Polish Pottery Festival in Bolesławiec

On Saturday, the 22nd of August Katie and I took a rather impromptu trip to Bolesławiec, a city about 3 1/2 hours from here. This is the city where the famous Polish Pottery is made, and they have a big festival every August. We'd read about it on a blog both of us have found, Never a Dull Day in Poland, which is written by another American who lives in a city not too far from Szczecin, but I'd mistakenly thought it was in the spring. Fortunately, Katie found out it was coming up and found a hotel at the last minute. Charles said he knew I needed a little time to myself and he was happy to stay home with the kids, so Saturday morning we hit the road! (Friday night was a gathering at general's house for dinner with all of the U.S. families, which was fun to meet the rest of the folks we'd not had a chance to meet yet.)
Bonus: the Never a Dull Day in Poland blog posts about the festival last year that I linked above include a ton more photos than I took. I was really looking a lot more than I was thinking about taking photos, sorry!

We didn't arrive until early afternoon. As we came into town, we first saw one of the big pottery manufacturers, Artystyczna, and they obviously had quite an event going on at their place! We could tell there were some food vendors (maybe free food, too, I am not sure, we did not ask  but others were offering free food so I bet there was some, we know to take advantage of all of that next year!).  We decided to drive around and scope things out a bit. We wound up at a restaurant nearby, since we were starving, but it was very crowded. Later we realized this is the restaurant that other American mentions on her blog as her favorite place to eat in Bolesławiec, so we decided to try again later. We walked to a food truck by a grocery store nearby and grabbed some lunch and used the restrooms at the grocery store, then walked back up to Artystyczna.  Wow, there was a lot of pottery!

I decided I was just going to look take some pictures and think about what I would use most. I do not have any plans to buy a whole set of dishes of Polish Pottery, but I think it would be nice to have some since we live here! A lot of military folks fall in love with it when they are living in Germany and buy tons and bring it back with them. I cannot tell you how many times we heard "oh you can buy pottery!" when we told people we were moving to POLAND.

We shopped at the outdoor area, and at the regular shop there and Katie bought a few pieces. As we were leaving the indoor/permanent shop, we met another couple from the U.S. who live/work at Grafenwoehr. and they told us some of their other favorite places to go. We headed just a couple of blocks away to another manufacturer, then through town to another big one, Manufaktura, just as the rain was beginning to fall. Alas, this one was closing, so we decided to come back first thing in the morning.

Katie and I both liked this unique pattern at Artystyczna, but when she tired to buy a piece, she was told it was not for sale (it is the Anniversary pattern), yet all the pieces had price tags on them. We were super confused. 

Mini muffin tins at Andy's

We drove back out and headed slightly out of town towards where our hotel was located. Andy's was located out that way, so we stopped by to see what they had. This one definitely caterers to Americans (they all do in some ways, but this one really seemed to, in my opinion, since a lot was in English) and they also free food, music, etc.  Here, I bought a honey pot (I've been wanting one for years!) and a soap dispenser and mug to use for dish soap and to hold my sponge and scrub brush in the kitchen. 

Then we drove to our hotel to check in, henceforth to be known as "I thought my friend was being kidnapped by a Polish dude".  As we came to the hotel, we realized a wedding was going on in the restaurant by the hotel. We did not see a front desk or obvious area to check in, so we stepped into the restaurant to ask. No one spoke English, but we quickly got the point across and she pointed to Katie's name on printout tacked to a bulletin board with our confirmation. Yay! So she began talking and I gathered she was telling us breakfast (which was included) was back in that room the next morning during certain hours. Not sure what those hours were, but we got the point. Ha! Then she took us back
outside, key in hand, presumably to show us to our room. Instead she knocked on a window of the building adjacent to the restaurant, where we'd figured our room would be. An (apparently) shirtless man opened the window, and after a brief exchange emerged wearing a shirt. We'd heard the word "auto" so we assumed he was supposed to show us where to park, since the wedding was going on and there were a lot of cars. We were trying to tell them "no, we just want to find our room and then we are going to dinner" but when you don't speak Polish, this was not working out so well. After a minute, we figured out he wanted us to get into the car with him. But no, he just wanted Katie to get in and I think for me to follow? At least this was our best guess, so I ran to my car, but while backing up and turning around in a tight spot, they disappeared up the block, and I'm thinking "dude, please come back with my friend!" I drove quickly up the block, and finally saw them in the next block, and the dude was gesturing for me to park in a grassy lot beside another building. I finally parked and he showed us to the door of this building, where apparently our room would be. Our best guess is that they just bought this building and have renovated it for extra hotel space. The rooms were done, but the outside is still  in the process of its facelift. He showed us that our keys opened the outside door and we think he told us to be sure we locked it back when we came and left. The he bid us adieu, we got our luggage and went in to find our room.  It was an interesting 10 minutes, to say the least. No, I didn't really think my friend was being kidnapped by a Polish dude, but we were both definitely confused for a bit and our adrenaline was pumping! Haha.

The room only cost us about $50, and well, you get what you pay for. The festival is big and most hotels were full, so we were grateful for this one. It was new and clean, but very sparse. There were 3 twin beds, a small bathroom (complete with exposed wires for an additional light fixture!), and a small towel on each bed for us. There was a small built-in with a TV above, a small table and that was about it! Not that we needed more, but next year we'll make reservations in advance somewhere else.

Yum. Bigos for Katie and a potato pancake with goulash for me. 

The we went back into town to dinner at the first restaurant we'd stopped by earlier in the day.  It was about 8 pm by now and much less crowded. We started at a table outside, but moved inside after a bit because it cooled off quickly. The food was amazing. The brought us smlac (basically lard with bacon in it) to spread on some delicious bread. Then we had fabulous pierogi (the ruskie - Russian- ones, with cheese and potatoes, one of my favorites), and Katie had bigos, a cabbage dish was a yummy, slightly spicy sauce and kielbasa in it. I had what I think is called placek po zbojnicku with gulasz, a big potato pancake with goulash. It was amazing.  It is probably my favorite dish here to date. I have had it at another restaurant here in town, and I will keep looking for it on menus as we try new places! Anyways, looking back at Never a Dull Day in Poland, her blog has a lovely post about this place, and she says it is one of her favorite places she has found in all of her time in Poland. One of my friends said they called it (when she lived in Germany) the Cracker Barrel of Poland. I need to ask her more about that, I'm not sure if they meant that as a compliment or not.  While it looked sort of touristy, the food was really delicious and very authentic. At least as far as I can tell after a few weeks here! (So Lauren, if you are reading this, you can comment and tell me if you meant that as a positive or not, haha).

First time using my new muffin tins to make muffins. Perfection!

Stuffed from our wonderful dinner, we crashed at our hotel and we were up and at 'em the next morning for more shopping. After an ok breakfast and a confusing "check out" in which Katie was unable to pay with a credit card, or receive a faktura for the VAT (we get the 23% tax back on most everything we spend in Poland, I'll explain that one later), we were off.  We stopped by to see if Andar's a small pottery maker that we'd heard about, was open, but alas they are closed on Sunday so next year we will try to get there earlier in the weekend. Next, we went back to the pottery place that was closing when we'd arrived the previous afternoon, Mauufaktura. I ended up buying a few small gifts here, Christmas ornaments for the kids' stockings, and some muffin tins. I discovered my muffin tins do not fit well in my oven here, and so I figured, why not! Katie has had Polish pottery and she said it cleans up really well, and I knew it was all dishwasher safe.  I hate scrubbing out muffin tins, so I figured if these bake well and I can throw them in the dishwasher without worrying about them rusting, this would be a huge bonus.   Well, I've used them several times now and I LOVE them. Muffins bake nicely in them, and they clean up so much better. Plus, they are pretty! 

Manufaktura was offering free soup if you spent more than 100 złoty, but it was only about 10 am at this point and we were not quite ready for lunch, so we decided to head into town to find the street festival. We'd driven close to it the day before, but had not actually seen where it was set up. We found some parking and started following the crowd. Sure enough, we soon came upon it! We'd not expected it to be so big! There was a flea market section that went on and on. (Yes, we'd read about it on the other blog, but it had been awhile and I'd forgotten she'd mentioned how many vendors there were). 

We strolled around for a good couple of hours. I ended up buying Emmy a teapot, creamer and sugar bowl, and two teacups and saucers for her new tea set. She misses her "Waldorf" kitchen from her school last year and some of those toys, so we'd talked about packing up some of her kitchen items and gathering some new items for her to play with. She prefers to use my bowls and utensils that are "real" and bigger, so I thought this would be a special first addition to the new kitchen. I got everything at a discount so it was affordable. I figure next year (or whenever we go back) we can pick out a couple more teacups and saucers to go with it. She has loved playing with it already. 

It was after Noon, and we knew we needed to hit the road, so we started walking to head back to the car, hoping to find a vendor selling kielbasa or something hearty to eat before we left. We were both starving, and we kept seeing waffles and ice cream and other sweet treats, but we think the more lunch type items just weren't open yet. I've been told that most Polish folks eat a 1st breakfast, a 2nd breakfast, a later lunch and then supper, so I think that since it was before 1 pm, they were not serving lunch maybe? We saw some tents that we think were grilling meats, but they had covers down in front of them still. Maybe we just never made it far enough, but we kept on. There was a little restaurant in the park near the car, so we stopped in since we knew we'd need a bathroom break. They had burgers and a few other things, but came to find out their water was broken, so there was no restroom for us to use, they only had burgers (which would have been fine but we were jonesing for another item we'd seen on the menu outside) and if we wanted fries (which Katie really did) we'd have to wait 30 minutes. We took this as a sign to keep walking, so we got in the car and decided to go to the grocery store we knew was on our way out and just use their restrooms and grab some meat, cheese, and bread and eat on the way out. After a bathroom break, we were heading in to shop when another lady came up to us. She was American (and in town from Germany) and heard us speaking English. She had been asking around in search of jumper cables for and hour, with no luck. I had them in my car, so we took her up to where she and her friends were parked and gave them a jump. So, maybe our inability to find lunch before that was so that we could help them out! But, we were still lunch-less and decided to drive on. We came to a gas station that had a restaurant (many of them here and in Germany do, at least along the autobahns) so I filled up and Katie went to find food. She saw kielbasa advertised and so she got chips and waters in the gas station portion, and while I paid for gas went to the restaurant part for sausages to go. Except she was then pointed in the direction of a little hut out back. Really, HOW HARD IS IT TO FIND SOME MEAT IN A BUN!?!? So we trekked out there and were met with success, finally! We quickly ate our $1.50 kielbasa and bread and mustard, then hopped back on the road. 

We had decided to stop in Poznan on the way home, about an hour total detour. That is the closest Ikea in Poland to us, and I was wanting to find a rug for the play room, and Ikea is always a good place to shop!  Our detour was not met with a successful rug finding venture, but we both walked away with a few items for our homes. We were both extremely tired by this point and ready to get back. The drive home was pleasant, the sunset put on a glorious show for us. We stopped for a quick dinner along the way and were home by around 9:30. The kids were in bed and Charles was happy I was home.  He got a taste of what it's like to be alone with them all day long for two days! 

It was a great trip and I enjoyed having a quick girls weekend. I love my kiddos, but it was good to recharge! It is definitely something we could all come to next year, too, and spend more time enjoying some of the factory tours, face painting, and other family friendly activities the manufacturers offer, not to mention all that the street festival has to offer!

Here are a few more random photos I snapped. 

Bonus photos: Matthew helping me make muffins the first time I used my new muffin tins, the weekend after the trip. Hopefully he will love helping me in the kitchen as much as his sister does! She did help me, too, she had had enough and was off doing other things by this point.