Great shopping in Poland... who knew?!

Just a few days after the start of my summer break, it was time for the first trip. Earlier in the spring, some of my friends here in Frankfurt had been to Poland to go pottery shopping... when I said that I would love to go some time, a couple of us choose June 16-17 to make another trip. So while Daniel was in Milan for the week for work, on Tuesday morning my friends, Stephanie, Lisa, Tanya, and I all piled into our car, and we started the five hour drive to Boleslawiec, Poland. The town is about an hour past the German border, not far from Dresden. It has a longstanding tradition of making pottery, dating back to the 7th century, so Boleslawiec has become well-known around Europe for making outstanding stoneware.

Although I do love to shop, I haven't been very often since moving to Europe... when everything is in a different language, currency, or even sizes, shopping just isn't as fun. Because it had been quite a while, I was definitely looking forward to doing some shopping. So when we arrived by late afternoon, we immediately got to it. Before closing time, we were able to get to a couple of stores... this was one of them, and as you can see, the selection was pretty overwhelming! We did our best to take in all the options... and of course, we all just had to buy something :)

After shopping, we headed towards our hotel, the Blue Beetroot. An English couple with Polish roots converted an old barn into this charming little inn. We had a lovely "apartment" for the four of us... all of the wood accents made it very cozy. There was a wonderful restaurant downstairs, where we enjoyed a great dinner, followed by movie time and hitting the hay... in order to rest up for a full day of shopping the next day!

Following a yummy breakfast, we were back on the pottery trail. At the first shop we visited, we got the chance to see women painting the pottery... apparently, the traditional bright blue colors of Polish pottery do not appear until after it's been fired in the kiln. It was neat to see what it looks like both before and after. Next we went to a few more shops, including the one pictured below. Between all the stores, the four of us all found plenty of great pottery to buy... not surprisingly, my trunk was reaching its capacity rather quickly.

For a change of pace, our last stop in Boleslawiec was an art glass studio. While we had some difficulty finding the store, it did give us a chance to check out the town center since it was located right off the city's quaint main square.

Soon we had some glass pieces to add to all the pottery we had bought, and by then my trunk had definitely reached capacity, so we were soon on our way back to Frankfurt. Thankfully the drive is through serene countryside... which was especially nice when we got stuck in gridlock traffic for an hour and a half! By midnight, we had finally made it back. The next day I surveyed the "damage" I had done... while it might seem like I went a little crazy, you should know that most of these are gifts... but I am definitely not giving away who they are for :)

It was a quick but fun trip, and I don't doubt that I will be making it out to Poland again during our time here. In the meantime, there is plenty more traveling to do... we were actually just down in Geneva for a few days, so stay tuned for a post about that very soon!