My ancestors emmigrated from Galicia to Chicago around 1900, I would like to visit Southern Poland and explore the Tatras, Carpathians and the villages of my ancestors.
You should also see the Bieszczady mountains (south- eastern Poland), but you'd need someone that could act as a translator, because the locals usually don't speak english. Bieszczady are a magical region, with tragic history- after WW2, in the late 40' many anti- communist guirella troops (both Ukrainian and Polish) were still fighting with the reds there; after they managed to kill an important regime general, and when it became clear that local population supports the partisans, Stalin ordered commies to excile them all. After a few months, only the ruins of burnt villages remained. For many years commies tried to resettle the region, but even now, if compared to any other place in Poland, it looks half deserted, and you can still find ruins of old churches, or forgotten cemetaries in the middle of the wilderness. Try visiting Wolosate (before the war, it was as populated as Zakopane, now, less than ten families live there) with the old orthodox cemetary remnants, and great oportunity to go for a walk to Tarnica mountain.
I encourage You to see this region, as I myself fell in love with those mountains long time ago.
You'll find more info at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bieszczady_Mountains
