zakopane museum

 A rainy afternoon in Zakopane proper and once again a mixture of the mundane and the tantalizing. I wanted to find the local museum – described initially on one website as a museum of ‘Zakopane style’ which sounds like some kind of fashionable apparel display but no, it is apparently at least in part about late 19^th century attempts to create/preserve the architectural and folk traditions of the region. When I paid to get in ‘the lady’ instantly marked me as a foreigner and handed me a three-sheet folder of written description of the museum that was nothing specific but was better than nothing. The exhibits were all in Polish as they more or less should be and I did at least glean that the traditional Zakopane/Tatra home had a ‘black room’ and a ‘white room’, the first black from chimney smoke and functionality and the other where all the good and decent things were located. Writing this down it seems like a construct and I guess one way or another that’s exactly what it is.

The rest of that floor was farming implements, bits of bespoke ornament and pottery, and a really extraordinary thing with a pointy head and a hot water bottle body which I am really annoyed I couldn’t photograph properly because of its behindglassness.

Upstairs was the natural history displays, way too many stuffed animals in truth but also some terrific fossils and some very classy mountain models.

The museum was packed with adults and children, and while I can’t say no-one was saying anything idiotic because I have no idea what they were saying, I was impressed by their contemplative demeanour. Well done Poland.

I then went and bought a scrapbook and a gluestick for my receipts and it was raining something shocking so I just ducked into this restaurant not far from my third hotel which I have yet to check into. This is the view out the window and the view of me writing this. I hope I look smart typing at a table on a laptop if the people here thought that and then found out I was blogging I imagine they would throw me down the stairs.

Stay tuned for what I did next, coming very soon...