I know I said on the last Poland trip that it was my last one, but I swear...this time WAS our last one. I couldn't help myself, especially since we officially know that we won't be staying overseas.. Not to mention, Eric still hadn't had the chance to do a pottery dash. So of course he needed to join us on the insanity to really get a true understanding of what a "dash" consisted of.
Like usual, I picked up our official Poland van from Schinnen since I had arranged for it many months ago...and got an interesting surprise. Ya see, I normally got a "transporter" van which allows for a good amount of space for not only the passengers, but for pottery as well. This time, that's not what I was given. Not in the slightest. I was given a VW 9-pack van that barely had any sort of trunk space for luggage, nevermind the notion of tons of pottery. I was informed that their fleet no longer consisted of the "transporters" because customers complained that they were "too big" to fit in parking garages around Europe. Well...I've never had that problem, especially since I don't even have to deal with garages where we'll be! Needless to say, I was extremely displeased and made them very aware of it.
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The next day, we all loaded up and made it to Poland in WONDERFUL time.
It was so chilly during the drive that ice formed up on the side mirrors!
So wonderful in fact that it allowed us to shop for three hours before any of the stores closed for the day, lol. Eric surprised me because he ended up finding all sorts of stuff he was wanting to get! Who am I to stop him?
Our original plan was to just go for the food. Obviously, that plan went out the window!
As you know, shopping burns lots of calories and worked up everyones appetite..so, we found one our favorite haunts, called Elric's, and gorged ourselves silly.
It was so chilly during the drive that ice formed up on the side mirrors!
So wonderful in fact that it allowed us to shop for three hours before any of the stores closed for the day, lol. Eric surprised me because he ended up finding all sorts of stuff he was wanting to get! Who am I to stop him?
Our original plan was to just go for the food. Obviously, that plan went out the window!
As you know, shopping burns lots of calories and worked up everyones appetite..so, we found one our favorite haunts, called Elric's, and gorged ourselves silly.
We headed to our fabulous hotel, which is the Palac Brunow. It's the second time I've stayed there and it's a truly awesome place! In all seriousness, if you find yourself shopping in Boleswaleic for pottery, just do yourself a favor and stay at the Brunow even though it's twenty minutes outside of the town. It's worth it! Since we opted to stay with them for three nights, they actually upgraded our rooms without an additional charge, AND, they threw in free breakfasts & dinners during our stay. How awesome is that? It was definitely a pleasant surprise since *I* wasn't expecting that..so the rest of the gals were definitely stoked on the notion! Eric and I ended up getting a really nice premium room which happened to have its own glass encased balcony...it was really cool! Plus the view overlooked almost the entire property, so we totally scored with an awesome room for our last trip. Here's what ours looked like:
I gotta say, the estate itself is so pretty in general, but it was gorgeous with the morning haze!
We all stumbled downstairs, fueled up on the breakfast buffet then took the town by storm.
Oh man...that city didnt know what it was in for! If you've done this sort of shopping before, you'll understand when I say it sort of feels like a "frenzy"...like there's blood in the water. Once one person finds something really cool, then it's like a personal mission to find something equally cool for your collection. Now remember, there were seven of us shopping...so consider how many frenzies were going on. LOTS. Everything started to blur together because there's just SO much stuff in each store..and I believe we attacked almost fifteen stores..most of 'em we repeated multiple times:
I don't even remember half the stuff I bought...neither did Eric. Well..neither did most of the ladies. Some of em wanted to open up their boxes throughout the day to figure out what they've bought so far, lol. The mind set was basically "GO! GO! GO!" till we couldn't go anymore. I think we ended up throwing in the towel by 5:30 ( we had been shopping since 9am) and retired back to the Brunow.
Once we got back, the hotel made our dinner reservations for six o'clock in which we had an awesome goulash sort of soup as an appetizer, then something that sort of reminded me of my grandmas roulladen. It was pork that was wrapped around carrots and a variety of other things and were braised, served with mashed potatoes and a mixed pickle salad (THAT was weird for me!)
Notice the....um...decor for the dining room..
Eric was not a happy camper because he said he could "feel" the dolls looking over his shoulder..lol
Since he was such a trooper, he earned himself some ice cream :)
I think we all hung out in the dining room for almost 3 hours since we were swapping stories amongst other entertaining factors that were in the room. Everyone retired for the evening since we had a busy day planning
The next day, we had the same routine with chowing down on some breakfast and I was plotting out the plans for what other stores we were going to invade. Also, some of the ladies in addition to myself are Starbucks mugs collectors. The last time we were in Poland, we debated on making a dash to Wroclaw, which is an hour and a half from where we were staying. Sadly, we didn't make it there since the gals were just having too much fun hunting for super sweet patterns. This time around, I made sure to have us stay an extra day so we could attempt the dash. I REFUSED to leave Poland without my mug!
To our surprise, it randomly snowed in the town we were shopping in, yet, not the place we were staying at. Weird, right? lol
After smashing and grabbing at some stores, we wanted to get some lunch before hitting the road to Wroclaw. We were originally gonna go back to Elric's, but they weren't available so we randomly hit up a place called Opałkowa Chata, which looked....intriguing. Yeah...intriguing would be the word for it. Sure, it looks funky and what not, but we gave it a shot.
OH MY GOSH. How have I not been to this place before?! It was AWESOME! They actually use MASSIVE portions when it comes to the stuff you order! For a starter, they gave us a basket of freshly baked bread with a side of bacon butter. Yes, you read that right...BACON BUTTER. It was heavenly! Ahh!
Of course, I ordered myself some perogies because, hey, I'm in Poland. These things were MASSIVE. As in, each one was about the size of the palm of my hand. The filling was like a cottage cheese consistency with onion, and the outside was briefly sauteed in bacon. They were out of this world! I would've stuffed myself stupid on those things, but they were so filling that I could only finish off half the plate!
Eric ended up ordering a potato pancake that was "stuffed" with Goulash. I know it doesn't seem very large in the picture, but when the plate was put infront of him, even Eric looked a little concerned.
Eric really really wanted to acquire the pot and spoon, but it wouldn't fit in Bill, and we certainly weren't going to strap it to the roof. His was very displeased with my answer..
We rolled out to Wroclaw and made it in a decent amount of time despite the fact that there was seriously thick fog. It wasn't concerning me too much since I was used to driving in that sort of thickness back in California, but at night time, it was a nightmare. Anyway, I managed to do fairly well driving around the city till the traffic and narrow streets started setting off my anxiety. And I mean it got BAD. So bad that I had to hop out and have Eric take over cause I started getting that panicked "shaking" feeling. I forgot to take my meds that day (of all the days to do that!) and everything was setting me off, especially the traffic. Luckily, Eric was a trooper and managed to find us a parking spot fairly quick and not too far from the Starbucks. Since my anxiety made me so jittery, I ended up staying in the van to watch after all of the pottery while the gang got their drinks and beloved mugs.
Here's my official handy dandy Starbucks Poland mug :)
The return drive home was a little nerve wracking for me since the fog had gotten worse..I mean..A LOT worse. Eric handled driving all of us back since I was still out of whack. We managed to make it back to the hotel in one piece, enjoyed some dinner and conversation, then I had to punch out a little early since my stomach was being difficult. Ultimately, we ended up deciding that we'd check out at a decent time in the morning to hit up a few more shops on our way out of town to head back to Belgium. Yippy!
You know how compromise is a huge thing in a marriage? Well...these little "pots" were definitely a "compromise". Eric really..REALLY wanted them as a "man cave" sort of accessory. All the while, I think they're hideous and I don't want them in my kitchen. Throughout our shopping adventure, he kept telling me "I just want a couple"...after several hours, he finally wore me down and got 'em. Thing is, when I hear "a couple", I think along the lines of two..not four. Ya know? When I saw that he had four of 'em, it was on like Donkey Kong.
How'd I get even? Let me introduce you to Lola:
Ya see...Leroy, my snail that I picked up a year or so ago, has been lonely and needed some company. I had talked to Eric about it a couple of times and he'd always say no since I know he wasn't fond of Leroy to begin with..so why get another snail? Well, once he bought those bowls, he knew he was screwed.
Now, Leroy looks pretty happy with Lola :)
Well all ran around finishing up whatever stores we were wanting to invade and got ready to make our long adventure home. Here's how the van looked at the end of all the pillaging:
Eric was literally boxed in and surrounded by pottery in the front seat..
Yes, we stuffed pottery in the door pockets...
Since there was a seat available in the van, the ladies filled it up with their luggage in order to make room for all the pottery...
Annnnnd here's how the back of it looked with all the boxes. I'm pretty sure our van was saggin' like a low rider by the time we departed Poland.
So, here's all my official pictures of alllllll the pottery we picked up. It's a little sickening that we got so much, especially when we really had no intention on getting anymore. Oh well, at least we have enough stuff to last us a while :)
We all stumbled downstairs, fueled up on the breakfast buffet then took the town by storm.
Oh man...that city didnt know what it was in for! If you've done this sort of shopping before, you'll understand when I say it sort of feels like a "frenzy"...like there's blood in the water. Once one person finds something really cool, then it's like a personal mission to find something equally cool for your collection. Now remember, there were seven of us shopping...so consider how many frenzies were going on. LOTS. Everything started to blur together because there's just SO much stuff in each store..and I believe we attacked almost fifteen stores..most of 'em we repeated multiple times:
I don't even remember half the stuff I bought...neither did Eric. Well..neither did most of the ladies. Some of em wanted to open up their boxes throughout the day to figure out what they've bought so far, lol. The mind set was basically "GO! GO! GO!" till we couldn't go anymore. I think we ended up throwing in the towel by 5:30 ( we had been shopping since 9am) and retired back to the Brunow.
Once we got back, the hotel made our dinner reservations for six o'clock in which we had an awesome goulash sort of soup as an appetizer, then something that sort of reminded me of my grandmas roulladen. It was pork that was wrapped around carrots and a variety of other things and were braised, served with mashed potatoes and a mixed pickle salad (THAT was weird for me!)
Notice the....um...decor for the dining room..
Eric was not a happy camper because he said he could "feel" the dolls looking over his shoulder..lol
Since he was such a trooper, he earned himself some ice cream :)
I think we all hung out in the dining room for almost 3 hours since we were swapping stories amongst other entertaining factors that were in the room. Everyone retired for the evening since we had a busy day planning
The next day, we had the same routine with chowing down on some breakfast and I was plotting out the plans for what other stores we were going to invade. Also, some of the ladies in addition to myself are Starbucks mugs collectors. The last time we were in Poland, we debated on making a dash to Wroclaw, which is an hour and a half from where we were staying. Sadly, we didn't make it there since the gals were just having too much fun hunting for super sweet patterns. This time around, I made sure to have us stay an extra day so we could attempt the dash. I REFUSED to leave Poland without my mug!
To our surprise, it randomly snowed in the town we were shopping in, yet, not the place we were staying at. Weird, right? lol
After smashing and grabbing at some stores, we wanted to get some lunch before hitting the road to Wroclaw. We were originally gonna go back to Elric's, but they weren't available so we randomly hit up a place called Opałkowa Chata, which looked....intriguing. Yeah...intriguing would be the word for it. Sure, it looks funky and what not, but we gave it a shot.
OH MY GOSH. How have I not been to this place before?! It was AWESOME! They actually use MASSIVE portions when it comes to the stuff you order! For a starter, they gave us a basket of freshly baked bread with a side of bacon butter. Yes, you read that right...BACON BUTTER. It was heavenly! Ahh!
Of course, I ordered myself some perogies because, hey, I'm in Poland. These things were MASSIVE. As in, each one was about the size of the palm of my hand. The filling was like a cottage cheese consistency with onion, and the outside was briefly sauteed in bacon. They were out of this world! I would've stuffed myself stupid on those things, but they were so filling that I could only finish off half the plate!
Eric ended up ordering a potato pancake that was "stuffed" with Goulash. I know it doesn't seem very large in the picture, but when the plate was put infront of him, even Eric looked a little concerned.
Eric really really wanted to acquire the pot and spoon, but it wouldn't fit in Bill, and we certainly weren't going to strap it to the roof. His was very displeased with my answer..
We rolled out to Wroclaw and made it in a decent amount of time despite the fact that there was seriously thick fog. It wasn't concerning me too much since I was used to driving in that sort of thickness back in California, but at night time, it was a nightmare. Anyway, I managed to do fairly well driving around the city till the traffic and narrow streets started setting off my anxiety. And I mean it got BAD. So bad that I had to hop out and have Eric take over cause I started getting that panicked "shaking" feeling. I forgot to take my meds that day (of all the days to do that!) and everything was setting me off, especially the traffic. Luckily, Eric was a trooper and managed to find us a parking spot fairly quick and not too far from the Starbucks. Since my anxiety made me so jittery, I ended up staying in the van to watch after all of the pottery while the gang got their drinks and beloved mugs.
Here's my official handy dandy Starbucks Poland mug :)
The return drive home was a little nerve wracking for me since the fog had gotten worse..I mean..A LOT worse. Eric handled driving all of us back since I was still out of whack. We managed to make it back to the hotel in one piece, enjoyed some dinner and conversation, then I had to punch out a little early since my stomach was being difficult. Ultimately, we ended up deciding that we'd check out at a decent time in the morning to hit up a few more shops on our way out of town to head back to Belgium. Yippy!
You know how compromise is a huge thing in a marriage? Well...these little "pots" were definitely a "compromise". Eric really..REALLY wanted them as a "man cave" sort of accessory. All the while, I think they're hideous and I don't want them in my kitchen. Throughout our shopping adventure, he kept telling me "I just want a couple"...after several hours, he finally wore me down and got 'em. Thing is, when I hear "a couple", I think along the lines of two..not four. Ya know? When I saw that he had four of 'em, it was on like Donkey Kong.
How'd I get even? Let me introduce you to Lola:
Ya see...Leroy, my snail that I picked up a year or so ago, has been lonely and needed some company. I had talked to Eric about it a couple of times and he'd always say no since I know he wasn't fond of Leroy to begin with..so why get another snail? Well, once he bought those bowls, he knew he was screwed.
Now, Leroy looks pretty happy with Lola :)
Well all ran around finishing up whatever stores we were wanting to invade and got ready to make our long adventure home. Here's how the van looked at the end of all the pillaging:
Eric was literally boxed in and surrounded by pottery in the front seat..
Yes, we stuffed pottery in the door pockets...
Since there was a seat available in the van, the ladies filled it up with their luggage in order to make room for all the pottery...
Annnnnd here's how the back of it looked with all the boxes. I'm pretty sure our van was saggin' like a low rider by the time we departed Poland.
So, here's all my official pictures of alllllll the pottery we picked up. It's a little sickening that we got so much, especially when we really had no intention on getting anymore. Oh well, at least we have enough stuff to last us a while :)
Square chile pepper baker -207.10zł = $63.42
Square chile pepper bowl - 172.40zł = $52.79
Covered chile pepper baker - 211.90zł = $64.89
Chile pepper soup cups -39.90zł (each) = $12.21
Chile pepper coffee mugs - 24.70zł (each) = $7.37
Chile pepper gravy boat -57.50zł = $17.60
Chile pepper rounded rectangle tray- 45.80zł = $14.02
Chile pepper tea bag tray -13.70zł (each) = $4.19
Chile pepper napkin holder - 7.70zł (each) = $2.35
Chile pepper spoon rest - 20.50zł (each) = $6.27
Chile pepper rimmed cereal bowl - 42.40zł (each) = $12.98
Chile pepper bowl plates - 44.30zł (each) = $13.56
Mini tulip rectangle baker - 159.72zł = $48.91
Mini tulip pitcher - 115.20zł = $35.27
Red soccer ball bowl - 25zł = $7.65
Mosaic dog bowl - 60zł = $18.37
Peacock wine bottle (holds honey wine) - 49zł = $15.00
Huge Christmas ornament - 47.20zł = $14.45
Rectangle butterfly tray - 119.70zł = $36.65
Rounded rectangle flower tray - 63zł = $19.29
Butterfly tea bag tray - 17.10zł (each) = $5.23
Brown garlic / onion keeper jar - 77zł = $23.58
Huge peacock turkey baker - 243.10zł = $74.44
Mini tulip ladle - 56.30zł = $17.24
Peacock cookbook holder - 101.95zł = $31.22
Mini tulip candle holder - 37.88zł (each) = $11.60
Christmas tea light holder - 77.46zł = $23.72
Cherry mug - 10zł = $3.06
Blue & white tulip mug - 27zł = $8.26
Red tulip mug - 23.12zł = $7.08
Mini tulip mug - 32.59zł = $9.98
Cup stand-17zł = $5.20
Pottery key chain - 7zł = $2.14
Lola the snail - 124.90zł = $38.25
Fugly bowl - 16.90zł (each) = $5.17
Starbucks mug - 45zł (each) = $13.78
This trip went SO well...I'm sad that it was my last one. Eric was saying that once he retires, we should come back over and do some sort of travel business where we take small groups to Poland in order to do pottery shopping. Of course, we'd never make any money cause I'd buy everything. But still..I think I'd do a pretty good job in the travel industry since I like finding fabulous deals and sharing them with folks. Who knows!
Anyway, hope ya'll enjoyed the bloggy post :)
Anyway, hope ya'll enjoyed the bloggy post :)
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