Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Zakopane is nice but prepare for massive crowds in the town itself and any time from late morning till early afternoon on most of the easier hikes. July is especially busy as kids are out of school. If you are going to stay near Zakopane I recommend the area just west of the town, more rural, less hustle and bustle, and even better access to the west high Tatras. Personally I've never been, but would LOVE to spend a few weeks on the Slovakian side of the Tatra's. It's more wild, there's more hiking trails, and the peaks are much higher.

Mazury is also a very popular vacation destination for poles that don't want to travel abroad, so July will be peak season.

Do let us know what you end up doing. DW and I are heading to Zakopane for two weeks in late August/early Sept.

thanks for the info. I know those are tourjst destination. poles on holiday are rare enough for me so that we'll still enjoy their presence. if not, i got quite good a finding quiet places just from looking at the map.
do you know if it's still easy to park a bus and sleep in it without anoying someone?

I usually dont like other people's work.
But this is great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvUPgaVh8_A
Je ne vois, je ne vois plus, car tout est blanc

Quand je te touche, je sens quelque chose de différent

Un air de fête, si profondément décevant

Et reçois l'ordre d'être obligé d'être content

Si tu en veux je donnerai un pansement

Plus de supplice en prenant le médicament

Halte-là, devant toi et en avant

Et si je meurs on trouvera un remplaçant

Bien plus tard, au détour dans le contrechamp

Les charognards n'ont plus rien de bien inquiétant

Chancelant, vacillant et haletant

Je compte mes pas, je crois qu'en tout il y en a 100

Haletant, je compte mes pas il y en a 100

Haletant, je compte mes pas il y en a 100

N'essaye pas, n'essaye pas

Petit soldat

Crois-tu seulement, crois-tu encore avoir le choix?

Et si t'y crois, et j'y crois

Malentendu à coeur perdu au fond de toi

Et calme-toi, petit soldat

Si dans la rue, plus personne ne te suivra

T'as pas le droit, tu tomberas

Bien avant l'heure, bien avant l'heure du combat

Célébrons, le triomphe des grands perdants

C'est mentalement que penche ma tête dans un hochement

À fleur de peau, porte à bout de bras mes sentiments

Depuis toujours, pensait en faire un talisman

Jour après jour, je resterai ton concurrent

Aller-retour, j'ai bien compris le fonctionnement

Pour avancer, l'humanité je vivrai sans

J'ai plus le choix, que de devenir un peu méchant

J'oublie tout, deviens quelqu'un de résilient

Plus de supplice en prenant le médicament

Discrètement, je te suivrai plus bas dedans

Mon subconscient, provoquera ton accident

Te donne la mort, en complice de mon instrument

Contre le tourment et dans un acte bienveillant

Face au fléau, jette mon âme dans l'océan

Et garderai au fond de moi un trou béant

Petit soldat

Petit soldat

Petit soldat, je ne vois plus, car tout est blanc

Quand je te touche, je sens quelque chose de différent

Un air de fête, si profondément décevant

Et reçois l'ordre d'être obligé d'être content

Si tu en veux, je donnerai un pansement

Plus de supplice, en prenant le médicament

Halte-là, devant toi et en avant

Et si on meurt, on trouvera des remplaçants

Si on meurt, ils trouveront nos remplaçants

Si on meurt, ils trouveront nos remplaçants



Otherwise, I really enjoy the people i met at the Huntinglicense courses.
It's a very diverse crowd. I think I missed being with other men, and we all have very different way to be men, and it is very nice to see. I feel at the same time more confident about what i am, and more understanding about other ways of being.

I like it too. Glad you are enjoying the hunting and comradery it brings you. You will probably find it brings lots of other benefits too.

I feel like humankind's future will be decided by my couple's fertility, but no one knows which outcome to whish for.

at work, we had to empty an old woman's appartment. She had a lot of valuable stuff, vinyls, books, paintings, high quality tools and furniture, lot of travel pictures, family album. We fill more than two big dumpster container with them (i don't remember if they're 20 or 30 cubic meter each). Accumulating anything is completly pointless if there is no one to value your legacy.
The fact we can afford to throw all those stuff away is crazy. Also, i understand why sales persons are paid so well.

Jean wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:28 pm

Otherwise, I really enjoy the people i met at the Huntinglicense courses.
It's a very diverse crowd. I think I missed being with other men, and we all have very different way to be men, and it is very nice to see. I feel at the same time more confident about what i am, and more understanding about other ways of being.

I missed this part when you posted this earlier. I find the same thing when I interact with folks that are into very different things. As an example, there is an entire subgroup of motorized (4 wheelers/dirtbikes/snow mobiles) that are integral parts to search and rescue operations. I did not realize this ahead of time, but they turn their hobbies of riding around in the forest into looking for people. They have a completely different attitude about most things, but during our shared search I was able to learn a lot about how to look at the land through their eyes. I would also say these folks (not all men of course) have an idea of masculinity that is very different than mine. I am glad you are finding some comradery with those hunting folks and that their expressions of masculinity reaffirm your own.

we are on our way toward poland. we'll start with the coast, and then go east. is anyonw around this month?

This travel in poland is going very well. The coast was incredibly beautifull. I never saw sand beaches as beautifull as those before.
Then we met a very nice forum member that gave us a tour of the old town of gdansk. We then visited the teutonic fortress in Malbrok, before going to pisz to rent a kajak. we did a loop around the neighbouring lakes and are now paddling down the Pisa. We found great camping spots on the way, some quiet, and some with welcoming neighbours.
for peak season, it is incredibly easy to be alone. It's slightly easier than in switzerland, but in switzerkand, i know all the tricks, so it's probably 20 times easier in absolute.
I can also see inflation, the amount that got you a huge hamburger with a pound of meat in 2008 now only gets you a hot dog.

We'll probably spend a few day in the tatra on our way back.

it's funny how poland reminds me of the us in its periurbanism. i wonder if it's because polabd copied the us, or if the large amount of poles in the midwest influenced the us development that much.
I even started converting distance in km, as if they were writen in miles.
There are a lot more bike path and people using them in poland though.

I suspect its similar due to low population density in flat terrain. Glad you are having fun though. I've only been to Warsaw and Lodz in Poland. I remember the train journey between them, very empty countryside.

Jean wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:53 am

it's funny how poland reminds me of the us in its periurbanism. i wonder if it's because polabd copied the us, or if the large amount of poles in the midwest influenced the us development that much.
I even started converting distance in km, as if they were writen in miles.
There are a lot more bike path and people using them in poland though.

The northern part of Poland that you were visiting has fairly low population density. People are more concentrated in the central and especially southern parts of the country (the north had the worst farming conditions of the whole country, so the population didn't grow that much there over the ages).
But, even there, it's cities and towns surrounded by countryside. I don't see how that's unique though - aren't most countries like that?

As for the bike paths, people use them, but almost exclusively for tourism and recreation. So, with the exceptions of nice warm days (especially weekends), they're practically empty.

Jean wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:53 am

i wonder if it's because polabd copied the us, or if the large amount of poles in the midwest influenced the us development that much.

Beavers build the same dams in Poland, the US, and the whole world.

Good to see you are having another fun trip!

@zbigi switzerland is not like that. Also, i've seen people cleary going to places on bikes.

this trip clearly reactivated my travel itch. there is still a vacc mandate to enter the usa and canada. I was thinking about crossing france visitint friends on the way, then take a boat from britanny, and loosely follow the west coast of great britain.

the advantage of living in an expensive place, is that traveling abroad doesn't really increase expenses.

Jean wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:27 am

was thinking about crossing france visitint friends on the way, then take a boat from britanny, and loosely follow the west coast of great britain.

You might be interested in the south west coast path.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_Coast_Path

Although Wales, Cumbria and the Isle of Skye have more impressive scenery if you prefer mountains to the sea. Though maybe you prefer a change from mountains. There are also direct ferries from France to Ireland.

Dartmoor and Exmoor are very rich in prehistoric sites, like barrows and stone circles, which I think you mentioned you like. As is Cumbria and Ireland.

my idea was to take a ferry from the channel island, so dartmoor, exmoor an cornwall are on the way. the trail looks amazing, but i don't know if i can free up a month this year.
i've been to ireland before an i ain't that imterested in going back.

i wonder where the best place in europe to sell a mercedes 308d with too much rust for the swiss vehicle control is.

PL, of course.

well, that's not so sure.

I suspect that, if you want to sell it outside of your country, you might have to deal with a bunch of paperwork and fees, potentially including tarrifs etc. Plus, the used cars in Poland at least are very underpriced, because a large fraction of them are crash victims which came to PL in a sorry state on a car carrier and then got fixed by our massive car import cottage industry, and then sold as a car that was never in a crash (it's a standard scam that goes on on a massive scale). In effect, the old, used cars in Poland are actually cheaper than cars in Germany and other Western countries, even though a most of them were imported from there...