Boleslawiec, Poland

The weekend of 18 October, we caravaned with a group of friends to Boleslawiec, Poland. The sole purpose of the trip was to buy handmade pottery! Since it was a longer trip, about 6 hours, we stayed in Dresden, Germany, on Friday night and were on the road between 6 and 6:30 on Saturday morning so that we were sure to be shopping by 8. We got to see a beautiful sunrise as we were entering Poland. Luckily, we had a couple experienced Polish pottery shoppers with us, and we were able to hit between 8 and 1o shops before they closed by mid-afternoon.

A bit overwhelming at first...so many patterns, styles, and qualities of pottery to choose from, but we quickly started making purchases. While some people come home from Poland with entire new dish sets, we went with two goals...several serving dishes for ourselves and the majority of our Christmas shopping done. We are proud to say we accomplished both of our goals! (Probably the first year ever that about 95% of our shopping was complete before December!)

We stopped for lunch at a really cute restaurant and had traditional Polish food for lunch...including pierogis, which were amazing! Although we didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing, Kurt and Melanie explored the main square in Boleslawiec, on our way out of town on Sunday. They said it was really pretty and took some nice pictures.

Click below to see our album from the weekend:

Oktoberfest in Munich

We were home for about 48 hours, just enough time to repack our bags before heading to Munich on 29 September for Oktoberfest there. We had a great drive down without too much traffic and made our way to our hotel just before dinner time. Kurt found an amazing deal on a hotel right across the street from the fair grounds, so we were able to drop our bags off and head over to the fest and grab steak sandwiches and fries for dinner! We wandered around the fest for a few hours, popping into the majority of the tents to snap pictures before they closed their doors for the night (because there was no more room available).

The next morning, we dressed in our German finest--Kurt in his new shirt from the Volksfest and me in a borrowed dirndl(Thanks, Kate!) and went to meet a large group of friends at the Hacker tent. We, and roughly 15 friends, had amazing seats in the balcony of the tent. It wasn't very crowded up there, so we were able to move around and talk easily while still enjoying the music and party atmosphere! (Thanks Jonathan for organizing!) After our 4 hours were up, Kurt and I headed back to our hotel so that I could get changed--it was too cold for me to be wearing a dress!--and ended up napping for a few hours. That evening, we met up with Melanie and Adam for a late dinner and walk around the fest grounds.

On Wednesday, we met up with the group at the Hippodrom for our second round of reserved seats. This time, we were down on the floor just to the right of the stage. Since we were there first thing, we got to see the band some in and chug a Maß before they started playing...pretty impressive! We had a good time hanging out with friends and singing along with the band. In the early afternoon, Kurt and I walked around the fest grounds for a bit to pick up some souvenirs and eat some more food. In the evening, we met up with our friends again, and made our way to Marienplatz in search of dinner. After a few failed restaurant attempts, we had a fabulous Indian dinner followed up by drinks at the Augustiner.

We had a great time at Oktoberfest, and of course are looking forward to next year!!

Click below to see pictures from the trip:

Oktoberfest