Poland & Berlin: Part 8 - Day 8: Tatra mountains - Murowaniec, Lake Czarny Staw Gasienicowy

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 8.

28/7 Day 8: Hike in Tatra mountains - Murowaniec, Lake Czarny Staw Gasienicowy

Costs
(A) Food

(1) Lunch at Hotel Murowaniec - Kwasnica soup PLN28 / SEK87,44. Cash only.

(2) Dinner at Lesniczowka bistro in Kuznice - Potato pancake with goulash PLN45, cappucino PLN15, apple juice PLN10. Total PLN70 / SEK185,36

(B) Miscellaneous
(3) Toilet at Hotel Murowaniec - PLN3 / SEK8,16

The Story

28072023: Today's plan is to hike another route - Murowaniec and continue to Lake Czarny Staw Gasienicowy. First, breakfast. We got a breakfast coupon when we checked in. With the coupon, we could choose one breakfast set and either tea of coffee from 9 alternatives. There is also granola where we could have with yoghurt. For my breakfast coupon, I chose omelett with bacon, bread with butter and jam. The coffee was tasteless. It came from a coffee machine.

We left the hotel at 10am and made our way towards Kuznice town. There, we will take the route to Murowaniec. In Kuznice town, we took the opportunity to withdraw cash from a cash automated machine so that we could have some food at Hotel Murowaniec as we had experience from yesterday that it was cash only. It was very expensive to withdraw money in the mountains. We withdrew PLN200 that costed us SEK647,69. The exchange rate was PLN1 = SEK3,2385! The exchange rate for that day when we paid via credit card PLN1 = SEK2,6217. 

We continued our hike towards Murowaniec. The yellow signboard states 2 hours from Kuznice. So, we followed the yellow sign. It was a lovely trail in the beginning but it began to tire me out when I had to go up lots of stony steps.

It was muddy at the last 30 minutes to our destination. We could see that the path was under construction as the path before that was formed with giant rocks. I was afraid I will fall on the muddy trail as I had city walking shoes and hiking shoes. My shoes did not have any grip. We did reach Murowaniec about 2 hours later.

Here, we had our lunch. Cash only. There is a cash withdrawal machine in the restaurant. I wondered why do they accept cash only. I cannot imagine the amount of cash they have to count and carry with them from the mountains to the bank. There were so many hikers on that day! I suppose there is no risk for robbery. 

We chose to eat outside because it was sunny. Also, because there are lots of benches and tables. It was fully packed inside the restaurant.

My kwasnica soup - Kwasnica soup is a traditional Polish dish from the Tatra Mountains made of slow-cooked pork or mutton combined with sauerkraut. Yummy! Especially with crusty sourdough bread.

Toilet payable by cash or credit card. My travel companions can pee anywhere by just turning their backs. Lucky them. 

After lunch, we continued our hike towards a lake that my travel companions had identified in the map. It was cloudy and we hurried up to the spot but me being a person who likes to take a lot of photographs, was not easy to hurry up. We reached the spot when it started to drizzle. It took 35 minutes to get to the lake.

It would have been a beautiful sight at the lake if it was sunny. 

We stayed for 10 minutes only because the rain was getting too much. We wanted to have a slice of apple cake in Hotel Murowaniec but it was packed with hikers who took shelter from the rain. So, we hiked back and on the muddy trail where I was afraid I will slip and fall, I did. Slipped and fall. It shocked me. So, I hiked back with muddy pants. Luckily, my rain poncho did not tear.

This is the muddy trail that everyone cautiously walked on.

My legs were very exhausted when we reached Kuznice town by 5pm. It had stopped raining. We went into a random bistro to have our dinner. Here, I decided to treat myself to potato pancakes with goulash to give me some energy to hike back to our hotel which will take us an extra 30 minutes.

Back in our hotel room, we got to see a nice sunset view.

What a day! I think I am pretty satisfied with my hike in Tatra mountains.