| Rainbow over the Tatras, view from Bukowina |
|  | If you asked me which holiday destination I know best my answer would have to be Bukowina Tatrzanska, a large village in the Podhale region with a great view of the Tatra Mountains. We went there year after year, together and independently of each other even before we were married. That's not where we met though but we could have done if we hadn't both been shy of strangers. Bukowina lies on three or four hills not far from Zakopane, but higher - you can really feel the clear brisk mountain air, but don't breathe in too deep, the fumes have now got there as well.
We visited the place regularly at the time before colour photography so we have few pictures from that time. Our black and white pictures are of too poor quality to put on VT.
If we liked the village so much, why did we stop going there, you might ask. The reasons are three: first, we had already seen all there was to see in Bukowina, second, the place had changed, becoming noisy and touristy beyond words, and third, the Polish - Slovakian border opened to us around 1990, letting us discover the unrivalled peace and beauty of the Slovakian Tatras, just a few kilometres away. Yet we did return there once or twice for a few days on our way to Slovakia but the crowds, the traffic and the noise discouraged us again. If you are interested in skiing, that's the place to visit in winter time with a number of ski-lifts, nice restaurants serving excellent food and hot wine with cloves. You will never want to leave.
This year we revisited the area but stayed in the quiet village of Jurgow for a change so I have been adding pictures and updating tips and am going to write new pages on Jurgow, Bialka Tatrzanska and some other villages in the area soon. So far, I have only finished my Chocholow page, showing this wonderful village of old wooden houses and my Niedzica page, showing the great castle and Czorsztyn Lake.
Just a word of explanation of the title of my page. The local people of Bukowina, like most highlanders living in the Podhale region, use a dialect, distinct from standard Polish but understandable to the rest of us Poles, called, a little scornfully, 'cepry'. The word 'hej' (pronounced hey) is used a lot in that dialect and may mean 'yes', 'fine', 'is that right?' - depending on the intonation. I must say I like that 'hej' very much. |
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