Weekend in Wladyslawowo, August 2009

Third year in a row I found myself for a weekend in Wladyslawowo on the Baltic Coast. The first time I arrived with a group of new friends for a week of relaxation and getting to know new people. It was also where I met my partner of two years, through a mutual friend, that was two years ago. Last year I took the 'Sunshine Train' on my own to meet my partner after he finished his week long Krav Maga Training Camp in Ustka. This year we spontaneously decided to go up to Wladyslawowo for a relaxing weekend with another couple.

With the nasty roads, the journey took us over seven hours and 420 km. Sitting upright in the Suzuki Jeep was not the comfiest beginning to the trip and I was gritting my teeth, furious at the fact that we should have taken our car and driven up in much more comfort, but as the journey moved on, I realised my back didn't ache, the posture improved and even though I was cramped at the back with little leg room or breathing space, it wasn't so bad.

Once we reached Wladyslawowo, the four of us were wondering about our accommodation. It was a place I managed to find through the Internet at the last minute. Unfortunately no one wants to give rooms for only two nights, but luckily after about twenty phone calls, one nice lady informed us that she had two room for those nights. We were stoked.

The GPS led us into a dark narrow street with factory buildings, lack of lighting and barking dogs. No way could this be the street we were staying on, it looked and felt like something out of a horror movie away from civilisation and the rest of the tourists. Sitting at the edge of our seats we drove further, our apprehension and uncertainty increasing. A few hundred metres ahead the street we were meant to be staying on appeared and we turned into it. Two storey houses advertising accommodation with 'Wolne Pokoje' or 'Brak Wolnych Pokoji' on their gates or fences followed. We drove on not sure which part of Wladyslawowo we were in.

Finally the green house I saw on the Internet appeared. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we found it on the other end of the street with lighting, a few corner stores which a young crowd had already surrounded shopping for booze, and away from the unpleasantness of the other side.
The accommodation was fantastic. For 40 zloty (about 10 euro) per night per person we had a comfortable room with en-suite, balcony and satellite television, with only a ten minutes stroll to ul. Sportowa and the beach. It was much more than we had anticipated at such short notice. The owner gave us the keys and returned to the comfort of her own house to retreat for the night and get ready for the next day when more guests would arrive.

At midnight, we left our belongings in the room and headed towards ul. Sportowa and the beach. As expected even at this hour the youth holidaying in Wladek were partying in the streets and in the bars, drunk, dribbling, boisterous, throwing tantrums and parading around in tinsy outfits that barely covered their privates. The night was warm, a welcome difference to the previous weeks cooler evenings. The end of summer was nearing so we were pleased with the weather. We sat down on the board walk, digging our feet into the sand and stared out into the blackness of the sea, youngsters strolling hand in hand, half drunk, some sober, and others intoxicated beyond control.

After half an hour of chatting, laughing and eavesdropping on the conversation of intoxicated youth, the sky opened up and rain started to drizzle on us. We quickly gathered our things and made our way off the beach and back into the main street and towards our accommodation. We still had the full weekend ahead of us to enjoy the beach, the sea and our surroundings.

Your Home Town

Most of us don't consider our home town as a place for inspiration or story ideas. Who would want to read about the boring places we live in? Well, someone lives in all those places written about in the most glamorous travel magazines, in newspapers and in-flight magazines that the locals might find dull but to you it's paradise.

The same goes for your home town. A lot of professional writers suggest to write what you know. This may seem rather limited but the advice is good. Who is a better expert on your home town than the local who's lived their most of their life. You. If you mention this fact to an editor they may be more willing to offer you a story about your local town. Of course it's not enough to just offer a story about your town, you need to find a good angle to capture the attention of your editor and your readers. Even a general story about the Himalayas or Bora Bora won't sell if it doesn't have an interesting slant.

'Write what you know' is something I have heard and read about a lot. But it's not something I wanted to believe or do. I wanted to write about interesting things, fun things, about stories that weren't necessary a part of my life just yet. But than I realised writing about what you know isn't just writing about your interests, experiences and location. It's also being able to do the right research to expand your knowledge base and write about anything and everything that is of interest to you.

I've been living in Warsaw for two years now. The city is a blend of contradictions. Combined with the new and old, it's come a long way but it still has a long way to go. There are many stories here. Travel stories. Human interest stories. And much more. I'm going to try to focus on my local area and see what happens. Well, I'm off to look for some interesting story slants.

Writing Travel Stories

I've always wanted to travel and write. The notion seems so romantic and glamorous. Who wouldn't want to travel the world, see new places, meet interesting people, writing about it, and making money doing it all. Yeah right. Well it's true many people do make money from travel writing. But which came first? The travel or the writing?

I think this is like the question about the chicken and the egg. It's difficult to say. Some people have been lucky enough to spend a lot of their time travelling, and than decided to write about it. While others have been writing all their life and have stumbled upon a travel story or decided to give it a go. Whichever works for you is the way to go.

Travel stories about faraway places, hidden islands, exotic towns and foreign people sound like the type of stories you find in magazines like Conde Nast Traveller, CNN Traveller and Wanderlust. But what happens if you want to write a travel story and don't have the cash or the connections to get to that faraway place. How do you become a travel writer?

This is something that's been on my mind for some time. Do I have to travel to faraway places to sell travel stories to the right magazines? Where can I find the magazines that want the type of stories I write? How do writers find the time and energy to write all those travel stories? Do they really travel to all these places? How do they break into the right magazines and sell their first piece?

I did it. It wasn't planned. I was sending out queries to magazines and happened to send one out to a travel magazines. A stab in the dark. A magazine that I had never read in my life but stumbled while searching for markets on the Internet (this is not recommended, you stand a better chance getting your writing accepted if you've actually read at least one copy of the magazine).

My first travel story was 'Learn Through Travel' for Real Travel (UK) magazines' May 2009 issue. A 2000 word feature with photos. First I was excited and than petrified. How in the world was I going to come up with a 2000 word feature about learning foreign languages while travelling? And quotes? Who was going to give me quotes? And with only three weeks to get it all done. How?

The Internet of course. I started searching for language schools in Europe and sent them email asking if any current or past students were interested in being interviewed for an article. One day passed, two days, three. It was over. And than I got a response and a few interviews. I remembered I had a friend from high school who spent two years in Italy, another who planned on learning in France and one who spent some time in Japan.

The interviews were done via email. If you're on difference continents with different time zones I think this is the easiest way to do this. I emailed the questions and gave them a time frame as to when I needed their responses. Easy. The interviewees were even willing enough to provide some cool photos to go with the story, making my life a hell of a lot easier.

In the meantime I started working on the outline and an initial draft. Once the questions arrived I managed to put it all together. Five or six rewrites later I had a feature article to send to the editor. A month later, my story was published.

The first one was a fluke. The second one is going to be a little bit more challenging. In the next couple of days, I'm going to write how I plan to tackle landing my next travel story assignment.

One of the ski jumps in Zakopane

On the way to Morskie Oko

View along the walk to Dolina Pieciu Stawow

At the top of Kasprowy Wierch

Tatra Mountains, Zakopane

The moment I stepped off the train at 6:30am at the PKS Zakopane station after a nine hour train journey from Warsaw (only 56 zloty one way) excitement rushed through me. I love exploring new places and while the stories I heard weren't all positive, I liked the smell and what was awaiting me during my three night stay. I couldn't wait to start climbing mountains and discovering new peaks. There was so much to do and see and so little time. People advertised available rooms as people departed the train, we managed to quickly snagged one even though there was no rush, there were plenty available. The place was about 1.5km from the PKS Zakopane and up a hill. I didn't mind, we were there for an active holiday, the daily walk up and down the hill would be a great warm up and cool down for what was ahead of us.

After settling, and stopping off for breakfast at one of the Karchma's (Inn) in Krupówki, we decided to go on our first mountain climb. We did take the rail (30 zloty) to the Kasprowy Wierch and decided that we would make our way down on foot. The views were spectacular even for the unfortunate fog. Luck was on our side that we hadn't walked in both directions because we would have got stuck halfway down in the middle of a storm and downpour. We made it in time before the rain really pelted down and returned into town to purchase some very (un)trendy plastic rain coats that were more like garbage bags with holes cut out for the head and arms but it worked and only cost 5 zloty, most of the tourists were parading in an array of colours – blue, green, pink, yellow, red and orange. It did look quite funny but than again the alternative was getting saturated because an umbrella would be useless.

The second day we headed to Morskie Oko (Marine Eye), for an 8 zloty bus ride we were there within thirty minutes lining up to follow the other hundreds of tourists keen to enjoy the sites regardless of the weather. The entry fee to the national park was 4.40 zloty. Instead of following the easy winding but flat cemented road for 9km to Morskie Oko, we decided on taking another route towards the 'Dolina Pięcu Stawów (The Valley of the Five Ponds), which was a two hour walk up hill. We didn't realise how uphill it was until we reached the last forty minutes of our journey and it was a steep climb up a set of stairs made of rock and stone. With the rain falling, the mist blocking our view we were a little worried as to what was awaiting us at the top. But we had come so far and there was no going back now. Each step higher seemed harder and harder, there seemed to be no end. At times it felt like we were the only ones doing this walk, it was rare to pass one person let alone a group. That was at least until we reached the top. We had made it 1670m to the Valley of the Five Ponds. We were there, but because of the fog we couldn't actually see any of the ponds, and from what I've heard and seen on pictures, it rather lovely. After a hot cup of tea with lemon we decided to keep going, this time back in the direction of Morskie Oko. This time it was a two hour climb down with some hills thrown in between. Following a group, we weren't alone and I felt a little bit safer. With such uncertain weather the last thing I wanted was to be alone in the mountains. Two hours and twenty minutes later we were in Morskie Oko. The unfortunate or maybe fortunate thing about the place is that you can not go into the water. It's forbidden. No swimming, fishing or boating allowed and that's what keeps the water so clear. You can see the bottom and it's incredibly clean. Definitely worth a visit. There's even a bar/restaurant where you can enjoy a meal or hot drink during your journey. All round we wandered around for about 8 hours.

On the third day it was overcast and raining once again. Rather disappointing since we only had four days and three nights. However, no amount of rain was going to deter us from seeing some more sites. The plan was to visit Gubałówka and than spend an hour or so at the Aquapark on Jagielońska Street (turn right at the PKS Zakopane). If it wasn't for the fog once again, we would have had marvellous views of Zakopane. We enjoyed tea, coffee and a delicious apple pie with whipped cream, strawberry ice cream and poured over with chocolate sauce. Yummy.
For me, the Aquapark was rather disappointing. Firstly, it was crowded and overrated. Changing rooms, lockers and showers were unisex which for some people may cause a degree of uncomfortable feelings. Lockers didn't work properly and there was really no room to swim. Any designated lanes for swimming were being used up by kids playing games, making lots of noise and splashing about. Swimming laps was out of the question. We did enjoy fifteen minutes in the thermal pool outside, with the outside temp. at about 14 degrees and the water at 30 degree, it was pleasant.

We decided to check out the sauna to ease the muscle aches from the previous day. There were a few to choose from, ranging from very hot and dry, to warm and humid, a cold room and a relaxation room. For me, it would have been better value for money to pay for one hour in the solarium (about 18 zloty or 0.60zl per minute depending on the entry option). It's definitely great for children who want to play around a bit, there's a few pools -two indoor and one thermal outdoor, a few spas which were heavily packed with people, and slides for the kids and teenagers. They have full day packages that include pool entry, changing rooms and sauna for 60 zloty per day or 18 zloty per hour for adults and 12 zloty for children.

Finally on the day we were leaving the sun decided to show up. We were pleased that we managed to get at least one day of sunshine. After breakfast in our room and checking out, we took our baggage to the 'baggage hold' area at the PKS and left it there for the day (about 5 zloty per baggage). Strolling around the streets we talked, checked out the architecture and watched how the city prepared for the Tour de Pologne that was arriving that afternoon. We saw the ski jumps, than moved on to the main tourist strip, Krupówki to do some souvenir shopping, have our last dinner in Zakopane and browse through the shops for the remainder of the day before we had to get on the train.

Zakopane is a fantastic place for the traveller after a relaxing escape, an active retreat, or a party getaway. Zakopane has something to offer every traveller, regardless or age or gender. It's definitely one of the places to see when visiting Poland.

Exchange rate as at 8.8.09 – 1 Euro = 4.11 zloty
1 USD = 2.90 zloty