Rocky Mountain High...

The girls thoroughly enjoyed their hike. Veronica managed to capture some awesome photos.

That evening we cooked pierogies at the cabin and did face masks. Aren’t we lovely?

A Rocky Path...

We set off to hike one of the trails and to find a spot for lunch. This trail wasn’t very crowded, so we found some rocks just off the path and settled in for our picnic.

At first glance, it seemed liked a great path as it was obviously well marked and maintained. However, I quickly realized that I hated the wobbly rocks and was disappointed that I didn’t feel comfortable to continue up to the summit.

Instead, we turned back and the girls set off on a different trail on their own while Jimmy and I enjoyed a beer before heading back to the cabin.

Tatra National Park...

After a relaxing start to the day, we packed a picnic lunch and headed up the road to the entrance of Tatra National Park.

We quickly saw for ourselves why this is the most popular national park in Poland as the scenery was beautiful.

It was an easy walk to this waterfall, which explains why it ’s so popular with families.

Interesting Soup in Zakopane...

Finding vegetarian food in this town was a challenge as many of the restaurants featured BBQ. We finally followed TripAdvisor to Casa Mia, its topped ranked restaurant. Jimmy ordered the gazpacho, which was served unlike any he’d ever had before.

He loved it! And we all loved our dinners as well.

The service and the desserts were also great. We could see how it earned its rank at the top. We liked it so much that we ate there again on our last night when we met up with our hash friends Lalia and Jahn.

Off to the Mountains...

When I asked our Polish friend for advice on where to go after Krakow, she suggested we head to Zakopane, a resort town at the base of the Tatra Mountains. Rather than doing hours of research, I was thrilled to follow her advice. I quickly found Klimkowka, an adorable log cabin within walking distance of restaurants and the national park, and booked it for three nights.

We picked up a rental car and set off for the mountains. While the journey should have taken just two hours, it took over three due to bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was a relief to finally pull into the cabin’s driveway and spend the rest of the day just relaxing.

Although this photo might show differently, downtown was very touristy and busy, mostly with Polish families on vacation.

Final Day in Krakow...

On Sunday, Jimmy and I did the Hangover Hash, which started at the dorms, took us into the local hills and up to a fort with great views over the city. While we were hashing, the girls went into the city center for lunch.

That evening we went out to dinner with the couple who shared a dorm suite with the girls due to an administrative screw-up. Ironically her name is also Melissa; more ironically, her last name is Black. We joked all weekend that Melissa Black was looking after Melissa White’s kids.

It started to pour while we were dining outdoors, so we dashed inside. Veronica and Ashlynn did some dancing in the rain before all of us made a mad dash to taxis. Once back at the dorms, Veronica captured this dramatic electrical storm.

Eurohash 2015 in Krakow...

There were 700 hashers there for the weekend. On Saturday morning, most of the 700 gathered to get on buses to take us to various run starts. Jimmy had planned to run with me, but at the last minute he decided to board the bus for the Ballbreaker run; he enjoyed his run, but was actually disappointed that it was just 18K rather than the advertised 21K.

The girls planned to go on a different trail than me, but had a bus mix up and ended up on my bus, which took us to a national park. Of course, I couldn’t keep up with them, but I did see them at the restaurant below where we stopped for ice cream.

After that stop, the trail went straight up the hill. From there, the girls went up even higher on the longer and more challenging eagle trail, which was 14K, while I took the shorter turkey trail, which was 12K. We all enjoyed our trails.

That night, instead of eating the hash meal, we opted to go into town and have pierogies (sweet or savory dumplings) at a small restaurant. We tried a variety of flavors,which was a lot of fun especially considering that they are one of the girls’ favorite foods. We made it back to the party venue in time to watch the skits and then dance until 2 a.m.