School's OUT... as of today: Let 'summer' begin!!

Some teacher friends and I went out to eat tonight to celebrate the first night of 'freedom'....

Now, it's 8pm and I'm doing laundry. Why you might ask? Well, a wash cycle in Germany takes 140 minutes to complete and the dryer takes 221 minutes... (and the clothing isn't that dry when it's over either)... so, I need to do ONE LOAD of laundry tonight....

While waiting until midnight before my trip back to the base so I can catch a bus a little after midnight. To go Polish Pottery Shopping in Poland. I can't believe that I signed up and paid to do this... it will be fun- but, I'm tired already.

I don't sleep on planes, trains, buses, or cars... so, I will take some knitting and my portable DVD player with me. That reminds me- I need to pack up my backpack and fill it with my entertainment (can't read- I get car sick), some water, and a snack for the trip.

I made sure that I have some 50 cent euro coins for the public bathrooms along the autobahn. I need to pack everything up so that I'll be ready for my late drive on base.

I'll take my camera and take some photos.

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.

Now, that I'm home.. from the Polish Pottery dish shopping adventure

I wish that I had bought these items....

Polish Pottery Shopping

We stopped at many different places.. sometimes an area would have up to 6 different shops and truthfully.. I didn't go into all of them. There was just too much to see- and it sometimes took quite awhile to get waited on.. standing in line with the others from the bus who had made purchases.. (only 1 person ringing up purchases and wrapping up the pottery).. so, sometimes.. I only went into a couple of stores.. because of spending so much time waiting in line.. (we were only given a certain amount of time per bus stop- but, it was plenty of time to shop.. trust me!)






I can appreciate the newer painting styles and colors.. but, I will admit that I am drawn to the traditional blue patterns. I had already purchased some polish pottery casserole dishes and other pieces when I lived in northern Italy about 12 years ago. So, I also only purchased the blue and white patterns so that they would 'mix and match' nicely with other pieces that I already owned.

Some of the newer styles...






I'll be posting photos of what I did buy soon...

This weekend, I went to POLAND and bought..

Polish Pottery.. of course!


I went on a trip arranged through the base. The cost was $59.00 for a long, long, long bus ride. We departed at 12:30am.. on what was officially 'Saturday' early morning. I don't sleep on public transportation. I wish I could- but, I just can't.
Yet, in my eternal optimism- I did bring a pillow 'just in case' this was the first time in my life that I went to sleep on public transportation.

Of course, I didn't and there I was BORED.. BORED. Everyone on the bus was asleep.. no snoring.. all females on the bus except for the bus drivers. Not to say that females don't snore- but, you know what I mean.. women don't USUALLY SNORE or snore loudly.


I didn't want to turn the light on for my seat and read, knit, or make shadow puppets. No, I kept trying to go to sleep... and it was useless.


We had a 30 minute rest stop, about 3:30am. Nothing was open and many of us bought ice-cream bars.. the only option at 3:30am. We had to pay to use the toilets.. at the autobahn rest stop.. about 50 euro or about 80 cents (USA).

Now, the toliet had quite an interesting feature.. automatic cleaning of the seat.. here it is in action.. see the tiny stream of water?

Well, I was about to open the door and before I walked out of the stall- I was amazed when the toliet seat rotated around in a circle.. see how the oval is wider now?

Yes, I was in the public pay toilet taking photos... what else was I to do? Of course, if you've read my blog for very long.. you know that this isn't the first toilet photo either. :D


We arrived about 6:30am to this tiny town on the highway. I'm sure that there was more 'town' somewhere.. but, all we saw were 4 buildings.

Click on the photo and you can read the name of the town that we stopped in. There were 2 polish pottery places across the street from each other.



*Darn it... The photo downloading isn't co-operating with me. I'll publish more photos tomorrow.