Published via Ecency

The last 3 or 4 years I had an urge. An urge to go into Polish mountains that I haven't visited for many years. That urge was not fulfilled until this year, when I finally got in my car and drove there with my parents.

It's not how it was planned. I was gonna go there all by myself, find a cute little place to stay a few days and feed my soul while exploring beautiful Polish mountains.

Expectations vs reality is the dominating theme of my holiday in Poland though. I wanted some me time, but time spent with my parents is just too precious. Throughout my whole life I never had such a great relationship with my dad as I have now. When I was here last year, we were walking in the forest every day, which gave us some quality time together.

Ever since pandemic hit my dad developed this daily habit of walking, which I admire. Once I sorted all my appointments and took my car back from the mechanic, I decided it was time for that moutain trip that I long for so long. I invited my dad to come along, cause with his daily walking he sure had enough stamina to keep up with me.

I didn't ask my mum, because her answer for everything is always NO, so I didn't want to pressure her. My dad however managed to convince her somehow to join us and from the solitary trip it change into a family bonding time.

I woke up early on the 1st of November, because I was planning to first write my report for Ocober on RC. I enjoyed my coffee while writing and around noon we packed a little backpack and embarked on out journey into the mountains. I wanted to go to a place without many people and my friend reccomended Istebna, a small village 60 miles away from our town.

Even the car journey was already enjoyable. It was a coudy morning when I got up, but as soon as we were on the road, clouds disappeared and gave room to the sun. As if the sun wanted to applaud us for getting off our bums ;)

As soon as we arrived to higher elevation area, the views were trully breathtaking. I empoyed my dad as my photographer, but the pictures with my old phone were not of the greatest quality. I needed my newer phone to direct our journey, as Roaming on this phone is for free in my tariff.

Driving around small bendy roads was a challenge on its own, but an enjoyable when you take it slow. My dad was reminiscing the stories from his youth, when he had a bike and did some crazy things on bendy roads like this. Well, my main goal was to get us there safe, so slowly we enjoyed it too.

Once we have found an almost empty car park, we took our backpack and started our journey... into nature's toilet at first! 1.5h journey in the car after drinking couple of coffees was bound to finish like this ;)
'Rope park' sign took our interest. None of us knew what it meant, but we decided to find out and... well, that's a story for another article. I came out of it with a few bruises and painful arms ;)

There was a blue route near the car park, but it was wet and slippery and none of us had shoes suitable for that route, so we picked an easier looking one. We barely walked for 5 minutes and the amazing view opened up ahead of us. There was not much of an uphill action there, but I had to take my mum into consideration and make it enjoyable for all.

As we continued to walk, a lovely wooden building appeared out of nowhere. We walked downhill for quite a while now, so I thought it will be a perfect rest place on our way back, before we take the last part of our uphill journey.

1st of November is The All Saints day in #Poland . We passed many people heading into the church and while taking the walk we could hear a priest singing the song. Not that I'm religious these days at all, but it was a nice addition to our walk.

We walked all the way down as the sun was slowly going down. I was hoping for a longer walk, but I could tell that my mum was already feeling it, so we took a loop and walked back up again.

I run a little forward to take some pictures of these two. They were laughing at me saying that I will feel it next day. I sure did!

The little wooden building came in handy on our way up. We sat there for 5 mins or so. I managed to post a quick update to my followers, while my dad was enjoying the structure of this cute hiding place. He has always dreamt of having a wooden house.

In the last stretch my dad had to help out my mum a bit up the hill. It was pretty challenging for the calves.

I stayed a little bit behind to take one more pretty picture of these two under an #Autumn tree and then I run up to hold my mum's other hand to help out on the most steep part of the journey.

Together we managed to climb that hill. Together, as it should be. I had to wait all my life to experience that togetherness with both of my parents at the same time. I will keep these precious memories in my heart and on the pictures too.

Once the most challenging part was completed, mum could finally catch her breath and walk on her own again. Even my dad, who is used to daily 6km walks admitted it was a whole new level of challenge.

We walked by the police building on our way back.. Even this looked very pretty in this small village. I bet they're not too busy either, as this one small building serves 2 villages.

Finally we arrived back at the car park. Our car was the only one left there. I was not satisfied with the small amount of steps I did, so I wanted to walk a little longer. Both of my parents refused and decided to wait for me in the car, while I was running around like a wild thing, taking pictures of everything I could see.