Walk 3: The panorama walk

This weekend was a big adventure! My friend who is teaching in Slovakia, Meghan, came to visit Sarah and I. It was wonderful to visit her and hear all of her stories. We decided to try out one of the self-guided walks of Cieszyn that has directions on the Cieszyn website. Sarah printed off the directions at school on Friday, and we thought we would be good to go on this walk. The directions said that it was only 8km, no big deal. In addition to the directions there are markers on various vertical objects (trees and lampposts) that mark the path.

The directions are oddly specific and at times down right weird. Because of this, we decided to take pictures at EVERY direction to make a photo diary of our adventure. We ended up taking over 70 pictures. The album will be on facebook soon with plently of commentary. The following are little clips from the directions:
-We continue uphill toward two houses painted white and beige.
-After passing an isolated farm we come to a gully on our left. Beyond it we turn right into a grassy track between fields, which runs parallel to electricity pylons and takes us almost to the top of Połuchnia, a hill 376m above sea level.
-We go diagonally across fields towards an electricity pylon. We turn left again just before the pylon and cross the fields on a wide grass track in a southerly direction.
-After around 200 m we reach a rubbish tip (where a new road is being planned) and turn right. The grassy track is scarcely visible here.
-We pass two splendid oaks, an ash and a hornbeam on the right.

We did our very best to follow these specific yet weird directions, yet we still managed to get off track and skip an entire paragraph of directions. However, this could be because something got lost in translation when someone took the directions from Polish to English-mostly the meaning of right and left. Regardless of being lost (without even knowing it) we still found a field to walk diagonally across towards an electricity pylon after we accidentally trespassed on a dairy farm. It was about then we realized we were lost when there was woods instead of grass to walk through. We then decided to turn about to go back to the path we had come from and follow it along one of the main roads. This was the perfect decision because when we got to the next main road we somehow found the trail again! It was amazing and so surprising. Since the hike took about twice as long as we had expected, we stopped at a gas station for snacks. We are unsure of how far we actually walked, but it was definitely longer than 8km. Regardless, we are none the worse for the wear and it makes a great story!

Back to school tomorrow and no more across town adventures for the time being. It is still surprising to me that I am a teacher in Poland, but all in all I really do love it here. I don't know if my lesson plans are good or if they follow any pedagogical techniques, but the students seem to respond so I think it is okay. Tomorrow is a full day, I start teaching at 8am and will not leave school until at least 4:30. This means it is time for bed soon!

Blessings,
Colleen