Nuns in Backpacks, Zakopane

As Brian mentioned, we did a couple of fairly strenuous hikes. And let me tell you, when you are already struggling and feeling frustrated about your (lack of ) conditioning, nothing rubs it in your face more than getting smoked by nuns. That's right, the hills over Zakopane were chock full of nuns out for hikes, dressed in their full regalia. Some of the habits were black, some brown, some blue, and some gray, but they all had all the trimmings. (Hopefully one of our readers who knows more about this sort of things than we do can explain the color variations...different orders? different ranks or stages?) I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that they were so good. After all, most of them have probably grown up traipsing around the mountains, and as far as I know, that's actually one of the nunly duties. (At least that's what it looked like in The Sound of Music). Still, on one of the steepest parts of one of our climbs, when we were digging our toes in for traction and (I at least was) huffing and puffing and struggling, I looked up and saw two middle aged nuns in full habits tripping along briskly towards us and couldn't help it: I was about to utter a pretty disgusted "God Dammit!" when I decided that that might be a little sacriligious, even for me. Maybe they're flying nuns..... Becca