A Polish Pottery Bond

This past weekend, I was invited by a group of wives to to go to Poland to shop for the famous Polish Pottery that is all the craze here. I had been hearing about this stuff ever since I arrived, and not one to miss a social opportunity, I decided to join them on this all-ladies venture and discover just what is so great about this stuff. Eight of us departed Friday at 5:00 a.m. and caravaned in two cars due east for seven hours to the Polish border. After clearing border control, we had an easy half hour drive to Boleslawiec, which is the birthplace of Polish Pottery.

I would like to say that the town was very beautiful (it looked so from the pictures) or that I enjoyed learning about some Polish history, but this was strictly a shopping trip, and in order to maximize our time and visit all 30 some odd stores, we had to keep-a-movin'. Like most women, I like to shop, however there are degrees of shopping endurance that every individual can take. I like to browse quickly and if there's nothing that immediately catches my eye after the first run-through, it's time to move on. That's just not how it was done. They would do a run-through once, then twice, then agonize over every piece on the shelf. I quickly learned that I was a mere amateur at this shopping experience, and they were the professionals who knew what quality to look for, the various patterns, which ones were new, which ones were a good deal and those that were overpriced. As they each already had an extensive collection already, they were searching for certain pieces that would compliment or add to those they had.

Most of the traditional patterns contail cobalt blue, and as I'm not the biggest blue fan, I wanted to find some with brighter colors, which proved to be difficult. After the first dozen or so stores, I did come across a pattern that had orange, green, yellow and turquoise, so I managed to buy some pottery after all.

After a full day two days of looking and shopping and analyzing, I became obsessed. I even dreamed of Polish pottery the first night in Poland, and much to Jon's disappointment, I became a fan of the pottery and have no doubt I'll be returning for another haul. More wonderful than filling my kitchen with new serving ware, though, was the opportunity to get to know some of the squadron ladies (wives of Jon's co-workers) much better. Although it's cliche, I guess a time-old tradition such as shopping really can bring people together. We had some great laughs, great chats and now and a great shopping experience just down the road to always remember.