An Eye in the Mountains

This picture, or rather the story of its creation, expressed in bare numbers, would look something like this:

53 years old, 15 kg of luggage, 8 km of trail, 418 m of elevation gain in just under two hours. And no matter how much you sweated, panted, and cursed on this journey, none of it comes to mind when you're standing here, at Morskie Oko or it’s popular name, the Sea Eye.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it's one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world. If you want to experience this stunningly beautiful place, I strongly advise you to get up very early. And not just because of the light, but also because of the incredible number of people who want to come here every day.

I set off at 6:30 a.m. and I was by no means the first one up here. Nevertheless, I was pretty much alone for long stretches of the way up here and found the atmosphere very calm and peaceful when I arrived.

However, the endless procession that I encountered on the way back left me quite shocked.