Outside Wroclaw City Limits

We did it !! We finally ventured outside Wroclaw for a short adventure to go pottery shopping! On Saturday we loaded up the dog and headed out of town to Boleslawiec - a city about 100 km from Wroclaw. It was a bit rainy but the rain subsided by the time we arrived so we were able to walk around the city a bit after our shopping. Not only was our shopping successful but the town was absolutely adorable! It didn't look like it was impacted too much from the war and had a real small town flavor to it. Of course it had the traditional square and the requisite pigeons for Oliver to chase! I'm now aggressively looking for boarding kennels (called hotels here) so we can enjoy more travel unencumbered by the dog. He did great but not everywhere we go will accomodate pets so I best get myself used to the idea.

I posted a picture of a cemetary we visited on the way back from Boleslaweic. I have never seen anything like it before! It was fresh flowers from one end to the other! I was told the Polish people greatly respect the dead and take pride in making sure the gravesites are well-kept and adorned with flowers. It was truly a spectacular site. I'm not sure the pictures actually do it justice.

I think the highlight of our trip was the actual drive. In Europe you stay in the right lane unless you are passing...PERIOD. Polish highways are not like the autobahn but people do not hesitate to leave you in the dust either! I almost felt like an Indy car driver, weaving back and forth between lanes. It was so cool. I only got "yelled" at once and had lights flashed at me another time before I figured it all out. I was going somewhere between 120 - 140 km/hr. Being totally oblivious to how fast that is made it more adventure-like for me. Someone in the US look at your speedometer and let me know how fast that is. I sure hope it was more than 60 or I'll feel foolish!!!

Oliver now has a pet passport! It took most of the morning to get to the right place but we succeeded (thanks Jessica)!!! Brace yourself....the clinic where the two dogs were euthanized was, indeed, the right place!! It seems I hit it on a particularly bad day! Once there I found out they do not issue passports so we trekked over to another vet. I'm amazed you don't really need appointments here. We wandered in, sat down and were taken care of. Of course, no day is without an adventure for me! Since Oliver didn't seem too interested in leaving my side I put him down on the floor. I think the site of needles frightened him so he high-tailed it out the door onto the street. He runs pretty fast when he wants to. Similar to changing a lightbulb it took three of us to corral him. Many thanks to the two Polish strangers who cornered him and shagged him back my way. I think the look of panic is a universal language!!!

And finally...the post office. I had to mail a package to Julie M (watch for a small package - it should show up between now and next September) so I patiently stood in line. Nothing moves too fast here and post offices are no exception. There were three people in front of me and it took over 30 minutes for me to get to the window. They asked if I wanted it to go "priority" and I said, "no". Bad answer...if there was no choice than don't ask me!!! They tried to explain it to me so I hauled out my dictionary. In the meantime, a kind soul behind me explained everything going to the US is considered priority (air mail) and will require me to fill out paperwork. Luckily, I noticed the guy in front of me was mailing something to Michigan so I did what he did and had filled the paperwork out in advance. I'm not sure what the purpose of the paper was. I wrote down Julie's address and my return address. He marked it paid and handed me back the paper...huh???? No tracking number, no duplicate paperwork for him to keep...oh well. I have decided I will not be mailing Christmas cards from here if it requires me to complete 40 separate sheets of paper and $3.00 a letter. I can only imagine how long the line would be behind me if I carried out all of those transactions - not a pretty site.

Not much else new and exciting. We've had a string of beautiful days so I will be heading out soon to enjoy it.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's not a holiday here....have some turkey and dressing in our honor!