A Weekend Roadtrip!

So, being back in Poland in the Springtime is such a treat compared to the frigid cold temperatures back in January. As a reward for one for tolerating such a pesky winter, we(me and my lovely girlfriend,) treated ourselves to a holiday in the relaxing,verdant, sunny town of Bialoweza. Bialoweza means 'white tower,' which in fact the town duly displays overlooking a sparkling lake in the middle of the town park. However, the highlight for most visitors is the opportunity to gaze upon the local Bison, who graze lazily in the local nature reserve just down the road from the ubiquitous white tower.

Once arriving by bus from Warsaw on Friday evening, checking in, and throwing our bags in our room, we ushered ourselves outside to trek on down the quiet, sleepy road in order to grasp a Bison of a different kind. The local beer is also logically called Zubr, which my poor Polish knowledge tells me Zubr is Bison. Luckily there was a cozy penzion down the road where we able to procure and consume a couple of these strong Piwo. It was just enough to make us feel sleepy. Which was good because we had an early morning on Saturday.

Once our phones collectively woke us up around 8 am, we had some breakfast of home leftovers, and set off down the road to catch the bus to the local Bison Reserve. On the way to catch the bus it finally began to hit me how beautiful spring in fact was. Everywhere in any direction I could see a plethora of flowers in bloom, which seemed to reach every hue on the color scale. It was truly breathtaking. Down the road we paid our two or three zloty to view the Bison, Oxen, Wolf, Polish Horse, sleeping Lynx, and other exotic animals who seemed to be chilling out in the sun ignoring the snapping of trigger happy camera packing tourists. Because of the apparent ignorance of the animals of the giant herd of humans taking photos, I began to feel like I was in a zoo; which left me a little disappointed. Regardless, the weather was nicer than it had been in a long while, and the national park we were trekking through was truly stunning. After poking around checking out the animals and bidding them farewell, we set off back to the town on foot.

The walk back for me was the highlight of the trip. It seemed that the entire park was free to explore and photograph. The two of us spent the entire day walking about fifteen kilometers of mostly flat land through the park and town checking out everything from lakes, gardens, houses, to even an interesting open air museum. For me that was the highlight of the weekend; just being outside in nature. Anyway, it was a very productive weekend of photographing, trekking, Bison watching and Beer drinking. Now back in Warsaw sitting in one of the thousand trendy cafes pumping out atmospheric trance music, I seriously look forward to my next outdoor adventure.