Polish Pottery Shopping

This post is LONG overdue! I got busy preparing for our trip home and failed to write this.

Reese and I spent a fun girls weekend with friends in Boleslawiec, Poland November 7 - 9th. Boleslawiec is a small town with only about 40,000 residents just over the Czech Republic border. We drove for 10 hours on Friday to get there. So, what you ask is the draw to Boleslawiec...it is pottery. The town has been famous since the early 7th century for its high-quality painted stoneware pottery. While we had our "ins" to get this pottery in Budapest, we thought the adventure of going to Boleslawiec, combined with leaving the majority of our children for the weekend (Reese was the only stow-a-way) was worth MANY hours in the car. Truth be told, we really underestimated the drive time, but I think we all thought it was worth it in the end.

We stayed in a quaint little hotel called The Blue Beetroot and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of fish & chips and Polish perogies once we arrived on Friday evening. A few drinks later, we were having a grand old time and receiving calls to keep our noise level down :) What do you expect from 7 ladies free for the weekend?!

Kelly M., Laura, Monica, Meredith, Kelly K. & Mary (Kim is taking the picture)

Saturday morning arrived early and we packed up to follow our maps around the small town to the various pottery shops. We visited over 10 stores and purchased enough pottery between all of us to fill 2 big cars! I think most of us came home with about 20 pieces each and it was so hard for me to decide what to bring home for gifts and what to keep for myself.

After spending the entire day shopping, we got back on the road to Budapest around 4:00pm. We planned to drive straight through to arrive in Budapest early Sunday morning. After it took us over 2 hours to drive 25 miles, we were all a little discouraged (and car sick). Fortunately, Mary's sweet husband Peter recognized the tiredness in her voice and offered to look into getting us a hotel room in Prague for the night. Peter's connections are quite good (he is with The Four Seasons in Budapest) and we ended up in 2 FREE rooms at The Four Seasons in Prague. We arrived around 8:30pm there and enjoyed a yummy dinner and really comfortable beds for the night before returning to Budapest the following morning.

We had such a fun girls trip and our husbands were all THE BEST while we were gone - especially when it turned out to be 1 night longer than anticipated. We are all excited about the next girls trip which will hopefully include more shopping, laughter, and of course a little wine!