12 noon here a change in the weather from our amazing brilliantly sunny day a couple of days ago yesterday afternoon then it uh started to rain and just rained all afternoon all evening now we have some leftover clouds but it isn’t supposed to rain again today there you can see Zakop Pane very cool traditional looking wooden city sign i am now walking over to the train station and hoping that the bus station is next to it let’s go check out these uh interesting looking sculptures so I’m not sure what is going to happen today especially considering this weather what I would really like to do is take the cable car up to the top of the mountain and get the epic views but uh no point if there are going to be clouds covering things okay so uh interesting uh [Music] sculpture there so uh I have a couple of ideas but I’m not sure which one is going to work out it may very well depend on the uh transportation options once I get over there and hopefully figure things out also I want to uh find out about trains or buses going to Slovakia because kind of the main reason that I’m in Poland now is because I was heading for Slovakia and then found this uh flight from Sicily Italy to uh Katavvitz Poland that was the easiest way to get uh to Slovakia also I was very happy to uh stop and see Zakop Pane since I’d heard about it before as well so uh so there is a hint of where I might end up today we shall see i’m not sure if that is the same place that I’m trying to get to or something else so that is the cable car that I want to take look at these words they’re so hard to try to pronounce you know you put a C Z and a K all next to each other krakow wulichka witski jedno dio bleti kasprowi so if I uh stay another day then definitely the plan for tomorrow would be to uh get up on the mountain apparently that is where you get the uh great views like the panoramic view of the uh higher Tatra Mountains and so here we are in the bus and train area so I guess this is a bus stop it looks like i’m not seeing one for the town that I would like to get to all right time to focus on figuring this out and so I wanted to mention on the subject of food in my video in which I was confused about the dumplings that I’d ordered i ordered local dumplings and what I got was scrambled eggs apparently it wasn’t a mixup those are the local style dumplings even though they don’t look anything like you expect as far as dumplings but I guess it wasn’t just eggs it was a like dumpling with egg in it or something like miniature little dumplings i don’t know but uh anyways I guess that was in fact the local dish so the bad news is no trains to Slovakia not surprised at all because the mountains are in the way of course so I will have to figure out the bus but uh good news is I believe that is where I am trying to go to Cholowska but no bus driver on the bus yet all right so according to a guy sitting there waiting for this bus it leaves in 10 minutes now can I figure out the bus to Poprad there doesn’t seem to be an actual bus station desk or office or whatever and boom looks like I found it poprod and Tatranska Lumnika starmovitz i remember both of those uh towns from doing some research 12:35 that is actually like right now not that I’m trying to take it today but I guess it goes every day at that time green okay time to use Google Translate to try to translate that one so what that says is ticket sales at the ticket office that is actually really essential information to know that I need to uh buy the ticket ahead of time the question is where is the ticket office [Music] but I will have to hold off on figuring that one out because this bus is leaving looks like that is the driver getting in [Music] the thing about giving your heart away is hoping love will never die but life unfolds in the strangest ways and sometimes you just can’t keep love alive but I’ve tried and I’ve tried but I just can’t drink you off my mind [Music] since you left me dolina Chilowska Chilowska Valley it is the biggest valley in Polish Tatris 10 km long so this is not where I was trying to get to initially the Chalowska Valley but that is completely mispronouncing it basically when it comes to Polish however you think you’re supposed to pronounce it as an English speaker is wrong so the bus got me here but here is not where I was trying to get to so what happened back at the bus station in Zakopane there is I went to get on the bus and then I tried to confirm with the guy that he was going to the hot springs or at least to the town near the hot springs he didn’t really speak English but I understood that no he was not going there so Chula Ska is different from Chulao and Chulao Turmy is the hot springs so that is what I was trying to get to some hot springs that are supposed to be really really amazing it’s a whole like complex with a bunch of different pools and I think hot tubs and saunas and all kinds of stuff and so they have the same name because they’re in the same area but uh it turned out that that bus was going here and there is a separate bus that uh goes straight to the hot springs and so he said platform number five so I went over there looked at the timet and that bus left at 1:30 or maybe it was 12:30 yeah 12:30 which is right when I was standing at the other bus saying that it was leaving in 10 minutes because that bus left at 12:40 the bus to the hot springs left at 12:30 so it was leaving right as I was standing right there but I hadn’t realized that difference between the two different uh destinations so uh on the schedule it said that the next bus wasn’t until 2 something in the afternoon 2 hours later and so I went back to the other bus after checking on my phone where it was going and realized that it was going in the direction of the hot springs but uh from here it is now a 10 minutes drive up to the hot springs so not far but too far to walk it’s like an hour and a half walk and so the uh Challowska Valley and so the real pronunciation is more like Hola or something like that cuz I heard somebody say it but uh it is up this way but from what I found online it is like a 2-hour hike up and an hour and a half back and so it’s like an all afternoon kind of a thing and my destination is the hot springs to relax and hang out and swim in the pools or whatever so I’m not sure what I’m going to do but I’m going to just walk around here a little bit and uh check things out and then walk back to the main road which is just a couple of minutes behind me and stand on the road and try to hitchhike or see if a taxi comes along but uh look at this great uh [Music] little snack spot here they’re roasting sausages and stuff on that grill there smells really good and the day is getting sunnier now caspresa i just absolutely love all these wooden buildings around here this is my style the real mountain feel [Music] and then some kind of weird like a I guess ropes course up there more grilling going on let’s uh take a look at what’s up there and then try to figure out how to get to the hot springs cuz that is really what I’m in the mood for so some sort of ropes course obstacle course thing looks like prices there 359 it says 45 €111 or I guess I can do it for free and then here’s another one of those uh barbecues and a little shack locked baka and a little deer skull looks like what a beautiful valley and turning into a beautiful day i hear a creek back here there it is and look at that little bridge campfire [Music] it is great to be in the mountains okay is that bridge going to hold me [Music] oh just put my thumb in sap okay it’s not exactly convenient to get on i guess that’s not a great sign but uh it does have very sturdy looking cables look at this uh tree is all covered with sap i’m trying to use it to stabilize myself okay let’s hope I don’t go into the creek at least it isn’t a deep one [Music] feels fine [Music] okay what is there to see over here so far just some garbage and sort of a trail that ends so uh not much unless you want to go bushwhacking okay let’s walk back to the main road so fortunately I came prepared for the uh sun coming out here is the main road not a great spot for cars or a bus to pull over [Music] that way to uh Zakopane and about 10 minutes drive down that way well here’s somewhere I could stand nothing much else that way so this is really my best uh chance now Uber does work around here or at least it did in Zakopane i didn’t use it but I checked but would somebody drive out to this random spot i’ll check that while waiting so there you go yolina Cholowska and there’s a bus huh going to the valley but uh here is a better spot for people to pull over and maybe it’s also a bus stop sure looks like it yes it is and there’s the bus going back to town okay so uh the next bus is going to be sometime after 2:00 I guess oh wait something here 101 2011 zakopani Cho Lao Turmy but not until Oh 1:43 and what time have we got now it’s maybe close to that oh no it’s 217 now and there’s one at 4:18 huh okay well let’s uh check Uber huh anyways yes Uber will work it’s going to take uh 12 minutes for one to come but it isn’t too expensive so uh yeah I’m going to do that all right all right oh great what if this uh bus is going there and I just called the Uber now it says Zakopane [Applause] all right ride coming in 11 minutes it’s going to cost 53 Polish Zlotti that is $14 oh you know what there might be more buses coming not necessarily to the uh thermal baths oh watch this thing stop nope [Applause] okay so I’m taking this bus i cancelled the uh Uber the only thing is I don’t know where this bus is going so uh we’ll find out but it’s going in the right general direction for now the Uber changed to 24 minute wait so that’s why I canceled it real country life there that uh house and barn have obviously been there for a lot longer than this road or maybe it was a uh little dirt road back a century ago or something anyways uh things are working out so the uh Uber ride got dropped and then it found another one that was going to take another 24 minutes and right as I saw that I saw the bus coming and so I canled it and just decided hop on it because there’s basically just this one road going in the right direction and sure enough it headed that way and so I’m now a uh like 12minute walk away i probably could have gotten off the uh little mini bus there farther down cuz it kept going that way and gotten closer to the uh thermal springs but uh a lady was getting off and I decided to just get off there not being certain how often it stops so little bit of a walk through the uh beautiful countryside cows relaxing lots of green pretty houses i am just really impressed by Poland having been to every country in Europe which means every country in Eastern Europe then uh Poland is really a major several steps up from some of the other uh Eastern European countries it’s just really well managed beautiful nature amazing uh style of wooden construction good roads good transportation if you happen to know when the bus is going so I’m thinking that uh for the bus to Poprad which I am definitely thinking that I will delay that for another day at least but uh there were some travel offices around the uh train station so maybe one of them can uh hook me up with a uh bus ticket all right looking forward to these uh springs it is more than just you know like a hole in the ground or whatever it’s like a whole big complex I guess so very curious to see what it’s like so here we are at Cho Lao however you say that and boom look at that that is no rinky dink affair as they say that is a serious hot springs complex so I just walked past a bus stop right there and thought to check the timets but then thought there was going to be another bus stop right at the springs but I don’t see one so I should walk back there and uh figure out the times but uh definitely looking forward to seeing what that is like i guess it’s all inside and so the uh buses were 10 Polishi that is uh $2.75 or €225 entry number one entry number two looks like it’s saying go to entry number one so I did bring my uh GoPro so that I can film underwater but I’m not sure how much filming I will actually be able to do here so uh we shall find out but I will do my best to uh try to capture a little something of this place wa guys look at that that is what I need to see where is that which lakes it doesn’t say intense i need to do some more uh research to find the best uh places all right so here’s the uh lobby area nice place man this is deluxe restaurant and I buy tickets down here all right so it is happening 125 Polish latte that is $34 US good deal that is for 4 hours and that includes I guess basically everything the uh pools the sauna probably hot tubs we’ll see what else but uh I probably won’t spend 4 hours here but certainly a couple I’m sure so um I don’t know if I will be able to uh film after this point i’m going to enter in there and uh enjoy myself so that is the main thing so whether I get any filming we shall see all right so I already swam and s and everything for like a couple of hours just going to really quick here so that’s just part of it there’s a whole other section there’s like multiple sections where the saunas are more jacuzzi all kinds of stuff it’s amazing and a good price all right time to catch the bus back to [Music]

An interesting day of bumbling around the town of Zakopane in the beautiful Tatra mountains of southern Poland.
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Music during the video (in order):

“A Traveler’s Gloom” by Dew of Light
&
“Best of Me” by American Legion
&
“Steep Hills” by Mythical Score Society
&
“Aurora Currents” by Asher Fulero
&
“Sneaky Business” by Biz Baz Studio

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Video created by Gabriel Morris, who is the owner of all video or photo content. Filmed with a DJI Osmo Action: https://amzn.to/3gSi8rA

Gabriel is a budget traveler, outdoors enthusiast and travel writer who has been adventuring around the world since his first trip to Europe in the summer of 1990 when he was 18 years old. He is author of “Following My Thumb”, “Gabe’s Guide to Budget Travel” and several other books.

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