Unexpected finds...

Last fall, I went to Poland on a Polish Pottery shopping trip. I bought some items for myself and some of the pottery for gifts.

When I was almost out of money- we stopped at one of the last stops that had about 4 different Polish Pottery shops in the area. I only went into 2 of the shops. On my way to the shop that was 'across' the street from where the bus was parked- I saw a store selling 'antique' items. I didn't go inside-because I knew that I'd find something that I wanted and it would be sad- since, I didn't have much $ left. I find that for myself, it's best to not go looking around and find something wonderful that I can't buy because I don't have any money left. So, I've learned that as the saying goes: "Ignorance is bliss" can sometimes be true.

As we prepared to cross the highway, we walked by the this shop and I did notice one of those old wooden sleds. I commented on it and said that I'd always wanted to have one- but, being from a state that didn't really do 'sledding' when I was a child- you never saw old sleds for sale anywhere. If it snowed enough; we just used cardboard boxes, old car hoods (my uncle's invention when I was a child and it worked great), things like that. When I was a child, I didn't know anyone who had a sled of any type.

On my return back to the bus; the owner of the shop was there and he spoke to me in English and asked me if I was interested in the sled. I paused and asked how much it was and moments later I saw the previously 'un-noticed' price written in Euro on the sled. It was far more than I had with me and I still had to buy dinner when we stopped along the way during the long 6 hour bus ride back.

I learned how to negotiate prices when I lived in Asia, however, I didn't even have to do any negotiating-since, he started bargining the price on his own. I was able to buy the sled and have enough money left for dinner.

We stashed the old sled under the bus amongst the boxes of Polish Pottery that had been purchased throughout the day. It looked rather unique stored with all of the boxes and was given a lot of admiring glances and questions about where/how I'd found such a nice sled while we were out Polish Pottery shopping.

I placed it in my living room and used it as part of my holiday decorating this winter.