Catchin Up: Poland

In early August, a friend and I took a long weekend trip to Boleslawiec, Poland (pronounced bo-leh-swav-ee-ets). Boleslawiec is just over the German border, about an 8 hour drive, and is the home of Polish Pottery. To Americans living in Germany, Pottery trips are mythic. Most Americans here for any length of time eventually make a Polish and an Italian pottery run. Boleslawiec is a popular girl's trip but in the winter time it could be a nice family trip as there's skiing nearby (so daddy keeps the munchkins while I shop and vice versa while he skis). Boleslawiec isn't very large, but they have a lovely restored downtown area that reminded me a lot of a smaller, less touristy, Prague. The pottery shops are on the other side of town, however, and we spent three solid days looking at pottery, and only found the downtown section by accident one evening when we were looking for a place to eat.

When it comes to Polish pottery, turns out I'm a traditionalist and like the peacock pattern best (In fact I almost bought the exact same peacock casserole dish twice, and did buy a vase and a coffee mug in peacock for myself and an apple baker and a teapot in peacock for BINGO gifts).

I didn't do tons of buying -- a half dozen pieces for me , a few gifts, and some prizes for our local women's group, and by the time you factor in gas and hotel and dining out, not sure I saved that much money (Prices in Boleslawiec are 1/2 to 1/3 the retail prices). But Boleslawiec is a cool trip because you have to drive through regular old Poland to get there. You see more of the old country than you ever would jetting in and out of Krakow as a tourist. There are two main highways that connect Germany to the Boleslawiec region of Poland. One is new, one is not. We drove in on the old highway with its cold-war era border crossing still in tact. It was creepy, creepier than any of the cold-war era monuments preserved in Berlin. Berlin, much like any Eastern European metropolis, has modernized and grown up around it's communist past, preserving pockets of it within the modern city. But the old border crossing into Boleslawiec is surrounded by nothing but forest with the old building looming large and ominous. Adding to the experience, once you cross the border, the highway conditions deteriorate rapidly. On the German side--modern smooth, well kept roads. On the Polish side--old, bumpy, potholed roads. (This was not the case on the new highway coming out of Boleslawiec: perfect interstate and a modern, only minimally staffed border crossing that looks like any toll station. Poland is now part of the EU so there's no stopping at the border).

We spent most of our time dashing between the Boleslawiec stores where all the clerks spoke English (as did all the wait staff and hoteliers, btw), but one morning we went out to Osieczni, a neighboring village, looking for a factory store recommended by our hotel. We never did find the recommended factory store, but we happened accross a different, family run factory store. It was definitely more factory than store. The factory took over the top two levels of the family's home. They spoke no English, stopped their work to show us around, and took us into the storeroom to look for things to buy. They were very excited to see us, however, and simply wrote down the prices of anything we were looking at.

We arrived in Boleslawiec late Thursday evening and left Sunday morning, and keeping a steady pace had enough time to cover all the shopping bases. Another day would have allowed for a little more leisurely browsing, or better yet, an afternoon to take one of the day trips our hotel recommended. Super glad I went. Not addicted to the pottery, so likely won't go back, but it is a lush green forrested region of natural beauty and the small taste of uncommercialized Poland we happened into in Osieczni, was as close to an "authentic" experience as we out-of-towners often get.

for more on the region, check out our hotel's website